LMSs as tools, not revolutions

reflections on Esther Shein's "One-Stop Shopping With Learning Management Systems."

In her online article, “One-Stop Shopping With Learning Management Systems,” Esther Shein quotes Matthew Waymack, a virtual school director in Georgia: "The climate of the classrooms is better," he says, "the attendance of the students and teachers is better, and the overall feeling of being engaged is better." Waymack, of course, is referring to his school’s use of a learning management system, or LMS. Waymack is part of a new group of educators who, ten years ago, seemed to be light years ahead of the educational curve with visions of what online learning could look like. In the year 2000, my thoughts around any kind of non-lecture courses were something like this: “Correspondence courses? Sure: do some readings, do some writings, mail papers back to an instructor via the post. But online courses? Too problematic. Not really happening.”

Now, in the year 2010, I am recalling a decade-old idea of the insurmountable complexities around online learning…for my online learning course—which takes place on an LMS, but also includes key assessment pieces utilizing other online tools.

Waymack’s above quotation catches my eye because I think it embodies the highest ideal that might be represented by online learning: the notion that technology and strictly virtual realms of learning do not take the place of traditional learning scenarios, but that—rather—there is the possibility that with the aid of tools like LMSs, we might simply take moderate steps toward achieving better classroom climates, better attendance, and better overall engagement.

I can’t imagine any teacher—tech-savvy or not—balking at those aims.