Website - spring (autumn) cleaning and the year ahead

Since starting this blog last April I've realised the website needs more than a spring (or autumnal) clean. In 1997 with Brian's blessing I blew the dust off his original notes and made these available to the wider world. Now though virtual dust is collecting, there's content that needs archiving, some that may be worthy of update and the rest ripe for deletion.

If I were a lecturer, focused on learning, teaching, mentoring and R&D related to Hodges' model, the current content would probably have a home in an institutional learning management system [LMS]. It would certainly help me to have the resources that academic ICT departments can provide. For many lecturers though the tools they use are not necessarily their personal and preferred choice. So, given my freelance-spare time status how can I take the site forward? Or more critically how best to engage others and create a community?

Whatever system is used in academia the LMS would encourage and include contributions from students. It is such an infusion - fresh blood and thought - that h2cm needs. The blog shows that there are some interested parties out there and actual users of Hodges' model too (I see a student's negotiation from h2cm to Casey's model as a positive not a negative). Now I'm not getting carried away (it would take a Shuttle flight to achieve that), but it's weird the way things seem to be coming together.

As a critic on Wikipedia pointed out the website is not even worthy of a unique url (web address). Well that is in hand, but which architecture and software should I investigate and ultimately select? SaaS, that is - Software as a Service is arriving in the education market with other Web 2.0 applications. For me Hodges' model MUST encourage and facilitate learning. It should not just be about learning management. Although to many my early Computer Aided Learning efforts on the BBC micro may be considered Noddy stuff, I did strive to ensure that the programs were not just page-turning exercises. Learning BBC BASIC with the arrays, loops and other data structures was a fascinating creative process. How to interactively marry a specific learning-teaching objective with a programming language / environment; all without the tail wagging the dog?

Those non-IBM PC beginnings have proved a negative in terms of lack of knowledge about networks, servers and more serious database and programming applications. Now though reading the pickaxe and Ruby on Rails I have to say: Ruby really rocks! There are data structures, methods and explanatory sentences that sizzle.

Needing a development environment for Ruby I found Eclipse. Then the Drupal meeting with Charlie the other week in London and a server and database are on the list. Now I've XAMPP installed aok and soon I'll know [thanks Roger] if I'm a few steps from having Drupal running properly. I've only scratched the surface of Eclipse, but it seems an excellent tool: a real diamond. In addition Eclipse was a key part of a presentation I attended this week on Open Source and Open Standards.

I clearly have many dots-to-join. A lot of this makes me feel dense, plus I do have a demanding day-job, but there's an equally intense rationale here....

The REAL problem is how to transcend slogans: integrated care, holistic practice, education and health for ALL, public - patient involvement, public [mental] health, e-citizenry, engagement... None of us can do that alone.