One of the things that I have noticed at the conference so far is that Moodle, just as Doug had hoped it seems, is more than just a CMS, it’s a community and much more. But the question is; is all this adoration warranted? What happens when Moodle moves from the subdesk servers to the enterprise server centers?
I think the adoration is certainly deserved – there has been a massive amount of work contributed to this community so the adoration is natural, they are all proud of their work. But the second question is something that is certainly going to be interesting when it gets answered. I hear many people gush about being able to have so much flexibility in how their course is setup (WebCT and BB will do this as well, and with more than just a list view) and the like. But I can guarantee you that once it goes big, it will get locked down in many institutions and be just like the other CMSs out there.
The keynote over lunch made some interesting points about the cost of the status quo and moreover, there were some comments about adopting technology as well, talking about early adopters and free loaders and between them – the sweet spot of technology adoption. I think that right now Moodle is at that sweet spot – it’s almost easy enough for everyone to use for any given function, but as it gets more sophisticated, you’ll start getting freeloaders – those that don’t care enough to contribute back to the community – and the passion might start to fade (ala my comments about how it’s not as much fun being a Machead anymore).
Weaving it’s way through all this is a question that is again from the keynote – why is the course still the center of learning, when we are truly starting to see that it’s communities and their interaction that generate learning experiences… frick the Canucks just lost… It’s up to the Sens now… so are CMSes even going to be relevant for much longer? Or are we going to see them become aggregaters?
Well it looks like I am blogging again… thanks to the conference… but likely next week will be a bit slow.
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