MoodleBox is a standalone small and cheap mobile device working without Internet. It combines a wireless access point with a full featured Moodle server.
MoodleBox creates a Wi-Fi network
Turn on MoodleBox to create a wireless local area network and enable learners to connect to it using their own devices to retrieve documents, collaborate in real time and take complete training courses using Moodle.
Connect the box to the Internet via a wired network (Ethernet) and in addition give learners access to the Internet.
MoodleBox is built around a mini-computer Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, 3A+, 3B, 3B+, 4B or 400 and the Moodle learning environment, the most used open source LMS in the world.
This is one among many items I regularly tag in Pinboard as cooltech, and automatically autoshares as #cogdogcooltech to Twitter and Mastodon. Now the Coolness is in OEG Connect
Have you ever been to Cool? Do you know of something cool I should share? Just reply below and I will check it out.
Hey, this worked auto-magically! I tagged a website in Pinboard as “cooltech” and my Zapier connection republished it here (along with a typo, hah those are free).
Thanks for posting about MoodleBox. What’s really cool about MoodleBox is how it enables OER to address issues of equity, accessibility, and inclusivity. Despite poverty and severe resource constraints OER enables the provision of required instruction in the mother-tongue in the first years of schooling. This is true for many African countries. For instance, Ghana and South Africa both have eleven different official languages in which teachers are required to provide instruction. That means materials need to be available in twenty different languages just for those two countries. Except, they aren’t - without using OER, AI, MoodleBox and inexpensive WIFI devices.
The thanks go to you, Dan I looked it up after reading the ELM description doc.
I’d really like if we can arrange a demo for us to understand what it takes to create/get content onto the box and what the experience looks like for the learner.
Also, I have heard from many of these types of projects to continued challenge of getting Raspberry Pi’s to use or the cost (?), is this still so? Some of these approaches also make use of old laptops as local servers too.
Alan,
Sure, I’ll set it up. Where are you located? I ask because the best demo would be for you to actually get a MoodleBox and then I’ll show you how to add content. But, the experience of the user is exactly the same as accessing a Moodle course via any other type of connection. The best way to access a Moodle course is via Moodle Mobile on your phone, because that’s how most people outside of No America and Western Europe do it.
There are still currently issues with obtaining a Raspberry Pi to run MoodleBox. The most inexpensive model is the Pi 4B but those are not easily available, currently, and tend to get marked way up by scalpers. The Pi 400 is more easily available in a variety of keyboards layouts. The nice thing about the Pi 400 is that by simply adding a monitor you have an extra desktop computer when you aren’t using MoodleBox. It comes loaded with open source desktop applications. You merely swap the MoodleBox SD card for a Raspberry Pi SD card. You will need a 32 GB SD card in addition to the Pi of either type. Then, you download the MoodleBox software to that card.
We’re working on adding instructions to the MoodleBox community forum to make things easier for instructors like me who don’t understand some of the developer oriented language that currently exists for instructions, although Nicolas Martignoni (the creator of MoodleBox) and many others in the community are very generous with support.
Add Moodle Mobile to your phone and I’ll add you to a MoodleCloud course for a demo. Do you speak/read isiXhosa? I need someone to check the Grade R quiz I recently made by translating using AI.
Thanks Dan… I was asking more for the general community who might be interested. I’m looking to feature these kinds of demos for upcoming OEGlobal live conversations, even if we just arrange a time you’d like to come on and share about the project.
