Food for Thought: Role of an LMS

By Anonymous -
This morning while getting around, I was watching Twitter for my usual morning food for thought.  During it I started following a twitter chat (the #coffeecue happening at #ISTE2014) about redesigning the learning environment.  The chat started about the redesigning off the physical classroom - I confess not as much interest to me, but still interesting to follow.  Then it took a turn with the following tweet -
and it got me thinking, hard.  And after reflecting on it I've come to the following thoughts/beliefs -

  • many teachers reconstruct/mirror their physical space into the online arena
  • we talk about tearing down the walls of our classroom....and then turn around and build walls in our online environments
I think we have a big misperception of an LMS - that it needs to be the be-all and end-all to where our students' learning takes place online.  And it shouldn't  Instead of thinking of an LMS as the structure, we need to think of it as the gateway.  It should be the place that learning starts...then our students move off to apply/try/expand in a variety of locations - whether these locations are online or in the physical environment.  It should be the place where our learners come back after their explorations & share their stories - to celebrate successes and troubleshoot failures; to collaborate; to gain addition ideas and viewpoints.  Otherwise, are we really harnessing the true power of learning online?

Just some food for thought...


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