A Review of the ?Moodle 2.0 for Business? Book ? Hans de Zwart ...

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Moodle 2.0 for Business

Packt is a new type of publisher. They have found a model that allows them to publish books (likely on demand) in what other publishers might call niche markets. They are usually the first publisher to have a book out about a particular open source product. They leverage the enthusiasm that exists in these communities in how they recruit writers, they stroke people?s egos by asking them to become (technical) reviewers of the books and they do most of the hard work that is necessary to create a book in countries that have lower wages than (Western) Europe and the United States. All of this means that the quality of the books is a bit hit or miss.

Another trick up their sleeves is the way they promote their books. They seem to understand the Internet well and offer bloggers review copies of books. I was offered a free copy of Moodle 2.0 for Business, Implement Moodle in your business to streamline your interview, training and internal communication processes by Jason Cole, Jeanne Cole and Gavin Henrick in return for a review. So here goes!

Most books about Moodle assume an educational setting. As I know a lot about Moodle and am starting to understanding corporate HR more and more every day, I was curious to see what I could learn from this title. The authors of the book have a very deep understanding about Moodle and have all used it for years (as they write ?The authors of this book have collectively spent more than 5,000 hours experimenting, building, and messing about with Moodle?). They are active members of the Moodle community and work for a Moodle partner. In many places their hard-earned experience comes through like when they point out a fundamental flaw in Moodle richly complicated roles and permissions system on page 194. The books contains a few suggestions and warnings and I would recommend any reader to heed to them.

The books kick of by trying to to answer the ?Why Moodle?? question. It nicely lists five learning ideas that form the core of Moodle?s educational philosophy (I must have mentioned them before many times, but they are worth repeating):

• All of use are potential teachers as well as learners ? in a true collaborative environment we are both
• We learn particularly well from the act of creating or expressing for others to see
• We learn a lot by just observing the activity of our peers
• By understanding the context of others, we can teach in a more transformational way
• A learning environment needs to be flexible and adaptable, so that it can quickly respond to the needs of the participants within

The authors also mentioned the 2008 eLearning Guild survey about Learning Management Systems: ?Moodle?s initial costs to acquire, install and customise was $16.77 per learner. The initial cost per learner for SAP was $274.36, while Saba was $79.20, and Blackboard $39.06?. Even though I think the survey is comparing apples with pears, I still think it says something: Moodle could be a way to get more functionality out of the same budget. Another good reason to choose Moodle is is that it ?makes it easy to try things, figure out what works, change what doesn?t and move on?.

The meat of the book is a set of chapters which look at different parts of the HR process finished with a case study of a company or organization which has done something similar (see here for an overview of all the chapters in the book). Through these chapters a lot of the different Moodle functionalities are explained in very concrete terms. Many of the examples make quite creative use of Moodle. One of the first chapters for example deals with the hiring and recruitment process. Moodle is used to capture people?s resumes, rate the resumes, let people choose an interview slot and assess people with a simple online test. The authors have a pleasant tone and are not afraid to share their own failures to make the reader learn (like when they set up quiz questions in the wrong way, page 47).

Some of the case studies give real insight into the path that these organizations have travelled. I particular like the enlightening example from the Gulf Agency Company (GAC) corporate academy starting on page 164:

After a less than successful strategy of purchasing off-the-shelf SCORM content, GAC has now move to developing courses with a combination of internal subject specialists, HRD e-learning consultants, and facilitators. The course content is uploaded into Moodle course page with GAC-specific assignments and discussion forums added. There is a clear strategy to ensure that the learner does not simply click through a series of screens without context or interaction. Interaction and collaboration in courses is now a fundamental part of the learning process, with the courses tightly integrating content, tasks, and collaboration.

Through these chapters we get some good explanations of functionality that gets glossed over in many of the other books on Moodle. There is a good explanation of the database module, outcomes (a Moodle word for competences) are explained, the new way of setting conditions for accessing particular parts of the course and for considering a course complete get good attention and they have found some useful examples for relatively advanced role configurations. On the slightly more technical side they give sensible advice on how to install modules (page 209) and I love the fact that they explain how you create your own language for the interface (something that is usually very hard to do in other systems) on page 285.

The book ends with a few chapters that show you how you can integrate Moodle into application landscape. There are some good explanations about using webconferencing/virtual classrooms, the portfolio and repository APIs are used and they show you the first steps towards integrating authentication and enrollment.

The book has some minor areas that could be improved. It is written by three authors and seems to keep switching perspectives between the author as ?we? and the author as ?I?. Also, ocassionally the case studies become too much of an advertisement for a Moodle partner: ?The uniqueness, and in some ways, complexity of the project meant that A&L were keen to engage with a service partner that had extensive knowledge of Moodle to enable them to bring the project to a succesful completion. Ennovation not only had the Moodle knowledge and experience that A&L were looking for, but also a proven reputation in the legal sector with their long term customer, the Law Society of Ireland.?

There are also a few things missing that I was hoping to read more about:

• The explanation of the portfolio and repository APIs wasn?t conceptual enough. I am not just sure that the average reader will be able to generalize from the exampls and see what a gamechanger this type of technology can be when it is embedded correctly in the organization.
• There is small battle going on in corporate Moodle land. Multiple service providers are creating their own more commercial ?distributions? of Moodle with extra functionality that is relevant for enterprises: Remote Learner publishes ELIS, Moodlerooms has joule and Kineo and Catalyst have come together to create the aggresively marketed Totara LMS. The book never mentions this (I can think of good reasons why this is the case), but it is highly relevant to know more about these systems if you are considering using Moodle in your organization.
• Related to the previous point is reporting. Moodle is not known for its strong enterprise reports and this is something that many organizations commission some functionality for. It would have been nice if reporting had gotten a similar treatment as web conferencing. Maybe we can get that in the next updated version?

All in all this is strongly recommended reading for any curious person who uses Moodle professionally in an organization, no matter the level of their expertise.

Get it here if you want to let Packt know that you?ve read the review, they use this link to monitor which blogs give them the highest amount of traffic and might ask me to review another book if this link gets clicked on often. Get it here if you don?t want to pay any shipping costs and don?t mind me getting a 5% percent commission. Get it here if you like Amazon and don?t mind me getting a neglible commission. Get it here if you don?t like be tracked, live near London, love bookstores and are willing to call first to see if they have it in stock. Seriously, Foyles is a treasure.

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Source: http://blog.hansdezwart.info/2011/07/26/a-review-of-the-moodle-2-0-for-business-book/

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Losing Weight or Building Muscle With Cardio | Anti Aging Tips

I do not know how to tell you more, cardio and weight loss and muscle building is a theme often strange, if you can not improve your health these tips! The key is you than not, you need to know more.

Lose weight and muscle

In fact, aerobic exercise burns muscle. However, people often cardiovascular exercise, for fear of losing muscle and shock the people of this background, so please consider that you do not. Honestly I burn you and your tucked in bed, loss of muscle in the evening, it does not mean you need to stop We do not sleep. No!

Yes, you can lose muscle, so much heart, it is unlikely to occur. I tell people all the time, your heart is in the heart, mind is the most important organ of the body. Now, not health, fitness, weight loss and weight gain is not. Many of the heart muscle, workout Dekiru burn down, if not to train the rest, I have to run 6-7 days a week, means that proper nutrition to perform 3-4 hours be. Nobody in the bodybuilders, some people are running pure. If some people have to burn muscle rather than stop running until you lose weight and now runner-up pictures, how to keep what you should know.

Aerobics and weight training to strengthen the recovery and how the development cycle, providing muscle nutrition can increase muscle growth. Cardiovascular training is very important fat-burning, body health, muscle building. Again, remember the heart to pump blood from the work of the fuel. Maintaining the satisfaction of your heart will always remain possible candidates.

So the first thing you may think, there is no need, regardless of the two is the correct way to modify the plan to build lean tissue. You get tired of the same old boring weight loss advice and patient 're you ? if you know you ' as no carbohydrates, drink 8 glasses of water after 7 pm do not eat ? nonsense fangs Yada, "and ?

Source: http://www.antiaging123.info/losing-weight-or-building-muscle-with-cardio/

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SEO Services, Internet Marketing, Web Design, Pay Per Click ...

Author: celine

A product or service might be substantial in quality but unless of course it is actually marketed efficiently, consumers are under no circumstances likely to understand about this. To spread the image and word around, effectual advertising practices need to be implemented and in quite a few distinctive methods. These include the offline methods of promoting, telemarketing, and in modern times the really flourishing apply of online marketing companies.

To aid a business company implement internet marketing properly, there exist a significant variety of marketing and advertising firms. It truly is essential to retain the products and services of a great online marketing business that can then adopt a definite and systematic tactic for the advertising and marketing method devised to get a corporation using the objective to make superior enterprise. These marketing and advertising providers guide in acquiring business enterprise from the on the internet market via their efficient research engine optimization processes as well as other on the internet promotions.

The main target for promoting businesses that function online is usually to create the website belonging into a business or particular person whose merchandise and providers should be marketed. First of all the web site established by a webmaster needs to highlight the company profile, supplying due value into the layout and layout.

Advertising and marketing systems carried out by marketing and advertising corporations on-line include things like tactics such as submission of articles in post directories, press releases and information feeds, registering with running a blog web-sites and social networking sites and so forth. The apply of hyperlink making by way of a website link wheel or back again hyperlinks can be quite popular in internet marketing approaches. Normally for back hyperlinks the websites decide on spouse web sites which have been involved in some way or even the other with the major company?s item array. Ad duplicate ?n? paste approach, spend by click, Google AdSense are very few other promoting approaches also practiced by promotion corporations.

These businesses commonly have their particular staff of qualified document writers or engage freelancers to carry out the position of high quality document submissions connected on the corporation solutions or products and services. The articles are produced in the technique to involve targeted keyword phrases that happen to be then joined or tagged with other websites. This apply referred to as website link developing has located to improve the number of customers from other partner internet websites in a significant way.

Webmasters and company proprietors realize the importance of the position played by online marketing companies in endorsing their products and solutions or products and services. The promoting companies on their aspect start out that has a thorough study of the focused company?s targets and objective after which it put into action ideal strategies that get the job done effectively to produce certain ends in finding the targeted web site popularized and generate organization.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 25th, 2011 at 4:13 am and is filed under celine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Comments are closed.

Source: http://www.gsi-iran.org/the-part-of-online-marketing-companies/

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Cardio with a purpose! | FitnessVTC - Official Blog

As you probably already know, one of the best ways to lose unwanted weight & keep your heart healthy is doing cardio. You head into the gym and often notice that the cardio area is packed full of people using the many different types of cardio equipment at various speeds. Look even closer & you may see the person that is moving lightening fast on the treadmill, while the person next to them is moving much slower. Or maybe you see a person sprinting on the treadmill for about 30 seconds and then they slow down to jogging or almost walking pace for well over a minute, and then its back to the sprinting. You may look at all of this and just stand confused, but believe it or not, these people are doing what I call, ?Cardio with a purpose!?

If you want to get the most out of your cardio, then you need to have a purpose in mind for doing it. In other words, do you just want to have a healthier heart and lose some unwanted belly fat? Maybe you are just doing cardio to train for an endurance event or road race. Or, you might be a solid performance athlete that just needs to focus on speed for a sprint type event. Believe it or not, all of these different goals require different paces for cardio. Now that you?ve sort of wrapped your mind around all that, lets take a look at the different ?training zones? for cardio.

First we have the Healthy Heart Zone. This zone is done at the slow pace of 50 ? 60% of your maximum heart rate (Mhr).?If your goal is to?decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol then this may very well be the zone for you. ?The intensity and calorie burn isn?t quit as high as the next zone you?ll see, but this is a great stepping stone to work your way up to that next zone. ?The Healthy Heart Zone will also decrease the risk of degenerative diseases and has a very low risk of injury. So, if you are prone to injury or in a rehab phase this would be the recommended zone for you. This is also a great zone for people that are just starting into a fitness program, or just a great way for serious walkers to warm up. A final encouraging note about this zone is that 85% of calories burned here are fats!

The 2nd zone is the Fitness Zone, also known as the Fat Burning Zone. ?This zone is done at 60 ? 70% of maximum heart rate (Mhr), which is a?slightly faster pace than the Heart Healthy zone. You will get all of the same benefits in the fitness zone that you get from the hearth healthy zone, but due to the more intense pace you will burn more total calories and thus more fat. The percent of fat calories in this zone are still at 85% too.

The 3rd zone is the Aerobic Zone, also known as the Endurance Training?Zone. ?This zone is done at 70 ? 80% of maximum heart rate (Mhr), bringing up the intensity yet again from the fitness zone. Since you are picking up the pace the focus is more on improving your cardiovascular and respiratory system and a little bit less on the fat burning. It is just a great way to increase the size and strength of your heart. This is the recommended zone if you are training for an endurance event. ?In this zone more calories will be burned, but only 50% from fat.

Your next step up for a training level is the Anaerobic Zone, which is also known as the?Performance Training Zone. ?This zone steps the intensity up to 80 ? 90% of maximum heart rate (Mhr). ?Benefits of this zone include an improved VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, and a higher lactate tolerance ability which means your endurance will improve and you?ll be able to fight fatigue better. This is a high intensity zone where you will be burning more calories, but only 15% from fat.

Your final training level is the Red Line Zone, which also referred to as the Maximum Effort Zone. Here you are stepping it up the the very high intensity of 90 ? 100% of maximum heart rate: Although this zone burns the highest number of calories, very few of the calories are burning fat. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods. You should only train in this zone if you are in very good shape and have been cleared by a physician to do so.

Now that you know the five different ?training levels?, its time for you to chose which one suits you based on your goals. Keeping your heart rate in check to your specific training level will definitely help you to achieve those goals and thus maximize not only your results, but your happiness and success with all your hard work. So, pick your training level, chose your cardio weapon (treadmill, elliptical, stair master, etc.) and go to battle for those killer results.

I really hope this blog posting serves to help you attain your health and fitness goals. Until next time, I?ll see you in the gym at FitnessVTC.

Source: http://blog.fitnessvtc.com/2011/07/19/cardio-with-a-purpose/

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New Tech booklet :: iBlog | overbergcat

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A cloud computing network is a collection of servers that provides data storage and processing power over the Internet. Ideally, a cloud computing service eliminates the need for an expensive, powerful personal computer. ...

Source: http://catoverberg.iblog.co.za/2011/07/17/new-tech-booklet/

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Taliban execute Pakistani policemen on video (AP)

ISLAMABAD ? The Taliban released a video Monday showing fighters executing 16 Pakistani tribal policemen in a hail of gunfire after they were captured in a cross-border raid from Afghanistan in June.

The video shows the policemen lined up on a hillside with their hands tied behind their backs, standing in front of armed Taliban fighters wearing scarves to hide their faces. Both the policemen and the insurgents are wearing shalwar kameez, the baggy shirt and pants common in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

One of the insurgents accused the men of executing six children from Pakistan's Swat Valley by firing squad.

"They are the enemies of the religion of Allah," the man said of the police officers.

He and several other fighters then opened fire on the policemen, who crumpled to the ground. Several of them were still moaning, and one fighter walked down the line shooting the policemen in the head.

The video was posted on the LiveLeak video sharing website and included a note saying the policemen were captured when the Taliban staged a cross-border raid from Afghanistan on June 1 in Pakistan's northwest Dir district. The video was first reported on by The Long War Journal website.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas confirmed the contents of the video and said the Taliban fighters who executed the policemen came from the Swat Valley, an area that used to be controlled by the militant group. The Pakistani military launched a large offensive in Swat in 2009, but many of the fighters slipped across the border into Afghanistan.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters crossed into Upper Dir on June 1 from Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. They killed at least 30 members of the security forces over three days of fighting before being forced back across the border by the military, Abbas said.

The Pakistani military has accused Afghan and NATO forces of not doing enough to target Taliban sanctuaries in Kunar, where the U.S. withdrew most of its forces over the last year.

Afghanistan and the U.S. have level similar accusations against Pakistan, saying it must do more to target sanctuaries on its side of the border filled with militants who regularly launch attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government has also accused Pakistan of firing hundreds of rockets into Kunar over the past few months and killing at least 40 people ? an allegation denied by Pakistan.

___

Associated Press writer Zarar Khan contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110718/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_taliban_video

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Google stock soars on good news from Mountain View

Google stock is up, and new Google CEO Larry Page says Google+ should get some of the credit.

On Wednesday, Google revealed that sales earnings, excluding the revenue it passed on to partner sites, had risen to $6.92 billion, a good deal higher than most estimates put forth by analysts. Today, Wall Street responded positively to the news, sending Google shares up as much as 11 percent, to $588.27.

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"We had a great quarter, with revenue up 32 percent year on year for a record breaking over $9 billion of revenue," new Google CEO Larry Page wrote in a letter to investors this week. "I?m super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you share just like in real life." Amazing response is right ? although early reviews of the social networking platform were fairly lukewarm, millions of new users have flocked to Google+ in recent days.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday Google+ received an official benediction from none other than Times columnist David Pogue, who argued that on several fronts, Google had managed to actually out-Facebook Facebook. "Until now, Facebook and Twitter have been the Dominant Duo of social networking," he wrote. "But Google?s less sprawling, more video-centric, better-controlled new service is already too good to ignore. Now it?s the Dominant Duo ...+1."

Google+, of course, doesn't account for all that enthusiasm from the folks on Wall Street.

There's also Page himself, who took the reins at Mountain View in April of this year. And then there is Android, Google's great big success of a mobile operating system. Horizons readers will remember that back in December of 2010, Google announced that it was activating 300,000 Android phones a day, a boost from the 200,000 activations it had logged a few months before. Then in June of this year, Google's Andy Rubin revealed that a whopping half million Android devices were being activated every day.

Point is: People are flocking to Android pretty fast, and the faster Google gobbles up shares of the global market, the happier investors get.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/iNE8lGyebwo/Google-stock-soars-on-good-news-from-Mountain-View

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