Why aren't we using Moodle?

I love co-teaching.  Right now I'm co-teaching a masters level class on using technology in the classroom.  My co-teacher is awesome and we work well together.

While I was listening to my co-teacher talk about learning management systems (LMS), I heard a learner say, "Why aren't we using Moodle?"  The presentation was about Moodle, Haiku, and couple of others.  The comment from the teacher was "Moodle is the standard platform in many school districts."  We are using both Blackboard and Haiku for our class.

The point isn't that we are using any specific one LMS.  We could easily use Moodle, Blackboard, Haiku, Desire to Learn, or something else.  The point is that you are leaving this graduate level class with the knowledge of how to use a LMS.  The skills that you learn with Haiku or Blackboard translate into just about any other LMS tool that you will find.

For the record, here's why we choose Haiku:

• It's free. (Blackboard, D2L and others aren't)
• It's hosted. (Moodle needs it's own server)
• It's fairly simple with drag and drop simplicity.
• Students can create their own sites and have access to our site.

I'm not saying Haiku is the best.  It's the the easiest for us to implement in the class.   So, learn how to use Haiku and you will be able to use just about any system and you can say in a job interview that you have experience with learning management systems.