Moodle Moot AM

I'll take a shot at live blogging the Moodle Moot this morning. No guarantees.

8:30 - Jim Farmer is making welcoming remarks and preparing to introduce the keynote speaker, Kevin Kelly from San Fracisco State University. Topic: "Moodle at the Center: Communities of Practice, Integration, and Partnerships."

8:43 - Low connectivity here - Kevin says that wireless users in the audience might reduce the bandwidth enough to make the presenter's access unworkable - but I'll let the others stop using the wireless - not me.

8:45 - Three interconnected areas of Moodle
  1. Teaching and Learning
  2. Technology Management
  3. Organizational Administration
8:47 - Metaphors to describe the LMS world:
  • Metaphors from Literature: Image from Gulliver's Travels (Blackboard): Moodle-iputians holding down the Gulliver Blackboard with ropes and stakes trying to hold him down.
  • Metaphors from complexity science (autopoiesis, or self-organization, interconnectedness, fractility, or self-similarity)
  • Long Tail metaphor (Open source more flexible to provide features that only a few people might want - big-box vendors won't do that, is one example of a long tail)
8:52 - Sustaining Community
  • Teaching and Learning - Communities of practice
  • Technology Management - Communities of integration
  • Organizational Administration - Communities of partnership
They use "Lucky 8" workshops at SFSU - local experts host workshops for up to 8 people who have a similar need (mainly facilitated by early Moodle adopters)

Accessibility studies: They have developed materials for three difference audiences
  • 1) What can faculty do to increase accessibility?
  • 2) How do students use accessibility technology?
  • 3) For developers using Moodle to make things more accessible.
Chancellor's office at Cal State System has mandated all content will meet accessibility guidelines by 2008.

Quoted Sir Ken Robinson's presentation from TED Talks - previously blogged about - this is a must see

Recommended process-based templates: "Community College Faculty and Web-based Classes" (Thought and Action, Fall 2006)

SFSU has integrated Moodle with their student information system (SIMS/R which is Oracle based), working on integration with ePortfolio, video streaming system (courseStream), digital information virtual archive (diva), and several other campus technology tools.

Faculty Wish List for Moodle integration:
1) LaTex (some faculty don't/won't use MS Word and need this functionality)
2) Who's on Skype
3) RSS

Other things that would be cool (at least they think so):
1) Integrating games for learning (See New Media Consortium Horizon Reports 2006 & 2007)
2) Integrating Second Life inside Moodle (opposite of SLoodle which is Moodle inside SL)
3) Mobile Moodle (text-to-voice to their phones for discussion threads)
4) IMS Common Cartridge project

SFSU Brainstormer project

Douglas Engelbart - concept of bootstrapping:
A) Organization's principal work (Moodle development and use)
B) Process improvement
C) Improving the improvement process (bootstrapping)

Inter-institutional partnership: SFSU and Humboldt State are collaborating on a common code base - finish by summer 2007 when SFSU goes to Moodle only (one IMS). Also working on a Blackboard to Moodle conversion tool. Many other California schools are participating in collaboration on some things if not all things related to Moodle use and development. The California Virtual Campus is considering this collaboration also.

9:40 - Kevin gives MnSCU a plug for the state-wide efolio program asking why this model (free ePortfolios for all state residents) is not being replicated elsewhere, especially in the Bay Area where there are so many educational users.

Gnarls Barkley effect - how many different ways can Moodle be used, and by how many different kinds of users? I missed part of this one (including the point) - sorry!

Holistic approach to Moodle: (I may have messed up O,U, and Y - I wasn't fast enough)
A: Aesthetic design
E: Engineering/Economic/Experience/Environment/Evolution design
I: Instructional design
O: Organization design
U: Universal design
Y: You (we need to redesign ourselves to work in a new world)

Closing Quotes:
"DIWP is the new DIY" (Kevin Kelly, I guess) Do it with partners is the new do-it-yourself.
"Give what you can, take what you need." (Stackman, Henderson, & Bloch, 2006, p.80)

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Comments

Kevin Kelly said…
Hi!
Thanks for putting this up so quickly. You got most of what I meant by what I called the "Gnarls Barkley effect." Gnarls Barkley's crazy broke a world record by being played in 9 different radio formats. I just pointed out that Moodle is being used more and more by educators for non-instructional purposes (e.g., project management and committee work at SF State) and by non-educators for instructional purposes (e.g., Intel's Teach to the Future program).
February 20, 2007 9:46 AM
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