I remain mystified as to why Grids for Learning and Regional Broadband Consortia are so keen to spend huge amounts of money on proprietary VLEs. Ever since I started working in the elearning area, the best services have been free. Not just the Chalkface ones (we charge for content but not service); Think.com is another excellent example, and of course there are free blogging and wiki services all over the place.
Of the free VLEs, the best-supported is undoubtedly Moodle. There is a big developer community behind it now and new features appear all the time. So it was great pleasure that I discovered my old friend Drew Buddie was setting up a stand to promote Moodle at BETT. Drew says
We want to promote Moodle as the first choice learning platform for UK schools, by presenting it as a viable, and we would argue preferable, alternative to the commercial learning platforms on show at BETT. Were giving our time and expertise for free, as our way of saying thanks for how Moodle has transformed learning in our schools.
Drew and I have been Skyping about it all evening and as a result Chalkface is now proud to be one of the stand’s sponsors. If you are interested in VLEs, and you’re going to BETT, then I strongly recommend you stop by the Moodle stand at SW154.
Yacapaca 