'Moodle', 'Sloodle' and virtual worlds in classrooms, limited parental access.

Moodle is open source.

It focuses on approaches to teaching that are common in Australia. It adopts a roles based security system. If there were no "role" for parent then it would be more worrying.

Moodle is not really aimed at getting Tarquin and India into Oxford. It is aimed at children contributing to their own education through a social constructivist approach.

Moodle is free. Frankly, if you want to saddle Lancashire (one of the poorest parts of Europe) with an expensive Course Management System that enforces a commercial idea of what education is, go right ahead. But Lancashire and Cumbria really can do without education being made "more relevant to business". To be honest, moodle is probably going to do more to alleviate poverty than bitching about a European Superstate fantasy when that fantasy is currently pouring money into the region.

No, the real problem is the tinfoil hat wearing, conspiracy theorist parent with far too much time on their hands. As someone whose partner is a teacher I despair of the sheer volume of time she and other hard-working school staff waste dealing with idiotic vendettas against the education system like the one in this so-called news item.

If you're so concerned with your child's lack of achievement in Maths and English then I suggest you spend a bit more time helping him/her to grasp these subjects and leave curriculum matters to those qualified to have an opinion.

Every school in the UK is supposed to have a virtual learning environment (VLE) up by now. How much they open that up to parents is up to the school, but they're under significant pressure to share stuff via it with families. Thousands of them use Moodle, but given how badly versions of that have been hacked, others use non open source versions.

So this grand plan you've got has been in place for several years. I second the comment on conspiracist parents.

Every school in the UK is supposed to have a virtual learning environment (VLE) up by now. How much they open that up to parents is up to the school, but they're under significant pressure to share stuff via it with families. Thousands of them use Moodle, but given how badly versions of that have been hacked, others use non open source versions.

So this grand plan you've got has been in place for several years. I second the comment on conspiracist parents.

This article is very short on information. I'm fairly geeky and up to date with technology but WTF is all this Moodle and Sloodle? I gather it's some kind of computer program used in schools but apart from that there isn;t much more explanation.

Please can article posters assume their readership has no prior knowledge of the subject! e.g. spell out acronyms and abbreviations, explain what companies or things like "Moodle" are.

(Sorry, almost guilty myself: WTF = What The Fuck)

I think it is, at this point in time, unwise to 'leave curriculum matters to those qualified to have an opinion.' Those now involved in the curriculum are not qualified. My previous comments with respect to the academy school funding agreements are at this location:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/09/409398.html

Quotes from the Ark Master Funding Agreement also on this video:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyqsOBkLWh0

The following link indicates corruption in the schools. This is not by any means specific to Ark Academies. 3es (who sponsor schools) has now been sold on to GEMS (Global Education Management Systems). This strikes me as a form of trafficking, children being passed on from one sponsor to another. (3es is a subsidiary of Aecom, a private military company which subcontracts to the Pentagon).

This is a reply to the second solicitors letter from Schillings, written on behalf of ARK and EIM (European Investment Managers), who refute that they are linked to the Dutroux scandal.

 http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Talk:Schillings_legal_threat_re_Arpad_Busson%2C_EIM_Group_and_ARK_Schools_to_911forum.org.uk_hoster%2C_16_Dec_2008

It does indeed seem that VLE and Moodle has been around for a while.

'Moodle' is linked to here:  http://www.lifeinthemixtalk.com/?p=5458

There is no transparency; schools refuse to send students' exercise books home. The parents are not aware of what is going on in schools. If they were, they would all know that exercise books can only be seen in schools with a teacher explaining what is in them. I doubt too many do.

I am not sure whether 'Sloodle' is actually now in schools, or on its way in.

My understanding is that 'Sloodle' means 'Second Life' and 'Moodle' merged.

Although on the 'Sloodle' website it states that Sloodle means 'Simulation Linked Object Oriented Learning Environment'. I find the graphics on the Sloodle website somewhat disturbing:

 http://www.sloodle.org/moodle/

According to Moodle themselves:

Here Moodle is free but would like donations:  http://moodle.org/donations/

Here Moodle charges: at 1.18 mins on their own promotional video:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE_5fAjp7IU

So, Moodle itself is confused about whether it charges or not.

Moodle is free and open source Caz, look it up as you don't seem to have researched your subject very well thus far. Better yet, use your time helping your offspring to master the subjects they are struggling with instead of making life hard for those whose job it is to educate the unteachable. Any further posts you make here are entirely superfluous.

Linden Laboratories are the owners of the virtual world 'Teen Second Life'.

They state it is a safe environment for children:

 http://teen.secondlife.com/parents
Quote:
Is Teen Second Life Safe for My Teen?
Linden Lab is committed to providing a safe online environment for its teen residents. Teen Second Life will always be staffed with Liaison coverage during open hours. You can help your teen stay safe by teaching them never to reveal any personally identifying real life information while they are online. Read Linden Lab’s Online Safety Tips for more suggestions about how to communicate safely online.
The Teen Second Life Community Standards apply to all teen community areas of Second Life, the Teen Second Life Forums, and the Teen Second Life Website. You should also take a look at the Terms of Service for more information about other actions that could result in account suspension or banning.


However, with respect to Wonderland in adult Second Life, also owned by Linden Laboratories:
 http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/tag/wonderland-scandal
Quote:

If Linden Lab couldn't find any evidence of wrongdoing at Wonderland, perhaps they need to hire some journalists to investigate incidents like this. It seems that most everyone else found something broadly offensive in the place, and well, the journalists apparently found the worst sort of offense in next to no time.
Linden Lab has apparently shut Wonderland down now - we don't know if they found evidence of wrongdoing themselves, or if it is a reflexive reaction to the mainstream media putting the story in front of about 150 million people so far.


So, Moodle is linked with 'Second Life' virtual world, owned by Linden Laboratories, who can't seem to find inappropraite sexaul behaviour going on in adult Second Life even when it is pointed out to them. We now have students in school in these virtual worlds, parents have limited access.

Teen Second Life trials in the UK:
 http://www.innovation-unit.co.uk/education-experience/next-practice/ne xt-practice-in-resourcing-personalisation---schome-nagty.html

Next Practice in Resourcing Personalisation - Schome-NAGTY
Teen Second Life Pilot

Quote:

NAGTY are collaborating with The Open University, The Universities of Warwick and Liverpool and the National Physical Laboratory, in exploring whether Teen Second Life will afford the development of networked learning communities. Teen Second Life is a virtual reality world that provides almost totally open-ended opportunities for avatars (virtual representations of real world participants) to interact with each other and with the virtual world. The Schome community, based at the Open University, has invested in an island, Schome Park in the Teen Grid (which is for students aged 13 to 17). 200 members of the NAGTY community on Schome Park are involved in the pilot project. 75 of these children come from disadvantaged and under-represented Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities. They will be supported by experts from The Universities of Warwick and Liverpool and the National Physical Laboratory, working in three groups. These are Ethics and Philosophy, Archaeology and Physics.

Ok, I actually work in this area and I'm reading a lot of claptrap.

To clarify:
Moodle is one of many frameworks for a VLE (virtual learning environments) or nowadays it is more commonly called a Learning Platform. Theres nothing conspiracy about it.

A learning platform is a little like an intranet for a school. The idea is that each student will be able to login and access resources online that the teacher's have set up. This can be anything from pictures/text, through to 3rd party resources that the school has paid for. Then there are blogging capabilities, email etc all within a safe & controlled environment rather than the big wide internet which is full of peodos.

The parent's bit is particular good for Special Needs schools, as parents, carers etc can also login and get involved with the child's education. So an activity that a child has been doing at school, can also be accessed from home by the parents. Books etc are fine, but children are also expected to learn ICT which SNE children absolutely love as it is really motivating.

Moodle is open-source and is a bitch to setup and use effectively in a school unless you got one whizz person to take charge. There are a lot of companies with better products: RM have Kalieoscope which looks pretty good (used to be rubbish). Uniservity is run by 3 brothers who i've met, I'm not impressed by their system - the one guy seems a bit of a snake-oil salesman.

The main problem is they set it up in school but its way too complicated for the teachers to use. But, if we don't educate children in to using online resources and computers from an early age, then Britian is f******* as our education standard is already pretty poor compared to some countries.

are not the same as using computers and online resources. It was never suggested that it was.

I don't think much of what the BBC slink website has to offer either though.

'Is fingering safe?'

and 'how to hide your tracks' online.

I don't really see the problem with: 'Is fingering safe?' or 'how to hide your tracks' online.

The former is something a lot of children will be concerned about and need answers to.

The latter is common-sense - how many of us here on indymedia DON'T hide our tracks? It's common sense!


Saying all that, I do have a problem with the state of education in this country - schools being sold off to companies/being turned into "business and enterprise colleges" or "sports colleges" or whatever. Then there is the fact that the "education" children are given is tailored to finding a job rather than living life.

At the risk of sounding like one of those exclusionist/individualist nuts I think home-schooling is the best choice for those of us able to teach our children. And we don't need a 'VLE' for that, when we can effectively use real life, not a virtual one.

better than school!

click on the link-
 http://www.oercommons.org/

I can see this subject ruffled a few feathers, yet I also note not a single mind to be looking at the base issue.

Education has been destroyed, the math has become a complete nonsense with the change of algorythm. Children no longer gain a fact based foundation at which age 16 they leave school with a grasp of :

Geography
History
Maths
English
French
Art
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Religion
Running a househol
Woodwork
Metalwork
Tech Drawing

I would not suggest for a minute that all these subjects would be loved by children, but at 16 they had a grasp of the basic structure on which our society was based, and it was one of the better nations. from this platform they could choose a career, children today at 16 are not even fit for telesales...that is undefencable.

Education today is creating x factor dreamers, fame for fames sake, everything is about theme, drama, expressionism without any worthwhile content. I spent 28 years in the music biz and know full well art is damn hard work, success does not come after a talant contest.

Just watchiong the childrens programmes one can see the future doctrine top be one based in the environment, under which the state will determine who can and cannot have children, and in the schools they 'programme' the same through theme scenario role play which drills into the children total exceptance of the coming Chinese social model....Euthenics is Eugenics.

The danger with the VE comes in the form of mentor and friend to children, and when you fully understand the symbolism in Shiboleth, portals from on high can be opened and closed at their descretion.

From the responses so far it is pretty obvious we are looking at flies in a bottle, so fixed to the TV and Media fantasy, and therfore existing in that same fantasy at work, at home and even at leisure.

There are so many subjects to be grasped before you see the danger in the virtual environment, mass communication direct to children without the knowledge of parents by anyone the administrators allow. Obama for instance is using it to communicate direct with the children, Hitler did the same without of course VE, Brown Shirts the result all taught to tale tell on parents, friends, family and neighbours, this is being implemented now in the sceondary academies under the title; 'Whistleblowers'.

And of course yet another main focus for schools is the OFCOM inspection, OFCOM of course interested in only two things :

Is the school collecting enough data on the family
Are the children losing the ability to understand beyond the TV-rap debasing theme.

My disgust is in the fact the schools are beginnig to tell the parents how it is, this is a step way to far, teachers are mandated and paid well to teach our children, not act as social worker, and resilience commander, nor I might add are they mandated to determine who has the flu and to be UN transported, nor do I want my child quarantined at school.

The term 'bigger picture' is very apt for those who dislike the theme thus presented, because you will catch up, but it may very well be to late .... study the information then make comment.