A future in Moodling - tempered by some real world considerations

Here is a bit of self-relection I would like to share with you. Its been a while since I wrote but I value your inputs.

Being under the weather over Christmas allowed me time to examine my thoughts and maybe come up with a truer assessment of what I learned from the course last year.

I learned that I love to use the skills that Moodle and the other Web 2.0 tools allow me to exercise. I learned that I am collaborator and that I learn through teaching. So none of the thoughts I recorded in my previous entry are incorrect.

My original development plan called for a 4 week course for people who want to work together in a team to find their ideal job. I still see this as very valuable and something I would like to do sometime.

But I need to ask you something more fundamental.

I put it to some of you already before the break: How do I best advance from being a techie back to being a teacher?

Remember I am not part of a learning institution. The business I am in does not really allow me to exercise any of my faciliation skills, though I hope this will one day be different.

I think I left something out though. I believe I need to stay with my areas of technical expertise. I have spent many years building up skills in IT and Internet technologies and I am an expert in some of these areas.

So I thinking I should make a second plan to become an expert in Moodle and networking, especially network security.

I think there is a need amongst Moodle teachers for some grounding in these issues. I don't believe that an emphasis on security in Moodle is scaremongering. Teachers and administrators just need to be taking sensible precautions to ensure that students are as safe as they could be, and feel secure enough to communicate as intimately as they need to.

I do need to do more research though, and talk to some Moodle admin people to see if they agree a need could be met here.

I know the idea of being a security expert goes against the grain of some of the new ideas we uncovered during our course last month. I am basically saying I want to be partly the "sage on the stage" and also the "guide on the side".

You see, one of my goals for personal development is to begin to be earning some money from onlne teaching. Its hard to justify being paid when you are not perceived as being a SME. I strongly believe in the notion of facilitating learning, but to justifty our salary in the more conventional world of business we need to step into the limelight and show some expertise.

In an ideal world I have many things I would like to teach, but this is not an ideal world. At the end of the day I am doing all this to make a living. So I need to make sure my best assets are on show.

So to sum things up for now....

My more mature reflections on what I learned on the Moodle course tell me that I need to consider my own development first and also the need to earn money. Then of course I need to work out how to achieve this my considering the professional needs of my students.

I think this means spending more time learnig to co-facilitate on Moodle courses. Development of my own Moodle course can come later.

And my questions for you once more:

1. Do you agree that personal development planning has to come before professional development planning fpr others?
2. Do you think there is a market for a course on safety and security in Moodle?
3. Do you agree I need to retain my expertise in ICT?
4. Do you also agree that combining my ICT skills with Moodle by teaching Secure and Safe Moodling is a logical step towards integrating my career?
5. Have you revisted your own personal development plan since we finished the course? If so what questions have you reopened?

Please make a posting or email me directly.

Best regards

Ian