I will start this rant by referring you to a post on my FB page about the many acronyms used in An Argument for Clarity: What are Learning Management Systems, What are They Not and What Should They Become? W. Watson & S. Watson: Facebook post on LMS Readings - Humor
I have learned a lot about myself this week. I've learned that though I thought I was fairly competent in technology based on the work I do day-to-day among educators, who have little or no technological experience, I am not. The assignment from last week to create a screencast using an ICT completely flummoxed me. I spent over 8 hours on the Chromebook to no avail. I created 5 screencasts, some with no screen shots shown -only my face appears. Some with the screencasts but my voice was distorted by the system. I then tried to use my son's computer that he just built but we do not have Windows 7. I tried using my daughter's Mac book pro but no matter how many times I downloaded Java, when I went to run the Screencast program (tried both ScreenR and ScreencastOmatic) it said I did not have Java. In the mean time I am watching my classmates post their very professional screencasts and wondering why I am so incompetent. I finally, with the help of a good friend who has state of the art technology, was able to complete the assignment last night. Though it never posted to my youtube page he was able to send it to me via facebook after I left. However, that meant I missed the Hangout for this class last night. :/
One good thing that did happen this week is that thanks to participating in Twitter, I learned about Vizify! I love it! It is visually appealing, easy to use and condenses all of my social media, blog and website into one virtual space! MY VIZIFY PAGE
Getting back to LMSs... My Storify this week on LMS Resources
There is much to consider when creating an online learning management system. The authors Watson and Watson were very clear on what is and what is not an LMS. Some components of LMS are often confused as being an LMS for example, CMS and LO's. Another great outcome of the readings and resources I curated this week was how to sift through the many poor examples and evaluate the elements of a quality LMS. According to
Mohd Faiz Hilmi, School of Distance Education Universiti Sains Malaysia states:
"One of the elements of electronic university is the used of Learning Management System (LMS) as the intermediary between the academic institution and students. Students’ perception to service quality of a LMS is important."
Michael Nichols (2007) explains that an LMS "needs to do exactly what it says is should do.It is essential that a Learning Management system be able to manage learners, manage and deliver learning content, provide assessment, and all other functions (mentioned in his article). And LMS needs to be explicit as possible for both instructors and learners. The "perfect" LMS would be easy to use, straightforward, and require instructors to do as little training as possible. Instructors should be able to upload course material and content with great ease." I would welcome that LMS, because the technology issues I have experienced thus
far are more akin to reinventing the wheel.
Many of the articles I found offered elements of an LMS, but none stated better than Watson and Watson, though some Commenters post recommendations as well:
Even now, the simple task of uploading a video into this blog post eludes me. I've taken over 40 minutes yet nothing I do allows me to post the video in here, other than to post the link. That being said. I found this video and love it and have shared it on FB, G+, and Twitter. All teachers, administrators, politicians and education companies should watch it before creating or purchasing any LMS or curriculum.
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