A disjointed series of thoughts

Major disjointed brain dump here, bear with me.

New South Blogs

New South Blogs is in many regards a beacon of openness and personal ownership of distributed spaces at UNSW and I’m EXTREMELY keen to put my weight and continued support behind it.  Not simply to help mentally reconcile and negate some of my current involvement with far more centralised and closed proprietary monlithic systems, but more importantly as an ideal and model for the way learning really should be in practice: learner-centred, learner-directed, adaptable, customisable, personalisable, and open.

“Open” in the sense of transparency and elimination of barriers to communication and participation, where reflection and interaction, sharing and discussion are not limited to a certain context – be this within the university or beyond it – but anywhere and everywhere learning or discursive opportunities exist online, and with any individual who might join the conversation.  Drawing upon a scholarly frame of mind, but also one that considers and incorporates real life, real experiences and ideas, and is capable of extending beyond the confines and short-term boundaries of a stay in formal education.

Learning Management Systems

Learning management systems don’t facilitate this sort of flexibility. Period. At all.  They splinter, and filter and externally structure; they manage, and control, and dictate.  They establish arbitrary lines between one subject and the next, between one course and the next, and prevent any real sense of continuity from taking place.

Yet for many people, I’m discovering, learning management systems are really all that they know.  Their use isn’t necessarily based on a conscious decision that this is the ideal platform – let alone one that has been chosen to enforce a culture of control and structure – they’re established, right in front of them, centrally supported, and capable of supporting basic documentation distribution.  They’re seen as convenient.

Convenient for just whom is debatable, though interestingly I’m hearing that courses that don’t use the LMS are often targeted by students who argue “My other course uses Blackboard, why doesn’t this one?” So it would seem, that the convenience of the LMS isn’t necessarily just perceived by staff, but some students as well.

And yet looking at the usage of the LMS, at least within a local context, the way the service is being used, and the ultimate value it is seen to have, is largely as a distribution medium – of pushing out PDFs and course outlines. The notion of personalised, distributed spaces does not seem to be understood, or even perceived.

But again, I wonder whether this is intentional, or if the roots of this trend lay in something broader than that – where lack of time, lack of expertise, perhaps lack of training or professional development opportunities all combine to stifle innovation in online learning.  Further still, what if these gaps in support for staff are in fact a primary cause of the de facto use of the LMS as a distribution medium?

Almost certainly, some will always rely upon the LMS because it is their preference, but for others perhaps the presence of ample support at a local level is just what’s needed to break from the LMS – if only partially – and start to explore other avenues.

Observations and Opportunities

In several instances over the last few days, I’ve heard some wonderful ideas – some only partially developed – that may be the seeds from which something truly innovative can emerge.  Importantly, these ideas have been broader and outside a specific framework – they’re envisioning a general ethos, or specific learning opportunity or activity, as it should be.  The instructor just doesn’t know where to begin, and in the absence of support or information on available alternatives they are trying to adapt the activity to fit within the unaccommodating walls of the LMS – alter the learning to suit the environment.

I’ve seen their eyes light up when I point out there are other ways of working, perhaps using different platforms or environments – such as New South Blogs – that may in fact be better suited to their activities than the LMS is, and that there is support available, and people who are willing to work with them to help them realise their ideas.

This has been truly inspiring to me, and points to some distinct opportunities to help make a difference in the faculty – so long as I can leave my own hang-ups out of the equation.  If it’s any one lesson I’ve learned in the last 2 weeks in this role, it’s that educational technology and online learning in FASS is far bigger and more important than me and my opinions.

In many ways I’m starting to see my role now as pointing out options and alternatives, and then helping people understand, explore and implement them.

More on this train of thought later…I’m late.