Join the dots

Hard to believe that it has been 101 days since I last made a post to Join the Dots, and since the year is almost over I thought I’d do the obligatory ‘Year in Review’ thing.

As I look back over the year I realise that its been a hellishly busy one, and that Moodle has accounted for the vast majority of my work at NetSpot. I’d like to spend more time talking about the cool stuff I saw at AuSakai in the lead up to Sakai 3, and how Mahara is gradually maturing into a really nice ePortfolio tool, but to be fair, 2009 has been primarily Moodle’s year in my life so that’s what I’ll talk about.

My 2009

When I check out my TripIt map, it freaks me out a little to see that I travelled over 70 000km around Australia and NZ doing primarily Moodle stuff (plus the odd conference here and there), and to think about just how big Moodle has grown. With universities like UniSA, CQU and ANU moving to Moodle in 2009, not to mention the Canberra Institute of Tech starting to implement an integrated Moodle/EQUELLA/Wimba environment (which will be the first one in Australia and I think the first one in the world) it really hits home that Moodle has grown beyond something that is considered a ‘cool tool’ for the zealous high school teacher running it on a server under their desk, but not really suitable for large-scale deployments. Looking forward into 2010 I wonder how many other large Moodle deployments I’m going to be talking about this time next year - I’m guessing the numbers are only going to keep going one way.

Moodle has taken me all over the place

Moodle - the software

Although I tend to work on larger Moodle implementations in Universities, the nicest thing is to think about all of the places I don’t get to see that are using Moodle. Granted, the Moodle Partner structure (which basically says that only Moodle partners can use the Moodle name and logo to advertise for paid services) does sometimes come under fire for not allowing anyone to freely advertise Moodle services, but I sleep very soundly at night knowing that the company I work for has effectively funded two full-time developers at Moodle HQ in 2009 through the percentage we are required to pay from any money we make from Moodle. Its also rewarding to think of the far flung lands  where Moodle is being used on a shoestring in communities who would have no financial capacity to access a proprietary Learning Management System. Knowing that me being good at my job helps to directly fund the improvement of the software that will be used in places which I will never visit, by people I will never meet, and who might just get a better education because of something I’m contributing to makes it far easier to get out of bed every day.

When I use Moodle these days it still impresses me in how flexible it is, how easy it is to use and how it just seems to keep on running without significant headaches. Ultimately, I still like using it, even if now I tend to use it more for conference hubs than direct teaching. I would never claim it to be perfect (just ask me about conditional activities, site-wide groups or group assignment submissions and stand back), but on the whole it is a piece of software that does an amazing number of things really well, has a whole bunch of plug-ins that can make it do more stuff, and has done (I believe) an immeasurable amount of good for the global education community in spite, and its something I’m proud to be associated with.

Moodle - the community

As I tend to try and bang in to the heads of anyone who ends up in one of my training sessions, the Moodle software is only one part of the picture, and to consider it in isolation is really missing out on what I feel is its most significant benefit - the Moodle community. Being able to use the resources at Moodle.org to get support is still my first port of call whenever I get asked something about Moodle I don’t know, and more often than not it has the answers (even if the answers aren’t always the ones I want!). I’ve also been lucky to meet and work with some awesome people in 2009, and to just throw a couple of names out there (while no doubt forgetting someone), special thanks to:

• Marina Lobastov from ANU, who I can always count on to point out with pinpoint accuracy and devastating clarity the things in Moodle which should be better, and to make sure that I never become a mindless zealot about whatever technology I’m using;
• Tomaz Lasic, who continually reminds me that technology is just another tool - and that without the creativity and dedication of educators at all levels the tools are worthless;
• Scot Aldred from CQU, who has been a great sounding board for education in a broader sense, not to mention being a great bloke;
• Penny Leach, who should probably be considered as a Mahara Community contact, but I’ll mention her anyway, her professionalism, knowledge and willingness to put up with me has been greatly appreciated; and
• NetSpot’s Team Moodle (James, Ash, Bec, Phil, Tim, Tom, Luke and John) who have all been great people to work with, whose collective knowledge of Moodle is amazing and who I look forward to working with in 2010 and beyond.

Where most of my Moodling is done

And finally, thanks…

So that was 2009. Lots of Moodle, lots of travel and not enough time spent writing blog entries about neat stuff that you can do with Moodle that hasn’t been talked about elsewhere (which was my main reason for starting this blog in the first place). Thank you to everyone who has supported me in taking what has been an amazing opportunity and running with it - my friends, family, colleagues, devil’s advocates, drinking buddies and interested onlookers. Looking forward into 2010 I can’t help but think about my recent trip to ascilite09 in Auckland and how the majority of higher ed/VET sector institutions already use Moodle (almost feels like its a given in NZ that you use Moodle based on the many people I spoke to there), and wonder if Australia is still really in the relatively early stages of Moodle adoption, which will make 2010 another huge year for Moodle and for me personally. Then there’s a little thing called Moodle 2 to look forward to…

Safe celebrations to all, see you in the Tweenies (if that’s what we’re meant to call this awkward little stage in the century).