User:Chris collman

Hi, I am still a new user, been working with Moodle since Jan 2006. Yes, I keep changing my photo at Moodle.org My Moodle profile tells a different version of the story.

"We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"

~~Aristotle

Here is a brief bio.

As a support person, I work with Moodle 1.5 & 1.6 & 1.7 & 1.8 & 1.9 within a very specific learning environment, 'certified training' for state agencies. Most Moodlers are trying to be fantastic educators and interact with students for weeks or months. Our goals are similar but the interaction is very different. We are starting to integrate some of our recorded interactive video presentations as part of our Moodle course material. Since 2002, I have been a program coordinator of 700 hours a year of interactive video events, usually between 4 or more sites. I am constantly learning.

Lived and worked with Ibos, Effics (Nigeria), Somalis during my 4 years in the Peace Corps doing Community/Rural Development. Served in the Army for 2 years. Live with the Navajo for a year as a jack of all trades at a boarding school for special students in New Mexico, while I did historical research. I have a BA in Anthropology from Franconia College. My wife and I ran a small manufacturing company in rural New England for 20 years before my current job. Beside Moodle, my hobbies include genealogy, local histories, and encouraging wild flowers around my house near the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA.

Moodler interests

New users and learning curves

As a Moodler, I am interested in presentations to the so called "Newbie" perspective: The KISS, "what are the basic things I need to know" kinds of things about Course Lessons or a few other Moodle subjects. I want to assist someone in presenting their content, in their way. That is a challenge because everybody "sees what they want to see, hears what they want to hear, you dig?" (says the Rockman in The Point) and there are so many ways to use Moodle.

I'm in the basic areas of MoodleDocs because I have the time and want to flatten the new Moodler's learning curve from to . I appreciate all those who improve upon my work and Helen Foster for the alignments with the big picture.

Recent projects

Course are Rooms for my wife

My wife was tired of not being able to share files, communicate and keep information up to date with her school counselor association via their web site. Why not Moodle? So I have been having fun changing courses into committee rooms and translating Moodle into language that ironically is all about the social constructionist point of view, for this group of adults that just wants to communicate (or not). I call this applied anthropology (big grin).

Chris reinvents himself in July 2008?

After some internal deliberation and self reflection, I am going to try to change my behaviors in Moodle.org . I will TRY to focus more upon MoodleDocs and less on answering questions in Moodle forums. My personal retrospective anthropological opinion is: while I am helpful, I maybe stifling other members is assisting others in some forums. Long term this is not good for a collaborative community or when it comes for succession in a private enterprise.

In Aug 2008, I started to work on crosslinking m&p (the Modules and Plugins database) with MoodleDoc pages and forums as part of MDL 495 (that is a tracker.moodle.org project). Others beware. This seems to be a direct result of a year of my whining suggestions: "Just do it Chris, enjoy the discovery of learning about 400 m&p entries." Alrightly then, I will.
Also in the scary department: after trying to change my behavior in July, now I am getting messages because I am a "Lesson guru". I object to that label (Michael and Mark get that honor) but it confirms my thesis :) Lets see what happens once Sept starts rolling along and Northern Hemisphere schools start up.

I am also wondering about data, if there is a relationship between the quality of MoodleDocs and the number of posts in Forums. But I will devote a sub page to that long ramble. And in Aug 08, moodle.org added double square brackets that will link to a MoodleDoc page. --chris collman 07:27, 29 August 2008 (CDT)

October 2008

I am still trying to step back, but have agreed to take on the role of Lesson Forum moderator. It is a little shocking to see my name at the top of the forum along with Mark's. I hope the only real work I will have will be to watch for spammers and pay attention to those posts that are great FAQ material in MoodleDocs.

Having said that, somebody said they didn't understand the Lesson Module. I am starting to work on redrafting the introduction the the Lesson Module MoodleDocs page. I think I am going to draft something new, then post it in the forum and ask "what do you think of this intro". I am really impressed by AT Wyatt's toss up posts in other forums. --chris collman 18:31, 27 October 2008 (CDT)