Well it is clear from a great deal of data presented from a variety of institutions that Moodle is the far better economic choice over Blackboard and similar options. Users also seem quite taken with it and the keynote today by Martin Dougiamus, the developer of Moodle, previewed version 2.0 which seems to have lots of new and desirable options. Not having used it, it looks like blackboard to me, but I think that cost will win the day.
Richard Clark's talk last night was actually a really good summary of a lot of current work and read like a summary of about half of my grad Ed Psych course, although his overall interpretation of the available research is different from mine. The audience, for whom much of the material was new, really liked what he had to say. This confirms for me the real value of Ed Psych presented in an accessible way (not that I needed convincing).
One major observation I have is that across the board, technology is not adding much to any of the presentations here at this tech-centered conference. It is pure Powerpoint, usually with too much very small text on each slide, with a lot of distracting motion and graphics. I hope that the class sites that all of these folks are building in Moodle are making a little better use of the technology. The main thing folks seem to like about Moodle is the opportunity for interaction and collaboration among students and instructors, but I've yet to hear the magic answer to the question of how to facilitate and expand on it in practice.
Off to the next session and to see the Dell product.
No comments:
Post a Comment