As the new year rolls on, I’ve been pondering Learning Management Systems more. I know – not a big shock there. I’ve been examining some of the weaknesses of our New Vision SLE (Social Learning Environment – our new term for the LMS) idea, and might have stumbled upon some interesting ideas. I need to work on some of these some more, but here is what I have been pondering:
- Why do we have to turn in assignments any more? Why can’t technology be used to detect our work on class projects on other sites and automatically submit these for us?
- Why are class discussion so hard to grade? Why can’t we make them easier to grade?
- In fact – why do class discussions have to be so contained? Why can’t they happen anywhere we want them to online? Why can’t the SLE just pull it in for us?
I’ve been pondering many of the ideas of Jim Groom that they use at UMW Blogs… and I might have come up with a pretty wicked way to combine those ideas with the New Vision SLE.
But I need to bounce these off of my partner in crime Harriet first – she always comes up with good ideas to sort out the problems with my ideas.
Matt is currently an Instructional Designer II at Orbis Education and a Part-Time Instructor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Previously he worked as a Learning Innovation Researcher with the UT Arlington LINK Research Lab. His work focuses on learning theory, Heutagogy, and learner agency. Matt holds a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies from the University of North Texas, a Master of Education in Educational Technology from UT Brownsville, and a Bachelors of Science in Education from Baylor University. His research interests include instructional design, learning pathways, sociocultural theory, heutagogy, virtual reality, and open networked learning. He has a background in instructional design and teaching at both the secondary and university levels and has been an active blogger and conference presenter. He also enjoys networking and collaborative efforts involving faculty, students, administration, and anyone involved in the education process.