“A LOT of people spend a lot more than $US3000 a year on their hobbies,” James Farmer says, laughing. His hobby may be better described as a quasi-religious quest: he preaches a gospel of interactive learning. At his web portal, edublogs.org, teachers and students can set up free blogs using WordPress, an open-source tool. “I’d like it to be a one-stop shop for teachers who want to use social software but whose schools or organisations can’t – or won’t – support them,” Farmer says. In his day job, Farmer helps academics at Deakin University bring digital technology to bear on teaching and learning. He says there are many outstanding teachers at Deakin and elsewhere who see the potential.

Also in today’s edition was an article focusing on an OECD report which noted that the eLearning boom which was forecast during the dotcom bubble didn’t really eventuate. Rather, a supplement rather than replace strategy has dominated (and for good reason, I’d argue). The report notes the following challenges which are currently of key importance:

The OECD says universities are considering how to unleash the potential of e-learning. Among the challenges are:
* To use the technology to teach in new and effective ways.
* To get academics and technical staff to work together.
* To share infrastructure and know-how with other institutions and disseminate clever practices.
* To reduce costs by using open standards software, by replacing on-campus teaching and by encouraging peer and automated learning.

Lucky, then, that James’ edublogs.org is trying to address exactly those questions!

(Incidentally, today’s Higher Ed also contained a very pro-Moodle article and a ‘Deakin is podcasting via iLectures’ article, too, but despite their online relevance, neither quite made it into the online version of today’s Australian.)