To Moodle or not to Moodle

I recently attended a training session at WestOne where I was introduced to Moodle, an open source Learning Management System (LMS). Open source simply means that users have access to the source code of the software. Anyone can download and use Moodle for free.

It was created by a West Australian, Martin Dougiamas and it has become very popular with educators around the world. There is a community of people who are using the system and as well as developing the product, are willing to help new users.

Central TAFE currently relies on WebCT, which is the only LMS that is supported by WestOne. If the demand and preference for Moodle was to increase, consideration may be given to increasing the choice of LMS in the future. This would however depend upon the availability of resources, for lecturers to have a choice between two systems.

I found Moodle to be a user friendly package and it has many desirable features. To find out more about Moodle, visit http://moodle.org/

You can join the community and there is a demonstration site with sample courses you can try as a teacher or a student.

How do I … ?

Have you ever been confused when someone tries to explain the intricacies of  “new” tools and technologies such as Blogging, RSS, Twitter or Social Bookmarking? CommonCraft has produced several videos in their In Plain English series which explains all these and more ina a simple but humourous way. They are available from their website but most are also on YouTube or featured on various blogs.

Organizations of all types purchase these videos for training and education but there are no limitations on giving links whereby students – or friends – can view them online. Each video also includes the code for embedding it in a website. I’d like to put  RSS in Plain English in the margin of this blog but haven’t worked out how to do it yet.

An article in the Commoncraft blog also refers readers to Explainers to Watch in 2009 and gives a list of good presentation sites both visual and verbal.

eLearning Tools

As anyone who reads this blog knows I am an advocate for the use of Second Life as a teaching and learning tool.

subQuark where eLearning meets Second Life is a blogger who (to quote from his blog) promotes “the use of Second Life as a video source.  I truly believe it’s a viable option for eLearning providers.  I even have a person from the University of Glasgow using it for continuing education credits for doctors!  So it may just be what you need to!  It certainly would add to your toolkit.”

He has links to many ideas relating to how others are using SL. These may be just what our lecturers need to give a lift to their eLearning activities.

If you are interested in LIS education in virtual worlds, you are invited to join the LIS Educators in Virtual Worlds Group for a meeting in Second Life tomorrow, Wednesday, January 28 at 3 pm SL (8 am Thursday Perth time) at the open auditorium on Info Island in Second Life. Agenda items include discussion of the GSLIS student union being built; an introduction to Second Life instructional tools with Hypatia Dejavu and a discussion of the types of LIS courses taking place in Second Life. If you need a teleport IM Lorelei Junot, Maxito Ricardo, or Maija Mulberry in world.

If you get a chance to attend please say hi to my avatar, Galia Beck.

And do let me know what you would like to achieve as an educator in SL. I may be able to help.

eLearning & Second Life

For more than a year I have been advocating the use of Second Life for education. Suddenly the college’s priorities for 2009 include promotion of e-learning and a so called “expert” from Victoria was recently invited to address lecturers on how his college has implemented SL. Suddenly everyone wants to know more about virtual worlds but those of us who have been quietly spending time in-world and finding out as much about its possibilities as we are able find ourselves sidelined. It really is the noisiest people who get the attention.

Second Life Library Reference Desk

A recent FUMSI article highlights Second Life for Business and advocates Ten Techniquesfor maintaining a business presence in virtual worlds. It includes a section on how Information Managers and Librarians can contribute and finishes with this summary: “VWs aren’t going to go away. My view is that different types of VW will evolve for different purposes. They may also get more popular when the ‘Club Penguin generation’ (enjoying baby VWs at the moment) reaches adulthood. SL may not last forever, but if you want to stay an early adopter, then it’s currently a good place to find your virtual feet.”

Free Online PD

Sue Waters of Challenger TAFE asks if anyone is Interested In FREE Online PD This Friday?

In her blog Mobile Technology in TAFE she invites anyone who is interested to join her Elluminate session on Friday October 31. “This will be a “hand’s on” session designed for participants to share their knowledge/skills and help each other increase their skills in using web technologies for elearning.”

Here are some examples of topic ideas that may be covered during the session:

• Using various features of Elluminate to make it interactive
• What is a ….. wiki/blog/podcast/digital story etc and how can we use them with students
• Using ARED or Hot Potatoes (only one feature at a time)
• Using Photofiltre to make images appropriate size etc
• Creating Toondoos

Sue is a vibrant and interesting speaker who has much experience facilitating training using mobile and Web 2.0 technology and we can all benefit from finding time to attend this session.

See more about Sue at http://aquaculturepda.edublogs.org/author/dswaters/