Wk3 Blog Post Comments on Jeff Kohls’ Blog

I agree with you Jeff, that technology will not fully replace the human instructor element in the classroom. However, with technologies like SCORM, RLOs, LMS, CMS, etc., I could see a time that humans would become nearly transparent in teaching. Imagine a future where courses are completely premade prior to the semester and then just run like a program, made up of building blocks of material that has already been created, with little or no direct instructor interaction! I think there are so many things that are like that already. I know when I want a tutorial on how to fix something around the house the first place I check is YouTube, to see if someone had created a video explaining how to do it. In this case, I don’t get to ask the person giving the instruction questions, I would have to check another source or figure it out. It is somewhat frightening to think that someday students may ask their wristwatch how to solve an equation and a computer generated voice replies with the answer.

On Friday, August 20 Jeff Kohls wrote:

I think the future of LMS, CMS, and LCMS looks exciting. While I feel that the human instructor can never be replaced by technology, the human element can be augmented with technology, and the future looks to be highly interactive and synchronous.

The reading this week on the FSO platform talked about trends happening right now in the realm of CMSs. Social networks are becoming more professional and collaborative, and are no longer just a place to see old friends. Professional Learning Networks can be assembled by using such social networks as Twitter with professionals located in every country of the world, all who share a common focus or goal.

Media technology that is being used in schools and institutions of higher learning has been highly developed and now allows for a virtual view of every content that is studied. Those studying biology can virtually dissect a frog, anatomy students can delve inside the human body without touching a cadaver, geographers can fly to remote places and track the last surviving member of an indigenous tribe by using real-time satellite imagery and geographic information systems, and architects can electronically design their buildings and make changes instantaneously. Medical students can learn how to prepare a patient for examination without entering a doctors office. The market has come to the student, as opposed to the student going to the market.

The third trend mentioned on FSO was the use of hand-held mobile devices in classrooms, such as cell phones and PDAs, but could now include iPods, and iPads. Many of these devices possess as much power as the instructor's company-owned computer and offer high speed internet access outside of the school networks.

Trend four spoke about the accessibility of Internet based learning facilities, or distance learning. The Internet is used for nearly every aspect of our lives, from shopping to finding a mate to accessing a schematic diagram to learn the wiring of a 92 Honda Civic. The infrastructure already exists, and seems to be untouched by such events as economic recessions.

The fifth trend discussed the notion of embedded learning. This notion is further supported by a Wikipedia page on ITS, Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Wikipedia defines an ITS as any computer system that provides direct customized instruction or feedback to students i.e., without the interaction of human beings, whilst performing a task. Basically, this is learning by doing. Through the use of artificial intelligence, the user makes a series of choices and experiences results based on his/her choices.

The sixth trend is cloud computing, web services, and online applications. These will make the creation, distribution, and consumption of information experiences more available, flexible, adaptable, and cheaper.

One very interesting (and long) article included in the reading was the MMOG 2005 article by Curtis Bonk and Vanessa Dennen. I only skimmed this article, but did download it because I found it intriguing as it discussed how the military is using the popularity of gaming, online gaming, and the fact that 75% of teenage males play video games to its advantage. This really speaks about the psychology behind organizations such as the military and how they use RLOs and other management systems to train millions of independent individuals.