Twitter on hold: Blog a trickle ...

Deal!

— Dries Buytaert (@Dries) August 25, 2021

 

Feels good already ... 

Thanks for following and visiting ... 

Still available at  h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk 

Take care 

Peter J.

 

Dries! I promise ...

... if you get your blogging mojo back I will pick up Drupal and put this blog (and twitter) in much more than semi-stasis.

Clearly, my Drupal use may not be as profound, but after a decade I have quite a requirement (some might describe it as 'stonking'), but this merely demonstrates the seductive nature of 'ideas'. How easy it is to appear clever, to have thoughts - compared to action.

As I've been told and blogged before: I need to do something instead of blogging and twitter.

So yes, there's an irony here for me, but good luck and thanks for the (much-needed) prompt!

c/o Dries Buytaert:

Wanted: a new blogging routine

DrupalCon Summits: Higher Education & Healthcare

DrupalCon Attendee

DrupalCon North America 2021 started today and the programme includes  several summit events; two of particular interest next week:

Higher Education Summit

Using Drupal at a college or university? Attend this summit to connect with other Higher Education Drupal users, typically web developers, managers, communicators, graphic designers,  editors and the like. 

Learn from peer Drupal users and experts, working in a variety of contexts in the higher education sector, about the ever-changing Drupal and web landscape, including new trends and current best practices. 

Expect small group discussions, lightning talks, a keynote, and other formats allowing you to engage with your peers. 

The DrupalCon Higher Education Summit is informal, and focuses on best practices, case studies, and discussing solutions to the unique situations inherent to higher education.

Who should attend?

The DrupalCon Higher Education Summit is open to all higher education staff, volunteers, and service providers who are using, or considering using, Drupal as part of their technology stack. This summit is not intended for vendors to pitch new business. 

https://events.drupal.org/drupalcon2021/summit/higher-ed 

Plus:

Healthcare Summit

The healthcare space is now, more than ever, a critical area for all development communities. Digital communication and technologies offer the promise of improved access for patients, but building good solutions requires a solid foundation in accessibility, security and compliance.

Whether you are at a pharma working towards the next vaccine or therapy, a hospital network treating patients with AND without COVID, an insurance company making sure all patients have access to critical healthcare during this tough time, there is much for you to gain from this summit.

Join us for a day of facilitated peer-to-peer problem solving combined with industry leaders sharing their experience solving common challenges like building a digital roadmap for a healthcare system, vaccine distribution platforms, and building user-centered patient experiences.

Who should attend? 

Anyone interested in hearing how companies and the community are creating rich Digital Experiences in the Healthcare space and all levels of colleagues in the Pharma, Medical, Clinical, Hospital, Payers, Caregivers and Healthcare Professional space.

https://events.drupal.org/northamerica2021/summit/healthcare 

Blog, Twitter, Drupal, Reading and Writing ...

It is over a year - October 2019 - since I updated on the above. 

First, let's get the elephant sorted. The elephant is the 'new website'. A non-trivial task in so many ways, not just physically, but psychologically, giving rise to frustration, embarrassment but still an exciting and promising 'project'.

The IT literacy I do possess allied with conference and media engagement suggests I should give up trying to build this myself and pass the 'requirement' and 'specification' to real software developers - and stop acting the goat (is that elephant smiling?). 

Lockdown has been a great opportunity to crack-on with the website, so no excuses. Hopefully the posts over the past year can still represent learning, growth and progress.

At the start of 2020 I was hoping to do some p/t tutoring. COVID-19 upset that plan and with it planning for a pilot study and engaging with prospective partners. I am ready to pick this up, but in terms of Drupal I have to refer back to 2019...

Learning Drupal 8

At DrupalCamp London 2019 I won 'Learning Drupal 8' in a raffle. I replied to Dora who emailed the news, but don't think I thanked the company here So thank you to Inviqa and the many other sponsors who make these events possible.

Drupalcamp London: And all that jazz

I attended this year 13-15 March, pre-lockdown (obviously) and the tone was somewhat muted. Many people were unable/unwilling to travel. I felt ridiculous myself being in London (in February too) and a nurse. That feeling was magnified when pre-booked I found myself in the basement again for jazz. Like everyone at present, I miss London and so many other places. Human nature being what it is, during lockdown 1 & 2 on reflection there was a sense of relief in having run the gauntlet in February and early March.

Next year, DrupalCamp London will be online. 

Last week and last minute, I signed up for DrupalCon Europe, not in Barcelona but online. Still sorting (reducing) papers, I can see how through Drupal versions 7 to 8, the platform is focused upon 'enterprise solutions'. While I'm not an Enterprise (but would love to be a crew member), the project that is Hodges' model warrants the potential to scale.

DrupalCon Europe was a confusing experience - in a  positive sense. I missed the journey, the Basilica Santa Maria del Pi, the Guitar concerts and much more. As many of us have discovered, I was pleased to avoid the additional costs of travel and accommodation. Given this, my saying that the 250 Euros was worth it, has a less hollow ring. I missed even more the buzz of the community, which was still very much evident online. I'm looking forward to the NWDUG online meeting on the 22nd.

I know (!!) I've said this before: but I really, really need to stop blogging, tweeting and exercise this itch to the exhaustion of possibility. I've a co-authored draft to complete for submission and (two) books to read for review. So that will be an ongoing thread. Finally I will also make use of the text above.

With each abandoned (messed-up) Drupal 'dev' site, I've carried forward the legacy HTML pages that are Brian Hodges' original lecture notes. Following DrupalCon it would be progress to have more tangible outputs to carry forward, apart from being able to get to were I was much quicker. Having a content strategy is one take-away c/o the sessions that I plan to secure.

Noting the two most recent additions to the bibliography, if I can help you use Hodges' model, please let me know (I may need the distraction).

Wherever you are - take care; and for me if this is the journey - that's great too. I'd like to think there is some learning to be had here - even if not in the form of a reflective workbench.

An update papers, Hodges' model, website...

Here is an update on writing projects ...

WEBSITE - DRUPAL:

A few months ago I decided to cancel the web hosting. The same provider and for the second time. Lack of progress is nothing to do with them. Despite best intentions, the account was essentially redundant, apart from one occasion when I was ready to start transfer of a site including Brian Hodges' lecture notes, as part of what would be an archive. I still have the pages - HTML all ready to 'go' - somewhere... The host company were very good, offering to take me through the process. I will git back on the horse. The journey is still very enjoyable, even if frustrating.

Last weekend at the Northwest (England) Drupal User Group - NWDUG Unconference in Manchester, I gave an eleven slide presentation on the ultimate in vapour ware. Even with no site the day was very useful, the community great. At month end I will be following online DrupalCon Amsterdam. Really disappointed not to be there, but the currency situation nails it, on top of my not having earned the trip.

As posted last Tuesday -

Book: "The Empty Space"

- I've been crossing the Pennines and enjoyed visits to see Mr Hodges at his home. It would be marvellous to get to a point were I can 'demonstrate' some progress on the web front. The Drupal community continue to try to improve the migration and update processes. This can certainly help me. A Drupal developer questioned me a while ago if I'm being too loyal. Is Drupal the right tool? I am considering this ...

PAPERS:

As to papers I'm determined to try to clear the desks of draft papers. I'm not duty-bound to write, just learning-bound. In May a journal editor invited me to write about Hodges' model. The brief was more specific, write about the model but not in general terms. I was directed to relate the model to at least two public health themes.*

Trying to put a map on the map is challenging.
Everyone wants data, evidence, findings, method ...

Last month I arrived at a final draft and am now advised to answer my own queries and then submit. So sounds positive thus far. I really will diligently check the submission requirements.

The other paper is a bit of a saga, having started before the Part 1 - MRES studies at Lancaster in 2014. The paper overall concerns Hodges' model, threshold concepts and deprivation of liberty safeguarding. It is now in two-parts, feedback on part one has been favourable but still seeking people with time to read and critique- so hopefully on-track with this too.

*Public mental health is always also implied as far as I am concerned.

My Moon Mission? "The Stack"

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

I choose  ... [still] to try . 4.6 . . . 8.7.5 and c o u n t i n g . WAMP Windows Apache MySQL PHP Command Line Interface [VirtualBox, Vagrant ...] PHPMyAdmin  JQuery git HTML5 CSS Drupal APIs Themes & Modules*^ Create Custom T&Ms #? . to journey ... to explore ... to learn ...	Saturn V Reference Dimensions: http://heroicrelics.org
The Drupal slogan is: "Come for the software, stay for the community."	The Stack

*What are the requirements of your project?
^What themes and modules are available 'out of the box'?

^#If the themes and modules you require are not available you can create your own.

The idea of using Drupal (or other CMS) is to use the software to do the 'heavy lifting'.


Image source:
http://heroicrelics.org/info/saturn-v/saturn-v-general.html

Drupal - update: a blast from the past!

I scratched (blew up) the draft Drupal site - for the umpteenth time - some five-six weeks ago. It did not take long to be back up and 'core' refreshed. As I build the content I keep saving them. It's just the the three archive pages. I've not resurrected the timeline, but get the gist now. The spreadsheet with the content is there when / if needed. The conclusion of this is that well into our summer and yes, the focus drifted again.

Off the Gosport ferry 1977... 2018

Perhaps, it's the hot-for-us summer and the World Cup? The presentation at the UKSS conference is now completed and discovering another very learned community. That trip to Portsmouth provided for some reminiscence of train - ferry and walks made 41 years earlier. It's not just the NHS that sees change. While Gosport has been in the news of late for all the wrong reasons; the trip was an opportunity to reflect and revisit a brief but key experience of my teenage years. What if... indeed...

I'm clearer about the draft paper on threshold concepts, deprivation of liberty safeguarding and Hodges' model. That paper may have found a home at last, but as two papers not one. I've pushed that revision division back to late summer - autumn. Reading for the next book review is proving really enjoyable. The book will accompany me to London this weekend for the RIPEN workshop tomorrow. I've responded to the virtual learning environment invitation and - for my prep - answered the workshop's four questions against Hodges' model of course. After the workshop there's an exhibition to head for in the early evening.

As for Drupal, I've been using Composer and trying to solve some of the errors that 'Status Report' reveals. Now at least d3.js and highlight.js are resolved. CDN warnings have been turned off. The constant push that is Drupal has moved on to 8.5.5 with a message today about September 5th release for 8.6. Maybe I should wait, but the practice, the practice..! I'm not going to Drupal Europe much as I might like, I've not earned the stripes. I am looking f/w to grappling once again. I need to find the modules that are key to the new site so that I can reward - encourage myself with something tangible and upload (something!!).

Drupal - update: users, roles, content and permissions

I just thought I'd provide an update on the new site.

There's still nothing new on the hosting account. I managed to update on localhost from 8.5.0 to 8.5.3. As I went to the Manchester Drupal Sprint two weekends ago I had a couple of errors. Webform was proving awkward but that was probably me the way I tried to remove it in order to update. It appears there have been some problems, but switching on "Logging and errors" I had more errors that weekend and working through with advice and support at the Sprint things resolved!

Poking around has been really useful and thus far I've not had to start from scratch. Webform is updated but I realised previously I have only scratched the module's surface. Then there is Paragraphs! This is the challenge with Drupal and the range of modules available as explained at DrupalCon Nashville. I know, I know, I've picked up pen and paper and am fleshing out users, roles, content and permissions. This is a distraction. There has always been help available - that's the Drupal community. I've someone to chat with now and looking forward to updating Richard and help to get the new site live. Richard was at Szeged my first Drupalcon in 2008. I remember the advice of Chris, Dan and James back then and Phil, Nathan and others since: Just do it!

So I can't keep scribbling on paper - or here...

A new Paradigm? No just Paragraphs...

While I have not had the practical reason to apply it (to my shame) I have known of 'maintenance mode' for donkey's y-ears. I have been listening. As tweeted earlier this week, I've been trying to remove Webform so I can update / replace it. I'm avoiding core 'experimental' modules in an attempt to avoid future problems. I'd managed to remove webform bootstrap, but trying to delete from the usual Drupal interface did not work. I checked the tables and those for webform were empty. Impatience set-in and I removed the folder within modules. That was the big mistake. For a time there, I could not access the localhost site on my laptop. I thought it had gone...

I had a MySQL backup and imported this while a CTRL 'Z' restored the folder. This did the trick. I have the HTML source for the archive pages as files too.

At several Drupal events Paragraphs has been presented as very useful site building module. With four 'basic pages' whatever follows will benefit from and no-doubt demand more thought about content types. Checking out some videos Paragraphs really does seem to fit the bill when allied with field group.

I'm looking forward to the local Drupal meetup in Manchester this Tuesday.

Drupalcamp London: And all that jazz

Drupalcamp London was a bootcamp literally in light of the weather. This affected the schedule a bit but it was well worth attending.

The first session on my list was not the intended module development but:

Flexible content editing with paragraphs and Drupal 8 - with Baddý Sonja Breidert who stepped in at short notice. We were encouraged to look at Open Doors as an example of Paragraphs being deployed. The fact that there were 25 types of paragraphs prompts the thought - not so much how many would I would need but the users? Apparently, paragraphs are not that user friendly to edit. Navigation was indicated 'Manage Display' - 'Preview' - 'Paragraph'. The 'environment indicator' flagged whether the site in use was live or dev: a reminder. A future tip included not using entities, but media for anything reusable. Reusable paragraphs were applied to banner and images, using simple entities. There were some special functions (and specific modules) in the table of contents, entity embed, entity browser, insert view and add map.

In considering when to use paragraphs this connects with choosing content types - another key question for me. There was a lot more in what was a 'changed session'. I'll check the slides / videos were available and for those below. The three keynotes were excellent too:

Let’s take the best route - Exploring Drupal 8 Routing System

Drupal in the era of microservices

"Hi user, I am Drupal. How can I help you?"

Accelerating Drupal projects with Thunder: a case study

In 'Make your site findable' dutchyoda Dick Rensema pulled me up short. So, I will check out the metatags module and use this from the outset. As for being findable - it's also best to have separate text and images not have both within a WYSIWYG editor. Another point is to 'make it long'. That sits well for the archive pages for Hodges' model.

Lunchtime on Sunday was preceded with gambry on Plugin API, a key idea being:

ENTITY - Same model different data
PLUGIN - Same "thing" type different ways

This was a captivating, dense, rich session and one to revisit.

Finally, the 0930 start in London helped as I'd been up late. Ronnie Scott's is an amazing experience, the second house from 1030 doors open through to 0300: I left at 3 thanks also to Resolution 88.

New Book Series "Coding for Humanists” 1st Vol. "Drupal for Humanists"

The Institute for Digital Humanities, Media and Culture (IDHMC) at Texas A&M University (http://idhmc.tamu.edu) is pleased to announce “Coding for Humanists,” a new book series from Texas A&M Press that addresses the practical skill-development needs of scholars in the humanities. The series is edited by Quinn Drombrowski and Laura Mandell.

The hands-on training offered at an institute or workshop such as DHSI, DHOxSS, and HILT equips scholars to pursue new directions in their research and/or pedagogy. These workshops stand apart from generic technical training sessions through their focus on the specific needs, interests and goals of humanists. The pedagogical approach respects students’ intelligence and expertise without assuming a pre-existing knowledge of other programming languages or technologies.

The “Coding for Humanists” book series follows in the spirit of these workshops (http://coding.forhumanists.org). Each volume focuses on a particular tool, technology, methodology, or programming language, using humanities examples. Without assuming any prerequisite technical knowledge, “Coding for Humanists” books guide scholars through the jargon, concepts, and processes fundamental to the technology under consideration, leaving them ready to use the technology independently, or deepen their knowledge through resources written for a general audience. For scholars who are unable to attend an in-person workshop, or who wish to develop new technical skills as time permits, the “Coding for Humanists” series fills an unmet need for clearly-written, accessible training materials developed specifically for a humanistic audience.

The first volume, Drupal for Humanists by Quinn Dombrowski (http://drupal.forhumanists.org/), will be published this fall. Co-editor of the series, Quinn Dombrowski is the Digital Humanities Coordinator in Research IT at UC Berkeley, and has developed numerous digital humanities sites using Drupal, including the DiRT Directory and DHCommons. She has taught “Drupal for Digital Humanities Projects” at DHSI since 2014, and Drupal for Humanists expands upon the materials that have been used successfully in that course.

This book is a significant expansion of, and improvement on, the open access early drafts that have been posted on this site since 2013, and are still available through the Wayback Machine. Over the next year, excerpts from the book will be posted to the site. In addition, there is a great deal of further information about Drupal modules, configuration, and tips and tricks for building Drupal sites that extends beyond the maximum feasible word count for the book. This information, too, will be posted on an ongoing basis, and contributions will be solicited from the community of humanities Drupal users and developers. (From: http://drupal.forhumanists.org/ )

Upcoming volumes in the “Coding for Humanists” series include _XQuery for Humanists_, by Clifford B. Anderson, Jonathan Robie, and Joseph C. Wicentowski; _XSLT for Humanists: Building Digital Editions_, by co-editor of the book series, Laura Mandell; and _Databases for Humanists_, by Harvey Quamen. The series is accepting proposals for additional volumes; please see submission guidelines here:
http://coding.forhumanists.org/submission-guidelines.

Laura Mandell
Director, Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture
Professor, English
Texas A&M University
e: idhmc AT tamu.edu
@mandellc

My source: Laura via humanist AT lists.digitalhumanities.org
List info and archives at at: http://digitalhumanities.org/humanist

Networked Learning Conference 2016 leads to Barcelona which means...?

After the ICIC 2016 in Barcelona this past week I'm still reflecting on Lancaster and the Network Learning Conference. It has been a busy month. I'll write about Barcelona (again) soon, but with the ICIC presentation done (thanks to all 30+ who attended the session and engaged afterwards) I can catch up a little. Despite the stress this implies this is all positive as the challenge lies in the opportunities and tensions between nursing-healthcare, education and technology.

In Lancaster, Fran Tracy (Liverpool John Moores University) and Jesper Jensen (University of Southern Denmark) held a symposium - Designs for learning with the Semantic Web. Three papers were presented followed by discussion on:

1) the emergent nature of semantic web technologies, 2) how participatory research practices like DBR are affected during the development of semantic web technologies and 3) how both of these concepts may find a new place as we move forward into increasingly complex and changeable educational environments.

By means of introduction there were several useful pointers and reminders, including Stahl with a definition of emergence and a definition of design based learning (and DB Research). It was the combination of semantic web, DBR and networked learning which made this an immediate must-go-to session for me. My research proposal is seeking to combine these aspects plus situated learning.

I probably won't be following DBR by-the-letter(s) as defined by some advocates. My application will to some extent be emergent. There will, as I envisage it, be several invitations for users to contribute to DBR but being asynchronous this needs to be factored in. All learners - users could contribute to successive iterations, but this is unlikely and once the numbers get beyond 10-15 it would become complex and difficult to make a sense of. Poll-based reconciliation might work? As per #2 above my plan would be that a number of subjects (web users) would provide views on their experience with the model and the future site. So it is DBR on a scale that befits a small-scale evaluation study. Tracey also mentioned Wang and Hannafin (2005) and their definition of DBR:

a systematic but flexible methodology aimed to improve educational practices through iterative analysis, design, development, and implementation, based on collaboration among researchers and practitioners in real-world settings, and leading to contextually-sensitive design principles and theories. (p. 7)

The context sensitive is were I see a role for situated learning. There are a couple of hierarchies that result. Situated learning brings in the community (- of practice), but Hodges' is firstly about the student, the care situation and their learning with the model, reflection and developing reflective practice. There are few examples of technology mediated group reflection, but the technical challenges of the group form make the individual starting point more realistic?

Simonson also cites the above and notes how DBR is pragmatic. My approach is pragmatic (that's why it's taking so long).

In Hodges' model I've written before how the interpersonal care domain, combines the INTRA (an individual's metacognition - their thinking about thinking) and the INTERpersonal (how they relate to the other). The NL conference and this past week at #ICIC2016 have helped me realise that this project may also possess this property*. As an intraproject and interproject (?) subjects (students) may engage at any of the following levels:

• Not engage in design questions at all / Read the intro materials on Hodges' model
• Read the intro materials / use the site for their case study purposes

Drupal can (I believe and have seen demonstrated) provide a great deal of web analytics from logs and reports. There is the prospect of taking this further using web analytics to inform the specific site locations subjects have visited. (For Hodges' model visual tracking would be an excellent measure but that is beyond me). There is a potential escalator of sorts here:

• Use the site for their case study purposes / comment on the usability of h2cm and the site
• Comment on the usability of h2cm and the site / See their web analytics data and my conclusions about this 
• See their web analytics data and my (other student's!) conclusions about this / Use their experience, knowledge and this feedback to respond to design questions

These design questions would then socio-technically span their nursing care learning and TEL. The project as a whole represents at its core the intra, its about the student's reflection and being reflexive. It could be that the project can progress to group and community. As posted previously I have highlighted the functionality of Drupal with respect to the semantic web. I mentioned Drupal in the discussion. The conceptual (and semantic) dimension that can be found within Hodges' model, the curriculum, the learner's vocabulary and development might facilitate that transition from individual to group? Since 2008 I've followed the development of RDF, semantic web in Drupal and the longevity of contributed modules and Drupal projects that have used them. Framing these observations with an emergent lens is fascinating in terms of the challenges, opportunities and tensions in nurse education, TEL and furthering Hodges' model.

I added the asterisk above as what follows from that point seems a long winded description of what is basically an experiment, with the attendant risks... I need to forget about the INTER and concentrate on the INTRA and yet both clamour for attention. Whatever follows must deliver something tangible for subjects^# to mitigate the risk and translate experiment into (some resemblance of) workflow? It can't be quod cum fit, however long 'after' may be...

(The terms intra-project and inter-project are not novel, see for example: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/31946/ )

The symposium paper

Simonson, M. (2006). DESIGN-BASED RESEARCH Applications for Distance Education. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 7(1), pp. vii–viii.

Wang, F. & Hannafin, M. (2005). Design-based research and technology-enhanced learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(4), 5-23.

# students, subjects, users - all these terms may be applicable.

Reading: Design of a Community-Engaged Health Informatics Platform with an Architecture of Participation

Abstract

Community-engaged health informatics (CEHI) applies information technology and participatory approaches to improve the health of communities. Our objective was to translate the concept of CEHI into a usable and replicable informatics platform that will facilitate community-engaged practice and research. The setting is a diverse urban neighborhood in New York City. The methods included community asset mapping, stakeholder interviews, logic modeling, analysis of affordances in open-source tools, elicitation of use cases and requirements, and a survey of early adopters. Based on synthesis of data collected, GetHealthyHeigths.org (GHH) was developed using opensource LAMP stack and Drupal content management software. Drupal’s organic groups module was used for novel participatory functionality, along with detailed user roles and permissions. Future work includes evaluation of GHH and its impact on agency and service networks. We plan to expand GHH with additional functionality to further support CEHI by combining informatics solutions with community engagement to improve health.

Get Healthy Heights (misspelt above)

Millery, M., Ramos, W., Lien, C., Aguirre, A. N., & Kukafka, R. (2015). Design of a Community-Engaged Health Informatics Platform with an Architecture of Participation. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, 2015, 905–914.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765661/

Thanks to Michael Gurstein - ciresearchers AT vancouvercommunity.net

Drupalcon Barcelona: Researching code contributions, Mental health and SVG

Winding the calendar back to 2008 and Szeged, Hungary I doubted I would see it: 'depression', 'anxiety' and other mental health - related concepts writ-large in a Drupalcon presentation. And not just any presentation, but a community keynote.

Drupalcon Barcelona 2015 Mike Bell 24 Sept keynote

Mike Bell has repeatedly shown great courage as he has refined his presentation and delivered in full last Thursday in Barcelona:

Mental Health and Open Source

Mike's a key personality within the NW (UK) Drupal User Group also helping to make local Drupalcamps a reality.

As a sign of several things:

• 2008 is a long time ago;
• Drupalcon has travelled far and wide around Europe;
• I've still no new website;
• Drupal itself has evolved from 4.7 to Dries Buytaert's announcement in his keynote that Drupal 8 release candidate will follow on October 7;

- this conjunction of mental health and the world of code is quite significant at this point in time. If I can pass the remaining assignments I'm due to move from part 1 to part 2 of studies at Lancaster University in February. Sooner in terms of formulating a research question. This is where Drupal, Hodges' model and Technology Enhanced Learning will (must) be fused.

David Rozas (left)

Of course there were many other sessions and another keynote of particular interest as Mike shared the community keynote session with David Rozas:

Talk is silver, code is gold? Contribution beyond source code in Drupal

Computer science is about as academic as you can get, but how refreshing to find research methodologies, methods, data... and mental health sharing a keynote session. It was brilliant to see open source - Drupal embracing research, seeking an evidence base not just for what makes the machines tick but the contributors too.

Drupalcon David Corbacho Román

For quite a few years I've followed the rise, waning and what seems a rebirth for SVG.

Next generation graphics: SVG

David Corbacho Román's session is a great source for tips and resources and also demonstrated just how dynamic the web can be. You can follow the sessions through the links.

I'll post on Drupal and Drupalcon again soon.

Thanks to all the sponsors of Drupalcon Barcelona.

New York, New York ... the Bronx is up but TEL and Clinical Informatics are down ...

 on the subway of course...

Subway advertisement for Penn State Online

City Tech CUNY.EDU New York subway

Yesterday the following email was also received:

New white paper released
ELMS Learning Network: An EdTech Platform for Sustaining Innovation

Read more at https://www.elmsln.org/

H5P February release note (Drupal, TEL)

Here is an update on what H5P can offer. My interest lies in the Drupal module and this update includes news of:

experience API (from the Tin Can project)

Now you may store more and more data about what your user is doing with the H5Ps you create. How many attempts did she use? What scores did she get? How much time did she spend? All of this is available now, and more statements will be added - when did she stop the video? What did she answer when? What slides has she seen?

H5P triggers javascript events every time a xAPI statement is generated. ...

You may also use the xAPI to adapt to what the user does in the H5P. For instance you may display more content on a completed event with full score. H5P uses xAPI internally for the adaptivity, in the question set and in the presentation content types.

H5P February 2015 release note

Additional link:
IMS: Formative Assessments Gone Digital, by Ken Zimmerman
http://info.iu13.org/ims/formative_assessments_gone_digital

simplicity - complexity and Content Types

Without activating any content related modules Drupal 8 beta 4 is pretty stark. That's not a criticism. There are just two content types listed: article and basic page as per the screen dump below. The fact is Drupal is providing an easel and that's exactly what you need even before we get to the palette and canvas. As for other content types, there is a Book, Comment and Forum in core as additional options a checkbox away. There are many other contributed content types that could be added depending on your purpose.

Drupal 8 add content: Article and Basic Page

That's the challenge; using existing resources, stretching them as far as possible. In a book like Drupal for Education and E-Learning you can see even without dedicated learning resources, even with generic content types it is possible to create complex learning environments. Add this to experience of  distance learning - e-learning in the raw - that includes library access, databases, reading, discussion, peer review ... (and for our cohort another residential) and there's plenty to learn from.

In reality content is brittle, usually you can't just stretch it. Imagination and control in the form of flow and rules can work wonders. What is glued together - can be broken apart. It's educational chemistry: learning.

Reuse when possible. Be, active-reactive: responsive.

Is this a desktop I see before me, or is it a smartphone? 

So the screen image above is quite an invitation. I'm sure I've posted about his before: what else should be listed?

Lancaster University studies - residential past week

It's not listed in the sidebar, but by far the most significant h2cm related event I've attended in the almost eight years of Welcome to the QUAD has been the residential week up at Lancaster. I had just 41 miles to travel; fellow students in cohort 7 came from much further afield: UAE, Egypt, German, Japan, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Singapore and Isle of Man (Yo! there used to be users of h2cm there!) ....

I was late on the first day.

It was 0930 start last Monday, I arrived 1015. There was an accident at Preston on the M6.

It was great to meet people, fellow students and staff that I'd shared online learning tasks with since January. Strange to think - hope! - that we'd all be meeting again in a year. Meeting cohort 6, the group 12 months ahead of us was very informative. Also exciting that the group are considering an extramural residential in other climes: I hope this happens.

The presentations were a great help and included guest speakers - Prof. Charles Crook and Dr Debbie Prescott (cohort 1).

Now I've a research study to complete and Hodges' model is (will be) a key part of this. It's looking like there will be a literature search to follow.

Yesterday 0930 I thought the day was going to be wasted. It wasn't. I settled on Zotero now and it's a boon (at least I hope I don't have to start afresh!). There are other productivity tools to find, select and master into a workflow.

I hope to hear next week about a research conference in September that will further h2cm studies.

The study double bind is always an interesting one, being scared out your pants ... the 60+ mark: but also reassured - "You wouldn't be here if....".

I'd applied before for other programmes (Netherlands and thought about Italy), drafting a proposal and with subsequent efforts amazed at the demonstrated ineptitude. I think there's progress.

At the reception the progression of studies was stressed. The way, if we get beyond part one, we will be learning more and more about less and less.

How does that sit with Hodges' model and all it entails?

• A generic conceptual framework?
• A series of conceptual spaces?
• Is there such a thing as 'holistic bandwidth'?
• Can Hodges' model serve as the universal conceptual framework for health care, nursing and social care?

As the birthday of W2tQ beckons later this month there's no escape. Drupal 8 is going to throttle me soon as the pressure to introduce TEL technology enhanced learning to my studies takes hold.

Drupalcamp London 2014: The Government Digital Service, Drupal 8 Multilingual features, Twig

Flood hack

DrupalCamp London today got underway with a keynote Delivering User-centred Digital Services by Mark O'Neill from the UK Government Digital Service.

Given the record of public and private sector led IT projects it was refreshing to hear of the GDS's approach being user-centred, the extension of 7 design principles and Mark's previous experience. It's clearly too late for the health care sector to coin and create the Needotron - GDS beat us to it.

Drupal 8 is looking formidable both in its potential and the (learning) stack it presents. Another great session to pick out was - A whole new world for multilingual sites in Drupal 8 by Gábor Hojtsy. The progress here is phenomenal and even though incomplete it is a major achievement and a credit to the Drupal community.

It's humbling as it reminds me to post some introductions to Hodges' model on W2tQ in several languages.

As to being user-centred, the Harmony Forum is a real tease. I know a forum will not moderate itself (is that the new Sorcerer's Apprentice?) and yet time is of the essence. Harmony is one for me to watch - so I'm signed up for the newsletter. Two sessions on Twig and Entities rounded up a busy few days.

This began on Thursday with Cutty Sark, the Royal Greenwich Observatory (learned much from their interactive designs) Turner and the Sea, The British Library - Beautiful Science (60-90 mins ample), and Ibsen's Ghosts at Trafalgar Studios.

I was also able to visit a university yesterday and meet a member of faculty who used Hodges' model many years ago. Here's hoping that some of the materials can be retrieved even though it seems unlikely. I hope to keep in touch with this nursing contact (and not just for the dinner!). I've met several other people here, the Drupal community is another great asset - and with thanks to the sponsors who make these events feasible for many of us.

Output from Needotron

I'll end this post back with Mr O'Neill and the GDS.

I wonder to what extent healthcare figured in the flood deliberations?

It seems that an output from the Needotron may not be so far removed from h2cm?

Happy St David's Day too - in the closing minutes here!

Drupal in Education: Richer experiences with Drupal 7 and H5P (HTML5 Package)!

The H5P module is finally available for Drupal 7! Now you can download H5P and H5P content types empowering you to create great rich experiences for your users to enjoy. Content like interactive videos, presentations, drag and drop, fill in the blanks questions and more are available from h5p.org.

We have received many enthusiastic requests for an H5P D7 module and we are proud to present the newly released version. You can find it available on the H5P project page.

You create the content with your web-browser and the content will work just as great on smartphones and tablets, as on you desktop computer.

Below is a summary of the H5P content types that are currently available for Drupal 7 (and all other platforms we support).

Interactive video
Perhaps the most powerful tool in the H5P toolbox. Upload videos and animations, and make them interactive by adding quizzes, images and text along the way.

Presentation
Create a presentation slideshow with interactions along the way. Add text, images, video and various quiz tasks to your presentation.

Boardgame
A level based board game where the user must complete tasks in various levels to win. Depending on whether the user completes or fails, a video is shown at the end of each level. The game is fully customizable.

Flashcards
An image is displayed and the user has to insert a corresponding text by using the keyboard. The card turns to display the solution. Several cards can be added in a sequence.

Fill in the blanks
Create sentences and leave out words, adjectives, conjugations etc. for the user to complete by typing the missing text on the keyboard.

Question set
Your staple quiz question tool. Add a mix of multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks & drag and drop tasks.

Contact button
A simple widget that allows users of your website to get in touch with you using their preferred channel, such as email, Facebook or Twitter.

For those that are new to H5P, H5P is short for HTML5 Package, and is a simple way to create and share rich and interactive web content. H5P is modular and consists of several content types and applications, perfect for use in e-learning and advertising.

See all the content types in action on H5P.org

With H5P you can:

• Export and import content types and applications between sites, e.g. from a Joomla site to a Drupal site.
• Use existing content types and applications, and build on these to create your own content.
• Create and edit rich web content directly in your browser. No technical skills are needed.
• As a developer, build upon existing content types and applications, or create you own from scratch. Share your work with the rest of the world on the h5p.org!

Source: https://groups.drupal.org/node/409763

Looking forward this next weekend and London for DrupalCamp.