Integrating Web 2.0 Social
Collaboration Tools into Moodle,
an Open-source Learning
Management System
Keith Landa
CLEA – 10 April 2009
Proliferation of web communities How to make sense of it all?
new networks, new functions - the LMS as ‘home’
new approaches to
teaching/learning

The new face of education (?)
‘Community of learning’ replacing the old industrial model of education?

CMS -> LMS
Moodle: open-source LMS/VLE, by
academics, for academics (http://moodle.org)
A community project
Moodle @ Purchase
Focus on pedagogy, student learning activities
Flexible, open architecture
No licensing costs

Moodle add-ons
Community developed activities, blocks,
etc
Extend the base functionality
Modules and plug-ins repository
Podcasting, SLOODLE, photo galleries,
YouTube/Hulu videos, etc

Google maps
mashups

Moodle Map activity
Community add-on
Creates Google or OpenStreetMaps
maps
Search addresses or plot
latitude/longitude
Instructor generated maps
Student generated maps
Plotting user profiles

VoiceThread
Sequence of media/documents
Multiple commenting formats
Personal vs. community commenting
VoiceThread plug-in to embed
their media into Moodle courses

RSS feeds
‘Universal glue’ for combining Web 2.0
apps
Moodle accepts and produces RSS
RSS import into Moodle: blog postings,
Flickr feeds, news sites, podcasts, tweets,
etc
Moodle RSS exports: forum postings,
podcasts

Diigo – social bookmarking
Social bookmarking in
plain English
Diigo educator
account
Create
classrooms
Add students
Tag sites
RSS feed into
Moodle

Recap
“Wild west”
New opportunities
Bewildering possibilities
Easy to get lost
Need for an anchor to tie the tools
together
Continued role for a (flexible) LMS