Donnie’s Blog

About a week ago I tried some butternut squash soup from Trader Joe’s. I was so uninspired by it; the flavor is very subtle and mild. It couldn’t even stand up to the plain ol’ grilled cheese sandwich I had with the soup. Pitiful!

So, since there happen to be more than half a dozen whole butternut squashes around the house right now (stock up!), I decided to make my own.

It’s awesome, and very garlicky, which is great by me! Very easy to make, too.

This is my busiest term all school year, since I teach my database systems course this term. I decided to try something new this term - instead of hand-coding the website for my database course, I have been using Moodle to manage the course.

So far, I really dislike it!

This is actually a step forward, since I used to really hate it. Now that I have used it a bit, I realize that Moodle really does have a few things going for it. It’s easy to work on draft assignments and then make them available when they are ready. It’s also really nice to be able to upload various peripheral files that the students will need; Moodle’s file management capabilities are quite nice.

The thing that I am totally annoyed with right now is that I can’t assign partial points to assignments! I can create an assignment and say that it’s worth 45 points in total, but then I can’t give somebody 39.5 points for their work. What gives?!

The other thing that always annoys me when I use Moodle is that it’s not just a piece of software to help me do my job; it promotes certain alternative teaching philosophies. I don’t want to use a piece of software that lectures me on how to teach; I want a piece of software that will let me publish assignments and other course-related materials, and let me track the students in the course.

Leave me alone, Moodle! Just help me do my job.