For Consulting and Contact Information

For Consulting and Contact Information


If you'd like to contact me, or learn more about my Moodle, e-learning, and Blackboard consulting services, please make a quick trip to my new website at http://williamrice.com.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

The LMS must open itself to the Web or die

ArsTechnica.com has an article on the future of classroom technology. One quote from that article caught my attention:
"The LMS is a great management tool, but we don't see it as a teaching and learning tool," said Groom. "Spaces determine how you think and learn. Blackboard as an example doesn't exist on the Web. You wind up accessing it through an abstract login. It's a kind of cockroach motel, locked into a space outside of time, outside of the Web. Divorce the learning and collaboration from the Web and you're separating it from where most people are doing their learning."
Moodle, Blackboard, and other learning management systems keep adding new features and more capabilities. With each new version, the environment inside the LMS becomes more rich with features. But what are these LMSs doing to open themselves up to the Web? How are they bringing Web content into the LMS? What features are they using to send students out to Web content without losing the student?
One good answer is Moodle's IMS LTI Tool. IMS stands for "Instructional Managment Systems," and LTI stands for "Learning Tool Interopability."
I encourage you to learn more about Moodle's LTI Tool by reading the excellent blog post by Gavin Hendrick.
(cross posted in the blog of my new site at http://www.williamrice.com/blog)