When it Comes to e- Learning are You in a Muddle or a Moodle? John Eldridge and Steve Neufeld Introduction Until recently, Computer Assisted Language Learning was often restricted to the realm of the lab, with time and place dictated not according to the needs of learners and teachers, but at the convenience of the institution and syllabus. However, the advent of the Internet and the growing sophistication of both learners and teachers have seen a paradigm shift away from behaviourist and communicative CALL to a more seamlessly integrated CALL (Warschauer, 1996). The once revolutionary gap-fill activities of first generation ELT software has given way to ever- changing approaches that struggle to keep pace with the needs and demands of each new generation. Today, we are accustomed not only to multimedia graphics and streaming video but also the user- defined and interactive world of blogs, wikis, YouTube, and most recently Second Life. We are approaching the threshold of ‘normalization’ (Davies, 2007) in which the speed of adoption of the new into the normal is measured in weeks or even days. Like the mobile phone, e-learning is becoming part and parcel of the everyday, humdrum life of a student. Teachers unable to move their pedagogy into this medium will soon appear as antiquated as those who clung to their Gestetner machines in defiance of the photocopier, and their pigeon-holes in defiance of e-mail. However, whilst it is clear that today’s tools offer an infinite number of learning resources, it is less clear how best to harness this potential within the finite constraints of traditional learning programmes. Indeed as far back as 1991, Garret pointed out that ‘the use of the computer does not constitute a method’. Rather, it is a ‘medium in which a variety of methods, approaches, and pedagogical philosophies may be implemented’ (Warschauer, 1996). Meanwhile, the ease and availability of technology together with its extraordinary speed of development have ushered in an era of experimentation that is both fascinating and bewildering, not least because very often there seems to be no obvious methodological or pedagogical underpinning of the use of the medium. In this article, some of these issues will be explored with particular reference to ways of managing e-learning in a platform known as Moodle. The World of MOODLE There are many e-learning platforms to choose from, and any teacher anywhere in the world can access a plethora of free services to use with their classes. Creating ‘groups’, such as Yahoo Groups or Google Groups, is an easy way to provide a cyber platform for a class. Other free platforms, such as NiceNet, offer similar facilities to share information, maintain mailing lists, and hold discussions. YouTube offers imaginative teachers a technology in which students can record and publish presentations, role plays, or video journals. Who could have imagined a few years ago that students could make their own ‘movies’ using mobile phones and that within seconds, their videos could be available for anyone in the world to see? Added to this trend is the growth of the open source initiative. Open source software is available for I A T E F L C A L L R E V I E W 20  IATEFL CALL Review, Winter 2007