We mostly post completely new content here that is generally not terribly technical. But one thing that is  particularly important to missionaries serving in closed countries is the security of their data.

TrueCrypt is a very useful program which will encrypt an entire hard drive or even a USB thumb drive. I just stumbled upon this article that explains how to use TruCrypt, so I thought I'd share it.

Note that part of the process is specifying a password. I suggest that you use a "perfect password".

I posted the article because it's fairly short and readable. But you can do more with TrueCrypt than the article explains. So I'd suggest you also read the documentation, especially the information about Plausible Deniability.

Today, I came to the MAFLT website via the WiFi link at a local coffee shop.  Once at the site I did not login as administrator.  Instead, I viewed it as “the public” would see it.  I wanted to confirm your experience of downloading and installing DEScribe without any special insider tricks.  I navigated to the DEScribe page via the Products tab then clicked on the DEScribe link.  By the way, the correct pronunciation is “D - E - Scribe” which includes word play for “DE” as a moniker for Distance Education and “Scribe” as an ancient writer.

I clicked first on the “Training Materials” link and got a surprise - the site asked me for another user name and password.  After a couple of quick back-and-forths I read the text below the links to discover instructions that included the required codes.  At this point I doffed my outside user hat, logged in as the administrator and edited the instructions.  Now, it’s clear before clicking the links that registration is required.

OK, confession time.  I’m a writer, not an educator.  But, our team needs blog training and the task falls to me.  I know the material, so it ought to be simple - right?  Gather everyone into a class room, lecture for a couple hours and voila! Bloggers. 

Trouble is, their work scatters them and their schedules across the planet.  Getting everyone together in one place at one time demands effort and expense far beyond anyone’s budget.   An asynchronous (students participate on their own schedule), online course could solve that dilemma.  And, our Tool Team created a product expressly for this purpose - DEScribe.

But, I’ve never used DEScribe.  In fact, I’ve never created any kind of online curriculum.  Perhaps you haven’t either.  If that’s the case, join me on a climb up the DEScribe learning curve.  Over the next few days I’ll share the good, the bad and the ugly as I download and install the software, figure out how it works, and then create an actual course. 

Comment as you like.  This should be fun.

One of MAF-LT's recent projects is to build a collaborative website for learning and technology.  We are looking to create a constructive social platform similar to Facebook or Ning.  However, we wanted it to be its own entity, and have features that were not readily available in those platforms.  After looking through different options that would have the requirements of a blog, a forum, a wiki, and a library, we came up with a few different options: we could create a site with multiple platform tools, using the best software for each requirement, or use a solution such as Drupal, that has modules to integrate all the requirements into one platform.  We decided to research options for Drupal, to see if it would meet our requirements.  Read on for more information about our research into using Drupal as a wiki and a forum.