Further to my previous blog, there are a number of sites worldwide that support the education of children online.

One project that I have watched for some time is the OLPC or One Laptop Per Child Association. This is a US based non-profit organisation with the mission "to create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning."

There are also sites such as e-Learning for Kids which has a vision "to be the source for childhood learning on the Internet – available from anywhere and without charge".

e-Learning in Early Education

When Moodle was first introduced into New Zealand in 2004, it was the Teriary Institutions that lead the way in it's adoption. And in that regard it was the Polytechnics and Technical Institutes that were first to tkae it seriously.

Since that time it has become popiular with Secondary Schools, and now the Universities. Massey University and Canterbury University in Christchurch (NZ) have now adopted Moodle as their main LMS.

It is gratifying to now see that Moodle is moving down into the Primary school sector, with some early adopters gaining recognition in their efforts.

I have been lucky enough to be a part of the endeavours of The Alpha eLearning Facility run by Frances Hill. Frances is based in Fairlie and works by day at the local primary school. However at 7am each morning she is busy at work with her Home Schooled protoges around New Zealand.

While her efforts have yet to be heralded in New Zealand, she has received acclaim for her work in the USA and Mexico. Sounds like the typical NZ story to me!

So watch this space.

"Imagine you want to move out of your apartment. When you ask your landlord about the terms of your previous lease, he says that you are free to leave at any time; however, you cannot take all of your things with you - not your photos, your keepsakes, or your clothing.

If you're like most people, a restriction like this may cause you to rethink moving altogether. Not only is this a bad situation for you as the tenant, but it's also detrimental to the housing industry as a whole, which no longer has incentive to build better apartments at all."e

Brian Fitzpatrick, Data Liberation engineering manager at Google posted an interesting article on his Chicago based team, Google's Data Liberation Front.

Click here to read more.