Frances Bell

Hey Gers,
I think you mean mature not old
My gut response to point 4 was that you were unfair to lump me with Martin L. as a critic of the participants.  I wanted to check my 'interruptions' and answer you from an informed position but I can't, can I?
I was aware that the meta-discussion could become a distraction, which is why I started this thread. 
I agree with you that this is a bad day for Moodle.  Sadly, I think that what has happened to this thread on Moodle has implications for the discussion of topics a lot more central to the 'Moodle phenomenon'
There are some really important questions  e.g.

•  the role of OSS in technology diffusion in the developing world, particularly Africa (see http://moodle.org/sites/), and how this community can support this
• can we compare open source code and open source 'knowledge' as might be contained within this community (though needing some organisation as you point out Ger)
• how can people from societies where it would be risky to engage in a googleable discussion enageg with the development and use of Moodle
  

I hope that the treatment of the Art teacher discussion does not prevent us from uncovering and questioning some of these issues.

In Moodle.org though we share a general interest in education, we operate in many different spheres and are concerned with formal and informal education by and for children and adults.  For that reason, I think it is pretty difficult to have universal rules about communication and self-expression.  Freedom of expression is a good aspiration in education but not the only consideration.
I would soon have removed any of my children from any nursery school that permitted racism or bullying in the name of freedom of expression but would hope that my children (as young adults) would ne able to engage in sometimes robust discussion with those opinions and values differed from their own.  Ok that was easy for me to write but what about the messy stages between kindergarten and university.
In another post, Tim spoke of teachers and students - Who are the teachers and who are the students on Moodle.org?

That is interesting Lesli.  I have similar mixed feelings about spliting and redirecting.
BTW how did you shut down the problematic thread.  Were students able to read it but not post to it or did you make it disappear as has happened with the Art teacher thread here ? (apparently it still exists but not where we can see it).

Looks very interesting Stephen.  One problem that you might encounter is that you will (of necessity) be comparing a specific configuration and pedagogical implementation of Moodle, and will need to consider the impact of this on the data you gather to test your hypotheses. (I am assuming that by 'users' you mean students as well as sys admin and teachers)

I think that talking about talking is important from time to time, and posted some comments relevant to what you say in this topic.