Remember when the saying 'is the new black' refers to when a colour comes into fashion? Well, I have moved my school into using Moodle as its Virtual Learning Environment (VLE - or whatever Three Letter Acronym (TLA) is in fashion), and now everybody else I seem to know is also moving in the same direction.
I did a test install on my own PC the other day, turning it into a WAMP server, only took less than thirty minutes for the whole thing - now I can test out ideas and more importantly addons (modules) with out affecting the main system.
It is really flexible and easy to use - well for most people. I have been struggling teaching older teachers as they come to terms with another 'technology' whilst still attempting to keep up with improving their own IT Skills - ultimately - this is the real hurdle. However, the VLE we were going to be with (no names mentioned to protect the not so innocent) is absolutely 'pants'. I can accomplish in five minutes with Moodle that took me forty five with the other - and at least there is regular bug fixes and releases with improvements. This is not because it is buggy, it is just because with any piece of software there are bugs. There is a software engineering saying along the lines of 'There is not enough time left in the Universe to test all but the simplest programs to the point where you would be 100% certain that they would never fail'.
Still, back to the point, Moodle is Open Source, which in this case makes it flexible and powerful. And in case you are wondering, Moodle stands for 'Modular Object Orientated Distributed Learning Environment' - say that after a night on the town.
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