Current mood:	energetic
Entry tags:	edna, foss, free, future, it, moodle, open source, software, tagging, teaching, video, vitta, web2.0

Beyond the fluffy edges of ignorance

Somebody on a mailing list mentioned that their school IT manager had questioned the security credentials of Moodle. I havn't had a security problem with Moodle, neither does EdNA, Open University or probably the thousands of other sites that correctly deploy and update it. As even famous, commercial packages that come in shrink-wrap have security issues, this is probably one of those fluffy excuses to distract well meaning educators who start poking around beyond their cutting edge. (sigh)

Whilst working outside the box with disruptive Web2.0 technologies can horrify some IT managers and school technicians, it can also open up for schools many new and exciting opportunities to engage, connect and rethink their current practices. Last weekend the VITTA team and I were really engaged with this splendid multimedia video "The Machine is Us/ing Us", created by Digital Ethnography students at Kansas State University. Increasingly, the collaborative aspects of Moodle such as tagging, forums, wikis and galleries make good sense and use in my classes.

Saving money with FOSS then putting it back into a school sounds like a great outcome and win for all. The OpenSource mailing list members have organised a meeting on 21 March - the Equinox and Harmony Day. Hope to see some of you there :-)