The Water Cooler

The learning management system (LMS), also known as a Course Management System (CMS) has been used for several years by instructors to augment face to face teaching with online content and to teach completely online courses. These systems, such as Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle, and Sakai have all been designed to offer instructors a feature rich closed-in virtual environment for teaching and learning. However, since the boom of web 2.0 applications, these features have lost some of their luster. To many tech savvy instructors, the LMS is boxy, and sometimes inflexible. Development of cool new LMS teaching tools is slow compared to Web 2.0 applications. These issues have caused many instructional technologists and savvy instructors to believe that the LMS is going out of style, and will be replaced by feature rich web 2.0 applications used from a central class portal page.

Cool web 2.0 applications that could be used for teaching and learning include using Voice Thread for digital storytelling, dropping content in drop.io to be podcasted or embedded elsewhere, Meebo for virtual office hours, RSS aggregation for organizing and bringing in timely news articles and of course YouTube videos. This is certainly not an exhaustive list and it seems as though new web 2.0 applications seem to pop up every day.  These exciting tools are not usually found integrated with the LMS.

Some believe that an LMS will be replaced by a combined communication tool such as Google Wave. Google wave is supposed to combine synchronized chat and IM with asynchronous discussions and email conversations all in one easy to visualize communication tool. Customized social networks and web portals such as NING also can fill the role of the LMS. Both of these tools would have lots of potential for facilitating online classes and providing a rich virtual learning environment, but could it really take the place of the LMS?

Web 2.0 has the advantage over the standard LMS because it has a nearly endless toolbox for educators to find the right tool for the lesson or activity. Also, these tools are not constrained to educational uses. They can be used after graduation and possibly in whatever career path the student chooses. Unless the student is interested in a career in education, they are not as likely to encounter an LMS again. Using web 2.0 tools such as blogs and social networks, one could bring in guests to the classroom to get ideas and opinions from people in the field. Behind the firewall of an LMS, it is more difficult to do this.

But let’s not judge the LMS too unfairly; it does have some redeeming qualities. First and foremost, many LMSes are designed specifically for a course. They are modeled around a typical classroom and have the tools already in the box for someone to get started. The LMS is contained and FERPA compliant. It is a secure system that is behind a secure login and it is possibly hosted onsite. Activities inside the LMS are constrained to the class roster, keeping content that could possibly offend or infringe on others and their works behind a closed door.

Perhaps we are not yet ready to give up the confines of the LMS. The security and the scaffolding afforded by it allow instructors to create assignments and provide timely feedback for students in a closed system. However, the system isn’t and shouldn’t be completely closed. Many of the Web 2.0 tools listed above can be used in conjunction with the LMS and are often best when done so. The LMS can serve as a portal to any other learning tools that bring a pedagogical benefit with them. These tools are of course going to vary by discipline. The best of both worlds allows for the rigidness of the LMS with the flexibility of Web 2.0. Projects like the Google – Moodle integration are a great example of how combining tools may afford teaching and learning gains in the future.

Thus far all the rumors have been false that Mac was developing a tablet. Apple may be developing one this very minute, and if they aren’t they should be and here’s 5 reasons why a Mac Tablet would be a good idea from someone who supports both Macs and a Tablet PCs and uses both.

1. Tablets are taking away Apple’s Lead in the education realm because of their versatility in the classroom.

Many of the educators I work with are Mac users. They love their Mac and I don’t blame them. When we started introducing tablets, some of these folks were excited about using a tablet because it offered new possibilities for teaching and learning. Instructors could write on the screen during class, with DyKnow software these notes could be “beamed” to the students screens where they could take notes. All of the digital ink can be saved and no paper is used. A few people have tried to do this using a wacom tablet as one blogger professes as being a better option. Those who chose this path in order to keep using their Mac in the classroom usually end up frustrated due to the fact that they can’t see what they are writing on the plane they are writing it on. Therefore, my Mac user friends must use a second machine, a Tablet PC, for classroom use. If this is occurring at every other university or school experimenting with tablets, then this is a huge one up for Microsoft and a market loss for Apple for not accommodating their beloved Mac users with a tablet.

2. Many Graphic Artists area already using a Wacom tablet to try to do their work

I alluded to this above, I’ve used a Wacom for graphic design before and found it better than a mouse for lassoing and drawing, it is still inconvenient to not see what you are drawing on the plane in which you are drawing it. A tablet can fold over to allow the user to write directly on the screen. While you hand does hide some of the screen as you write, it usually doesn’t cause an issue as you can set the menus to come up on the side your hand is not on. When you write on a piece of paper, are you concerned about the part of the page you can’t see? When it comes to digital ink, a Tablet PC is definitely better than a wacom tablet, though I believe a Mac Tablet would be even better still if it were ever to come to fruition.

3. Tablets need a “rock solid” operating system that just works

Many of the quirks in Windows frustrate me on a daily basis. When at home using my Mac, I feel a sense of relief that my computer just works. No annoying unexpected pop ups, forced updates and restarts when I’m working on a big project.  My mac allows for an easy way to organize all my tasks in spaces. Unfortunately the time I get to use the Mac is limited as my wife who was reluctant to switch to a Mac in the first place, has hereby claimed it for her teaching!

Mac OS X for the most part is rock solid because it is designed for the components that make up Apple’s computers. Windows computers cannot ever achieve this performance level because of the fact that there are thousands of different components windows has to work with. Furthermore, Tablet PCs add on a lot of new components that all must be supported in addition to the normal fray. If these were included in the Apple’s line up, Apple could support the tablet components such as the screen digitizer and pen options better than Windows because they are only dealing with one type of digitizer and a handful of hardware configurations. This solidarity of the tablet operating system will draw those Mac and Tablet PC users away from the PC very quickly and could pull a few more new Mac users with them.

4. The existence of the mod-book indicates a market exists

An innocent victim if Apple were to come out with a tablet would be Axiotron who makes the Modbook (a Macbook modified into a tablet). The fact that the Modbook exists at all is a sign that a market exists for a Mac tablet. If the modbook was officially made by apple, it would be much more feature rich and useful than just a modified aftermarket Machine.

5. Many of the handwriting components for Mac already exist

While the number of applications that exist for a Mac tablet are currently few, Apple does have some handwriting recognition capabilities already. Also, if a few applications were to be created such as Microsoft OneNote (part of the Microsoft Office line for PC) and PDF Annotator then users would be able to do some real work with their Mac tablet right away without having to wait for expensive software to be developed. Perhaps this is the biggest hold up for Apple’s tablet, maybe they believe that without the applications, a Mac tablet isn’t very useful.