Unit 3 – LMS Blog
The past two weeks have been an interesting and meaningful journey. The concept of learning management systems was new to me. As a middle school teacher, I have used Google Classroom and Power school but did not recognize them as learning management systems. I can now attend to having used both Canvas and Blackboard in my collegiate classes, so my connection of understanding has been made. I look forward to applying my newly acquired learning. In this class, I have been introduced to the three types of learning management systems: LMS, CMS, and LMCS. An LMS (learning management system can manage and store content learning and track the user’s progress and results. In a CMS, there is not only the storage and maintenance of content, but there is also the ability to create content as well, and an LMCS is a combination of the other two. These systems have proven valuable in corporate and academic education because of the convenience of teaching and learning anywhere at any time.
The COVID pandemic forced education at all levels to happen virtually. My school has relied on Google Classroom, but is recognizing a need for change or rather, more current and adaptable technology. My school system looks to create a system oriented virtual program, that will serve all the students from K -12, so learning about and understanding LMS will strengthen my ability to participate in our committees’ reviews of LMS and in the decision making as to which one will best serve our teachers, students and curriculum. In that preparation, there are factors to be considered such as educators’ knowledge and preparation for online teaching, technology infrastructure and support and students developmental needs and abilities (Johnson et al ., 2023) with a bigger challenge of trying to connect course content with students interests and experiences. While there is some debate as to whether learning occurs better online or in-face, the fact remains that online learning and teaching has found a permanent position in academic and corporate educational environments.
Taken from: https://www.promptcloud.com/blog/open-source-learning-management-system/
We are a small rural community, there are elementary grades transitioning to one middle school and one high school. We need to upgrade our educational platforms to better prepare our students for the 21st century so creating a new LMS for virtual learning is a priority for the upcoming changes to our educational offerings and provisions. But even in choosing a LMS for our system, I have a personal desire to understand how to navigate the creation of courses.
In the past I have written and delivered workshops for early childhood teachers, but as I learn about LMS, I envision rewriting my workshops in such a manner so that my information maybe utilized, delivered and maintained in an LMS environment. This would expand my ability to reach other child care professionals at anytime and place so that they may obtain their annual required staff development hours without a physical presence, so I am excited by the information I am looking to receive in this class and in the exercise of creating a practice course. As a student, I look forward to my classes to provide me with meaningful and valuable information. Thus far this class has been meaningful, informative and conceptualized into my future plans.
Johnson, C., Walton, J, Strickler, L., & Elliott, J. (2023). Online Teaching in K-12 Education in the United States: A Systematic Review. Review of Educational Research, 93(3), 353–411. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543221105550.
Seismic. (2020). LMS vs CMS vs LCMS: What’s the difference? Taken from: https://seismic.com/blog/lms-vs-cms-vs-lcmswhats-the-difference/.
Unit 5 – Reflection –
Enlightening, Empowering, EdEveryDay
Researching and investigating Learning Management Systems (LMS)? Before this class, I needed to understand what a Learning Management System was even though I had been an active participant in several: Blackboard, Canvas, Google Classroom, and PowerSchool. What can I say? This class was a great addition to my understanding of online teaching and the availability of Learning Management Systems that can address academic and corporate teaching and learning needs.
There are three types of learning management systems: LMS, CMS, and LMCS. An LMS (learning management system can manage and store content learning and track the user’s progress and results. In a CMS, there is not only the storage and maintenance of content, but there is also the ability to create content as well, and an LMCS is a combination of the other two. These systems have proven valuable in corporate and academic education because of the convenience of teaching and learning anywhere at any time but the most prevalent for the K12 environment is the LMS which has advantages for all school stakeholders, teachers, administrators, parents and students.
While I was initially challenged by the anticipation of the technology involved with understanding and participating, I was encouraged by the collaboration and support of classmates and the instructor to participate and learn from other’s experiences and knowledge, including sharing numerous relevant resources. Creating the Canvas course template was a valuable and meaningful experience, looking from the inside out. Only when I read Competences for Online Teaching did I realize the complexity of the position and the multiple responsibilities best illustrated by the following illustrative chart.
Taken from: Competences for Online Teaching: A Special Report
Goodyear et al. (2001) state that while the roles listed above are unlikely to have equal importance in any specific instance of online teaching, all of the roles must be understood. This article, written twenty-two years ago, is not negated by its age but supported and worth citing by its relevance to continuous technological advances and the extent and growth of online learning and teaching. (Goodyear et al., as cited in Urdan & Weggen, 2000), offer that in the not-too-distant future, training for virtually every professional job should be available on the internet…a stunning growth rate of 83% makes online education the hottest trend in corporate training. While the Urdan & Weggen (2001) article focused on corporate learning, no one can discount the impact online has had on K12 and Higher Education.
Exploring different LMS has provided an awareness of not only the impact of online learning in all aspects of education but in the availability and continual development of programs to meet the various and growing needs of the users. This is evident as my school district looks to upgrade or support Google Classroom with another LMS. During this course period, I found that one of the agencies I look for classes for professional learning has moved to the Canvas environment. I could smile and think to myself…I know how to navigate Canvas.
As I created a Google Classroom (GC) for this assignment, I found that I was no longer a fan. Of course, when schools went virtual during COVID, it was what schools used to continue their students’ education. My school closed, and the students did nothing, so I did not experience GC in that compacity, and I have rarely used it in my classroom since. I didn’t care for it then, and now that I have experienced Canvas, I’m not too fond of it. Canvas has so many more features to offer. It is essential for any online program to provide students with the ease of access and understanding so that learning content is more important than trying to figure out the technology of navigating the learning platform.
I teach middle school and can see the advantage of including a discussion area in their learning for several reasons. With the initiative toward increasing students’ writing, a discussion area provides opportunities to 1) practice their writing skills using complete sentences with appropriate grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word choices. Secondly, they can express their thoughts, ideas, and opinions to the organization. Thirdly, learning internet etiquette, netiquette, and online engagement rules is an opportunity. Fourth, students can engage in social-emotional expression giving the teacher a view of their triumphs, milestones, misconceptions, or misunderstandings.
According to Heitmayer and Schimmelpfennig (2023), discussions can allow educators to build on students’ creative language use; the choices when designing the discussions can also perpetuate standard language ideologies and purist language norms. The single feature I like in GC is the separate area under assignments used to upload support materials from Google Drive, YouTube, or a link. I wouldn’t like it on the assignment page as you would place it in Canvas.
In GC, you can differentiate assignments to meet individual student needs. Still, Canvas provides a complete platform that allows students to continue their learning even when not in the classroom providing a complete online learning environment. GC is used more as supplemental support within classroom instruction than an online learning environment.
In Canvas, I like the ability to provide feedback to students in the Stream. Students always want to see how they have done on previous assignments before embarking on the next. Positive feedback encourages students to continue in their course work, helping to limit the number of students who stop working, withdraw, or fail.
The prospect of possibly using Canvas in our system is highly possible since an agency that supports our professional learning is using it which will encourage us to further explore its usefulness and advantages. In my research, I also found that many school systems are already currently using Canvas or have made recent decisions to incorporate Canvas in their districts.
In conclusion, I am happy for the Canvas experience as a prerequisite to being able to offer information to my school district and as a potential course developer. As Learning Management Systems continue to their advancement of features and capabilities, I am happy to have advanced my educational knowledge of programs that have and will continue to provide educational online opportunities for learning and teaching.
Davis, J. (2018). Why Use an LMS? Why Use Canvas K12? Taken from: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/K12-Canvas-Users/Why-use-a-LMS-Why-use-Canvas-k12/ba-p/268338.
Goodyear, P., Salmon, G., Spector, M., Steeple, C., & Tichner, S. (2001). Competences for Online Teaching: A Special Report. Educational Technology, Research & Development; 49, 1. P. 65. Taken from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter-Goodyear/publication/215615165_Competences_for_Online_Teaching_A_special_report/links/0fcfd509045bed57a9000000/Competences-for-Online-Teaching-A-special-report.pdf.
Heitmayer, M. Schimmelpfennig. R. (2023) Netiquette as Digital Social Norms. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction 0:0, pages 1-21. Taken from:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/04250494.2021.1927698?scroll=top&needAccess=true&role=tab.
Urdan, T., Weggen, C. (2001). Corporate E-learning: Exploring A New Frontier. Taken from:https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Corporate-elearning%3A-exploring-a-new-frontier-Urdan-Weggen/9e40ff48e648936abb5aa23ec8c8b4956e3a8394.
