Comments on: Blogs, Moodle, and the Future Debate

By: EFL Geek

EFL Geek — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 12:03:29 +0000

I’m a big moodle advocate and have no intention of using the blog module for moodle. When I use blogs with students I will send them to a place like http://eslblogs.org or some other free wordpress provider.

James, I’m subscribed to the comments on this blog the feed is at: http://e-poche.net/?feed=comments-rss2

By: CLT » Blog Archive » Blogs and VLEs - do they really fit together?

CLT » Blog Archive » Blogs and VLEs - do they really fit together? — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:16:06 +0000

[...] I stumbled across an interesting debate on whether it’s best to encourage the use of established blog sites such as blogger.com rather than try and create course-centric blogs within the institution (and the VLE). This question was one that was already going on in my head, as to how blogs can work as part of a course - after the novelty wears off, is there enough of a community to maintain such an isolated course only ‘blogosphere’? Also, does it really have time to mature sufficiently in the concentrated time-span of a term length course? [...]

By: James Farmer

James Farmer — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 02:15:18 +0000

BTW, where’s your subscribe to comements plugin :o)

http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/

By: James Farmer

James Farmer — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 02:14:31 +0000

Hi Aaron, I’d agree with you almost entirely. Moodle, Drupal, WebCT etc. etc. just don’t have the models for blogs use… they have value in other senses… but not as blogging tools.

What we need are common standards, ineroperability and a move to tools doing what they do really well and not trying toi be all things to all people!

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:29:08 +0000

Will, it’s so nice to hear this kind of feedback. I sometimes feel culturally isolated out here in Japan, out of touch with the US educational system and the people who make it what it is. Fear and habit are two things not easily overcome, so I suppose we could look at blogging features tacked on to an LMS to be a window on the world, a gate into reality.

And I agree with you that we should embrace our confrontation with nudity, sex, drugs, violence, and spam in an institutional context as a positive thing, an opportunity to teach and learn and grow. The more we avoid dealing with these issues, the more we give up sharing our experience and wisdom (?) with young people about them. These are part of their world, so they should likewise be issues in the classroom.

By: Will Richardson

Will Richardson — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 00:45:12 +0000

Hi Aaron,
Nice post. I go back and forth on this so much, I think, because the more I talk to teachers the more I hear the fear in their voice. There is a majority, I believe, that will not move toward a decentralized model easily, at least on the K-12 level. The idea that they can find naked pictures at Flickr, that their students could run into spam on their blogs or wikis really scares them. Personally, I find those possibilities to be part of the reality that is the Web and see them as teachable moments. But I understand their viewpoint. I see a blog in Moodle as the open door to social interaction from an otherwise closed environment. Maybe it’s not the greatest solution, but it may be a way to get students and teachers to understand blogs where they might not otherwise do so. And I agree that continuing a Moodle blog beyond school is probably not going to happen. But if that’s the way to bring them to the technology, and then we teach them alternatives afterwards… This is really a tough one for me. I “get” the decentralized approach and agree that in a perfect world, it’s the best way to go. Unfortunately, that sentiment is not shared widely among educators. So, what’s the best alternative? Still sorting through it all…