Canterbury University (New Zealand) has just announced that they will be ditching Blackboard for Moodle and have started the shift process for full adoption by the start of 2010.
Canterbury University implemented a steering group which recommended Moodle be trialled against their current Blackboard CMS. The steering group’s final decision based process had these criteria:
Usability (by teachers and students)
Operational (reliability, external support, features and flexibility)
Strategic (future proofing, adaptation, stability of provider)
Cost (transition and long term)
Risk
Their executive summary report had Moodle coming out ahead of Blackboard in most of the above criteria (equal in other criteria but never behind Blackboard) and was strongly supported by amongst staff (70% outright preference for Moodle).
A link to Canterbury University’s LMS Review Process and be accessed here and a full public report (PDF) can be accessed here.
This is a follow-up to my previous post a month ago on Collaboration Webs and Mobile Tools. What has brought it about is the November issue of Interface magazine article titled “Would you look good with a mini?” (well worth a read). The article discusses the emerging trend of Mini Laptops and how they have become more appealing with the particular attractions being size and price.
It is hard to believe that only 13 months (October 16, 2007) ago the very first viable mini, the Asus Eee PC, entered the market. Interface now mentions 6 standard models in addition to the recently released Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (image shown) which I purchased recently. I first started looking at the minis about 4 months ago as an option but was reluctant to touch them because of the key board size and screen size – but I changed my mind once the keyboards came in at 90% standard and the screen could handle 1024px width (600px height) to prevent the nightmare of side-scrolling. Another feature I like is that it runs on Windows XP which, love it or hate it, is the standard for most schools including mine.
This is a truly fast evolving resource and I predict that Mini Laptops will become the standard wireless access tool for students NZ High Schools within 2-3 years.
PS. I am not an apologist for Dell but I do love my Inspiron Mini 9…
“Teacher Invaders” is a new flash based Quiz game from the makers of the popular “Fling the Teacher” game and is based on the very first video arcade game of the 1970′s called “Space Invaders”.
Teacher Invaders creation software is free and easy to use. all you need to do is enter in some questions and hit the generate game button. You can download the software which is still under development from Content Generator.
Try Teacher Invaders below with a simple countries quiz:
"Schools should explore not only how ICT can supplement traditional ways of teaching but also how it can open up new and different ways of learning" -The NZ Curriculum (p36)
