Google alerted me to a new connection the other day. This time it is US linguist and edu blogger Mike Caulfield. Mike’s post that sent a Google Alert to me was about his discovery of a ring of others criticising the Learning Management System. Apart from being interesting to see what Mike makes of his discovery of our little network of LMS nay saying, he links out to a very interesting perpective he has on why the LMS is no good:
So it’s no surprise that the modern LMS developed under what I would call a “container model”. We “upload files to” it. We have discussions “in” it. And if the “outside world” needs to see something “in there”, we give them “access”.
And the students? Well, they’re “in there” too. At least the piece of the student that belongs to that class is. You know, the English major slice. The part of the student that is a science minor is in another box, and the part of a student that is looking for a job or hanging out with friends doesn’t have a box at all.
So here’s one of the paradoxes of HASA-based LMS systems: they follow the grain of of our thought, and at the same time they profoundly fracture our experience. The unintentional message of the HASA LMS is what goes on in class stays in class — that it is seperated zoologically from the personal and the professional aspects of a students character.
Its great to have Mike in the loop now. I’m going to enjoy reading what else he discovers in our footprints, and enjoy more his linguistic takes on the LMS and other things!
Welcome Mike 🙂
Learn Online 
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July 27, 2007 at 12:39 pm
David McQuillan
I’m definitely coming around to match your perspective on this Leigh.
At first I thought your anti-Blackboard (LMS) attitude was a bit over the top, but I’m starting to see the light. Currently the only real reasons that I can see that someone might want to use a LMS are
1) The owner of some IP is not willing to share it because of their competitive stance
2) If educational material is not able to be made accessible to others due to issues of copyright.
July 27, 2007 at 3:20 pm
leighblackall
Yes, they are reasons. Along with some people feeling they need secure and private areas online for discussion etc. These privacy issues can be achieved using free web services or free alternatives to LMS, as can the copyright issues by using free file storage services that allow you to restrict who can access the files. The beauty of such services is that when or if the restrictive content becomes open minded, its just a flick of a switch and the resource has an open URL. Not so easy if content is wrapped up in the LMS’s unique way of presenting content.
So in short, I see no reason to be using an LMS, especially not one that costs us 10s of thousands of dollars every year. Its a shame that I have to be the one seen to be over the top, but with all the features that an LMS offers, and a whole lot more, I can’t work out why we continue to throw money off that cliff… apart from all that, the questionable pedagogical practices an LMS leads us into..
Oh well, round and round and over the top we go.