Comments on: Blogs as Course Management Systems

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 21 Sep 2003 16:13:41 +0000

D Fresh, I don’t think “proof” is necessary. No one is denying that blogs are valuable in the classroom, and I certainly think they do some things that course management systems don’t do.
However, the usefulness of weblogs in the classroom doesn’t equate to being a replacement for course management systems, though, which have a far broader set of uses and meet a much wider set of institutional (as opposed to just classroom) needs than the subset to which weblogs are applicable.

By: d fresh

d fresh — Sun, 21 Sep 2003 10:57:21 +0000

You know, I used blogs to run two of my courses. One was a summer reading program and the other was a drama blog, for the production of “The Cherry Orchard” I did. I don’t think I should have erased them, but if I hadn’t erased them, there would be proof that the blog is an excellent way of keeping track of duties, assignments, grades, and even feelings.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 17:15:09 +0000

So much for trying to raise the level of conversation. :-p

By: James Farmer

James Farmer — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 08:52:18 +0000

No, not at all, I think an elephant is an excellent metaphor for the major CMSs ;o)
We’ll see eh!

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 22:43:40 +0000

Cripes, and people tell me I take metaphors to far. . .

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 19:21:14 +0000

I was just kidding Greg ;-)
Sometimes the elephant gets very large, expensive, and decides to rule rather than serve. Sometimes the elephant walks over your village. Sometimes the elephant forgets that he/she was once a playful child.
Ther is room in the forest for both elephants and trees.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 18:09:48 +0000

Will, allow me to reframe the issue. Do you know the fable from India about the blind men and the elephant? One grabs the leg and says “An elephant is just like a tree!” Another grabs the tail and says, “Plainly you are wrong; an elephant is quite rope-like!” The next hangs on to the tusk and shouts, “Elephants are a kind of spear!” A fourth runs into the side of an elephant and says “Wha?! You’re all nuts — elephants clearly resemble walls!” And so on. (I think there are six blind guys in the fable, but who’s counting?)
So . . . if you needed an elephant and your blind buddy brings you a tree, would you care that the tree was less expensive than an elephant? ;)
Trees aren’t elephants, weblogs aren’t course management systems, and vice versa. Cost is really less relevant to this conversation than an understanding of the wildly different needs that these very different kinds of systems are designed to meet. There might a subset of activities that overlap (the similarity of the elephant’s leg and the tree’s trunk), but you’re not going to get tusks with one or leaves with the other.
I think that people who believe that weblogs are a replacement for course management systems have wrapped their arms firmly around their tree and said, “See? We already have an elephant!” :) Although certain parts exhibit similar characteristics, that doesn’t make them interchangeable . . . any more than it makes them mutually exclusive.
(Also: for the record, I’m not talking about Blackboard, I’m talking about course management systems in general. It all holds equally true for WebCT or eCollege or Desire2Learn or whatever. This blog isn’t a sales pitch for my employer. However, I do think that having been on both sides of the fence (using & managing a CMS’s in universities as well as participating in commercially developing one) gives me a good perspective.)

By: Will Richardson

Will Richardson — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 14:29:10 +0000

Hi Greg…I may be naive here, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t price a barrier to entry here? I don’t know Bb very well at all, but how much does it cost to use and is that cost worth the added functionality that say Manila brings to a public school for $299 a year???
Keep up the good work!
Will

By: Alan Levine

Alan Levine — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 07:15:53 +0000

Your Bbias is showing ;-) although I mostly agree.
However, the nice thing about these pieces is that it jogs the CMS vendors to wake up or at least pay attention.
The CMS-es are way behind in providing an organizing focus that is on the student or the person rather than the artificial and less meaning-full unit of the course. They are behind in providing anything behind miniscule student publishing/creation tools, and promote the artifficial notion of learning as interacting with content created by a (master( teacher. Behnd in portfolio tools. Behind in content syndication. Behind in providing public views of content.
But they should be able to catch up.