Book Image

Mahara 1.4 Cookbook

Book Image

Mahara 1.4 Cookbook

Overview of this book

Mahara is an e-portfolio system that allows you to build dynamic and engaging portfolios in no time. Use Mahara when applying for jobs, creating portfolios for certification and accreditation, for classroom projects, book reviews, to create your own social network and much more. This book will show you the many different ways in which you can use Mahara, and how to exploit the various components of Mahara. The Mahara 1.4 Cookbook will introduce you to features you probably have not explored, and show you how to use them in ways you probably had not considered. The book also provides guidance in the use of Gimp, Picasa, Audacity, Word and other programs that can be used to create artifacts. It will provide you with techniques for creating everything from dynamic and engaging web pages to complete projects, interactive groups, educational templates, and professional resume packages. By exploring the recipes in this book, you will learn how to use each of the various blocks and content areas including the resume sections, Journals, and plans. You will learn how to archive a portfolio, and set access levels. We will build an art gallery, a newspaper, use groups for collaboration and assessment, and use the Collections feature to build complex layered portfolios. You will also find recipes for building templates for standards-based report cards and teacher certification. The book is packed with ideas from the simple to the extremely advanced, but each idea is supported with step-by-step instructions that will make all of them seem easy.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Mahara 1.4 Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Creating and using a simple template


In this recipe, we will create a very simple template that can be used in the primary grades for showcasing student work. It is not meant to be a complex standards-based template. Rather, it is a template that students should be able to manage pretty much on their own. The recipe includes a journal for reflections and one for "My Weekly Spelling Lists". These journals will automatically be created in the student's portfolio when the template is copied. The assumption is that students will have at least some time each week in a computer lab when they can type their spelling words and create sentences for them. Perhaps this is something students could even work on at home.

The following screenshot is an example of the template:

Getting ready

Students will need to go to the plans section in the Content area of their portfolio and create a plan titled "My Reading List". Students will use the list to keep book reports. They will also need to create a folder...