Today my takeaway idea came from two amazing keynotes and snack/lunch talks – that even though Moodle might be a packaged as a service by some corporation or a self hosted/supported service, there is one thing that will keep it separate from propriety LMSs. Moodle can be modified without having to worry about what the economic viability of that modification will be. This means things like language packs, can be rolled out because it is needed by a particular install, without having to worry about what the ROI across Moodle as a whole would/will be. Even in the enterprise, this is going to be the tipping feature for Moodle. So even though instructors may have no more “freedom” than they would under commercial systems, the back end admins have the freedom that they need. This is the important thing for instructors to realize.
This freedom for the back end admins will allow them to bring features to the instructors much faster. From typing into legacy systems to bringing in the latest and greatest web2.0 app, these changes can be made to the system core in Moodle rather than as cludges and hacks in commercial systems. This remixability makes Moodle simple and transparent (ala web2.0) as opposed to commercial systems that are complex and obfusticated (ala traditional education).
Huh?? Yeah… I mixed those up on purpose. Commercial LMSs seem to match the basic ethos of the traditional educational systems that we are working in now. Open Source LMSs are the remixable systems that are akin to what “we” hope educaton will become over time, whether it wants to be or not.
Well it’s Friday and time to turn the brain off…
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