I am not very well informed when it comes to social networks, which I think is the same as “open source course management systems." I checked into “Moodle” which was the first one to come up when I googled it. I can see how this is the up-and-coming wave in education, but I guess I am still wary of privacy issues. I took a class on Ethics and Issues in Computing and the social networking of FaceBook and MySpace came into the conversation. At that time, to sign onto FaceBook, one must first sign a contract giving them rights to use, keep, and collect one’s information—and you could not go back and change your mind. Of course, this was in the small print. And the most stunning part was they could keep collecting forever, from newspapers—anywhere—and keep this file on you indefinitely, using it at their disgression!! That is scary to me. It seems some BIG court cases would come out of selling this private information (with no way to take-back the contract I signed!)
Anyway, I checked Moodle and it has an inviting appearance, Sakai looked very confusing when I first opened it, and the edtechpost had a listing of all the open source course management systerms. If I were serious about constructing a course using a tool like this, I would definitely take the time to check out the entire list. I liket this list because it not only gave the name and web address, it tells who is the sponsor/developer of the site, what country they originate from, what type of license they use and end with notes that give extra clues about the site. I noticed that some sites were associated with Universities (but was really more of a closed system) and some sites were associated with individuals. I would tend to rely on those sites operated by legitimate universities and those in the United States, (just because I am more familiar with them and the language.)
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