Nifty Bits

In between all my regular work, I'm in the process of trying to get my head around some new stuff for the website-design side of things. Although the current site is adequate (and a vast improvement on the last one!), I keep running into ways I'd like to improve it. It's content-rich, but there's so much more that could be added, and interactivity is not where it should be. It's a bit boring too, to tell the truth.

At the moment I'm trying to figure out Moodle. We're hoping to get groups of users to create their own content, take some things online, and make it easier for a lot to happen (from grading to teaching to class interaction). There are a few of us mulling how to go about it (and getting side-tracked into other opensource stuff), but in the end it seems to rest with me to get it working. I also have to test and get running a few innovations that we haven't tried before. Considering I've basically taught myself everything I know, I don't think I'm doing too badly! :-)

Trouble is, there's just so much cool stuff out there. So much to try get the head around and learn enough to make it work. And it's changing every day! To have a site up that corresponds to all the new and exciting trends in design and functionality takes a whole lot of effort and time - both of which are in short supply for me at the moment as I rush through trying to keep up with my regular duties too. Yet I keep running across things online that make me want to dig deeper and learn more. Knowledge simply doesn't end, and unfortunately I can't know it all. More's the pity - I'd like to!

In the meantime I'm dealing with basics, just starting the learning in many areas. It would be great to lock myself away during working hours and do this undisturbed. Life takes over though, and large blocks of uninterrupted time are hard to come by.

Still - there's some pretty nifty things happening. Stuff that makes me go "wow" when I come across it. Whether it's a system that's tweaked, a user-related insight, or an easier way to present things on the screen, people are doing it. Every day there's something new, some "beyond" being reached, boundaries being pushed, collaborations happening and ideas popping up to amaze you. A lot of it is freely available - a recognition of the value of many minds working and reworking an idea into directions one brain wouldn't have been able to.

Perhaps that's what I need. Another brain! One devoted to the nifty bits, that can sit on my desk and process everything in peace, then tell me what to do next.