Blog Post Week #7: LMS and Student Learning

How do Learning Management Systems Support Learning?

Introduction:

This week I must admit I was at a loss for what to blog about.  After much thought I decided that I would reflect upon how I have and continue to use a LMS in my teaching practice and how it has guided my instructional strategies.  I will also try to address the question in the title by looking at how the incorporation of a LMS impacts student learning.  

Learning Management Systems are widely used in both secondary and post-secondary education and students need to be able to navigate course websites in order to be successful.  The interesting thing about Learning Management Systems is that although they are highly adopted there is little known about how this digital tool benefits learning (De Smet et al, 2012). 

The evolution of LMS in my secondary classroom (over the past 5 years)

Microsoft Sharepoint (Good?)

I am currently in my 5th year teaching and I have always had some form of course website.  The first course website I used was through the school/board webpage using Microsoft SharePoint (as seen in the screenshot above). This course website essentially only served one purpose, it was a platform for teachers to post course materials (e.g. powerpoints, word documents, pdfs) in a calendar.  This course website was not collaborative in any way and it was really only used to provide students with course notes if they missed a class.  There were no communication abilities (e.g. discussion,  chat, email, etc).  I found that students used this form of teacher website only if they had missed material (especially the ones who are away regularly with sports or other clubs) or wanted to review before an exam and hadn't bothered keeping completed notes throughout the semester.  

Schoology (Better?)

I began using Schoology last year and I found it to have great ease of use and was more engaging and aesthetically pleasing than the previous sharepoint example (and Schoology is free and comes with a great free mobile app as well).  You can see from the screenshot above that there are many additional features when compared to sharepoint.  There are folders for each unit, an "upcoming" section where calendar entries appear, there are notifications, email, discussion board options, links, and assignment dropboxes just to name a few.  I am confident in saying this provides more opportunity for teachers to implement blended learning into their classroom when compared to microsoft sharepoint.  From my experience students used this course webpage more often than they used sharepoint.  This could be for a few reasons: the first being that students are in general accessing course websites more often then they did 2-3 years (when I was using sharepoint) ago as they are becoming more adopted amount all teachers.  Secondly I as the teacher am beginning to use the LMS in more engaging and authentic ways that require students to access materials that I have organized on the LMS during class.  The third reason is that schoology is much more than simply a way to share files, there are opportunities for collaboration, accessing internet resources, and submitting assignments.  

Desire2Learn (Best?)

Our school board no longer wants teachers choosing their own LMS (such as Schoology or Edmodo) they have now shifted to the LMS used by the province of Ontario which is Desire2Learn or "Brightspace".  This LMS is not free and school boards must buy subscriptions for teachers and students.  The features of D2L are very similar to Schoology but there are some additional benefits (also you can read more about Desire2Learn in my week 5 blog post).  Desire2Learn links with the Ontario Educational Resource Bank, and ExploreLearning (gizmos), and turnitin (a program to check for originality in student work).  These are great for teachers who use these teaching tools.  Desire2Learn automatically populates students in the courses they are enrolled in so there is little to no set up required on the teachers part (unless they want to personalize it as you can see above I have set mine to the "dots" theme).   Desire2Learn does not have a mobile app (yet) which I think is a real drawback considering school boards are adopted the BYOD (Bring your Own Device - see blog post week 4 for more info) and students are encouraged to utilize their mobile devices to support their learning in the classroom.  

Conclusion

Going back to the question I proposed at the beginning of this blog post I feel as though there are a lot of variables that play a role in how a learning management system impacts student learning.  For starters it depends on more than just which LMS is being used,  but how the teachers is using it.  De Smet (et al, 2012) state that teachers often use LMS for informational vs. communicational purposes.  When I look at how I used sharepoint in my first years of teaching I would definitely say I was using the LMS for informational purposes.  I really only had students go on the webpage to get course notes.  Schoology and Desire2Learn have more better capabilities as far as truly changing instructional strategies and using the LMS for both informational and communicational purposes.   I think there needs to be more research conducted on ways of using LMS to have a positive impact on student learning.  Often teachers are encouraged to use certain technologies in their classroom without any instruction on how to incorporate the technologies into their teaching or how it can be used to benefit student learning.  I fear that this is currently happening with the use of Desire2Learn in Ontario schools and there should be more guidance in its incorporation into pedagogical practices.  

References

De Smet, C., Bourgonjon, J., De Wever, B., Schellens, T., & Valcke, M. (2012). Researching instructional use and the technology acceptation of learning management systems by secondary school teachers. Computers & Education, 58(2), 688-696.

Comments to Classmates Week #7 Blog Posts 

Rachel Jimenez-Katsman: Hi Rachel, thank you for sharing your post regarding 3D printing use in schools.  The school that I currently teach at had a presentation about 3D printers last year for teachers to attend (it was optional and unfortunately the turn out was quite poor).  The person presenting was a former graduate who is now an engineer and has her own 3D printing company.  Our principal informed us that we may be purchasing a 3D printer so teachers interested should attend the presentation.  Much like you I was skeptical of the use of 3D printers in schools, I was sure they would be far to expensive to make them accessible for student use and i figured only a few subjects would really be able to connect 3D printing to curriculum.  The consultant that did the presentation (and also demonstrated some 3D printing) definitely impressed the few teachers who did show up to attend.  I was amazed how 3D printing could be used to engage students in authentic learning in a wide variety of subject area (math, science, art, tech, geography, just to name a few that were mentioned).  A few schools in our school board now have 3D printers but we are still without one.  I'm hoping we get one maybe next year as I can students will really benefit from learning about this technology!

Aynsley Smith: Hi Aynsley, I just finished reading Rachel's blog about 3D printing which interested me so when I saw you blogged about the same topic I thought I would comment on your blog as well!  What especially interested me about your blog was that your school has two 3D printers!  As I mentioned in my comment on Rachel's blog, my school had a consultant do a presentation about 3D printers last year and a small number of teachers actually went to the presentation.  I was so impressed about the affordability and functionality of a 3D printer that costs approximately $800 that can make 3D prints starting at only $.20 for a small object.  It is great to know that the printers at your school have stood up well, I know teachers at our school are concerned over where we would keep the printer and how we would protect it from wear and tear etc.  The list you included from teachtech.com made me realize that there are so many opportunities for incorporating 3D printers into curriculum than I had originally thought of.  Our school has yet to purchase a 3D printer but some schools in our board have them so I'm hoping we will possibly next year!

Blog Post Week #5 Desire2Learn

Evaluating Desire2Learn as a Learning Management System

Many school boards in Ontario have purchased licenses for Desire2Learn (D2L) and are urging teachers to use this as their learning management system.  In my experience throughout the past few years teachers have used a variety of websites as their LMS such as edmodo, moodle, and schoology. Our school board does not want teachers using different websites as this requires students to access many different sites for their four classes.  Another reason is that the use of technology should be non invasive for students, meaning their information should be protected and their contact information should not be given to third party businesses.  I have recently made the switch from schoology to D2L and throughout this blog post I will evaluate D2L using some of the criteria from the checklist for evaluating digital tools created by Chan (2011).  

Cost

Desire2Learn is not free and the school board must purchase a licence to provide teachers and students with access.  Although I am unsure of the cost for the school board I would imagine it is quite hefty to be able to provide access to some 15,000 users board wide.  Schoology is a free LMS which makes it quite appealing as far as cost is concerned.  

Reliability and Support

Our board office has two employees who provide support for D2L services, they are former teachers. All teachers had the opportunity to attend a half day workshop on how to use the LMS, and there are often drop in days where one of the D2L support employees are at our school and we can ask questions and get their help as needed.  My experience with support staff has been excellent, they are able to reply to emails very quickly and they can see your course and walk you through anything you need assistance with.  When teachers use a LMS of their choice they do not get any support which makes D2L the winner in this category. 

Evaluation

Desire2Learn has the capability of having built in quizzes that students take online.  This is a convenient was to have formative or summative assessments and provide students with timely feedback.  Assignments can also be submitting through a drop box.   Another great advantage is the mobile marking app for ipads which allows teachers to hand write feedback on submitted work. 

User Interface

Aesthetics are very  important in being able to engage teenage students in using a technology.  Desire2Learn is not a very attractive LMS, I find it much less engaging than schoology.  Teachers can customize their class pages but it is not easy to do and without some training the average person wouldn't know how to do this.  Even with customized themes, the layout of D2L could be improved.  

Integration

Desire2Learn can integrate gizmo simulations (found at explorelearning)  and activities from the Ontario educational resource bank (OERB).  This makes planning convenient when teachers are planning on using these resources in their lessons.  D2L also allows teachers to easily embed video/audio and weblinks to external sites.  

Conclusion

I feel there are some benefits to using D2L as a LMS but I am still unsure that it is the best choice.   I think school boards could take better advantage of free LMS and spend money in the budget on providing more mobile devices to each school.  It will also be easier to further evaluate D2L after using it for a full semester and seeing how students are engaging with the technology.  

Chan, S. (2011). Checklist for evaluating tech tools, apps, software, hardware. [Web log comment].  Retrieved February 14 from, 

http://techpudding.com/2011/04/04/checklist-for-evaluating-technology-software-and-applications/ 

Responses to Classmates Week #5

Laura Smart:

As I read your post I was reminded of a topic that came up at a conference I was just at a few weeks ago regarding teacher mentors.  The statistic that 50% of teachers leave the profession in their first 5 years in astounding.  I think there needs to be an improved teacher mentoring program.  In Ontario there is the NTIP (New Teacher Induction Program) but teachers only qualify if they have received a full time contract or an LTO that is more than a certain length.  I think digital tools could definitely play a role in teacher collaboration and mentorship.  I think one of the most overwhelming things as a new teacher is accessing good teaching resources and supports for your classroom.  If each school board had a wiki for teachers to share resources that would be so helpful.  

Michelle Rivers:

I agree with almost all of your points regarding the drawbacks of textbooks.  Your post really resonated with me as a high school that I taught at a few years ago made the decision to stop purchasing textbooks in the Science department and invest in computers instead.  This school installed a class set of computers in two science labs.  Some of their arguments to stop purchasing textbooks were similar to the ones you have mentioned in your post.  In Science there are so many interactive or animated online resources that are much more engaging than anything found in a textbook.  I think more high schools and post-secondary institutions should shift to using e-textbooks that are either free or accessible at a small cost. 

Blog Post Week 4: BYOD

Blog Post #4: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

I've decided to blog about the relatively new "BYOD" model that many school boards are beginning to implement.  My school board has been taking baby steps towards implementing the BYOD model over the past few years.  In this blog post I will discuss my personal experience with BYOD and some potential benefits and drawbacks of this model.

My School Board

The following link summarizes Technology Embedded Learning at the school board that I work for in Ontario.  This web page states that over the next three to five years the school board will work to ensure that teacher and student access and productivity is increased and that personal devices become a fully integrated tool for teaching and learning.  Last year was the first year that my school had different wifi networks for student and teacher use.  Before there was essentially one school network that all computers in the school were connected to and one guest network that nobody really knew how to access.  Although there was the creation of a student friendly wifi network there was really no real announcement or unveiling, it was something that was just there and not everyone had equal access. 

This year students have full access to the student wifi on their own devices and students are slowly beginning to bring their own devices to class.  Last semester most students had smartphones or ipods in class and a few students would bring a tablet or chromebook when they knew we were working on something where it be useful.  

I have always been a supporter of devices in the classroom and I've never agreed with "no cell phone" policies that many schools have had in the past.  I try to implement activities where students can use their mobile devices for learning such as group research, tweeting, or contributing to a class padlet.  The biggest issue I see with the BYOD model is that there is little to no guidance as far as how teachers should be moving forward with this in their classroom.  It seems like all use of mobile devices is still up to the discretion of the teacher.  I feel that this sends a mixed message to students about the place that technology has in education.  There needs to be more consistency as the board moves forward with the BYOD model.  

Benefits

One of the biggest issues in technology integration is often accessibility and cost.  There is no way that a high school can afford to provide a device for every student in the school.  Having students bring their own devices is an easy way to overcome this obstacle, students can collaborate and share resources and the BYOD model mirrors the real world (Fingal, 2012).

Another benefit from a cost perspective is that students are responsible to maintain their device which takes some pressure off tech support in schools (Nelson, 2012).  Students are also more likely to become engaged and participate in class activities when they get to use their own device that they are familiar with (Bruder, 2014).

Drawbacks

When students bring their own devices the digital divide may actually widen because some students will have brand new devices while others may have older less efficient models (Fingal, 2012).  This is definitely an issue that I have experienced in my own classroom.  Some students that come from low-income families have older and less capable devices that don't always allow for efficient use.  The way that I overcome this is before I begin an activity that requires a mobile device I will ask if there are any students who would like to sign out an ipad or chromebook from the library.  I will often approach this by saying something like  "If anyone forgot their device today or has low battery feel free to sign one out from the library".  This way I don't centre out students who have older devices or no device at all. 

Another drawback to embracing the BYOD model is the comfort level and technical skill of teachers.  The number one reason for teachers not implementing the use of devices in their classroom is because they don't know how to effectively integrate them (Nelson, 2012).  School boards should provide adequate training in the form of workshops on P.A days to help with this issue.  

References:

Bruder, P. (2014). Gadgets go to school: The benefits and risks of BYOD. The Education Digest, 80(3), 15.

Fingal, Diana. "Is BYOD the answer to our problems or the worst idea ever?" Learning & Leading with Technology Feb. 2012: 5. Academic OneFile. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.

Nelson, D. (2012). BYOD: An opportunity schools cannot afford to miss. Internet@Schools, 19(5), 12-15. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/1153782427?accountid=14694

Responses to week 4 Blog Posts: 

Melissa Taaffe: I agree that the use of technology in the classroom requires an overwhelming amount of time.  As you've stated it is much more than the time needed to learn about technology via professional development, it is in the regular updates on certain technologies.  I currently use a learning management system and an app called remind and I try to use twitter for educational purposes.  At the end of every day I upload all course materials from the day for each of the three courses I teach. I sometimes worry that I put too much time into this and many students may not actually access our LMS.  I'm trying to work on ways to ensure students use the page regularly but it does take a lot of time!  

Laura Smart: It is interesting that we both chose BYOD for our week #4 blog post!  Like my post states the digital divide can actually be widened through the BYOD model in schools because students are using their own devices and there will likely be a wide range of capabilities among their devices.  Ideally schools have some mobile devices available to be signed out such as ipads/tablets or chromebooks.  There are many strategies that can be used to ensure that students with older devices aren't centered out.  There are definitely many considerations that need to be researched to ensure BYOD has a positive impact on student learning. 

Blog Post # 3 Online Digital Tools and Systems

So Many Tools, So Little Time

After reading Dr. Power's list of digital tools and systems commonly used in education I must admit I had to Google a lot of them. I had no idea that I had been using "RLOs" because I had never refered to online teaching resources as "reusable learning objectives". Sometimes terminology can be more complicated than technology itself!

Are types of tools missing?

A type of digital tool that isn't listed specifically are marking programs. Although this doesn't directly impact instruction, it has a huge impact on evaluating students. An issue that I have noticed is how evaluating and calculating student marks is not done consistently and one of the reasons is that teachers use a variety of programs (Excel, Easy Grade Pro, Students Achieve, and MarkBook are just a few). Some new marking software allows students to have access to all of their summative evaluations through a mobile app, such as Fresh Grade . This allows evaluation to be as transparent as possible, and students can track their progress which encourages assessment as learning. Having students self asses their progress throughout a course can improve student metacognition and help them understand how they learn (Brown, 2004).


Another subject specific online tool for Science and Math are gizmos found at www.explorelearning.com. These are excellent Science animations/virtual labs that help bring Science concepts to live, especially those that occur at the molecular level that we can't observe in real life. Another online tool I use to deliver lessons and cast lessons from my computer to each student's mobile device (laptop, tablet, or phone) is nearpod. Nearpod allows you to build lessons on the website and then begin a live session that provides students with an access code and they can have all of the lesson components on their device in real time as you go through the lesson. It is a very powerful and engaging tool!

Tools that I have experience with:

As a student:

Learning Management Systems (UOIT Blackboard, Desire2Learn at Queens)
Collaborative workspaces (Adobe Connect general meeting room, Google docs, wikispaces)
Scheduling tools (Doodles)
Multimedia Production (Google docs, microsoft office suite, camtasia studio)
Communication tools (email, twitter, discussion forums, blogs)
Data Collection and Analysis (Google forms, polls within Adobe connect)


As a Teacher:

Learning Management Systems (Schoology, Desire2Learn)
Learning Object Repositories (Ontario Education Resource Bank - OERB)
Collaborative workspaces (Padlet, Google docs, office 365)
Scheduling tools (Remind)
Multimedia Production (Easel.ly, office 365, powtoon)
Communication (Twitter)
Data Collection and Analysis (Nearpod, Kahoot)
Which tools are useful?


Something that I have learned throughout my time in the M.Ed program at UOIT is that the focus of using technology in the classroom shouldn't be on the technology itself but how the technology is being used to transform learning. Many online learning tools can lead to a more learner-centered education (Graham & Robinson, 2007). Before a teacher decides to implement an online digital tool or system in their classroom they should first decide what they want to use the technology for and how they will have students use the technology. Teachers should also consider the task-technology fit to determine how the technology will lead to certain impacts on the learner (Goodue & Thompson, 1995).

I personally find that nearpod is an extremely useful tool in casting lessons to student's personal devices in class while engaging students in content. My goal when using the technology is to engage students to be active learners and participate by contributing to surveys, and answering and submitting formative discussion questions. Another teacher may want to use nearpod as a way to have students access course slides from home and they may not find the technology useful. This is why task-technology fit is an important consideration when choosing what technologies are useful.

Evaluating an Online tool

One of the first questions I would have when evaluating on online tool would be how user-friendly the tool is (from the perspective of both the teacher and the student). It isn't realistic for a teacher to use a tool that takes in depth training to use. Teachers do not have a lot of time to dedicate to learning a new technology nor do they have a lot of time in their classes to teach technologies while getting through the curriculum.

Another important question would be how the technology will meet my instructional goals (as mentioned above with task-technology fit). Aside from ease of use this should be one of the most important considerations that a teacher has in choosing to use a new technology.
References


Brown, S. (2004). Assessment for learning. Learning and teaching in higher education, 1(1), 81-89.

Goodhue, D. L., & Thompson, R. L. (1995). Task-technology fit and individual performance. MIS quarterly, 213-236.

Graham, C. R., & Robison, R. (2007). Realizing the transformational potential of blended learning: Comparing cases of transforming blends and enhancing blends in higher education. Blended learning: Research perspectives, 83-110.

Responses to Blog Post #3

The following are replies to classmates blog posts.  These comments have also been posted to their blog posts

1) Dave Swerdfeger:  I'm very interested in your work with D2L and the creation of this textbook tool.  The school board I teach with is in full swing of moving all teachers to using D2L as their LMS instead of other options (e.g. edmodo, schoology, moodle, sharepoint).  I understand the reasoning to having all teachers use the same webpage as it is easier for the students to have a "one stop shop" rather than potentially four different websites in one semester.  That being said I find D2L a bit lack lustre and very hard to change format wise (I spend hours setting up three classes the way I wanted them).  Another thing is the lack of a mobile app (I used to use Schoology and there was a great mobile app students could use to access it from their phones), it is great that this textbook you have used is easily viewed on a phone.  I personally feel that textbooks are an awful investment both for individual students and also for school boards to be purchasing.  I would like to see more development in "e-textbooks" or online resources that take the place of a textbook.  Textbooks are static and can't hold nearly the same amount of information as an online resource could.  I will definitely check out "Foundation" however I am not familiar with HTML so I'm hoping it is user friendly.  Is this the correct site? http://foundation.zurb.com/

2) Shannon Brandejs: I admire your honesty with respect to your dislike of Adobe Connect.  I agree that webcams are awkward but on the flip side it helps build community when you can actually put a face to a name.  I find some profs choose only people who are presenting to turn their webcams on and I think this is a great compromise.  Like you said it doesn't make sense for everyone to have their webcam on when they aren't talking and it often slows down the system.  I think webcams should definitely be used in breakout rooms as it is a bit more intimate and you can tell who is talking when you collaborate.  A great activity for week one of classes is to have all students post a 1 minute video introduction of themselves to the course website.  It is a quick and easy way to feel as though you have "met" your classmates and when you hear a student speak in class you can put a face to their name.