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Lifelong learning on the Internet |
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Written by Derek McMillan
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Wednesday, 20 June 2007 |
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Unions have always been involved in education but the internet offers massive opportunities for integrating dispersed workforces and providing virtual learning environments. On a personal note older "silver surfers" like myself who are isolated from the movement by illness can make good use of the internet to keep active and keep in touch.
In the past “Virtual Learning Environments” were regarded with suspicion by teachers as a sci fi concept in which teachers are replaced with computers. After attending Moodlemoot ’06 at the Open University and working with Moodle in West Sussex, I can
honestly say that Moodle, the open source course management system, is actually whatever the teacher or trainer wants it to be.
The course seminars included teachers from diverse disciplines from Science to English to Music and of course ICT who all used Moodle to teach in the way which suited them.
Although the system is based on a social constructivist model of
education, teachers frequently start out using it to replicate
traditional classroom activities like essay-writing, feedback and
redrafting or quizzes/tests with the slight difference that these are self-marking and pupils get instant feedback. Teachers only then go on to some of the more unusual features of Moodle like Wikis, blogs,asynchronous discussion groups and podcasting.
And because it is Open Source free software, teachers can contribute to the future design of Moodle without some acquisitive corporations we could mention seeking to block them under the pretext of “business secrets”.
Moodle is now used by over 100000 registered users, including the Open University. It is free to download and use and many schools and local authorities who have poured hundreds of thousands of pounds into the coffers of Microsoft are keen to find free software.
If you want to find out more there is a website which talks about the conference and demonstrates the program at the same time. It is called http://moodlemoot.org/ and all of the conference is available as audio or video files. I recommend the audio file because the video quality will depend on the quality of your computer.
They are ideally suited to union organisations like the WSTA which has members spread all over West Sussex often isolated in small schools. The internet is a good way to keep in touch with our members.
We also had a conference blog during the NUT conference to keep members who were not there involved. This is not the future. It is the present.
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