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Viewpoint
The Evolution of Digital Learning Systems Through Customization
7/23/2008
In my experience as an instructional technologist, I have found that working with faculty and students in the use of Internet technology requires a lot of patience, but it also produces an immediate response. That is, once users experience the immediacy of the technology itself, the desire is expressed to customize the space to better suit how they teach or how they learn. Without exaggeration, that has been the most commonly asked question I have encountered with new users of Internet technology.Most course management platforms boast their learning curve estimations from introduction to implementation. My experience has been that as soon as faculty/teachers know what a system can do, they immediately want to know what else it can do, and these questions are based on their teaching methodology. Similarly, students learn in individual ways and clearly like the idea that they can make an environment suit their style and produce some demonstration of their learning within that style as well.
Open sourcing is influencing the design of instruction as well as the sourcing of instruction and supports a more collaborative and distributed evolution of content and flow. This, in turn, changes the expectations of students and teachers. Additionally, and more importantly, the technology becomes reflective of intention and use and loses the prescriptive elements of instruction in favor of more dynamic environments of learning.
Integration of Tools
Course management systems basically look and feel very similar and, as has already been stated, lean towards an objectivist approach to learning. Open sourcing has introduced a level of customization that defies the prescriptive elements of current CMS design; however, what has also been happening for some time is the integration of external software tools to augment the system. In other words, along with the apparent linear flow of instruction has been the introduction of tools to encourage more student interaction, knowledge building, and other forms of interaction and collaboration, such as discussion boards, chat, blogs, and wikis. Sometimes the system has absorbed these external programs and integrated them into the existing system. The problem with that is that the basic system remains the same and flows precisely in the same prescriptive manner as before. Now, however, with social networking tools and mobile technology, systems themselves are being opened up to not only integrate the tools but to accommodate the affects in the actual design of the instruction. New systems of course management will have to not only integrate the tools but allow the use of the tools to customize the entire environment for the students.
Therefore, blended delivery and open sourcing have changed teaching and learning expectations of CMSes, but they have evolved as a result of technological capability. While this tension between potential and demand continues, the focus of future development must necessarily be integration of uses leading to specific skill development that is based in global demands rather than in abstract learning standards.
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