Do we have the tools?

The first presentation today was by Mahnaz Moallem, a PhD instructional technologist. Her pitch was that student learning takes place, to a significant extent, between themselves in social environments - and that our instructional tools (perhaps Blackboard, WebCT and others that do decent jobs of posting quizzes and keeping track of grades) might not be up to to the job.

Best presentation so far.

Q&A was a hoot, with part of the group seeming to advocate for more tools for social interaction in a course-monitored space, and another part (mostly one fellow in the back) noting that we don't force students to hang out at the coffee shop in our presence and asking why we should force the issue online.

Good questions.

Me? I think Bb and other closed systems aren't going to be able to keep up with the combined innovation of the tech industry. That's going to keep us behind, if we bind ourselves to their course management technology. Branching out is good. Experimenting is good. Just be careful to avoid extending beyond students' reach.

OK - I'm off. A rep from Learning Objects is pitching the TeamsLX learning platform. It seems cool, so far.

Later!