How much should districts standardize on technology?
Monday, August 12, 2013 at 06:25AM ... I’m continuing to ask these key questions:
- Is there still a need for a “traditional” Learning Management System?
- Is there a need to standardize on one LMS for all teachers opting to have a digital space?
- Is Moodle (or whatever tool) still a “viable” LMS in a multidimensional learning space vision?
- What is most valuable to learning and learners? [Ryan's post is nuanced and thoughtful - read it all.]
The push-pull between standardization of technologies and teacher/learner autonomy has been a dilemma for years.
When wearing my techie hat, standardization of any technology, hardware and applications, offers nothing but positives:
- single systems to learn, support, troubleshoot, and upgrade
- single systems on which to train
- single systems that allow teachers to share materials and lessons
- single equipment models for which to stock parts
- single systems to purchase and negotiate maintenance agreements
- fewer systems to make interoperable with other systems, platforms and devices
For usually understaffed and underfunded technology departments, standardization is not just good practice - but a survival strategy. And no one seems to complain about a common student management system, telephone system, finance system, etc..
I also believe standardization has a genuine benefit to our students. How much time would students spend learning to use a different LMS operations instead of learning content area skills? If one's 3rd grade teacher used Moodle and the 4th grade teacher now uses Edmodo, is time wasted learning how to do a similar task in two systems? If the English teacher likes GoogleSites, the science teacher prefers Wikispaces, and the social studies teacher uses who-knows-what, are students spending needless energy figuring this all out? Students do move between teachers, between grades, and between schools in our district.
Yet I personally do not like to be dictated to on which systems I use. (I use Dropbox and Evernote despite them not being "official" school adoptoins.) I do believe in teacher autonomy. And I know some systems offer features that I can use to good advantage as a teacher that others may not.
Our compromise has been to support a single set of digital storage/sharing (Google Drive) and learning management system (Moodle) which seem to work synergistically, but don't go out of our way to prohibit teachers from using "non-official" tools - and explore new ones.
I am asking, I guess, if the "personalization" of education should apply to teachers as well as students? Or are students better served by common tools shared by all teachers?
Reader Comments (6)
Thanks for this post - I agree very much with the strategy you recommend. There is indeed a need for a commonly supported learning management system since many (most?) teachers (and my experience is at the college level) are just not prepared to invest the time it would take to make their own choices and provide support for their students. BUT for those teachers who do have the time and motivation to explore additional tools while providing support for their students SHOULD be encouraged to do so because that is of benefit to the institution overall. So, for example, I reduce my use of our LMS (Desire2Learn) to a bare minimum (gradebook and quizzes, where I need the institutional security) ... but for all the other coursework I use other tools with my students: a Ning for blogging and discussion, GoogleSites for the sites they publish, a Blogger blog for my own daily class announcements, a PBWorks wiki for course materials, etc. etc. Since my courses are fully online, the quality of my online environment is of paramount importance to me, and Desire2Learn falls so far short of my needs as a teacher that I would never be able to teach a high-quality class if I were limited to its use. In turn, I make a commitment to being an expert in the tools that I use and making sure I provide the time and opportunity for my students to become experts also. The first week of my classes is a detailed and (I hope) fun orientation to the tools we will be using every week for the semester - http://onlinecourselady.pbworks.com (as opposed to the perfunctory Desire2Learn orientation that is provided centrally by my campus - not exciting at all, but it does the job of making sure students know the basic features of D2L). So, for the good of my students and my own sanity, I need to be able to work with the best tools I can find - and, in turn, I think it benefits the institution to have faculty members who are using their professional development time to keep up with new technologies and who are able to provide well-informed reviews of that technology based on actual teaching experience. I get a lot of pushback from faculty and administrators who somehow think it is harmful to the students to learn new tools... but school is about LEARNING, and if I am prepared to take the time to teach the students how to use these tools and, even more importantly, how to use them WELL, then I consider that a valuable part of the education the students take away from my classes.
I think that, like many things, the key is balance. The fulcrum here lies somewhere between: "Why take the time to learn multiple systems of interaction?" and "How will students and teachers achieve real fluency with digital tools/networks if they use only a single system throughout?"
I know of at least one district that purposefully uses sets of tools at particular grade levels as a way to both provide an element of standardization for kids... and yet also to expose them to multiple processes so that fluency is high. Seems like that could possibly be a smart approach.
As Sean said - balance - weighing teacher/student sanity along with flexibility. What we need are more online services that talk to directory services. I think 85% of the struggle is keeping username/logins straight or changing passwords. If I have control over those things from a central location that helps a great deal. User interface and which settings do what is usually a YouTube video away.
I think the individualization comes through how teachers utilize standardized systems. This has always been the case. Implementing and supporting multiple systems is often difficult, since schools have limited funds and tech support. That said, spent a lot of the night thinking about how students need some respite from the constant push of technology. Cosidering embracing 19th century librarianship: individualized service, plus time to pause and reflect while reading!
I am reminded of the description of the one ring from The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
(...from Wikipedia...)
Hi Sean,
John Wooden said, "Love and balance are the two most important words in the English language." and the wisdom of that statement becomes clearer each year.
Doug
Hi Nathan,
Teachers don't like it when they find they have to manually enter and update student information in systems and are always disappointed when the next great tool doesn't play nice with Active Directory or Open Directory and the creators have never heard of SIF compliance. I hear you.
Doug
Hi Karen,
I really appreciate your observation about teaches using standard tools but in individualized ways. A great way to look at this dilemma!
Doug
Kenn,
I think it now goes:
"One Zone Integration Server to rule them all"
I think a parody here is possible!
Doug