NZ MoodleSchool and HomeSchool

From Stuart Mealor, Managing Director of HRDNZ (Moodle Partner in New Zealand).

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Hi everyone

We've been thinking a lot recently about what we (HRDNZ) do for schools.

We host numerous schools Moodle sites, we provide training onsite, and have hundreds of teachers from all over the world learning and networking through our MoodleBites online courses.

In 2007 we setup this 'MoodleSchool and HomeSchool' site.

At the time I thought it was a really good idea to create something specifically for supporting schools/teachers in NZ. In fact I still do!

So we are developing a small group of people who know Moodle, are enthusiastic, and can work together as a kind of steering committee.

HRDNZ completely support this site financially - the website, hosting, traffic, technical updates, Moodle administration etc.
We try to operate this project on a break-even basis as it progresses.

Note that there is no government funding involved here.
There is no funding from Ministry of Education, NCEA, NZQA, or any other political body.
That's because I believe education, and Moodle, are too important to be subjected to party political influences, and the restrictions placed on operations by outside agencies.
Just like Moodle is free and GPL, www.moodleschool.co.nz will remain free, and away from the influence and interference of local government and the politics of the day.
Being outside of MOE, NZQA, etc. gives a project like this a lot more freedom!

So, MoodleSchool can be used by teachers in NZ to share best-practice using Moodle.
I know some teachers who have great knowledge and some great 'exemplar' courses.
It can be used as a repository to share resources.
It can be used for training and staff development.
It can be used to connect home schooling parents with each other, and teachers.
I believe this aspect of schools, private teachers, parents, and others working on home school projects will be an important development of personalised learning in the coming years. And Moodle will likely be the centre of the personal learning environment.

MoodleSchool will essentially become what the steering committee and members want it to become

There is also a really important point here to be considered.
With Moodle networking it will soon be possible to operate MoodleSchool as a 'Community Hub' to any school that uses Moodle.
This will enable teachers to 'roam' from their own Moodle site to courses on MoodleSchool, with a single sign-on.
For staff development courses for example this will be amazing!

In 2010 it's important for HRDNZ to know which projects we are all focusing on.
NZ MoodleSchool & HomeSchool is one of these.
And like all our projects, I like to ensure that we put effort into things that are a) interesting, b) worthwhile, c) successful.

Feel free to contact me via email if you have comments or questions

stuart[AT]hrdnz.com