Moodle - A Free, Open Source Course Management System for Online Learning
A couple people I know are in education. I think if I was an educator, I would look at this moodle software.
I looked over a book about it tonight. It has a lt of great qualities.
The person who wrote it is an educator, not a software engineer. They created moodle because they saw a need that was not being met by existing instructor-defined courseware.
I have this kind of intuitive hunch that media companies are going to extend their operations into the adult educational field during the course (pardon the pun!) of the next decade or two.
Why? Basically, they have got the goods.
History becomes more interesting when you can compare/contrast an ancient civilization with its descendants - or heirs. Math and science become more riviting when you can tie the subject matter to the latest scientific/industrial breakthrough. Economic theory and financial instruments are great subjects - when they are tied to the latest scandals, trends, and lucrative investment strategies - and surprising collapses/meltdowns.
Media companies have this stuff. It is still warm from their hands right now.
Media companies have the less recent things on file in their archives too. A lot is probably in digital form because it was created that way. The rest could be converted at jaw dropping speed. Two organizations that converted a lot of printed pages to digital form spring to mind right now.
The educational industry is in a time of change. It is expensive, intensive, and - lets face it - its product has the shortest half-life ever today.
Adults in many professions have to be self-teaching, self-educating, self-learning. They are both school and student, learning institution and resident scholar.
If people could look up more information they were looking for more quickly, with better help from the computer - yes, better even than Google is at the moment - then more people could be enabled to do jobs that would be too demanding for them today.
Law, Medicine, Counseling, Law Enforcement - perhaps not.
But, think about it - politicians, educators, managers, tycoons, bankers, parents who want to understand what kids are learning in school so they can help - these people could benefit from a media+education institutional hybrid.
Moodle - A Free, Open Source Course Management System for Online Learning:
Moodle seems to be crafted so that people who are not computer scientists can put together a significant training regimen for a subject in less time and with more compelling results.
Textbooks are going for over a hundred bucks a pop now. School systems are demanding students buy computers, which are selling for ever less money each year. They cannot just keep charging the people who have not ever made any money, more and more money to be able to make money someday
Media companies are hurting so badly that some of them are inflating their subscription/circulation numbers. They are the ones that have the cutting edge graphic artists, writers, illustrators, photographers, researchers, and reporters.
College students are finding they can't get a job upon graduation, interest from students the following year in taking that curriculum tanks. For each of those students that decides that school or curriculum is not for him - there could be a hundred professionals out there who know it is for them, and that they need a
I see a partial media-education industry merger, not just collaboration/cooperation, as nearly inevitable.
Think about where matters affecting them stand, what directions they are moving in today - and extend the line. Where else could they be headed?
I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. Apart, these two industries are both on shaky legs. Combined, they could be one of the most relevant industries around. Not just an information/education industry - a genuine knowledge industry.
I looked over a book about it tonight. It has a lt of great qualities.
The person who wrote it is an educator, not a software engineer. They created moodle because they saw a need that was not being met by existing instructor-defined courseware.
I have this kind of intuitive hunch that media companies are going to extend their operations into the adult educational field during the course (pardon the pun!) of the next decade or two.
Why? Basically, they have got the goods.
History becomes more interesting when you can compare/contrast an ancient civilization with its descendants - or heirs. Math and science become more riviting when you can tie the subject matter to the latest scientific/industrial breakthrough. Economic theory and financial instruments are great subjects - when they are tied to the latest scandals, trends, and lucrative investment strategies - and surprising collapses/meltdowns.
Media companies have this stuff. It is still warm from their hands right now.
Media companies have the less recent things on file in their archives too. A lot is probably in digital form because it was created that way. The rest could be converted at jaw dropping speed. Two organizations that converted a lot of printed pages to digital form spring to mind right now.
The educational industry is in a time of change. It is expensive, intensive, and - lets face it - its product has the shortest half-life ever today.
Adults in many professions have to be self-teaching, self-educating, self-learning. They are both school and student, learning institution and resident scholar.
If people could look up more information they were looking for more quickly, with better help from the computer - yes, better even than Google is at the moment - then more people could be enabled to do jobs that would be too demanding for them today.
Law, Medicine, Counseling, Law Enforcement - perhaps not.
But, think about it - politicians, educators, managers, tycoons, bankers, parents who want to understand what kids are learning in school so they can help - these people could benefit from a media+education institutional hybrid.
Moodle - A Free, Open Source Course Management System for Online Learning:
Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student University.
Moodle seems to be crafted so that people who are not computer scientists can put together a significant training regimen for a subject in less time and with more compelling results.
Textbooks are going for over a hundred bucks a pop now. School systems are demanding students buy computers, which are selling for ever less money each year. They cannot just keep charging the people who have not ever made any money, more and more money to be able to make money someday
Media companies are hurting so badly that some of them are inflating their subscription/circulation numbers. They are the ones that have the cutting edge graphic artists, writers, illustrators, photographers, researchers, and reporters.
College students are finding they can't get a job upon graduation, interest from students the following year in taking that curriculum tanks. For each of those students that decides that school or curriculum is not for him - there could be a hundred professionals out there who know it is for them, and that they need a
refersher. They probably want to update their aging skills more than that 17 year old wants to acquire them.
I see a partial media-education industry merger, not just collaboration/cooperation, as nearly inevitable.
Think about where matters affecting them stand, what directions they are moving in today - and extend the line. Where else could they be headed?
I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. Apart, these two industries are both on shaky legs. Combined, they could be one of the most relevant industries around. Not just an information/education industry - a genuine knowledge industry.
posted by John Collins | 1:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home