Is Moodle the new Open Source monolith?
09-May-2005
permalink email thisWhilst it could be argued that the proliferation of different VLEs was dissipating effort, the net effect was to allow experimentation in different approaches - technical and pedagogic, I am not convinced that the freedom to develop modules in Moodle represents such diversity
in an article in Auricle Derek Morrison has sparked off a controversy over the NZOSVLE decision to promote Moodle for universities and polytechnics in New Zealand. He warns of the danger of creating "a monoculture by consolidating/aggregating around a limited number of immature proprietary and perhaps even open source solutions"
.... the key constraints could arise from within the organisations or consortia who, having made the commitment, will adopt a strict 'Moodle policy' which will be the equally pernicious equivalent of say a 'WebCT policy' or a 'Blackboard policy' etc, and who perceive any deviation from this policy as dysfunctional."
I am also concerned at the implications of the increasing ascendency of Moodle as the no 1 Open Source VLE, but my concerns lie in a different direction.
Extended text for this entry:
Whilst it could be argued that the proliferation of different VLEs was dissipating effort, the net effect was to allow experimentation in different approaches - technical and pedagogic, I am not convinced that the freedom to develop modules in Moodle represents such diversity. And surely as more institutions adopt Moodle, so developers will be be drawn into the Moodle community. Given that the supply of educational technologist is finite (and the supply of those with pedagogic understanding limited), the dominance of Moodle will be assured and the opportunities for alternatives limited.
It is possible to take an opposite view, as was expressed by Teemu Ariina when I discussed this briefly with him at teh ITK cvonfernce last week. Tereemyu felt that Moodle would allow instiittions looking for a stable and mature product to opt for Open Source, whilst freeing up space for others prepared to work with more experimental applications.
Derek draws attention to the JISC e-learning programme which is developing a Services Oriented framework as an alternative to the monolithic VLE. Similarly Scott Wilson and others have been working on the idea of a Personal LearninG environment. But one of the difficulties for programmes and projects like JISc is the unrealistic expectations of how fast they will progress. Whilst the developers understand the time and effort it will take to develop alternatives approaches and architectures (let alone working software) university Vice Chancellors (not to mention funding bodies) are looking for a quick fix now.
So, whilst i accept Derek's concerns we probably need solutions like Moodle to fill in the gap, before new applications are mature for deployment.
Lets also hope that efforts will continue to allow Moodle to work alongside other applications and that Moodle remains open to innovation.
I
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