Book on English teaching using Moodle

Packt is pleased to announce a new book that is aimed at helping Moodlers achieve outstanding results by using the ready-to-use recipes for reading comprehension, writing and composition from the book Moodle: The English teachers Cookbook. Written in a cookbook style by Silvina P. Hillar, this book is a guide that will help users improve their skills in Moodle and enhance their way of teaching in virtual classrooms.

Moodle is a free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. It is designed to help educators create online courses with a focus on interaction and collaborative construction of content. Its open source license and modular design allows any developer to create additional modules and features.

The book starts off by teaching users to connect simple activities using Moodle that will improve student’s writing in different ways. Furthermore they will be able to match images, texts and import different pictures to their Moodle course. Embedding social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to create stories and design interactive activities will also be learnt from the book.

Packt uses Twitter to reach out to new authors

Packt publishing is reaching out to potential authors through Twitter. The @packtauthors account features the latest book ideas, topic areas, author interviews, reviews, and anything else Packt thinks authors and future authors will want to see.

Packt launched a new twitter account to tweet about new writing opportunities arising at Packt. Developers and technical people interested in writing technical books are invited to follow @packtauthors.

Most technical publishers expect authors to deliver detailed book proposals, with very little guidance on the sort of proposals likely to be accepted. Packt is turning this on its head by openly proclaiming the sort of topics and titles they’re most interested in right now, and inviting interested authors to get in touch with a simple email.

“We are planning to publish more than 200 books this year and will be inviting authors to write them. We’ll tweet about specific book ideas that need authors, topic areas that we’re looking into, interesting links, and anything else we think authors and future authors will want to see,” said David Barnes, Author Relationship Manager at Packt Publishing. “Follow @packtauthors so you can be the first to discover our latest writing opportunities.”

Packt launches new website for authors.

Packt is delighted to announce the launch of our Packt Author Website. Available at http://authors.packtpub.com, this new website is designed to be a one-stop resource for potential authors, covering all aspects of developing a book title – from the initial idea, right through to the editorial and publication processes that drive a book to market.

Packt Publishing is an IT publishing company that focuses on producing cutting-edge books for communities of Developers, Administrators, and Newbies alike. We develop books and publications that share the experiences of IT professionals in adapting and customizing today's systems, applications, and frameworks. Established in 2004, the company has published more than 230 titles.

The author website contains information on submitting title ideas, understanding the writing process, how our editorial team operates, and all Packt's latest news. There are articles on topics such as Why You Might Want to Write a Book, and Our History with Open Source. With regular updates from Authors, Packt Editors and the Marketing team, the site will develop into an invaluable resource for people who want to know more about writing for Packt, and how to make it happen.

Packt invites aspiring authors to visit the website at http://authors.packtpub.com. For more information, please write to us at author@packtpub.com.

Packt Publishing seeks authors for new Beginner’s Guide series

Packt Publishing has launched a new series of Beginner's Guide books designed to make open source tools and other advanced software accessible and usable for Beginners.

"There are thousands of tremendous software tools out there," says series editor David Barnes. "The way they are designed, built and documented means they can often feel like they are created by experts, for experts. Newcomers often don't know what the software can even do, let alone how to do it."

Packt Beginner's Guides aim to overcome this problem. They teach newcomers a technology by presenting realistic, useful examples with clear step-by-step instructions.

Packt has already announced two Beginner's Guides on their web site: Moodle Course Conversion, due out next week, and WordPress Plugin Development, due out in January.

"If you're trying to teach a new application to somebody sitting next to you, you won't just give them loads of facts about it" Barnes continued "Instead you'll guide them through some simple, useful operations before explaining them and then gradually moving on to more complex tasks. Beginner's Guides work like this. They feel more like a hands-on ‘lab' than a lecture" he concluded.

Beginner's Guides are especially suitable for tools that aren't completely geeky, and aren't completely mainstream either. Tools such as Moodle, WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal all suit this kind of ‘learn by doing' approach.

Beginner's Guides take Packt's approach a step further by providing friendly step-by-step books on topics and tools that are just starting to be adopted by mainstream users. Not long ago, if you used a computer for anything more than typing a letter, sending email and using Google you were considered an expert. But now anybody can use a computer in a wide range of creative and interesting ways - from building web sites to making videos and music. The need for friendly Beginner's Guides on a wide range of topics and tools is greater than ever.

Collaboration Loop: The Death of Wikipedia?

I have been struggling to decide what I think about the Wikipedia/WikiScanner episode that played out last week. Collaboration Loop had some thoughts of their own in the article, The Death of Wikipedia?

But with the release of Wikiscanner we now find that organizations are actively trolling Wikipedia to help themselves, or to hurt others. We find that our level of trust in Wikipedia has been significantly impugned. We find that the social computing model is suspect to abuse from those who aren’t playing by the rules. In effect, our naïve view of the world of wikis is destroyed.

No doubt there are many organizations and individuals that attempted to edit their "own pages" about themselves to correct what they honestly thought were mistakes or untruths. But even when all parties are open and honest, there will be conflict.

Weblog Tools Collection: Importance of Transparancy

"Online users prefer sticking around sites which are written by people with clear intentions. Online users also like it when blog authors express things transparently. Being transparent on the web is vital for a site to succeed. When you are open to your users about yourself and your site, you will gain more trust from people visiting your site compared to if you made yourself and your site anonymous."

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