Moodle, Elgg and the e-strategy

Miles Berry
 “Priority 2:
Ensure integrated personal support for
children and learners”

http://elgg.net/
“Schools, colleges and universities are working
to provide learners with their own personal
online learning space and will want to develop
eventually an e-portfolio where learners can
store their work,”
“… record their achievements,”
 “… and access personal course timetables,
digital resources relevant to their own study,
… and links to other learners.”
“People will then be able to take more
responsibility for their own educational
development”
 “In the future it will be more than simply a
storage place - a digital space that is
personalised, that remembers what the learner is
interested in and suggests relevant web sites, or
alerts them to courses and learning opportunities
that fit their needs. ”
 “Priority 3:
Develop a collaborative approach to
personalised learning activities”

http://moodle.org/
Moodle @ St Ives
 “Colleges and universities are experimenting
with new blends of campus and distance
learning, and different mixes of online and face-
to-face methods”
 “The familiar and effective teaching
methods of listening, reading, writing and
class discussion will of course remain
important.”
“Supportive help for literacy and numeracy
problems is valuable to all.”
“There are many people who are unable to travel
to a place of learning, who nonetheless wish to
continue their personal development”
 “Using technology to streamline assessment
procedures and enable online assessment on-
demand is a long term objective.”
“We want to shift the focus from presenting
content to engaging learners in productive
learning activities.”
 “Intensive user trials and rigorous testing within
the end-user environment will be needed to
ensure that products improve learners’
understanding of their subjects and their wider
practical and cognitive skills”
Opinions of Moodle

Interesting

Faster

Easier

Fun

Other HW

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Agree strongly Agree No opinion Disagree Disagree strongly Year 6 - National Curriculum Tests

140

120

100

80
80 100 120 140
Standardized score on Y5 QCA t est s

Control Moodle Control Moodle

“Teachers, lecturers and tutors … will want more
flexible resources they can adapt to fit their
learners’ needs”
“Flexible learning design packages would enable
teachers in all sectors to build their own
individual and collaborative learning activities
around digital resources. This would help them
engage in designing and discussing new kinds of
pedagogy.”
 “Priority 4:
Provide a good quality ICT training and
support package for practitioners”

http://www.future-learning.net/
Staff need … time to experiment and refine their
practice; opportunities to share ideas and
experiences with other practitioners, and Peer collaboration,
to adapt them to their own work; and sharing ideas and practice will be
sufficient support from experts. supported through online networks.
Guided
Guided Tailored
Tailored Right
Right to
to
Tours
Tours Routes
Routes Roam
Roam
Sources Tools

Official
Official
Policy
Policy Readings
Readings Discussions
Discussions
&&
Research
Research

Academic Choices
Choices
Academic Video Blogs
Reflection
Reflection && Video Blogs
Issues
Issues

Professional Interactive
Interactive
Professional Wiki
Wiki
User Activities
Activities
User

Educational
Users
Users
Educational
Professional
Professional Community
Community Podcasts
Podcasts Folksonomy
Folksonomy
Attainment
Attainment Personal-
Personal-
isation
isation

Informal RSS
RSS Sandbox
Sandbox
Informal Social
Social
Learning
Learning
 Functional Requirements
Already met (v1.6 standard)
R1: Assessment items
R2: Launch resources
R3: Load content objects
R4: Load resources
R7: Resource creation
R9: Cross device
R11: Resource lists
R14: Assessment for learning
R15: Customisable interface
R21: Access off site
R22: Authentication
R24: Data protection
R26: Information access
R31: Tracking
R32: Usage data
R35: Timetabling
R36: Discussion forums
R40: Blog
R42: Knowledge construction
R44: Other activities
R45: Resource syndication
On the roadmap (v1.7-v2.1 Still to come…
standard)
R5: Metadata creation Easier (eg 3rd party):
R6: Metadata import and R12: Syndicate content
display R16: Lesson planning
R10: Identifiers R33: Attendance
R13: Accessibility R34: Self-organisation
R19: Sequence resources
R39: AV Conferencing
R20: Metadata harvesting
R41: Email
R23: Consistent learner
information R43: Messaging
R25: Groups and roles
R27: Learner information Harder
export R8: Coursework
R28: Learner information R17: Navigation (NC)
Import R18: Personalisation (by
R29: Portfolios profile)
R30: Scheduling
R37: Rights management
R38: Web services
 Framework Agreements
• 5-20 participants;
• Funding from DfES, although “Local Authorities, schools
and other institutions may also wish to spend their own
devolved funding.”
• 3 Years of audited accounts.
• Dun and Bradstreet minimum Risk Indicator rating of 3
• Suppliers must also have a D&B positive net worth of 1A
(700 000 GBP to 1 499 999 GBP) or better.
• A clear history of relevant experience in successful
Learning Platforms.
• A full understanding of the Framework for ICT technical
support
• Product and services to be accessible to all users
• Contract management
 The DfES view(s)
• “Challenge for RBCs and Local Authorities is to encourage schools
to buy-in; aggregate their purchasing power and devolved funding”
(October 2005)
• “The TCO of any … open source that you build yourself will be
one heck of a lot more than any product you get from your LA or
RBC. We are talking … tens of thousands of pounds … Any
industry supplier will tell you that.”
• “It would be an extraordinary judgement to do your own thing…
but the choice is yours”
• “If anyone mentions Moodle and primaries in the same sentence
I'll scream.” (Feb 2006)
• “the mandatory functionalities that industry providers must be able
to deliver to be included in the framework agreement do not also
serve as a list of functions that schools, procuring from the
framework, must purchase in entirety. Schools may choose any
combination of functionalities from the mandatory and/or
recommended lists to suit their needs. They might even choose
functionalities not currently listed, as part of their need or
'Statement of Requirements' (April 2006)
 Taking sides…
• CLEO
• EMBC
• Buckinghamshire Grid for
Learning
• West Sussex Grid for
Learning
• Newport Education
Authority
• Swansea Education
Authority
• Cardiff Education Authority
• FourS - Surrey
• The Digital Learning
Community - East Riding of
Yorkshire
• LGfL:
“‘DIY’ learning platforms are often said
to be ‘FREE’. In reality, the costs, both in
up front technological cost and in the
hidden costs after an implementation,
may be substantial… it is only
companies who make it viable as an
easily managed and sustainable option,
after developing it into a fully realised
product.”
• Leicestershire:
“Home grown systems based on 'open
source software', e.g. Moodle, were not
to be preferred as they will not meet
national requirements, they relied on
local expertise and will be incompatible
with other systems for exchanging
information. “
 Strategies…
• Who personalises learning?
• Isn’t learning meant to be a social process?
• Software that shares our values
• Learning communities, not online courses
• Communication and collaboration, not consuming
content
• Prove TCO
• Remove the technical barriers: webservers with
Moodle, Elgg, MediaWiki, Scuttle, Gallery, etc
that just work
• Win over local authorities and headteachers
 Further information
• Elgg
http://elgg.org
• Moodle
http://moodle.org
• Transformed Education
http://future-learning.net
• Miles Berry
http://elgg.net/mberry/weblog
mberry@bcs.org