Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-10 Thread Jonathan Sandoval
quiliro writes:

> Jonathan Sandoval  writes:
>
>> Techela-emacs was a nice discovery and I'll surely give it a try. But, I
>> think it wouldn't be a good fit for our use case.
>>
>> I think my message lacked some context. We're not a formal educational
>> institution. We're a community initiative. In an old house there was an
>> outdated healt post. Because of new regulations, it was too expensive
>> for the community to keep on mantaining that place, and there were other
>> options for them. It wasn't like that in the 90s when it was created.
>>
>> So, the community decided to transform the place in a cultural house. A
>> couple of years ago we started to teach contemporary dance because a
>> volunteer teacher appeared. Then, other teacher approached to teach
>> colombian salsa, and then other teacher offered himself to teach guitar
>> and so on.
>>
>> We now have spaces for dance, teather, guitar, a library, and some
>> computers were donated recently. I proposed them to use free software,
>> and talked to them about it and they agreed. I choose Trisquel and was
>> in the process. I started my own project too; a science club with kids.
>>
>> Because of COVID-19, our activites halted. As I mentioned, the people of
>> the cultural house are a mix of academics from univerties, but common
>> people without formal education and not much knowledge on computing. We
>> have a teacher of agroecology who is knowleadgeable about that topic,
>> but not much in computers.
>>
>> I taught them to use Jitsi Meet and BigBlueButton. It was not
>> easy. Jitsi was a little simpler, but not everyone could use BBB. I
>> suspect the reason is an old cellphone, but the preventive isolation
>> does not allow me to really diagnose the problem. It's an example. Other
>> guys have really slow computers and most of them have Windows. We're
>> just beginning with free software and I haven't had the opportunity to
>> make an installation festival. And other problems have arisen.
>>
>> So, expecting them to learn emacs, in Windows and Git does not sound
>> like a very good idea. For them, accesing a site with their browsers is
>> more natural, because all of them at least have an e-mail account. I
>> doubt 30 minutes are enough for learning emacs (I recently tried to show
>> the basics to a friend who's a programmer and is used to VSCode and he
>> seemed really confused and kind of gave up).
>>
>> The other reasons is that our focus are not assignments. We want to
>> create educational resources for our classes.
>>
>> Thanks again for your suggestions and ideas.
>
> Thank you for such a beatiful story. Nevertheless, I guess that you do
> not believe me that Emacs can be made very easy to learn by adding
> buttons to it. Maybe I will learn to add them and show you a snapshot. I
> am not sure if I will have time, though. I am sorry if I might not make
> it.
>

Hehe, thanks. I do believe it because I've seen it, for example, in
customize and other packages. Maybe I'm underestimating the other
teachers. I'll make some experimentation, and, maybe, we could use
something simpler eventually.

Sometimes it's a matter of getting used to a different way of doing
things. The usage of a browser is not neccesarily better, it's just a
more familiar interface for most people because most people use it for
other stuff. I like default keybindings in emacs, but some people prefer
and even think those keybindings are unfamiliar and unwelcome to
newcomers (so, they recommend CUA mode). Those who come from vim may use
evil.

I've been trying to make baby steps with them. Because of our community
principles, we believe in free software, but, in practice, not many of
them have switched from Chrome yet, for example, even if they accept the
implications of using it, and even if there is a clear alternative in
Firefox. It's a resistance to change. The same has happened with Jitsi
Meet and BBB (but we've used them exclusively): some people are used to
the layout of Zoom, and they resist an slightly different layout, even
if it's a better one, or if it's not such a big deal.

Anyway, I'll keep on trying. Thanks for your interesting comments,
everyone.

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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-10 Thread quiliro
Jonathan Sandoval  writes:

> Techela-emacs was a nice discovery and I'll surely give it a try. But, I
> think it wouldn't be a good fit for our use case.
>
> I think my message lacked some context. We're not a formal educational
> institution. We're a community initiative. In an old house there was an
> outdated healt post. Because of new regulations, it was too expensive
> for the community to keep on mantaining that place, and there were other
> options for them. It wasn't like that in the 90s when it was created.
>
> So, the community decided to transform the place in a cultural house. A
> couple of years ago we started to teach contemporary dance because a
> volunteer teacher appeared. Then, other teacher approached to teach
> colombian salsa, and then other teacher offered himself to teach guitar
> and so on.
>
> We now have spaces for dance, teather, guitar, a library, and some
> computers were donated recently. I proposed them to use free software,
> and talked to them about it and they agreed. I choose Trisquel and was
> in the process. I started my own project too; a science club with kids.
>
> Because of COVID-19, our activites halted. As I mentioned, the people of
> the cultural house are a mix of academics from univerties, but common
> people without formal education and not much knowledge on computing. We
> have a teacher of agroecology who is knowleadgeable about that topic,
> but not much in computers.
>
> I taught them to use Jitsi Meet and BigBlueButton. It was not
> easy. Jitsi was a little simpler, but not everyone could use BBB. I
> suspect the reason is an old cellphone, but the preventive isolation
> does not allow me to really diagnose the problem. It's an example. Other
> guys have really slow computers and most of them have Windows. We're
> just beginning with free software and I haven't had the opportunity to
> make an installation festival. And other problems have arisen.
>
> So, expecting them to learn emacs, in Windows and Git does not sound
> like a very good idea. For them, accesing a site with their browsers is
> more natural, because all of them at least have an e-mail account. I
> doubt 30 minutes are enough for learning emacs (I recently tried to show
> the basics to a friend who's a programmer and is used to VSCode and he
> seemed really confused and kind of gave up).
>
> The other reasons is that our focus are not assignments. We want to
> create educational resources for our classes.
>
> Thanks again for your suggestions and ideas.

Thank you for such a beatiful story. Nevertheless, I guess that you do
not believe me that Emacs can be made very easy to learn by adding
buttons to it. Maybe I will learn to add them and show you a snapshot. I
am not sure if I will have time, though. I am sorry if I might not make
it.

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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-10 Thread quiliro
Jean Louis  writes:
> In my opinion, LMS should be just assignment giving and receiving
> software, yet what should be learned and how, should not be limited by
> the interface that is used for LMS. As teaching is not focused on the
> interface, it has no limits. For example limiting students to use
> browser only, or attempting to make every action of a student
> figurable or understandable through browser only is not point of
> teaching, as it is not widening the knowledge. Students should
> have liberties to use any tools that are suitable for learning.

I agree with this. I think it is even easier for the student to do it
with Techela than with Moodle or any web interface because sometime file
transfer is not as eficient or privacy respecting with a browser. If
Techela works as a git repository, then all files are already downloaded
at the user and there is no problem if there is no connection or if the
server is down. You can always pull the data later.

I do think that Emacs can be configured to be as easy to use for the end
user as is any browser based app. It can even be better tweaked. Emacs
has the advantage that phone apps have. They are local and they are
remote too.

I was afraid to use something I have to configure myself. And it cost a
lot of work to learn by myself. But end users have us as guides. They
can learn fast. We can prepare their configuration and they can have the
best of both worlds: hackability and usability with the power of
freedom. My fiancee works in Emacs with ledger-mode to register all of
our income and expenses. We can have any report we want. Other software
is not as flexible and needs to be re-learnt every time there is an
update.

Using minimalism is an investment. You don't see the results
immediately. But they become a net gain!

"The only thing that Emacs lacks is a good text editor." :-D

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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-10 Thread Jonathan Sandoval
Thanks for the valuable insights.

You're right, the idea is to adopt free software and learn programming
too. Eventually, emacs could be an option.

Jean Louis writes:

> That is great Jonathan.
>
> * Jonathan Sandoval  [2020-08-10 03:35]:
>> Techela-emacs was a nice discovery and I'll surely give it a try. But, I
>> think it wouldn't be a good fit for our use case.
>
> Probably not. You need small gradient, simpler approach. And do you
> really need too much of a distant software?
>
> We have been running Computer Club back in time and many interesting
> people came, so we made a schedule.
>
> At some time there would be game playing, at some time explanation how
> computers work related to hardware, at some specific time there would
> be courses of BASIC, some other time courses of LOGO programming
> language. That is how it was.
>
> Emacs is great learning resource, you could put schedule for Emacs
> Tutorial, at some time you could demonstrate what is IRC or you could
> enable XMPP server for your cultural club. You could help each of them
> connect with the world. For small kids there is QCompris software.
>
>> Because of COVID-19, our activites halted. As I mentioned, the people of
>> the cultural house are a mix of academics from univerties, but common
>> people without formal education and not much knowledge on computing. We
>> have a teacher of agroecology who is knowleadgeable about that topic,
>> but not much in computers.
>
> As I had a similar situation, I can tell you that common people, even
> farmers, they could complete course for BASIC programming language, if
> I would have LISP at that time, I would be using that one, it does not
> matter. There was no person that could not complete a programming
> course, none of them completed university ever.
>
> You can teach a teacher how to teach others, and teacher could provide
> course during the week, helping people to learn as I said, about
> hardware, CPU, input and output devices, then you give people time for
> games, time for communication setup, time for programming, anything,
> you can make the good time with people.
>
>> I taught them to use Jitsi Meet and BigBlueButton. It was not
>> easy. Jitsi was a little simpler, but not everyone could use BBB. I
>> suspect the reason is an old cellphone, but the preventive isolation
>> does not allow me to really diagnose the problem. It's an example. Other
>> guys have really slow computers and most of them have Windows. We're
>> just beginning with free software and I haven't had the opportunity to
>> make an installation festival. And other problems have arisen.
>
> I would setup XMPP server, I use Prosody, and I would help them each
> to setup XMPP chat for their own society from any device they have,
> and I would help them use free software regardless of their operating
> system. That would connect your own people together in a safe manner,
> network would not be proprietary but your own. US $5 per month is
> enough today to run your own website, chat server, and something more.
>
>> So, expecting them to learn emacs, in Windows and Git does not sound
>> like a very good idea.
>
> I understand.
>
> Yet you can teach them how to use Emacs. Then you empower them to
> teach them how to handle their life by using Org mode. Think about
> that, many things may improve in their life. Emacs is much better
> learning interface than just a browser alone, as Emacs can teach a
> person how to program, how computer works, and what is free software,
> it was for decades a good starting program to teach people about GNU,
> and today even more so.
>
>> For them, accesing a site with their browsers is more natural,
>> because all of them at least have an e-mail account.
>
> There is nothing wrong having people use browser, yet if you only
> focus on one interface, you would not teach, you limit them. Emacs is
> good for reading emails and good for understanding how emails work.
>
> You have plethora of other educational software, there is music
> software, there is chemistry software. Make a schedule of various
> activities, that is my proposal for you.
>
>> I doubt 30 minutes are enough for learning emacs (I recently tried
>> to show the basics to a friend who's a programmer and is used to
>> VSCode and he seemed really confused and kind of gave up).
>
> It is because you may have jumped over some misunderstood and he
> become confused. Emacs Tutorial is simple and can be done by anybody
> without any background of education. If person does not anything about
> computers of course that you would need to explain better what and
> where is Ctrl key or what is Meta or Alt key and so on.
>
> I have trained people in using Emacs without any problem within 20-30
> minutes, just by opening the tutorial and telling them to
> excercise. After the tutorial those some people were opening files for
> me, they have been translating files into Swahili language, and saving
> files and later sharing with me.
>
> You 

Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-10 Thread Jonathan Sandoval
Techela-emacs was a nice discovery and I'll surely give it a try. But, I
think it wouldn't be a good fit for our use case.

I think my message lacked some context. We're not a formal educational
institution. We're a community initiative. In an old house there was an
outdated healt post. Because of new regulations, it was too expensive
for the community to keep on mantaining that place, and there were other
options for them. It wasn't like that in the 90s when it was created.

So, the community decided to transform the place in a cultural house. A
couple of years ago we started to teach contemporary dance because a
volunteer teacher appeared. Then, other teacher approached to teach
colombian salsa, and then other teacher offered himself to teach guitar
and so on.

We now have spaces for dance, teather, guitar, a library, and some
computers were donated recently. I proposed them to use free software,
and talked to them about it and they agreed. I choose Trisquel and was
in the process. I started my own project too; a science club with kids.

Because of COVID-19, our activites halted. As I mentioned, the people of
the cultural house are a mix of academics from univerties, but common
people without formal education and not much knowledge on computing. We
have a teacher of agroecology who is knowleadgeable about that topic,
but not much in computers.

I taught them to use Jitsi Meet and BigBlueButton. It was not
easy. Jitsi was a little simpler, but not everyone could use BBB. I
suspect the reason is an old cellphone, but the preventive isolation
does not allow me to really diagnose the problem. It's an example. Other
guys have really slow computers and most of them have Windows. We're
just beginning with free software and I haven't had the opportunity to
make an installation festival. And other problems have arisen.

So, expecting them to learn emacs, in Windows and Git does not sound
like a very good idea. For them, accesing a site with their browsers is
more natural, because all of them at least have an e-mail account. I
doubt 30 minutes are enough for learning emacs (I recently tried to show
the basics to a friend who's a programmer and is used to VSCode and he
seemed really confused and kind of gave up).

The other reasons is that our focus are not assignments. We want to
create educational resources for our classes.

Thanks again for your suggestions and ideas.

Jean Louis writes:

> * Jonathan Sandoval  [2020-08-07 18:43]:
>> Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions.
>>
>> Techela-emacs seems really interesting as an emacs user myself, but I
>> cannot expect the other teachers to learn emacs to use it.
>
> Sure I understand you don't agree and you will look into Moodle and
> Canvas. Let me just give few opinions.
>
> Learning Emacs basics is matter of 30 minutes, and every teacher
> should be able to learn just anything especially if preparing for the
> teaching program to teach other children, and if there is any software
> involved, teachers will take few days and learn how to use it and will
> collaborate with each other.
>
> Learning how to use basics of any particular software should not be
> more than 30 minutes. Moodle seem very simple made, it looks doable,
> but if I wish to compare it to Emacs, administrator would have to
> learn so much, just with any other software, yet teacher would need to
> learn so much less, and student would need to learn so much less.
>
> LMS system should be very very simple, so that there is no objection
> to the interface used, and interface should be usable from any device
> for the student, as it is all about receiving assignments and sending
> back the assignments or results, that is basic activity, it is basic
> communication between two parties. Interfaces could be CLI, mobile
> phone applications, mobile browsers, dedicated computer applications,
> including Emacs, anything. Background management can be done with any
> type of interface, dedicated, or Emacs, or browser, anything, all that
> is possible. There is no need to think in frames.
>
> Teachers can learn anything. I am speaking of situation that I have
> seen with my own eyes. Maybe teachers in third world countries would
> have difficulties, due to lack of computers, due to lack of general
> developments. Even they can learn how to use it.
>
> Do not expect neither teachers to know how to use a browser. Emacs is
> well self-documented, I did not see on browser that is self-documented
> enough, maybe Dillo, they are mostly not.
>
> I have seen a teacher who programmed all geometrical and mathematical
> lessons with computer, to teach children better.
>
> In my opinion, LMS should be just assignment giving and receiving
> software, yet what should be learned and how, should not be limited by
> the interface that is used for LMS. As teaching is not focused on the
> interface, it has no limits. For example limiting students to use
> browser only, or attempting to make every action of a student
> 

Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-10 Thread Jean Louis
That is great Jonathan.

* Jonathan Sandoval  [2020-08-10 03:35]:
> Techela-emacs was a nice discovery and I'll surely give it a try. But, I
> think it wouldn't be a good fit for our use case.

Probably not. You need small gradient, simpler approach. And do you
really need too much of a distant software?

We have been running Computer Club back in time and many interesting
people came, so we made a schedule.

At some time there would be game playing, at some time explanation how
computers work related to hardware, at some specific time there would
be courses of BASIC, some other time courses of LOGO programming
language. That is how it was.

Emacs is great learning resource, you could put schedule for Emacs
Tutorial, at some time you could demonstrate what is IRC or you could
enable XMPP server for your cultural club. You could help each of them
connect with the world. For small kids there is QCompris software.

> Because of COVID-19, our activites halted. As I mentioned, the people of
> the cultural house are a mix of academics from univerties, but common
> people without formal education and not much knowledge on computing. We
> have a teacher of agroecology who is knowleadgeable about that topic,
> but not much in computers.

As I had a similar situation, I can tell you that common people, even
farmers, they could complete course for BASIC programming language, if
I would have LISP at that time, I would be using that one, it does not
matter. There was no person that could not complete a programming
course, none of them completed university ever.

You can teach a teacher how to teach others, and teacher could provide
course during the week, helping people to learn as I said, about
hardware, CPU, input and output devices, then you give people time for
games, time for communication setup, time for programming, anything,
you can make the good time with people.

> I taught them to use Jitsi Meet and BigBlueButton. It was not
> easy. Jitsi was a little simpler, but not everyone could use BBB. I
> suspect the reason is an old cellphone, but the preventive isolation
> does not allow me to really diagnose the problem. It's an example. Other
> guys have really slow computers and most of them have Windows. We're
> just beginning with free software and I haven't had the opportunity to
> make an installation festival. And other problems have arisen.

I would setup XMPP server, I use Prosody, and I would help them each
to setup XMPP chat for their own society from any device they have,
and I would help them use free software regardless of their operating
system. That would connect your own people together in a safe manner,
network would not be proprietary but your own. US $5 per month is
enough today to run your own website, chat server, and something more.

> So, expecting them to learn emacs, in Windows and Git does not sound
> like a very good idea.

I understand.

Yet you can teach them how to use Emacs. Then you empower them to
teach them how to handle their life by using Org mode. Think about
that, many things may improve in their life. Emacs is much better
learning interface than just a browser alone, as Emacs can teach a
person how to program, how computer works, and what is free software,
it was for decades a good starting program to teach people about GNU,
and today even more so.

> For them, accesing a site with their browsers is more natural,
> because all of them at least have an e-mail account.

There is nothing wrong having people use browser, yet if you only
focus on one interface, you would not teach, you limit them. Emacs is
good for reading emails and good for understanding how emails work.

You have plethora of other educational software, there is music
software, there is chemistry software. Make a schedule of various
activities, that is my proposal for you.

> I doubt 30 minutes are enough for learning emacs (I recently tried
> to show the basics to a friend who's a programmer and is used to
> VSCode and he seemed really confused and kind of gave up).

It is because you may have jumped over some misunderstood and he
become confused. Emacs Tutorial is simple and can be done by anybody
without any background of education. If person does not anything about
computers of course that you would need to explain better what and
where is Ctrl key or what is Meta or Alt key and so on.

I have trained people in using Emacs without any problem within 20-30
minutes, just by opening the tutorial and telling them to
excercise. After the tutorial those some people were opening files for
me, they have been translating files into Swahili language, and saving
files and later sharing with me.

You could Emacs if not for anything, then for Tetris and promotion of
free software. If you are not yourself Emacs user, you may need more
experience to understand the usefulness.

Even just for presentations, Emacs would be good resource, for the
simple fact that size of fonts can be enlarged quick enough to make
short notes 

Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-10 Thread Jean Louis
* Jonathan Sandoval  [2020-08-07 18:43]:
> Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions.
> 
> Techela-emacs seems really interesting as an emacs user myself, but I
> cannot expect the other teachers to learn emacs to use it.

Sure I understand you don't agree and you will look into Moodle and
Canvas. Let me just give few opinions.

Learning Emacs basics is matter of 30 minutes, and every teacher
should be able to learn just anything especially if preparing for the
teaching program to teach other children, and if there is any software
involved, teachers will take few days and learn how to use it and will
collaborate with each other.

Learning how to use basics of any particular software should not be
more than 30 minutes. Moodle seem very simple made, it looks doable,
but if I wish to compare it to Emacs, administrator would have to
learn so much, just with any other software, yet teacher would need to
learn so much less, and student would need to learn so much less.

LMS system should be very very simple, so that there is no objection
to the interface used, and interface should be usable from any device
for the student, as it is all about receiving assignments and sending
back the assignments or results, that is basic activity, it is basic
communication between two parties. Interfaces could be CLI, mobile
phone applications, mobile browsers, dedicated computer applications,
including Emacs, anything. Background management can be done with any
type of interface, dedicated, or Emacs, or browser, anything, all that
is possible. There is no need to think in frames.

Teachers can learn anything. I am speaking of situation that I have
seen with my own eyes. Maybe teachers in third world countries would
have difficulties, due to lack of computers, due to lack of general
developments. Even they can learn how to use it.

Do not expect neither teachers to know how to use a browser. Emacs is
well self-documented, I did not see on browser that is self-documented
enough, maybe Dillo, they are mostly not.

I have seen a teacher who programmed all geometrical and mathematical
lessons with computer, to teach children better.

In my opinion, LMS should be just assignment giving and receiving
software, yet what should be learned and how, should not be limited by
the interface that is used for LMS. As teaching is not focused on the
interface, it has no limits. For example limiting students to use
browser only, or attempting to make every action of a student
figurable or understandable through browser only is not point of
teaching, as it is not widening the knowledge. Students should
have liberties to use any tools that are suitable for learning.

-- 
Thanks,
Jean Louis

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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-10 Thread Jean Louis
* quiliro  [2020-08-08 02:21]:
> Jonathan Sandoval  writes:
> 
> > Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions.
> >
> > Techela-emacs seems really interesting as an emacs user myself, but I
> > cannot expect the other teachers to learn emacs to use it.
> 
> Emacs can be made easy to use for the end user. Everything in Emacs is
> configurable to the point that you can use buttons, colors and types. It
> is even better for maintenance because it will be very easy to migrate
> text, photos, audios and other files to other platforms when you
> want. Usability is the best reason for using something entirely
> configurable. Perhaps time constraints to investigate would be big
> factor to avoid Emacs. But it would pay itself several-fold, if we
> consider it as an investment for the gains in future (and present)
> benefits.

The Techele Emacs shows pretty much the basic principles of task
assignments and collections on this page:
https://github.com/jkitchin/techela-emacs

So far I see, it is using git to send and receive assignments. It can
be done in CLI, it can be done in Emacs, it could be done through
browser I guess, it could be done through dedicated application that
is pushing and pulling assignments, exactly the thought I had in my
previous email, it is just basics principles that has to be
understood.

Building LMS around one interface like browser, is actually limiting
the capacity to widen the knowledge and also limiting the user or
student to learn.

The git commands shown can be easily put in some graphical interface,
but I think it is simply better giving the students the actual lesson
and explanation how it works. There is nothing so hard. If student is
already meant to use a computer, it is not hard learning few commands
for a computer. Let us not underestimate students of today, they need
not get dumber, they need to get smarter.

> I understand that you might be careful not to blow up your prestige by
> avoiding text-only solutions for canned patches. But if you are
> considering a long term solution, you could use plain-text applications
> in parallel with the other temporary canned patches.
> 
> I know it is more work than just sticking to one decision. There is a
> great many marvelous ways that text can empower the user. One way is
> plaintextaccounting.org , another is EMMS and even Emacs Artist.

Emacs may be used as interface for learning and without problem, and
with extensibility that other interfaces cannot supply. Myself I am
using Emacs as database management system, so I manage everything in
Emacs, including tasks and assignments that I send to my staff members
located anywhere in the world. So if my staff member in Sierra Leone
can learn, then a school student can learn too. My Emacs usage is
already "LMS" type of a usage.

Let me give more ideas here:

- M-x `record-voice-note' is recording voice, same could be done with
  video, one could make video record. Dired files are opened, same can
  be tagged and sent quickly by email or they could be quickly
  uploaded to remote LMS database. Emacs is offering enough
  extensibility that functions to upload assignment could be very
  quick. Text files and any other files can be sent so easy, any
  system could be used, I would not use insecure systems. HTTPS or SSH
  or `rsync' could be used to upload, and all that need not make the
  life of a student complex. All that student would need to do is
  enter username and password.

- I would always prefer SQL database of assignments, or any other type
  of a database. But not for files, pictures and similar. Yet such
  assignments, done or not done things, could easily be converted to
  Org style automatically generated files, and same could be easily
  converted to HTML viewable from browser. Within my Emacs, I can find
  a contact, like "John Doe" and click F3 in the Helm session, and I
  get automatically generated Org file with a profile of such contact,
  when did I create the contact, full name, which group this contact
  belongs, lead source, email addresses, birth date, I can see some
  pictures of a contact on a click, full address, description, I can
  see notes, I can see which SMS I have sent to this contact, I can
  open all emails related to contact within a second, and I can see
  number of interactions. I could add notes, or open tasks and
  assignments for this contact. The SQL database and Emacs Lisp
  determines where the files for this specific contact are located, I
  do not need to "change directory" with my hands, it is changed
  indirectly for me by computer.

- Anything, all information pertaining to contact should be
  transferrable, it should be ordered, files should be on file system,
  but some information may be in the database. The database profile
  should be exportable so that it may be moved to other system or
  integrated or reviewed by some other teachers. Number of students
  are moving from one place to other place. Files should be
  transferrable and 

Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-07 Thread quiliro
Jonathan Sandoval  writes:

> Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions.
>
> Techela-emacs seems really interesting as an emacs user myself, but I
> cannot expect the other teachers to learn emacs to use it.

Emacs can be made easy to use for the end user. Everything in Emacs is
configurable to the point that you can use buttons, colors and types. It
is even better for maintenance because it will be very easy to migrate
text, photos, audios and other files to other platforms when you
want. Usability is the best reason for using something entirely
configurable. Perhaps time constraints to investigate would be big
factor to avoid Emacs. But it would pay itself several-fold, if we
consider it as an investment for the gains in future (and present)
benefits.

I understand that you might be careful not to blow up your prestige by
avoiding text-only solutions for canned patches. But if you are
considering a long term solution, you could use plain-text applications
in parallel with the other temporary canned patches.

I know it is more work than just sticking to one decision. There is a
great many marvelous ways that text can empower the user. One way is
plaintextaccounting.org , another is EMMS and even Emacs Artist.

So my sugestion everyone on the IT sector is to orient the users. It is
a labour of love. It is not only a labour of production. Production is
necesary. But love goes a longer way (if coupled with production)! :-)

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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-07 Thread Jonathan Sandoval
Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions.

Techela-emacs seems really interesting as an emacs user myself, but I
cannot expect the other teachers to learn emacs to use it.

I've been testing your recommendations locally, and right now, I'm
between Moodle and Canvas. I'll make some other tests (like integration
with Jitsi Meet and BigBlueButton) before making my choices.

quiliro writes:

> You can use https://github.com/jkitchin/techela-emacs It will make a
> fully integrated sylabus, learning material, testing and grading
> tool. It takes work to learn. But the time invested will produce many
> times more free time and more personalized results (as everything is in
> Emacs). Disclosure: I have not tested it myself. But I have read the
> documentation.
>
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--

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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-06 Thread quiliro
You can use https://github.com/jkitchin/techela-emacs It will make a
fully integrated sylabus, learning material, testing and grading
tool. It takes work to learn. But the time invested will produce many
times more free time and more personalized results (as everything is in
Emacs). Disclosure: I have not tested it myself. But I have read the
documentation.

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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-06 Thread Ramaseshan S
   Hi  Jonathan,
   I have recently started using OpenEdX
   ([1]https://github.com/edx/edx-platform) and been pretty impressed with
   it. OpenEdX is the same code that power edx.org . There are 2
   limitations that come with openedx
   1. It only supports ubuntu 16.04 (tough docker containers are
   available)[Not Recommended]
   2. It is quite resource heavy(Requires MySQL, Mongo, Elastic with
   python + Django)
   Considering your running environment, I would recommend you
   Moodle(Moodle.org)
    On Wed, 05 Aug 2020 13:54:17 +0530 Jean Louis 
   wrote 

   * Jonathan Sandoval <[2]cloudneoz...@gmail.com> [2020-08-04 17:55]:
   > So, my question is: what LMS that respects freedom would you
   > recommend?. I've worked in the past with Moodle and installed it for
   > some schools and universities. I've seen Canvas LMS is very
   interesting
   > too. Any recommendation?, or maybe, any trouble with these mentioned
   > options?.
   As I have not tried none of them, I cannot recommend none, yet there
   is the list of Learning Management Systems:
   [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_learning_management_systems
   Myself, when creating Learning Management System I would specifically
   demand that computers users, learners, use a dedicated computer that
   runs free operating system, and then I would prefer one local network
   database, we can think of it as a school centralized database, and one
   remote database for task assignments and collection of data.
   Data from remote database would be transferred to centralized
   database.
   I would then mostly use Emacs and various free software tools for task
   assignments and collection. For example LaTeX equations could be
   prepared by using TeXmacs and submitted through Emacs, not necessarily
   browsers.
   There would be no exclusion of some possible tool that can help in
   learning and no limitation to browser environment only.
   Jean
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   Cheers
   --
   Ram
   voidspace.xyz
   n...@voidspace.xyz

References

   1. https://github.com/edx/edx-platform
   2. mailto:cloudneoz...@gmail.com
   3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_learning_management_systems
   4. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   5. https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-05 Thread Hector Espinoza
   Hi Jonathan:
   Canvas and Moodle have open source licenses. Canvas is AGPL and Moodle
   is GPL.
   I have used Moodle with good results. Moodle is quite popular in
   Colombia.
   Cheers,
   Héctor

   El mar., 4 de ago. de 2020, 09:55, Jonathan Sandoval
   <[1]cloudneoz...@gmail.com> escribió:

 Hi everyone,
 I'm still unsure about the topics of this list. I hope my question
 is
 valid.
 I'm a volunteer for a community process in a city of Colombia. We're
 promoting art, culture, technology and science. We've got some
 donated
 old computers and started to install them with Trisquel. That was
 pre-covid. Now, our activities are virtual and we're trying to use
 libre
 software as much as possible (Jitsi Meet for our meetings,
 BigBlueButton
 for our educational activities, a mailing list with sympa, Nextcloud
 for
 filesharing, and so on).
 We have teachers (volunteers as me) for guitar, dance, theather, a
 science club, and I proposed them we could use a learning management
 system like Moodle or Canvas. They are creating stuff like videos,
 images, etc. and I thought it would be a good idea to use a LMS for
 structure of a course.
 So, my question is: what LMS that respects freedom would you
 recommend?. I've worked in the past with Moodle and installed it for
 some schools and universities. I've seen Canvas LMS is very
 interesting
 too. Any recommendation?, or maybe, any trouble with these mentioned
 options?.
 Thanks in advance.
 And sorry for my english. As I mentioned, I'm a native spanish
 speaker.
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 s

References

   1. mailto:cloudneoz...@gmail.com
   2. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   3. https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-05 Thread Jean Louis
* Jonathan Sandoval  [2020-08-04 17:55]:
> So, my question is: what LMS that respects freedom would you
> recommend?. I've worked in the past with Moodle and installed it for
> some schools and universities. I've seen Canvas LMS is very interesting
> too. Any recommendation?, or maybe, any trouble with these mentioned
> options?.

As I have not tried none of them, I cannot recommend none, yet there
is the list of Learning Management Systems:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_learning_management_systems

Myself, when creating Learning Management System I would specifically
demand that computers users, learners, use a dedicated computer that
runs free operating system, and then I would prefer one local network
database, we can think of it as a school centralized database, and one
remote database for task assignments and collection of data.

Data from remote database would be transferred to centralized
database.

I would then mostly use Emacs and various free software tools for task
assignments and collection. For example LaTeX equations could be
prepared by using TeXmacs and submitted through Emacs, not necessarily
browsers.

There would be no exclusion of some possible tool that can help in
learning and no limitation to browser environment only.

Jean

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Re: Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-04 Thread Caleb Herbert
I enjoyed using Canvas at school.  Using a free version of that, I would
recommend to you.

-- 
Caleb Herbert
KE0VVT
(816) 892-9669
https://bluehome.net/csh

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Recommendations of LMS

2020-08-04 Thread Jonathan Sandoval
Hi everyone,

I'm still unsure about the topics of this list. I hope my question is
valid.

I'm a volunteer for a community process in a city of Colombia. We're
promoting art, culture, technology and science. We've got some donated
old computers and started to install them with Trisquel. That was
pre-covid. Now, our activities are virtual and we're trying to use libre
software as much as possible (Jitsi Meet for our meetings, BigBlueButton
for our educational activities, a mailing list with sympa, Nextcloud for
filesharing, and so on).

We have teachers (volunteers as me) for guitar, dance, theather, a
science club, and I proposed them we could use a learning management
system like Moodle or Canvas. They are creating stuff like videos,
images, etc. and I thought it would be a good idea to use a LMS for
structure of a course.

So, my question is: what LMS that respects freedom would you
recommend?. I've worked in the past with Moodle and installed it for
some schools and universities. I've seen Canvas LMS is very interesting
too. Any recommendation?, or maybe, any trouble with these mentioned
options?.

Thanks in advance.
And sorry for my english. As I mentioned, I'm a native spanish speaker.

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