Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
2/12/2008
Collaborative technology developer Elluminate has brought its Live! virtual classroom software to the Moodle platform. The company released a piece of software Tuesday called Elluminate Bridge for Moodle, which is designed to integrate Live! into the open-source learning management system.
Elluminate Live! is an e-learning, conferencing, and online collaboration tool designed for use in education, providing support for a variety of learning management systems, including Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai, WebCT, and eCollege. It includes features like note taking, two-way interactive video (up to 640 x 480), archiving and automatic indexing of e-learning sessions, various tools for teachers (timers, pop-up announcements, sorting of participants by hand raising, etc.), whiteboarding, and various other collaboration tools.
Elluminate Bridge for Moodle, which itself is being released as open source, is designed to "seamlessly add synchronous distance learning and collaboration into coursework." Built on the Elluminate Bridge Toolkit, it also supports communications between Live! installations running on disparate platforms.
Moodle is one of the most popular learning management systems out there. The open-source LMS, as of this writing, had nearly 16.7 million users participating in nearly 1.7 million courses at more than 38,000 registered sites, according to Moodle's published statistics.
As we previously reported, Elluminate is also bringing its Live! collaboration suite to the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment, an open-source learning management system. The move is part of a new alliance with Unicon, a company that specializes in providing support and services for open-source software to education. Sakai integration is expected to be completed and available for the public in spring 2008.
Bridge for Moodle is available for download now.
About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
copy text (above) for proper citation
New versions of Moodle have been released, bringing the most recent stable build to 1.9.3. The latest round of updates includes a number of bug fixes and security enhancements, as well as improvements to the SCORM module.
Microsoft is rolling out a free antivirus software program for consumers that will compete with products made by Symantec and McAfee. Code-named "Morro," the AV app is expected to be available by the end of 2009.
Microsoft Wednesday previewed the ability to centrally manage applications and resources in the planned upgrade of SQL Server, code-named "Kilimanjaro."
Microsoft exec Stephen Elop on Monday announced two hosted solutions from Microsoft--Exchange Online and SharePoint Online--which are now available to organizations of all sizes in the United States. The software, paid for by annual subscriptions, is hosted on Microsoft's servers and supported by Microsoft's channel partners.
There are, in my experience, six strategies to consider with any use of technology that will guard against rote use of technology and facilitate critical analysis of teaching and learning effectiveness. In this article, I'll share with you the checklist I work with and encourage others to work with in learning about and using new technology.
How can an institution incorporate Web 2.0 learning opportunities for students, and evidence of learning from those opportunities, into existing campus technologies and processes? PlugJam is providing part of the answer.