Reflection on article, LMSs, and Moodle - week 11

This week's article about Ross and his work with LMSs was a good starting point for my presentation.

I agree with Ross, I think adding a component of online learning via Moodle or other LMSs does add another dimension to the classroom.

I see the benefits as being:

-one central location for students to submit assignments and for teachers to upload them

-a way to connect with class outside of the traditional school setting and not restricted by time

-virtual classroom allows for discussions, collaborations, and connections

-LMSs allow for easy integration of web 2.0 tools

-supporting different styles of learning


At the same time, I do see some potential drawbacks:

-management of LMSs - teachers have so much to do already, will they have time to setup a Moodle account and maintain it? Is it realistic to expect a classroom teacher to spend all day teaching and then login in the evening to answer questions?

-Just because the information is put on the system, it doesn't mean learning is occurring. I think online learning requires skills that some students do not instinctively have. Therefore, it is important that if teachers do incorporate LMSs into their classrooms, then they must take time out to teach the skills necessary for successful navigation and online learning.

-teachers and students need support(technologically and others) in creating and maintaining a successful experience with LMSs and online learning - the question is, will the support be there?


And finally, I noticed that Ross mentioned that they "didn't have sufficient data to quantify the impact of their respective systems"; only comments by teachers stating that there's more engagement and positive energy. I would be interested to see some real data on this in the future...that is, is student performance enhanced with the use of LMSs?


Okay, I lied, that wasn't my "finally"...but I will end with a few comments on Moodle. I personally have not used it yet, but I have one colleague setting it up at our school now and another colleague that used it when she taught in Hong Kong. She said she really liked it and thought it was a good program - it's only the initial setup that is the headache. But in Hong Kong schools, they have computer technicians for that and so it wasn't an issue! Wouldn't that be nice? Anyways, she said her best experience with it was when all her students pulled out their cellphones and "wrote" a quiz on Moodle...yeah, what a concept, huh?

So we have a plan...in May or June(why do we always fool ourselves into believing there's more time in June?) we are going to make every effort to get together and setup Moodle for the next school year(are we really thinking about that already?). Looking forward to it...

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