Terry AndersonJon Dron Feb. 2013

Confounding redundancy: LMS, Social Networks & E-portfolio Systems

LMS

• Tool for teaching effectiveness• Good class management tools• Structured learning paths easily created• Course-centric view of learning• Tight group controls and safety (Safety of

campus)

E-Portfolio

• Process and product• Archiving, artifacts and reflections• At a course, program or institutional level• CVs and the next step• Network entity and presence• Lifelong learning• Personal ownership of process and product• Exportable to other personal archives??

Social Media• Tool for Building Personal Networks of people and Resources• Means to reify and share knowledge• Ownership and identity• Supports long term partnerships, relationships• Weak and strong ties • Boundary crossing and serendipity• Place for coalescence of Sets into networks and groups, nets

into groups.• Discovery, external validation “danger of good ideas”

The future: Beyond the LMS to Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) (Anderson 2005)

My hobbies

My calendar

My social Life

My school(s)

My files

My publicationsE-portfolios

My profile

My conversations(s)

My work

• If you think of the internet as an environment that is moving and shaping all around you, then you will have a better attitude to be able to handle the flood of information that is coming at you.” Stephen Downes, 2005

A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learningLung-Hsiang Wong

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01245.x/full

setnet

group

collective

Making Sense of Social forms

8

Group model

• Membership and exclusion, closed • Hierarchies of control• Focus on collaboration and shared purpose• teachers: guides

group

9

The net model

• bottom-up, open• inclusive• focus on individual and connections• teachers: role models and co-travellers

net

10

Set model• cooperation, anonymity• focus on filtering and selection• tags and categorisation• teachers: curators

– and publishers

set

Individual Capacity

• LMS– Security, records management, synch and asynch

group tools, wikis, gradebook– Tools for groups, support for constructivist, and

collaborative learning – Single institutional Login and identity– Export in and Out – while retaining privacy

Individual Capacity

• E-Portfolio– Supports reflective as well as summative e-

portfolios design– Integration of personal blogs– Export in and Out – while retaining privacy

developmental (e.g., working),reflective (e.g., learning), andrepresentational (e.g., showcase),

Wikipedia.

Individual Capacity

• Networks– Auto and user tagging to insure effective

harvesting– groups, nets & sets– Collective tools enhancing persistence,

transparency– Casual, informal learning, spaces and resources– Export in and Out – while retaining privacy

Integration to PLE

• Password management and minimal disruption

• Little “application centric behaviour” • Standards-based and adherent• Easy data import/export

Many pieces loosly joined

The Athabasca Story

• LMS – Moodle

• E-Portfolio- Mahara

• Social Networking - Elgg

Hard

Soft

The Athabasca Story

• LMS – Moodle

• E-Portfolio- Mahara

• Social Networking - Elgg

Hard

Soft

Low learner control

High learner control

Function <> technology

• Blog <>blog• Discussion forum <> discussion forum• It’s all about the orchestration of phenomena

(Arthur, 2009)

Summary

• As all three applications evolve, they tend to acquire affordances of one another.

• Eliminating one only makes sense if all of its affordances are exploited adequately by the other two

• Technologies are more than tools• Joining the pieces effectively first with and

then beyond online campus 1st priority