The Benefit of a Learning Managment System
I found a new blog today that in part covers educational technology. The extremely interesting aspect of this blog is that it is written by a collaborator of George Siemens. You may recognize the name Siemens, as he wrote and article entitled “Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age” in December of 2004 (You can find this article at http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm). The interesting thing about this particular blog, written by Stephen Downes at http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-technology-supporting-informal.html, is that he points out the much of the buzz around the use of technology in education is really focused around specific learning events, rather than new ways of learning. So, we use the game Civ to teach about the interactions of nations, in this particular aspect of educational technology only one specific idea or content is being taught. However, what Downes says is this, “…we don’t know what we want to teach”(Downes, 2009, ¶10) and the learning management systems allow us to adapt to the changing method of how people learn as they progress from the novice to the expert in a particular field.
The first part of this that I want to raise a question about is do we know what we want to teach? Do we know what we want people to learn? Knowledge is changing and growing, but are there some basics that don’t change? Are there fundamental concepts that need to be taught and not left to the discretion of the learner? The basis of this idea is expressed by Siemens in his article, in which he says, “The pipe is more important than the content in the pipe” (Siemens, 2004, ¶31). Is it? I’m not sure I agree with this, although I do agree that we need to be ready to be flexible with what and how we are teaching. I remember shortly after September 11, 2001, there were some guest speakers at a high school I was teaching at. After their presentation, I was visiting with one of them and they asked me if I was taking a lot of time to teach about the Middle East, given what had just happened. I was embarassed to respond with a no. I was unable to teach about the Middle East, because the test I was required to give didn’t allow me to teach about the Middle East until the next quarter.
This is where Learning Management Systems display their true power. A LMS can be adapted based on the needs of both the learner and the teacher. They are not focused only on one aspect of learning, but rather they provide a basis for structuring an entire course and when something needs to be altered, the content can be modified relatively easily. Certainly a master blacksmith does not teach a journeyman the same way a novice is taught. The Learning Management System in many ways provides an opportunity to tailor the learning of each student in the same way that masters tailor the learning of their apprentices based on their ability level.
I have had high school students who were incredibly bright in the knowledge of the basic facts of American history, yet they were stuck working at the same level as their peers (age wise) who didn’t have the knowledge down the way they did. With a Learning Management System, I would have been able to move those students to a different level of knowledge about American history. I could have more readily challenged them. Perhaps, from the high school teacher’s perspective, the learning management system provides the opportunity to truly individualize instruction. We could move beyond the one size fits all standardized test, and actually authentically assess each person’s development and understanding.
References:
Downes, S. (2009). New technology supporting informal learning. An electronic document retrieved from http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-technology-supporting-informal.html on April 27, 2009.
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. An electronic document retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm on April 30, 2009.
I find this post to be extremely thoughtful. Unfortunately, I think too often teachers go through the motions without reflecting on what exactly they want to teach and what they want the students to learn. I am not above this either; however, reflection and preparation should be part of standard practice. A benefit of the course management system (which does not in and of itself fix this problem) is that it is by nature extremely adaptable, at least if you use the open-source MOODLE platform, which makes differentiating instruction easier. While I do not agree with everything Siemens says, I respect his views and tend to listen to what he has to say, in no small part because I find some aspects of his theory of connectivism to reflect reality well (the first purpose of a theory is to explain reality; it is only after the explanation is proven true that it affects performance).
Jon, I agree that we need to know how to individualize for each of our students, but am not sure how a learning management system enables us to individualize….