Learning Management System and Personal Learning Environment

Today’s blog will be devoted to learning management systems (LMS) and personal learning environments (PLE). I have encountered these two platforms during the study years but I did not have clear-cut distinctions between them until I have watched a video by Stephen Downes(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDwcCJncyiw&feature=relmfu).

A learning management system is teacher-centered, that is teachers create courses, upload content, initiate discussions and form groups. It presents a model where students consume information through independent channels as library, textbook (LMS) and gives students the opportunity to interact and construct knowledge in a collaborative environment. Two most popular learning management systems that we are familiar with are Moodle and Blackboard. 

I remember myself doing research on these two systems last year and found that Moodle as a learning management system is more widespread all over the world, is organized and more user-friendly. Moodle is used as an LMS to provide course content in our institution. Being a student, I like the features of Moodle especially after the changes done recently.

            In contrast to LMS systems, personal language environment gives the students opportunities to make connections from a bunch of resources that they themselves choose and organize. PLE has student-centric approach which allows students to select and use the tools that meets their individual needs.

I was really amazed at exploring the two language learning systems Edmodo and Twiducate as a new Web 2.0 tools. Tinkering around the two platforms I preferred Edmodo in terms of features and functions. What makes Edmodo so unique from other Web 2.0 tools is the fact that it is secure and closed network. In addition, it also combines many effective applications from Facebook, Twitter and Blogger. For example, students can take part in the online discussions like in Twitter and can post their work like Blogger. It is a safe social network community for classroom use, designed for both students and teachers. Both teachers and students can share notes, blogs, videos, notes, presentations links, files and resources with each other.
In addition to this, teachers have the ability to post alerts, assignments, grades, reminders, conduct a poll and share events. Another feature that caught my eye is parents’ involvement in the learning progress of children as they can view their child’s work and progress. Also students can create connections with other students from different schools and cultures.

While searching different LMS platforms, I came across another one called Schoology which gives you the tools and connections to engage students more effectively and adjust to changing student needs, learn from collective experiences.

To cut it short, these platforms are really invaluable in its nature and can be relevant to make education in Armenia effective and motivating. One limitation in using Edmodo in Armenian context is the access to computers and internet at home. Now, I cannot imagine the learning process without the support of Moodle. Alas, Armenian higher educational institutions do not provide students with the opportunity to use online learning management systems which is really a great gap for both the institution, instructors and students.

Open Educational Resources

The world has really become ‘’flat’’ as Friedman mentioned in his book ‘’The world is flat’’. As a result of drastic changes, individuals get the opportunity to collaborate and compete globally, share with others of different cultures, religion, languages, thus connecting with the rest of the world much more easily. Now the world is changing at a very fast pace and the access to higher education is extremely necessary. The advent of the Internet opened huge and immense possibilities for learning, giving the opportunity to access to all kinds of resources, educational materials and content that is easily distributed and contributed. Thus, the Internet has a great influence on The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement. 

OER is a free access to a variety of online courses and other educational

materials. OER are very organized and present a real platform for social learning. As Brown Adler mentioned, there was a shift of the focus from what we are learning to how we are learning. There is a shift from ‘’I think, therefore I am’’ to ‘’We participate, therefore we are’’. This is really a great change as social learning is a process where student construct their knowledge themselves. So, OER and the resources of the Web 2.0 create new kinds of open participatory learning for students. I come across so many great websites, software and open source for OER, where students can easily enroll and take a course. It includes different subjects each having their syllabuses, reading materials, assessment strategies, course format and the procedure is very clear-cut. The most outstanding ones to be mentioned are the online courses coursera.org and ocw.org that I will definitely take some of them in summer.

The idea of online course is somehow a new experience for Armenian students. It is flexible in terms of time and place. OER can be used for high level of proficiency of students outside the classroom but only ensuring that the students have a computer with a headset and good internet connection. For example, it can be applied in a university setting meeting the needs and interests of the students. For example, I remember myself learning a subject called conversational English. We had a lot of readings and vocabulary specific to both American and British English. However, it lacked communicative activities. For example, it would be very effective to take an online course along with that subject. When doing group work in class, we found an online course about American English pronunciation and vocabulary that will fit the subject. It will compliment the course and give many benefits to students in terms of enriching their knowledge and broadening views by expanding their educational scope.

From teachers’ perspective, OER has the potential to support enhanced teacher collaboration as well as information sharing about resources, practices and teaching challenges. OER has many advantages as it reduces teacher isolation and contributes in expanding teachers’ roles and becoming more active innovators as they share and learn from one another. 

MALL

Let’s look around. Everyone uses mobile phones everywhere becoming an integral part of our everyday lives. Mobile phones have great potential and ever-increasing functions that all the users are skillful at using. Viewing them from the learning perspective, so we can state that they highly support learning in the second language classrooms. Mobile phones are social tools that are easy and comfortable to use. Students really enjoy and are obsessive about using technology in the classroom because of easy access to materials and the ability to practice anytime and anywhere.

Thus, I quite agree with David Read that mobile devices are slowly becoming part of the furniture in the classroom just as the computer did before. When reading blogs about using mobile phones in ESL classroom I was really amazed at discovering Livescribe Pen as a Feedback Tool. It is really a fantastic tool as it allows to record both handwritten and audio at the same time using a Dictaphone on the pen and special dotted paper. The students will have the opportunity to make handwritten notes when listening in a lecture and be able to listen back to the precise bits of audio later on the word. Mobile phones have really incredible functions.  

However, as a TEFL professional, I should consider only the ones that can be applied in EFL classroom context. In my opinion, students using mobile phones first of all improve their listening skills. It gives them the opportunity to listen to audio-books and podcasts. Also, they can record themselves, thus improving their speaking skills. Reinders (2010) highlighted 20 ideas in his article for using mobile phones in a language classroom. It is really interesting to get to know these ideas  that can be employed in ESL context. Students can use the note feature to collect every day language. They can send the notes they have done during the class to their classmates as a text message. Also, they can also play games for mobile phones that involve a focus on language. But these games should be suitable for second language learners to encourage them to engage with the target language. They can largely use dictionaries and free programs for reinforcing vocabulary. But the main challenges that teachers will encounter in Armenian classrooms will be the lack of smart phones in all classes and the access to the Internet and an increase of noise and disruption in class.

       Therefore, we should be more cautious when implementing them in the classroom environment and should take into account the students’ proficiency level and easy access to mobile phones.