Comments on: Making Moodle boring

By: Online Facilitation: An email too far? - Cat's Pyjamas

Online Facilitation: An email too far? - Cat's Pyjamas — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:07:22 +0000

[...] a while for all of us to get used to working in these new environments, but I’d like to echo Tomaz Lasic’s thoughts: “The sooner educators move beyond the point of fear & awe of Moodle [or any other tech] [...]

By: Making Moodle Boring :: Patrick Malley

Making Moodle Boring :: Patrick Malley — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:48:51 +0000

[...] Making Moodle Boring [...]

By: Bob Irving

Bob Irving — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:40:56 +0000

Thanks for that teachers-eye view of Moodle HQ! Very refreshing.

As a tech coordinator, I straddle both camps of tech and education. I have taught for over 20 years, so I sympathize with teachers.

I see what you’re saying about making Moodle boring, and I agree with the importance of usability for teachers. However, let’s not forget the students! And they like shiny stuff, and not just shiny design but social networking features that they’re used to in facebook, twitter, etc. I only have to refer to the Facebook group called “Moodle Ruined My Life” with its many student members. My observation is that the gap between what teachers consider scary and students feel boring is widening. How to close that gap is a discussion for another time.

Just my .02,
Bob

By: Tomaz Lasic: Making Moodle boring | Learning Management Services

Tomaz Lasic: Making Moodle boring | Learning Management Services — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:04:12 +0000

[...] View full post on Planet Moodle [...]

By: Silvia

Silvia — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:14:43 +0000

Hey!, you are really provoking! Anyway: I like your goal!
I work at CV&A, Spanish Moodle Partner, my work is try to understand our clients (the users: teachers, managers, students, etc, and the organizational learning system) and help them to implement Moodle. Well, what I try to do very often is make moodle transparent, invisible, to help people focus in their goals and tasks on hand.
Not sure if the mix transparent and boring has any sense, but I still like it!
Cheers!

@Silvia Thanks Silvia. Yeah, I am just stirring a bit with ‘boring’ Indeed, making it invisible is the goal, as Mary, Mark & Tom noted. Regards

By: human

human — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:11:21 +0000

Thanks for your comments, it looks we’re onto something hey?

Just a note to Mark & Mary – you guys have the point (making Moodle invisible, nobody thimks much about it, ‘way of life’… ABSOLUTELY).

I was just going for the ‘What the …?’
Teachers make good stirrers

Cheers guys, now back to it…

By: Mark Drechsler

Mark Drechsler — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:01:12 +0000

Hmm,

Making Moodle boring just doesn’t sit right with me – how about making Moodle simple? Even better, making Moodle invisible – like the air we breathe, nobody thinks much about it, we just take it for granted and use it as a normal part of everyday life.

Mark.

By: Olli

Olli — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:51:19 +0000

Reading this post, I feel that you are really living the teacher (~user) centric attitude that I am so far mostly talking about in the community – a real “interface between educators and Moodle developers”. Really look forward to seeing your work and hopefully, working with you, too.

Olli

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:48:36 +0000

Hi Tomaz,
Thanks for sharing your “diary” with us. I was already waiting for this first post and hope you update it on a regular basis.
I see you as a Teachers’ Ambassador at the HQ and yes, it is important to work “… on redesigning the sections on teaching and pedagogy on Moodle.org and Moodle Docs, making it easier and clearer to access, understand, use and ‘get’ Moodle by ‘an average teacher …”. It is important to know how to configure the different tools, but it is even more important to know how to use them in order to achieve (negotiated)objectives.
Cheers from Portugal
Maria

By: MariaMoodle

MariaMoodle — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:41:32 +0000

By the way . . .

this is a great narrative picture :p
hope some Moodler draw it

“The place looks like the United Nations. David and Petr drop in from Czech Republic in our working ‘chat’, Penny is live from New Zealand on big screen skyping with Martin and Andrew about something, Eloy is talking from Spain to Sam sitting next to me about some piece of code as if they were sitting next to each other, Anthony logs in from US during our regular meetings, Helen and I are looking forward to many of our meetings, me in Perth and her in Belgium… not to mention the active worldwide Moodle Partners network on top of that. All effortless, relaxed yet very focused on task at hand – listening to our community and making Moodle better.”