Comments on: A Plague On Both Their Houses

By: Academitron» Blog Archive » Can Blackboard patent online learning?

Academitron» Blog Archive » Can Blackboard patent online learning? — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:45:32 +0000

[...] intrigued by some fairly heated bloggy arguments that LMSs in general are just wrongheaded. (If you’re interested, [...]

By: Bradley Dilger’s “Ease and Electracy” | the month of June

Bradley Dilger’s “Ease and Electracy” | the month of June — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:30:13 +0000

[...] dropping CMSs and LMSs entirely and and utilize the bits and pieces approach as an alternative. In this discussion of the Desire2Learn/Blackboard battle, readers are suggesting interesting combinations of PLE use [...]

By: The Lapland Chronicles » Blog Archive » Against Learning Management Systems - wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:34:59 +0000

[...] by Gipics In a recent post on BavaTuesdays, Jim Groom called down a plague upon two corporate producers of learning management systems, Blackboard and Desire2Learn. After [...]

By: Reverend

Reverend — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:20:04 +0000

@Gardner
Precisely, that is the direction. And as much as I feel for Desire2Learn at times, I feel the whole LMS scam should be behind us already—and doing it for the “children”—well I don’t know—it just feels so calculated as a PR stunt. I get Bb is ridiculous, and their lawsuit is nonsense, but it seems to resurface a debate that is very much moot in my mind. The LMS is a dying breed, and the quicker they devour one another, the better.

By: Ed Webb

Ed Webb — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:13:39 +0000

Gardner, your post was very timely for me. It helped crystalize some ideas I have been having about how to get this stuff into the curriculum in a sustainable way. I hope we will see many institutions adopting some version of this approach, empowering our students and improving the learning environment for all of us.

By: Gardner

Gardner — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:42:29 +0000

Give faculty a few useful course-administration tools, then make the rest all about PLEs. And as for who should build PLEs, my vote is for the learners themselves. I hope one day higher ed will wake up to the metacognitive possibilities of a first-year experience based on building PLEs. What could be more useful as a transitional moment? We could bake in writing, speaking, media fluency, social network fluency, publishing and subscribing, library resources, the whole thing. Each PLE would be different, all would share important functionalities–but in a manner architected by the learners.

I’m convinced this is the next step beyond “digital fluency” and “information fluency.” The ultimate first-year assignment: building the PLE. And building it with iterative development in mind … from the outset.

Certainly leapfrogs e-portfolios, though I’m thinking e-portfolios might be a good gateway to some of these possibilities….

By: Ed Webb

Ed Webb — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:49:13 +0000

I’m teaching one course with Moodle (volunteer guinea pig) and one with PBWiki this semester, and frankly finding the latter more useful. So, yes, let’s ditch the LMS paradigm altogether, and do it with wikis, blogs, and whatever other bits and pieces we find lying around the place.

By: Zack

Zack — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:04:03 +0000

Having recently ditched one in favor of the other, I can’t agree with you more. Each provides an antiquated-feeling box that essentially ignores any of the remotely interesting, interactive, social advances in technology that actually engage learners. Static, top-down content and threaded discussions, anyone? Anyone? Is this thing on?

By: James

James — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:26:19 +0000

If only Moodle was a real alternative. Hey, I know, maybe someone should build a better PLE (so we stop using the term LMS).