Tech Learning Educator’s eZine appeared in my email today. Instead of clicking on it to delete it because I was too busy, I thought I would take a look as a title grabbed my attention: Open Source Learning: How well do you share?. The article by Cheryl Oakes hit the spot with me. I am thinking about topics the Technology Task Force has been considering for the future of Durham Academy. One topic that is of great interest to me is the Virtual Learning Environment which we started to build last year when we set up the DAILE Moodle. The adoption rate has been incredible and even today, I heard a seventh grade student say that she loves Moodle. Now, it could have been because she had 5 or 6 messages from friends waiting for her or it could be that she finds it more useful in accessing information for class. I did talk with students yesterday about messages using DAILE Moodle. They brought up a good point in that they liked it since they could communicate with friends they may not see at school during the day. It is a way to stay in contact. Hence, it builds community. While we may not like it that students can not always talk with their friends during school, the reality is time constraints affect them as much as it does us adults.
Cheryl talks about colleagues that she has worked with or listened to who have helped her move forward. Many of the people she listed are folks I have followed as well. I met Will Richardson in Memphis this summer and he felt like an old friend. Reading her article brought up a great link called VoiceThread.com that allow users to upload an image with narration. Once done, users can share it will parents or friends. Teachers can use it for free with their classrooms. While it is still beta and I see no revenue stream, it is a powerful tool.
This also brings up the use of Moodle over proprietary Virtual Learning Environments. Open source gives me 10,000 of developers who are committed to creating parts of a product better. I see the road map for Moodle and am impressed. Mahara will be built into Moodle version 2.0 due out next summer. This is a solution for our learning community as well.
Would we have this roadmap with a closed proprietary system?… Maybe, but at what cost?
