He went back to teaching English, and got a job at a High School that had a nice language lab. As part of his role he installed Moodle and wrote an audio recorder, which they called PoodLL. It was a winner because PoodLL became a brand.
As things progressed he was requested to develop various things for Moodle, and was trying to do this at the same time as teaching. Finally he decided to make the jump and go full time with the development. PoodLL got a bit left behind, but the plugin 'stable' grew.
Some of the plugins are not in the plugins database because it takes quite a lot of time to maintain the plugins - so you end up not putting them in the database. One way of addressing this is by commercialising the plugins to help ensure that they are compatible with new releases of Moodle.
There is not a lot of help for people who want to get up to speed with Moodle development. There is some opportunity to make some money as a Moodle developer however.
Education is really big in Japan, and high schools are very well funded, but Japan is very slow on the uptake, for example with mobile phones...but once the momentum starts it can happen quickly. So, eLearning is not very big in Japan. Many teachers aren't interested. Right now, the enthusiastic foreign teachers are pushing Moodle in Japan. The Japanese who are there are players in the organisations and institutions. When Japan does get going, they are likely to be innovative and meticulous, and it will take off. The partners over in Japan are Version 2, e-learning, and Manabu 3.
Blackboard is in Japan, and there are some proprietary systems. Moodle is there but tends to be in high schools.
poodllsupport@gmail.com
Image: Poodles! CC ( BY NC ) licensed image by Bananas: https://flic.kr/p/nKZtq9
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