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| Image Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FR3L5vVyTYk/TFW6Krpza3I/AAAAAAAAAKk/n-OdtdEVVd4/s400/peeling-an-onion.jpg |
Donkey: I just know, before this is over, I'm gonna need a whole lot of serious therapy. Look at my eye twitchin'.
Isn't that how we like our technology? Don't we just love it when Moodle says--forgive the anthropomorphizing please--"Here I am. I can be what you need me to be, even though I'm imperfect" ? It's easy to imagine the LMS as Goliath, but in truth, Moodle is more nimble than the mighty blog.
On first reading David Truss' fascinating entry, entitled Moodle Schmoodle and no point to Sharepoint, you might be tempted--if you're a Moodler--to exclaim, "Hey, you got it all wrong! Instead of forcing your new initiative to wear knee pads and a helmet for protection, your letting them go all natural! Are you crazy?!?"
Riding a motorcycle without padding feels great...like going swimming in the deep end when you're 5 years old and just want to hop in! You KNOW it's going to be alright in your heart, if not your head. But when the wheels slide out from under you, or you start to sink, a little panic slides into you gut. Fear.
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| A Donkey with Insight - Find out more |
Now, I could spend a blog entry focusing in on the differences between using Moodle and blogs, how the former protects your children and teachers, but that's not really worthwhile discussion. Whatever gets used will have those fear problems.
Another way to consider this is from Harold Jarche's (among others but he's the one I read earlier this week) perspective:
The LMS framework is being challenged for its supremacy over organizational learning much as heliocentricity showed European civilization that we were not the centre of the galaxy. Jane Hart says that, “what is needed is an organisational system that SUPPORTS and ENABLES this informal approach to learning.” That system is one where the LMS is nothing more than a node in the network, which means that the LMS has to play nice with others (which most do not).You could argue that LMS--like Moodle--just don't cut it anymore. You need more organic tools that don't try to centralize everything in one place, but rather, allow learning to happen everywhere. For example, social networking allows for sharing ideas (ad nauseum per Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog)) but blogs are where real reflection takes place (as Alan Levine (CogDogBlog) points out).
Kids need to learn how to accomplish learning where it happens on third party, vendor systems, right? They need to go where the Internet is, wrestle with concepts mano a mano (hand to hand) rather than dwell in a well-structured environment where every burp is contained and used to fuel conversations in a closed community that lacks the diversity of the open web.
My understanding of David Truss' point is this: "Use the simplest technology to get the job done. Don't complicate things. Avoid letting the technology get in the way of the learning."
...what I actually decided to do was to remove an unnecessary layer of management, or rather, I decided to remove an unnecessary layer of tools needed to be learned before my teachers and students could start talking advantage of the power of being one-to-one. (Read More)
So, blogs are what is going to work for David's 1 to 1 situation, right? The focus is sharing and documenting. And while those are worthwhile lessons to learn--fostering reflection about what we're experiencing in a 1 to 1 laptop situation--is that all that classroom will do?
When we launched blogs in a large urban district, one of the lessons learned wasn't that blogs weren't immediately successful. Rather, that they were so successful that people wanted those blogs to DO MORE. In addition to having students share their work, engage in conversations with notable visitors--as Karl Fisch as ably demonstrated with his students and the teachers he supports--eventually teachers will want to administer assessments, collect grades, have deeper discussions that those allowed in the comments of a blog.
You see, while using the simplest technology for the job IS effective, many people don't settle for that. If they did, we all would have been happy issuing eReaders (e.g. Nook, Kindle) to students for electronic textbooks instead of running out and buying iPads...Tim's (Assorted Stuff) vision of a computer lab comes to mind here.
The simplest technology is seldom enough...and, with a tool like Moodle, you can peel the onion as you need to...rather than peeling a layer off and finding there wasn't much there.
Either way, isn't it great to have a choice as to what to use and do? Lack of choice is an illusion.
;->
Image References
Balaam and the Donkey - http://www.wcg.org/lit/images/art/woobalam.jpg
David and Goliath - http://runningintoshape.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/david-and-goliath.gif
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