Logging back in…

So, I have run into quite a few hiccups with my Google Apps and Moodle Integration so far, all of which I think are my fault. I single handedly broke the portal by installing a rancid plugin. I have also been trying to push the integration farther than intended because I don’t want to be stuck talking about “moodle” and “google apps” as individual entities. I want to talk about the greater strategies for communication in an online learning space and having conversations about the ways in which we treat children’s privacy in a k-12 school.

Yet, I have had more meetings about specific tools in the last few days than I have in the last year. It seems as though, as much as I try to dodge my responsibility for being the “tech guru” (our art teacher’s words, not mine), it seems to catch up with me. I have to both talk specifically about how to create groups in gmail, and talk about how creating groups in gmail will create an ongoing message board of sorts when anyone clicks reply all (or we turn on labs to have that be the default). I need to be able to teach others how to create a Google Site and subscribe to the pages of importance, but then go deeper into what makes the subscription different than simply going back and checking on student’s progress.

The hard part is really getting to that deeper level. Once people see you as the person who has the “tech answers” it is hard to push beyond that. I guess that is why I continue to ask so many questions. I want to know things and be able to do things, not because I want to teach others, but because I want to learn for myself. I’m not sure that many people accept that there is just as much that I want to learn from them, as they may want to learn from me. How do I convince them?

With that question asked and not answered… here is my bit of concrete skills for the day.

If you would like to be able to log back into moodle from your Google Apps installation, you will need to either use the built in gadget that comes with the moodle-google package or you can simply use that gadget and put it onto any webpage. So long as you are logged in to google apps or moodle, you should be able to put this gadget in any webpage and perform a hocus pocus of single-signing in back to moodle.

<script src=”http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://edcsd.org/login/auth/gsaml/moodlegadget.php&amp;up_selectedTab=&amp;synd=open&amp;w=320&amp;h=200&amp;title=eDCSD_Moodle_Gadget&amp;border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&amp;output=js”></script>

(notice that “http://edcsd.org/login/” is where your moodle directory would go and instead of “eDCSD_Moodle_Gadget”, you would want to have your own information).

Sometimes, cookies really are amazing things. I have yet to try it out on anything too fancy, but I like the idea that you could put this onto your blog, a wiki site, or any other webpage in existance that takes this kind of embed and have students get right back in to their moodle access (and therefore, google apps). Anyone care to think of a good use for this outside of what I have already outlined.