I am deeply interested in open source and opens standard applications for the K-12 market. Having been an implementer of many different commercial software packages, I am amazed at the large amounts of money that schools and districts are paying for administrative software that is often times simply not good.
I remember the time very clearly when I was evaluating a student information system (SIS) and entered negative test scores, erroneous data such as letters in a numeric field and the SIS simply accepted the entries. I am sure that there could be some customization, but that would likely cost additional implementation dollars that this market can hardly afford.
Thus open source alternatives. Previously I have written about Centre, a young open source alternative to the commercial SIS systems. Today I want to talk about Moodle, an open source Course Management System (CMS). Moodle has over 150,000 registered users and documented over 20,000 sites using Moodle. There are 38 sites that serve 20,000 users or more and one that serves over 42,000. There are 35 certified Moodle partners that provide support and training services for schools and districts that use Moodle. Most of them offer customized development services as well.
It boggles my mind, that a proven open source system in use at over 20,000 places around the world has not achieved a strong foothold in the U.S. If a Moodle implementation can serve 42,000 users successfully, is can provide course management services for over 10,000 U.S. school districts and it is completely free.
Moodle for Windows is distributed in XAMMP, a great package combining Apache HTTP Server, MySQL and PHP, the base components required to run Moodle as well as other open source applications. It has a wizard driven install and a nice control panel like feature that makes for easy management.
Moodle also has a free course exchange where users from all over the world post courses that can be directly imported into Moodle. This truly the desired state of community software and one that is specifically targeted at K-12 education. Moodle has been successful for a number of reasons, but primarily because of the dedication of Martin Dougiamas, the creator of Moodle. Martin's unswerving dedication to Moodle is the reason for its success.
Like most successful open source software, Moodle has a community of developers continually adding modules and plug ins that can be downloaded for free from the Moodle.org site. The continuing growth of the community is ensured by a central organization that continues to support and develop the product. It is an example of how community based software can work.
So, why are you paying all of that money for commercial CMS?
Friday, January 26, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
K-12 - An Old Idea Whose Time Has Gone
K-12. A progression through a defined set of grades marking a student's progress towards higher education and eventual entry into the work force as a well educated individual ready to contribute to society. What does 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade mean? Some definition of a level typically associated with age that defines a student's progress. Does grade indicate mastery of content or standards?
Here is a radical idea: Eliminate grades and report progress solely on mastery of standards. Define a set of challenging curriculum standards that all students must master and then measure students on their progress of mastery. Forget grades and forget the defined school year. Facilitate student centered learning and anytime anywhere learning. If children want to advance faster than their peers then let them. If they want to study from home at odd hours, then let them.
Grade levels, high stakes assessments. the traditional school are all "old school" thinking. If I hire someone, I am looking for an individual that demonstrates a set of skills that they have mastered. Kids should learn based on a set of defined "skills aka standards". Progress should be reported as mastery of standards, not grades. High stakes assessments should be replaced with formative and summative assessments that measure progress frequently and in smaller chunks.
The concept of a a school and the process of learning needs to be reexamined. Perhaps K-12 is an idea whose time has gone. Perhaps the future report card will read: "Johnny has mastered 50% of his elementary and secondary education standards and is on track to complete those standards at age 16."
Here is a radical idea: Eliminate grades and report progress solely on mastery of standards. Define a set of challenging curriculum standards that all students must master and then measure students on their progress of mastery. Forget grades and forget the defined school year. Facilitate student centered learning and anytime anywhere learning. If children want to advance faster than their peers then let them. If they want to study from home at odd hours, then let them.
Grade levels, high stakes assessments. the traditional school are all "old school" thinking. If I hire someone, I am looking for an individual that demonstrates a set of skills that they have mastered. Kids should learn based on a set of defined "skills aka standards". Progress should be reported as mastery of standards, not grades. High stakes assessments should be replaced with formative and summative assessments that measure progress frequently and in smaller chunks.
The concept of a a school and the process of learning needs to be reexamined. Perhaps K-12 is an idea whose time has gone. Perhaps the future report card will read: "Johnny has mastered 50% of his elementary and secondary education standards and is on track to complete those standards at age 16."
No Child Left Behind - The New Version
A little over 5 years ago, President Bush signed into law the legislative act of No Child Left Behind or NCLB. Arguably, it was a fundamentally flawed piece of legislation from the beginning and doomed to be rewritten, but credit should be given that someone took a stand against a system that is failing many of it students.
What we understand now, and many of us understood then, that the reliance on a single measure of high stakes test results was far too simple. Micahel Pitrelli, former assistant deputy secretary who helped draft the law, recently said the the legislation should be scrapped in favor of multiple variables that measure success. Pitrelli also recommends national standards and a national test in a recent Education Gadfly article. Wow, what an idea, national standards. I have written about standards in many previous posts and am still amazed that people just don't get the power of common standards.
Other things that I don't understand about the US DOE is why don't they push things that really contribute to student achievement? Mastery of Learning, good Instructional System
Design, quality conditions of learning and so on. Thomas Guskey in Implementing Mastery of Learning, clearly outlines a fairly bullet proof approach to ensuring student achievement. It ties in with Benjamin Bloom's theories that all children can learn, just at different paces. Jack Bowsher outlines an approach to sound Instructional System Design in Fix Schools First, an interesting book with some very sound methods. And I never seem to hear much from the US DOE about principles of sound instructional design, an approach that Robert Gagne developed near the end of WWII.
Often times, we look to measure the problem instead of examining why the problem is occurring in the first place. A high stakes assessment measures and reports the success or failure of the classroom. Knowing that the great majority of a student's achievement, or lack of, is determined by the classroom experience, why aren't we focusing on the classroom setting, professional development for teachers, a national standard integrated curriculum, standards for curriculum content, mastery of standards and technologies that are applicable to the way our students learn today?
One thing is for sure, NCLB will change and districts will have to change the way they collect and report data. How flexible are your systems and how easily will you be able to adapt? Software vendors are very hungry for these types of changes because they mean new versions, new license sales and more money. Consider open source and open standard solutions that allow you to control your environment and keep your operational budget dollars to put back into the classroom where learning happens.
What we understand now, and many of us understood then, that the reliance on a single measure of high stakes test results was far too simple. Micahel Pitrelli, former assistant deputy secretary who helped draft the law, recently said the the legislation should be scrapped in favor of multiple variables that measure success. Pitrelli also recommends national standards and a national test in a recent Education Gadfly article. Wow, what an idea, national standards. I have written about standards in many previous posts and am still amazed that people just don't get the power of common standards.
Other things that I don't understand about the US DOE is why don't they push things that really contribute to student achievement? Mastery of Learning, good Instructional System
Design, quality conditions of learning and so on. Thomas Guskey in Implementing Mastery of Learning, clearly outlines a fairly bullet proof approach to ensuring student achievement. It ties in with Benjamin Bloom's theories that all children can learn, just at different paces. Jack Bowsher outlines an approach to sound Instructional System Design in Fix Schools First, an interesting book with some very sound methods. And I never seem to hear much from the US DOE about principles of sound instructional design, an approach that Robert Gagne developed near the end of WWII.
Often times, we look to measure the problem instead of examining why the problem is occurring in the first place. A high stakes assessment measures and reports the success or failure of the classroom. Knowing that the great majority of a student's achievement, or lack of, is determined by the classroom experience, why aren't we focusing on the classroom setting, professional development for teachers, a national standard integrated curriculum, standards for curriculum content, mastery of standards and technologies that are applicable to the way our students learn today?
One thing is for sure, NCLB will change and districts will have to change the way they collect and report data. How flexible are your systems and how easily will you be able to adapt? Software vendors are very hungry for these types of changes because they mean new versions, new license sales and more money. Consider open source and open standard solutions that allow you to control your environment and keep your operational budget dollars to put back into the classroom where learning happens.
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