Beyond Control?

A recent ALT Conference ran under the banner of 'Beyond Control', and I remember writing the editorial for the research proceedings along the lines that the net generation (whoever they are) has been operating largely outside the boundaries of instutional technology provision for some time. More and more students own their own laptops and mobile phones, and they do not take kindly to being told how they should use the Internet. Last week's e-learning conference in Plymouth had a similar title 'Crossing Boundaries' which also elicited a similar set of themed papers on student activities that are conducted largely outside of institutional boundaries. One of my recent publications dealing with this subject is a chapter that appears in the book 'Effective Blended Learning Practices' Edited by Elizabeth Stacey and Phillipa Gerbic. There is limited access to it on Google Books, but it's another of those overpriced IGI Global books I'm afraid. At £135.50 I don't expect many to buy it, but there are some valuable chapters contained therein and I would like to share one or two of those ideas with you here. In my chapter I critically review some of the recent uses of the Learning Management System (LMS) in universities and ask who the systems have been designed for. Is it the institution or the student? Here's an abstract:

The Learning Management System is not always popular with students, for a number of reasons. Students report that they experience difficulties with technical issues (Weller et al, 2005), lack of familiarity with the system (McGill & Hobbs, 2007), and discussion overload (Kear & Heap, 2007), and this is not an exhaustive list. Furthermore, the LMS is facing competition for student ‘online time’ from a more attractive and rapidly growing rival – social networking. Where the LMS invariably has the appearance of an institutional system – branded logo, controlled log-in and passwords, uninspiring topography and bland presentation – the more popular social networking tools ..... are more colourful and attractive, can be more or less tailored to personal preferences, and are beyond the control and surveillance of the university.


The point I wish to underline is the institution imposes the LMS on staff and students with little consultation with the true stakeholders. This leads me to believe that the LMS is primarily there for the benefit of the institution rather than for the student. It is there to impose control, but the battle for control is being lost, because...


...today’s generation of students expect and seek out highly interactive experiences, involving muti-tasking, self-selection of learning material and fast-moving engagement with their enviroment which centres upon play, user-generation of content and collaboration. We might conclude that the insitutional LMS is simply failing to keep pace which the new demands from the network generation, so students are migrating to social networking sites to supplement their on-line experiences.


The institutional LMS is failing because its design curtails creativity and constrains students (and tutors) to think in a particular way. There is no latitude for informal learning either, because this is not what an LMS does. So students are populating social networking and Web 2.0 tools in greater numbers every week, and all of their activities are beyond the reach of the institution. Universities can if they wish, ban access to Facebook, YouTube and other popular sites across their networks, but students will still find ways to continue to gossip, share images, tag and otherwise interact beyond the control of the institute. They will do it because they enjoy it, and because it also provides something that the institutional LMS can never do: Social networks provide a place where students can relax, have fun and chat with friends who are inside and outside of the university they are studying in. My conclusion?


It is highly likely that a compromise will be required if blended technology supported learning is to improve its track record. Future deployments of online learning environments are likely to have elements of both systems within the architecture of the LMS.


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