Any way to integrate tree graphs or mindmaps into Moodle? Edited collaboratively?
This might be kind of obvious and I might answer my own question, but still...
I'll be teaching my anthro of music course again and I was thinking about getting students more involved in online activities, this time. (I tend to have a good level of classroom participation but fairly little online work.)
One way could way to have students construct stuff in course-specific wiki projects. A glossary would make a lot of sense and it could integrate musical genres.
But then, many people think of musical genres as trees. Gospel and Blues from Spirituals, Rock from Blues, Heavy Metal from Rock, etc.
Though I'd like to go beyond the tree model, it'd be fun to have students build such tree structures.
I guess I could have students work on FreeMind files or a mindmeister project and then display those in Moodle. But is there a better way?
The dream would be to have a wiki structure displayed as a tree. It'd make things really easy.
One problem I have is that our Moodle installation is 1.7 (AFAICT) and I have no access to administrative tools. We're on a huge campus (around 40k students, all courses have a Moodle site) with only one administrator. So there's no way I can add modules to the basic installation. Well, we do have some modules which may not be in the standard package (ipodcast, for instance) but it's pretty much vanilla Moodle.
As you might guess, I'm a huge fan of outlines.
I seem to remember someone mentioning a good online mindmapping tool but I can't remember if there were a way to easily integrate it in Moodle.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
FreeMind can be integrated into Moodle the same way that GeoGebra was integrated; that is, using a filter which does not yet exist but would be easy to write. This will allow mind maps to be displayed and manipulated in a Moodle context, but not changed. You create your map on the desktop using the FreeMind application, save it as a .mm file, then upload .mm file to your course and link to it from an activity or resource. The filter replaces the link with an applet tag, allowing the mind map to display in a browser.
I said "you" in the last paragraph, meaning "teacher." Ideally, students should be able to include mind maps that they create in online assignments, wiki pages, glossaries, essay questions on quizzes, etc. To do this, however, they need a place to store the .mm file so they can link to it. Unfortunately Moodle does not give students access to its file system. As a workaround, students can store their .mm files on the Web using a free service like XDrive or they can use the third-party MyFiles block. I have used MyFiles this way with GeoGebra worksheets. The student uploads the .mm file to MyFiles, then copies and pastes the link location into the assignment.
I said "you" in the last paragraph, meaning "teacher." Ideally, students should be able to include mind maps that they create in online assignments, wiki pages, glossaries, essay questions on quizzes, etc. To do this, however, they need a place to store the .mm file so they can link to it. Unfortunately Moodle does not give students access to its file system. As a workaround, students can store their .mm files on the Web using a free service like XDrive or they can use the third-party MyFiles block. I have used MyFiles this way with GeoGebra worksheets. The student uploads the .mm file to MyFiles, then copies and pastes the link location into the assignment.
John,
Thanks for the prompt reply. Though I sure wish students could in fact do this, I can live with having to administer files myself. Now, tell me, how can I write this filter?
Thanks for the prompt reply. Though I sure wish students could in fact do this, I can live with having to administer files myself. Now, tell me, how can I write this filter?
I will try to write it.
Hi Alexander,
I wrote the freemind filter and actually got it working! As a demo, I inserted a little mindmap in a quiz essay question (see screenshot). It's not a static image. You can actually manipulate the map (e.g., fold and unfold).
I need to play some more with height and width and making the map display in a popup. I'm purely a trial-and-error person when it comes to this kind of thing.
I will be happy to give you an account and make you a teacher in my "sandbox" course so you can play with it and give me feedback. Message me for details.
I forgot -- the Lounge is not for real work. The upload limit is 10KB. Link to image he
I wrote the freemind filter and actually got it working! As a demo, I inserted a little mindmap in a quiz essay question (see screenshot). It's not a static image. You can actually manipulate the map (e.g., fold and unfold).
I need to play some more with height and width and making the map display in a popup. I'm purely a trial-and-error person when it comes to this kind of thing.
I will be happy to give you an account and make you a teacher in my "sandbox" course so you can play with it and give me feedback. Message me for details.
I forgot -- the Lounge is not for real work. The upload limit is 10KB. Link to image he
Wunderbar!
I know the lounge wasn't really for this kind of interaction but I also knew I would get replies...
Actually, one thing with the Using Moodle course is that you need to have very clear questions to make it work. In this case, my idea was a bit too vague and involved non-Moodle stuff.
I'd sure love to try this thing out.
Thanks a lot for your help. Deeply appreciated.
First I need to move it from my desktop linux server to my site. Then I'll send a message to your gmail address with instructions. Give me an hour.
Hi
i would love to try this out too
it looks great
thanks
Vincent
i would love to try this out too
it looks great
thanks
Vincent
Hi John
thanks for this
you sure know how to use a holiday ;)
however when i go here
to download it i get an alert
once you get back from the parade i guess you will fix it
thanks again
vincent
thanks for this
you sure know how to use a holiday ;)
however when i go here
to download it i get an alert
once you get back from the parade i guess you will fix it
thanks again
vincent
I had to change the file location. Try it again. It works now.