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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.

Online Research – help a colleague

Sue Waters is asking for assistance in finding out types of collaborative projects educators are using with their students, the reasons why they become involved in these projects and the tools used for the collaboration. See her request here.

In another post she asks:

I’m hoping you can help me in the following ways:

1. Please complete my survey on Tools for Managing Your Workload – will take less than 1 minute

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.

Defrosting the Fridge

Welcome back to Central for the start of a new year. The Christmas break went far too quickly andI don’t know of anyone who is really keen to be shut up indoors during Perth’s lovely summer weather. The small white appliances in the library workroom that also go by the name of fridge had to be defrosted and cleaned before they could be used and it’s high time that The Fridge blog was also defrosted and aired once again.

To make things easier for students I have found this fantastic post called 10+ Web Tools To Save Your Butt In School. It discusses and gives the links to sites like PinkMonkey, BibMe, FlashCardExchange, LectureFox and many others.

New Developments:

1. On the College website there now there is a link to the Library website by way of a drop-down menu from the Current Students tab.
2. And … (drumroll) … WiFi is at long last available in the Perth Campus Library. Please ask at the Library Service Desk for details.

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.”