Horses for Courses

I have just been watching the presentation by Martin Douglamas the founder of Moodle Pty Ltd at the Educ Berlin event in December last year.

I sense from his presentation that he would find the debate about whether Moodle can be used to create an e-portfolio as being pretty irrelevant. He is very focused on what he believes to be the main purpose of Moodle which is to act as what he calls a 'Course Management System' and he appears very relaxed about other features being linked to it whether they are developed using proprietal software or based on Open source software.

What comes across very powerfully is the fact that, what he calls his guiding star, is learning and that his commitment is to creating learning environments that are flexible and adaptable and which help encourage purposeful and appropriate learning behaviour.

There is lots here that chimes with our approach.

NVQs and added value

The frequent assertion that all that NVQs do is to recognise existing skills and therefore they are of less value rather than promote and assess new learning is mixing up the means with the end.
It must be good that people's existing skills are recognised especially when the skills belong to people who are often prone to under sell the skills they have; 'the I just-do syndrome.'
How that acquisition and recognition of skills is paid for and rewarded is a different question. There is a strong case for variable tariffs especially where technology is used to effectively track learner journeys.