Stella Porto's List: learning environments

"And now it’s time to move forward with Chapter 13 in the Veletsianos book. authored by Caladine, Andres, Tynan, Smyth and Vale. (Chapter 13) in the Veletsianos (ed.) book.

Videoconferencing has been around for a while but it hadn’t always found its way into effective distance education experiences, for a range of reasons that are described by these authors (cost, bandwidth issues and unreliability of early systems are some of the obvious factors). The current “renaissance” described in this chapter refers to newer tools (Skype, etc.) that provide easy and inexpensive options."

"As illustrated in the table above, In contrast to Learning Management Systems (LMS), Personal Learning Environments (PLE) have the following characteristics:"

"Chapter 10, Learning, Design, and Emergence: Two Case Studies of Moodle in Distance Education

Andrew Whitworth and Angela Benson are the authors of Chapter 10, “Learning, Design, and Emergence: Two Case Studies of Moodle in Distance Education,” in the Veletsianos (ed.) book.

As someone who has lived and breathed Moodle, an open source Course Management System [CMS]), for the past five or six years I can fully relate to the level of commitment described in this chapter. CMS decisions should not be made lightly and success depends on an ongoing effort to stay on top of how the system is being used and what needs are emerging."

"PLE Conference 2010 - Graham Attwell Interview "

"The popularity of learning management systems (LMSs) is well documented with usage expected to continue to grow. According to the 2009 ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology LMS student use increased from 79.7 percent in 2006 to 91 percent in 2009. In 2008 the Campus Computing Project reported the percentage of college courses that use an LMS had risen from 14.7 percent in 2000 to more than 53.5 percent in 2008. In 2001 only 41.8 percent of colleges and universities reported a strategic plan for LMS deployment. In 2008 that number was 63.5 percent. These surveys demonstrate how important and critical an LMS strategic plan is for academic institutions.

An Internet search delivers a wealth of information related to LMS strategies. This includes information communicated in formal documents or reports, as news or press releases, or on campus websites or portals. While much of this information is anecdotal this article will present an informal look at what are the catalysts for assessing LMS strategies, the common decision factors in selecting an LMS, and LMS hosting options. "

"In the future, campus computer labs will be invisible, personal computers will be shapeshifters, and colleges will have to spend much less to make sure students have access to the software they need for certain courses.

This according to technology officials at several colleges that have recently deployed “virtual computing labs” — Web-based hubs where students can go to use sophisticated programs from their personal computers without having to buy and install expensive software, or slog to a campus lab and pray for a vacant workstation."

"“Round 1” in a look at the many free, richly featured CMS & LMS apps available in the cloud.

What options exist for teachers who want to try using a Course Management System, but don’t have one available in their school? Fortunately, there are many free CMS/LMS tools available on the Internet. The heavy snows across the US this winter pushed the value of these tools to the forefront of my mind – courses hosted in a Learning Management System position students and teachers to keep course work moving forward when schools are closed due to inclement weather."

"Best free online Course Management Systems … the search continues

by K. Walsh on March 12, 2011
In this post we look at SchoolRack, then review results of our look at 4 different CMS apps, and decide what’s next.

So far in this series, we’ve looked at Rcampus and MyiCourse, and now it’s time to move on to the other two candidates from our original selection of four online CMS/LMS apps that offer free functionality. "

"Jessica Knott, in “The Open Source LMS: Look Out, Big Kids,” asks, “What trends are you seeing on your campus? Are you more likely to use a centrally supported learning management system or strike out on your own and teach from a blog?” For the first question, my answer is “More of the same LMS-based approach. Nothing new.” For the second, my answer is “A mixed approach” — combining open web social networking applications such as blogs with a few LMS applications.

Today, when we think of completely online college classes, we think LMS (learning management system). Period. End of discussion."

"Character Education for the Digital Age

Jason Ohler

Should we teach our kids to have two lives, or one?

Our current technological trajectory promises unfathomable, roller-coaster innovation with no braking system. While the ride is exciting, it moves so quickly that we typically don't have time to think about the possible unintended consequences that might accompany it. The result is that we find ourselves unable to effectively respond to hot-button issues like cyberbullying and sexting because they seem to come out of nowhere.

Our challenge is to find ways to teach our children how to navigate the rapidly moving digital present, consciously and reflectively. How we meet this challenge depends on how we address the following fundamental question about teaching our digital-age children: Should we teach our children as though they have two lives, or one?

The "two lives" perspective says that our students should live a traditional, digitally unplugged life at school and a second, digitally infused life outside school. It says that the digital technology that kids use quite naturally is too expensive, problematic, or distracting to use effectively and responsibly at school. It says that issues concerning the personal, social, and environmental effects of a technological lifestyle are not important in a school curriculum, and that kids will have to puzzle through issues of cybersafety, technological responsibility, and digital citizenship without the help of teachers or the education system."

"Concerns with Learning-Management Systems and Virtual Learning Environments

By Bob Little

July 6, 2010

Bob Little

IMC (UK) Learning, an eLearning content solutions provider, published research on how organizations use learning-management systems (LMS) and virtual learning environments (VLE). The study examined how much functionality is being used and how beneficial LMSs are at meeting business needs.

Some valuable take-aways from the report, "Learning Management Systems: Are organizations making the most of them?" [PDF] are:

* 66 percent of respondents' organizations already use an LMS/VLE and a further 13 percent plan to use one. However, 21 percent do not use an LMS/VLE and have no plans to.
* Of those using an LMS/VLE, 45 percent have used it for more than five years. Only 3 percent started using one within the last year.
* 30 percent of respondents said they are completely satisfied with their LMS/VLE.
* 30 percent were concerned that their LMS/VLE might not meet future requirements.
* 8 percent said their LMS/VLE would definitely not meet future requirements.
* Ensuring training matches employee development needs and reducing costs by decreasing the time taken to train people were seen as the largest benefits of LMS/VLE (40 and 36 percent, respectively).
* Conversely, reducing employee turnover by enabling greater development opportunities (10 percent) and increasing revenue from better trained people (17 percent) were highlighted as the smallest."

"In a recent post on his own site, Michael Feldstein tackled the question of whether Google Wave or WordPress spell the end of the learning management system (LMS). He concludes that they do not, because some instructors want control, the ability to structure or sequence learning and assessment activities, restrict permissions, establish academic workflow, and manage resources. Unlike generic collaboration technologies, an LMS directly supports these forms of instructor control.

As Feldstein points out, not everyone is a fan of this kind of control. He mentions the open education movement. To this I would add researchers such as Stephanie J. Coopman, whose recent deconstruction of Blackboard investigates the distribution of power and privilege in an LMS ecosystem.

But is it all about control? Although control may be a part of the issue, there are other factors promising to keep institutionally adopted and integrated LMSs alive for years to come. Consider the following three points.

1. Privacy Not everyone wants to teach or learn in public. In corporate environments, participants may be required to protect intellectual property from competitors. In higher education, protection of intellectual property is likewise an issue. While some instructors are eager to share their syllabi and assignments with colleagues, others prefer to keep their courses from being copied by other institutions.

Technologies such as WordPress and Google Wave can support privacy, but systems integrated into the IT fabric of the institution are better able to restrict access based on course enrollment or other group memberships. We may argue against such protectionist attitudes, but in many environments, institutions will find an obligation to support the privacy of teacher and learner content and communications. "

"E-Learning and Management Information Systems
Universities Need Both
By Haitham A. El-Ghareeb, Information Systems Department, Faculty of Computers and Information Sciences, Mansoura University, Egypt

September 29, 2009

Haitham A. El-Ghareeb

E-learning is the "learning" process revolution enabled by new technologies that, hopefully, will present an effective and efficient learning process that doesn't exist today. Learning management systems (LMSs) are responsible for "learning" activities, while university management information systems (UMISs) are responsible for handling University managerial activities.

Sociotechnical systems recognized many years ago that organizations functioned most effectively when their social and technological networks were compatible [55]. This is the case exactly with e-learning systems. LMSs can't provide the managerial functions needed to support universities, and UMISs don't support the "learning" process. Both systems have to integrate and operate together to support educational institutions and e-learning.

While an instructor and graduation projects supervisor in the Faculty of Computers and Information Sciences at Mansoura University, Egypt, I often found myself frustrated with the number of graduation projects that used "e-Learning" in the title. There was a mild obsession with the managerial aspects of "the university" and abstracting the learning process from the uploading of course documents.

In my attempt to clarify this confusion, I thought about surveying a prototypical e-learning model and presenting one of the UMIS models, casting them side-by-side to help clarify the confusion by highlighting their differences. My goal is to make this piece of research available to students and e-learning researchers, so we can together overcome this confusion and start focusing on the "learning" process as the main asset of "e-learning." "

"A definition for the term Personal Learning Environment (PLE), remains elusive. Conception about what should constitute a PLE depends on the perspective of the commentator. For example, the priorities for a PLE are different for a tertiary student, a university administrator, an instructor, a working professional, or an adult who persues an eclectic path of lifelong learning. Metaphorically, an individual may engage in a learning process that is either more acquisitional or participatory (Sfard, 1998). There are inconsistencies across these positions about what a PLE should do. But whether constructively and defensively, interest in PLE appears to be growing.

At the time of writing this introduction (August 2006), no particular product or service exists that can definitively be categorised as a PLE, although some prototypical work is in progress. An inclusive, authoritative account about PLEs does not yet exist. Only a handful of articles have appeared in the academic and public press about PLEs since the term gained currency in 2004. This article has been compiled after tracking recent conversations in the blogosphere and following social bookmarks. "

"Are LMS's still relevant? Do they work?

Is it time to move away from the LMS and resign it to "only for compliance". Business people are only interested in the end effect of training e.g business results and not how many people have been through an event. Is the LMS an outdated concept? Is time we focused on different delivery models?"