The End of the LMS? Oy vey!
Recent talks and presentations by Google engineers on Google Wave stirred up quite a bit of anxious chatter in training and education circles. Google Wave is a novel and thought-provoking development project that addresses the question “what would email be if it were invented today?” Naturally, the Google answer is a web-based application that (maybe not so naturally) resembles a chat server on caffeinated steroids. Its strengths at threaded media-rich multi-user communication is so impressive that comments on education sites started popping almost immediately on whether the LMS is doomed and if Blackboard and Moodle have finally met their matches.
Frankly, not being a big fan of the LMS, I proffer a view more like that of Godrey Parkin:
“To corporate decision-makers, the treasure map of e-learning has an island in the centre, seductively illuminated by those clever marketing folks of the learning software industry, with a big X over the Learning Management System (LMS) right in the middle. Outside of that island is blank space populated only by ‘here be dragons’ warnings.”
And Parkin continues:
“… an LMS, as available today, is not a universal solution for a corporation’s e-learning problems. In fact, an LMS is often the albatross around the neck of progress in technology-enhanced learning.”
Indeed, the biggest problem confronted by many teachers, instructional designers and trainers is how to work within the confines of the LMS. It’s a classic tale of man serving technology rather than the other way around. Parkin feels the pain as well:
“When your concept of learning is LMS-centric, you look for opportunities to implement ‘a solution’ that conforms to that concept, and ignore or marginalize all else. An LMS is, of course, a relevant tool for certain applications. If you want to track learner activities, you need some kind of system. And if you want to make use of much of the available e-course content, you have no choice but to use an LMS – not because the learning requires it, but because the established architecture of the ‘learning supply chain’ requires it.”
When all you have is a hammer, you treat everything like it’s a nail.
George Siemens at elearnspace.org puts it another way:
“Learning Management Systems (LMS) are often viewed as being the starting point (or critical component) of any elearning or blended learning program. This perspective is valid from a management and control standpoint, but antithetical to the way in which most people learn today.”
I would add that not only is it “antithetical to the way in which most people learn today” but also antithetical to the way in which most people teach. Neither side of the educational equation is true.
Meanwhile back at the issue, it takes quite a bit of effort to slog your way through the one hour twenty minute presentation on Wave and its features. It is impressive nonetheless. As noted on bavatuesdays:
“In fact, it goes a step further and makes online conference/meeting tools like Eluminate, Adobe Connect, etc. all but irrelevant, for live video and voice can’t be far behind the instantaneous chat, document editing, map embedding, video watching, presentation sharing, and on and on and on.”
Is Google to be the next international online University? Maybe. The problem though is that this is all being orchestrated by an advertising agency. The open web, with it potential for open learning, might very well be the Google version of the open web. Jim Groom at bavatuesdays goes on:
“I still have no doubt that David Wiley’s assessment is right on, especially given the API will soon be unleashed upon an open web full of developers. I know that Google didn’t re-invent the LMS quite as I joked, but what they did is actually make it all but irrelevant by re-imagining email and integrating just about every functionality you could possibly need to communicate and manage a series of course conversations through an application as familiar and intimate as email. Genius, horrifying, but genius.”
A glimmer of hope remains however. Google promises to release the software into the public domain so that anyone will be able to operate their own Wave server. The API will also be published for developers to expand upon. And, hopefully, someone will attend to the matter of content which is where all too often the process breaks down anyway.