Week 2 Project Udutu Setup

1. Ayala, Kenya
2. How-to make Kickin' Bleu Cheese Burgers: a step-by-step guide to make my spicy blue cheese burger.
3. Digital Media and Education Applications (DAE) lesson, February 26, 2010.
4. I am using the Best Practices Scenario because my lesson is somewhat linear in that steps build upon each other. I am using the true/false areas as a means to correct any errors that the user may do when acting out the steps.
5. The URL of the original lesson is http://web.me.com/sunny1way/EMD573/interface/index.html

Week 2 Comment 2 - Billy Goins

The official Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) website provides a very detailed overview of the organization’s history and purpose. Under the direct care of the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OUSD P&R), the ADL Initiative was created in 1997 and given the task of standardizing and modernizing the delivery of training and education. On January 12, 1999, Excutive Order 13111 signed by President Clinton tasked the DoD to develop and lead a partnership with business and university groups for the purpose of creating standardized training software and related services. (http://www.adlnet.gov).

My comment:

I liked your information on ADL and standardized learning. I question whether standardized learning and training is the right way to continue in education because not all children/learners learn the same way. Standardized testing has failed child after child and should be outlawed when children can't meet the standard and fail. The standard may not have been set too high; that child may just learn in ways that the standard doesn't focus on.

What do you think?

Week 2 Comment 1 - Kimberly Coast

This week's reading was much calmer than last week. As I worked through the reading I realized that there was much more information in section 6 than in 7 or 8. I was thinking that I could deal with the cost of LCMS versus regular face to face (F2F) instruction, but that could be summed up in one sentence... It is WAY cheaper, like half the cost, to use LCMS in the long run than F2F instruction. I also considered describing ADL, Standards, SCORM but considered that something that I would easily remember. Discussing the differences between LMS and LCMS seemed mute as I did that last week and I believe that my time is best spent discussing LCMS in more depth this week. :)

My comment:

Kim, I, too thought about how we defined and explored LMSs and CMSs and I am glad that we got a good grasp of these concepts to be able to quickly acknowledge the difference between these systems and LCMSs.

I like how you summarized LCMS as 'what you want...' because it seems that LCMS is definitely accessed by the user once permissions are granted by the creator and organization. The LCMS becomes that user's PLE which allows the user to acquire and incorporate his or her own style of learning while learning content designed by the business.

Individual education is on the horizon for sure as education must eventually grasp that children don't learn equally. Education must reshape itself to the needs of the children and not to the tenures of the teachers.

Week 2 Activity 1

Learning management systems (LMSs) are mostly for smaller businesses that require training of employees on a smaller scale. Course management systems (CMSs) are used primarily by universities, like Full Sail University that focus on the coursework and delivery to the students. Databases are similar to that of LMSs but on a scale directly related to education and focus on course rather than content. Learning content management systems (LCMSs) are used primarily by large institutions like the military that must deliver content materials to a large amount of people/learners, such as in the four major military branches. Personal learning environments (PLEs) are more learner focused like LMSs but can easily take on qualities attributed to the other systems, depending on the amount of users.

In just-in-time learning, the learner gains access to data, answers, questions and the system delivers information based on when and how it is needed. Just-in-time learning systems can be viewed as part of LMSs or LCMSs. LMSs cannot create instructional content. Learners gauge and plan learning and socially and collaboratively interact. Administrators target, track, analyze and report on the user’s learning. CMSs were designed to simplify the creation of online content and the administration of said content. From the article, the organization of the online content is also an important part as well as its management.

CMSs are organized around course development, distribution, and management of the course. By contrast, LCMSs are oriented to content development, distribution and management of content. LCMSs require pre-assessment that targets content. Learner’s profiles allow the system to extract content from a database to deliver individual content or to assemble full courses.

Successful implementation of a LCMS is contingent on the understanding of the organizational skill sets. The organization’s mission and goal are relevant to the purchasing of the LCMS, as the cost of an LCMS was over $200,000 for 5,000 to 10,000 users in 2004, according to our reading. LCMSs are combined systems that have the qualities/components of both LMSs and CMSs. LCMSs are comprised of reusable learning objects (RLOs) that can be used on their own or as part of the larger whole of instructional materials.

RLOs can be single objects like graphics or video files yet they can also be smaller pieces of learning that focuses on one goal. RLOs set the goal, the content and the assessment on a specific goal-by-goal scale.

LCMSs are able to quickly create and deliver learning content modular forms rather than the one size fits all fashion for more personalized learning. This personalization expedites the employer’s business and training goals. Benefits of an LCMS include increased and expedited efficiency, the reusing of content that may become relevant in future or alternate purposes, the reduction of training time which expedites productivity, maintaining current compliance through constant updates and changes according to changes in technology or government/educational regulations, and on-demand learning through easy search methods that enhance just-in-time learning.

LCMSs use multimedia and multiple forms of media as a delivery method which makes this type of learning system the most versatile and valuable to organizations and learners.

Week 1 LMO Project Overview

Learning Management Systems (LMS) manages learners rather than just the courses the learner will take. Learners would be in different positions, age groups, and structural levels. The LMS will be able to provide learning to each user because the LMS will assess and use the skill level of each user to build and deliver the course content that the student/user needs rather than have broad courses and curriculum that is not specific to the user.

Course Management Systems (CMS) manage courses or classes used for education such as at Full Sail University. The school is already established and the student is added to a database and the student’s courses are delivered to the student through online access. CMS is able to integrate grading, registration, library resources, plagiarism checker, etc for each student after a student has been registered. CMS are not individualized for learners.

Learning Course Management Systems (LCMS) is a combination of LMS and CMS that was designed to be used by the military because of the size of its organization, and was created to bring individualized learning functionality to content/course management. Large educational institutions also benefit from LCMS by bringing courses to their registered students with individualized information to facilitate on a user level. FSO is a perfect example in that all students in EDMT receive the same course content on the dashboard, however, each is able to work at his or her pace in whatever order and the dashboard updates according to that student’s use.

Personal Learning Environments (PLE) are systems established to facilitate the learner’s control of his or her own learning space and goals. This system could be large or small, a place or a course, provided by both the learner and the institution of learning. The user would be in charge of creating an environment conducive to meeting his or her learning such as in a quiet study environment with the appropriate materials, such as notebooks, computer, etc. The educational institution would be responsible for creating an environment that facilitates the user’s learning such as learning course management systems (LCMS) that provide resource materials, textbooks, assessments, and grading.

PLE and LCMS are the type of educational tools we presently use at Full Sail University.

Week 1 Comment 2 - Joan Lourenco

In order to move forward in education, it is important to understand current circumstances, recognize problems, and assess the instructional needs of students and teachers.

In 2004, Colleen Carmean, Ali Jafari, and Patrica McGee worked with experts to identify and develop end-user needs of a course management system (CMS). They completed this multiple case study on teaching and learning environments by assessing what was working in CMS and focusing on ways to improve current practices and...

My comment:

Sometimes, I wonder if the creators of Course Management Systems (CMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) understand that to devise a system that will truly reach proper functionality, there is a need to work backwards from the user's point of reference. Only then will the system provide the desired effect and learning. It is only the user that can decide if the type of learning works for him or her as he or she is the one that will succeed or fail at learning what the system is trying to teach him or her. That is what makes these systems difficult to create because the needs and ideas of the user must come first yet the system must be broad enough to reach many types of learners.

Week 1 Comment 1 - Joy Flack

" A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a system that creates an environment designed to facilitate teachers in the management of educational courses for their students, especially a system using computer hardware and software, which involves distance learning (Wikipedia,2010).

The definition for virtual learning environments is more applicable to the present in terms of technology and applications then if it were applied to the past.

Traveling through time with the same class as now. Would you be able to earn a graduate degree with an audio/visual communication network as used in the early 1900’s? The standards have been raised and technology created to bring education into the 21st century. In 1990’s, Florida State University was still offering courses via television. The interaction between student and teacher has since tripled. Now feedback, group interaction, online class sessions, and so much more is available in and virtual learning environment. Today there are over 205 colleges and schools offering online learning and students are earning more than $300 per week with the MBA."

My comment:

It is indeed amazing that the foundation of today's online educational system was created and used for 40 years way back then yet, here we are today, struggling to prove that this type of learning works and can be better for some learners. Imagine if that type of learning would have been embraced and empowered, how many of our children would be on a better path today. How few children would there be in the judicial system if they had been given another alternative to sitting long hours in a classroom where they understood little due to the teacher's pace and not their own level of comprehension? I believe there could have been a difference. What do you think?