Wikipedia and Moodle

A post by Seb Schmoller in his fortnightly blog asks if public organisations should put all of their information onto Wikipedia. It's an interesting idea - and one that I've thought about myself.

Schools, colleges and national organisations are publicly funded - and what better way of sharing information than putting it on a public forum such as Wikipedia? The fact that it is accessible to a global audience is another advantage since (potentially) it means that people living in countries with less well developed education systems can benefit from our contributions.

Moodle is fast becoming the 'Wikipedia of online learning', being a open source virtual learning environment. The Open University has adopted it and many Scottish colleges are currently adding content to their own Moodle systems. My own current project (Internet Safety) will use Moodle to host the online learning material - so all of the pilot centres (which includes almost 40 schools) will get exposure to this system.

The adoption of open systems (such as Wikimedia and Moodle) is an exciting development -- to which Scottish education can make an important contribution.