LMS and RSS

LMS

So what is a LMS?

When I read on our Moodle overview I had to research about LMS's I must be honest I had no idea what that was until I got into the Week 3 resources. To me Learning Management Systems was just a giant scary word but when I read the description: "LMS's offer a single platform that delivers content, manages assessment, provides communication forums and virtual collaboration spaces for students" (CQU Moodle, 2010), I realized I had been using LMS's for the past year and a half with out realizing what they were called.

I must say when I first started university and was asked to complete, research and read course information on the blackboard site I was very weary. For me I have always been a pen and paper, hard copy of all documents type person. Maybe because when I was at school most things were learnt from books and the internet was only just becoming easily accessible to some luckier house holds. After my first term though I quickly got into the swing of the blackboard system and by the end of the first year I thought it was great. I liked that all information was in one place, I cold work through information at my own pace, print what I did need and found it easy to navigate through.

I was then extremely shocked (and upset) when I returned this year to find I would have to learn a new system called Moodle. It has taken me sometime to learn the bits and bobs of this new system but now into 2 term I feel I am confident and able to research, interact and access all information on this system.

What about in a classroom context?

Well this systems would work well as a virtual type classroom. The teacher could upload unit information, homework tasks and interact with parents or learners through forums etc. I do believe though after talking to teachers in my Prac school that this can be a very time consuming process, very organized and structured with not a lot of student directed learning, only teacher directed.

I was thinking if I was to use a LMS in my classroom it would be more of a notice board type setup to inform parents, and include required homework tasks. At least if all homework was upload to this system then learners would not have an excuse for not completing it. e.g. I forgot what I was meant to do! Also parents could monitor what homework was given and ensure learners where completing it.

PMI analysis:

Plus:

• Great for parent/ learner/ teacher communication
• Parent's are activly invovled in the learners school/ can see what is going on
• Ability to organize lots of information/ images in one easily accessible place
• Great place to store homework tasks
• Teacher can add or delete information at anytime

Minus:

• Very time consuming for teacher, a lot of planning and organizing well in advanced
• Could be overwhelming for younger/ middle phase learners

Interesting:

• Good security as learners/ parents can only access with password and user name
• I suppose teacher could reuse year after year if in same grade, only need to edit to fit new class etc

RSS

So what is an RSS?

Below is a fantastic YouTube clip by commoncraft about RSS aggregator's. Before I watched this I really didn't understand what they were but now, after seeing this clip, I am confident in what they are and how I could set one up.

If you would like to view this clip through YouTube click here.

What about in a classroom context?

I would mainly use this tool as a teacher if I was going to set up blogs for the students or to control educational blogs I may follow. I believe for a teacher this would be great because of time constraints we face. Saving time is a big must and this is definitely what a RSS does.