User talk:Mackiwg/Working papers/OSS-Series

Response to Richard Wyles
I'm copying my response to Richard's post over at Terra Incognita - because I'm not sure how to embed and image in the Reply box.

eLearning's equivalent of the "Leatherman" (Trademark)


Hey Richard - great to touch base on Terra Incognito. I think the success of New Zealand's open source work in Education is strongly linked to the "No.8 Wire" approach to Kiwi ingenuity. Their has been a strong reflective culture and the willingness to experiment taking calculated risks. Without this approach - we wouldn't be where we are today.

My concern with LMSs is that they are increasingly becoming the "Leatherman" of eLearning - You have every conceivable tool- non of which does the job properly. For example, the wiki-in-drag implementations of this collaborative innovation within a cohort-based LMS environment or the tweaking of personalised publishing tools like blogs into learning environments. Sure they add value - but at the same time constrain the potential of what these Web 2.0 tools were designed for.

My main problem is that I don't have a sense of excitement with LMSs. I don't see how LMSs are going to make a difference to widening access to education through free content to the kids in the developing world who are not connected. However, I'm very exited about wiki technology - this is one of the most significant revolutions of our time. A wiki is not a technology. It's a self-organising community that by some magical way functions in mass-collaboration environments. I am very excited about the potential of collaborative wiki environments to make a real difference in reaching 4 billion of the world's 6 billion people - who educationally speaking are underserved. See for example my musings for the Tectonic Shift Think Tank.

I take your point about the analogy of the LMS with the classroom. It is useful in communicating the concept of eLearning and LMSs to the uninitiated. Paradoxically - at the same time is the barrier to innovation in the design of asynchronous learning systems, given the structural differences in pedagogy. Resources designed for asynchronous learning migrate pretty well into the face-to-face classroom. The reverse isn't true.

Thanks for post Richard - I feel as if we're chatting in my office.