Moodle explained with Lego
Posted by Tomaz Lasic on 30 September, 2008
Like many millions of people around the world, one of my favourite toys as a child was Lego. I spent countless hours engaged in imaginative play with it (I still do, just much, much less these days) and it looks like I have passed the genes. Last week, I played with my son when the similarity between Moodle and Lego struck me. They are not only both tough, light, modular, infinitely open-ended and very popular products worldwide but they also encourage the way of learning I am passionate about practicing and promoting – try, connect, observe, see patterns, share, watch, (re)construct, change and above all immerse yourself in learning and discovery.
This little ‘epiphany’ and the desire to answer frequently answered question ‘What is Moodle?’ with a brief, to-the-point video drove me to spend the last few days playing with digital Lego and creating two clips, answering the question ‘What is Moodle?’ using an analogy with Lego bricks. The idea was not only to show (quickly) what Moodle is but also what it can do and what a popular and useful LMS it is. There are some excellent intro videos out there but here is my take…
There are two versions of the clip – short (length 2:43) and full (featured here, length 5:03). The slideshow and full text used in this video is available on Slideshare. If you can’t see the video or you are having difficulties with clarity (some small text, sorry) please click here.
Oh, and a little anecdote.
While compiling the material for the clip, I wrote down what Jason Cole dubbed as ‘Martin’s 5 laws’ of Moodle (slightly edited but intent preserved – did I ‘get it’ right Martin?). Purely by chance, a fellow teacher who has not really engaged with Moodle at our school walked by. I invited her to look at the five statements on the paper and asked her if she agreed with them.
She looked, paused, thought and said “Of course. They make perfect sense. How else would we….” and on she went about confirming the statements.
When she finished, I simply said “Well, what you have just read are the principles Moodle is built on. That’s what Moodle is about.”
Her reply? “Well, you better sign me up to this Moodle thing then.”
And THAT is how the story begins with Moodle, Lego or anything we see interesting and valuable to learn!
Happy MoodleMoot Australia 2008 in Brisbane to all participants – sorry I can’t join you (watch out next year…)
