Wk3 Blog Post Comments on Scott Legere’s Blog

I completely understand what you mean when you commented about being consumed with trying to find ways to use these technologies in our classrooms. Last month in the Game Strategies and Motivation class, I had racked my brain trying to come up with a digital exercise for our final project. I was trying to envision some sort of Guitar Hero style means of teaching frequency and audio principles, and making it entirely too complicated for the scope of the project. It wasn’t until I received some feedback from Dr. Siegel and other members of the class, that my direction changed. He instructed me to start by thinking of a game that wasn’t a video game, to come up with a core concept first, before getting caught up in the technology. I think it is too easy for us to have these tools and then go looking for things to fix, instead of having a problem and then finding the right tool for the job.

On Tuesday, August 17 Scott Legere wrote:

This is all very complicated and I am coming to the conclusion that a topic area like Learning Management Systems and Organization could easily morph into its own year long program. As the previous two weeks have shown, there is a plethora of tools and systems available for not only developing learning content and organizing that that material per the needs of a specific student or institution.

CMS, LMS, and LCMS platforms are all very complex, and their implementation should be made only after considerable discussion from those immediately involved including participants (learners), trainers, administrators, IT staff, and programmers.

Despite the complexity that comes with the depth of functionality within these systems, I really appreciated this week's readings which first helped categorize the different tool sets that might all be leveraged within a larger learning platform. Per the e-learningguru website, authoring or production tools, individual element tools, webcasting and streaming tools, virtual classroom portal and discussion tools, as well as information management and training tools are all critical components in the creation and deployment of content. Seeing these resources broken down into some individual laments helped to clarify not only the tools themselves, but the steps that might have to be taken to go from lesson conception to deployment.

Furthermore, it is no surprise that the other main topic up for discussion this week is assessment. Within one of our first EMDT courses, I believe it was Beth Strugeon who reminded us all that "teaching and learning are two distinct activities". This perspective is critical as we all look to understand the role of technology and how it can effect a student's learning and comprehension.

At least personally, the idea of education and technology could easily be consumed with a singular focus on the exciting digital resources available for media-rich content. As an educator, I can immediately start dreaming up all of the videos, podcasts, and interactive web-enabled elements that would be fun and engaging to distribute within the classroom. However, this attitude is largely focused on my content delivery, or "teaching". Little in this particular subject area concerns "learning" or the actual input, understanding, and synthesis on behalf of the student involved.

Both virtual and physical educational environments demand assessment, otherwise, educators, parents, administrators, and even students have no way to measure true comprehension. What has been learned? How can it be applied? How does this relate to one's life, community, or profession? These are all important questions to carefully consider when developing educational goals and outcomes prior to the blind implementation of an exciting new technology or resource.

Throughout the last 10 years, I've learned (often frustratingly so) that organizations and institutions in higher education move very slowly. However, I believe that this realm is one of those areas wherein any use of new tools should be a deliberate and comprehensive "discussion" between all parties involved.

Like many FSO participants I'm sure, as soon as I was enrolled in this program, I wanted to have a portal as powerful as Full Sail's available to my students. However, it is clear that the development of such resources is a lengthy process which can take nothing short of years. It comes as no real surprise that as Full Sail began developing the custom-built FSO system, they leveraged other online CMS tools in the interim.

Quality work takes time. Developing systems which not only distribute educational content but aid in assessing whether that material is understood by the learner is a significant and time consuming process that demands careful analysis and planning. Thankfully, as a grateful participant currently engaged in the FSO portal, I can whole-heartedly say that these systems can be nothing short of life changing for students if adequate time (and care) is taken.