Goins Billy LMO Week 3 Reading Activity Response 2 to Karen Smith

Original Post:
When looking through this paper, it brings to ones memory learning to write out for sealed out the information for sealed bids on instruments for the music classroom.

My Comment:
As you mentioned, most end users will never understand or appreciate the amount of resources required in product development. As someone that has been working with computers since the days of punch data cards and magnetic tape, I’m continually amazed at the advances in technology and equally amazed that there hasn’t been a more significant impact within our public school system.

I have many middle school students that list video game designer as a career choice. I always encourage my students to go after their “healthy” desires but at the same time I want them to understand the challenges and the amount of work involved. Relating back to what your theme, it takes work and a high degree of talent to create products that are financially viable and suitable for customers.

Goins Billy LMO Week 3 Reading Activity Response 1 to Amanda Beery

Original Post:
Moodle is a free Course Management System (CMS)that many teachers are using to create online courses for their classes. With the outcome features students can complete tasks on Moodle and receive a grade that the teacher can then use in their grade book. This is good for students as well because they can easily monitor their progress as they complete various activities and desired outcomes. These outcomes can be grades or statements of completion, something students can think of as a list and check them off as they go.

My Comment:
While looking at this week reading and doing some online searching, I came across a complete Moodle Package called “Moodle-in-a-Box.”

http://education.ncsa.illinois.edu/resources/software_tools/moodlebx.html

As you can tell by the link, this product has been packaged by the University of Illinois and contains Moodle and all the required supporting software such as Apache server, mySQL data base and other features.

If you’re interest check out the link there are step by step instructions for setup and use.

Though I didn’t get very deep, I actually installed this in my classroom and it ran on an older Pentium 4 machine. With just a little time reading, installing, and setting up, I now have a Moodle server in my classroom.

Goins Billy LMO Week 3 Reading Activity: LMS Choice

Study Island is a Learning Management System (LMS) or perhaps more accurately based on size, content focus, and emphasis on alignment with state educational standards called a Learning Content Management system. Study Island provides hosting and training content for school systems and home users across the United States.

A semi-formal study released in 2008 showed Chicago area schools in the first year of using Study Island had greater improvement in meeting or exceeding standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) over fifth- and eighth-grade students within the state not using study Island (Magnolia Consulting, 2008). This particular study became a key endorsement for the sale and integration of Study Island within Illinois school districts, including my own. Should a single study, which when read thoroughly admits that other factors may have contributed to the outcome, be the sole foundation for selecting and implementing an LMS?

A condensed version of online strategist Godfrey Parkin’s (2005) selection process suggests the following steps:
1. Form a LMS selection team, representative of all user groups.

2. Define the operational process and learning objectives.

3. Create a list of critical elements and factors that must be met.

4. Discuss the plausibility and budget for options available for implementation and long term support for training, administration, and infrastructure.

5. Research and refine a list of potential LMS systems that are equipped to meet current and future needs.

6. Determine a framework for evaluating systems that are plausible and meet established needs and objectives.

7. Review demos, references, and solicit information from current users.

8. Conduct interviews with a short list of potential providers and vendors and negotiate contract.

An RFP is more than comparing prices. It could be compared to researching contractors for building or improving a home. The process should seek to determine which vendor is best suited to meet established needs and objects within budget and operating provisions, is well established and a successful performance history.

Along with the established current goals, future needs and services should be outlined and addressed. Due to the ever evolving nature of technology, it is important to establish a long term plan for sustainability and innovation.


References
Magnolia Consulting, LLC. (2008). Case study research of Study Island in Illinois. Retrieved from http://www.studyisland.com/salessheets/Case%20Study%20Summary%20State%20of%20Illinois.pdf

Parkin, G. (2005, April 30). The LMS selection process in a nutshell. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://parkinslot.blogspot.com/2005/04/lms-selection-process-in-nutshell.html

Goins Billy LMO Week 2 Reading Activity – Response 2 to Vendelin Schneidt

Original Post
SCORM and Cell Phones: What’s the Connection?

Do you have dozens of cell phone chargers lying around your house, tucked in drawers and closets? I do. When I began reading about SCORM, my mind began scanning for an analogy to take this term and make it applicable to every day life.

My Comment:
That is a perfect comparison and explanation. In an article that I came across the writer mention that the functionality of the SCORM concept was often compared to that of a Rubik’s Cube™ (Duncan, 2005) in that the modules could be moved and relocate into different courses or across different types of management systems.

Duncan, S. (2005). The U.S. Army’s impact on the history of distance education. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 6(4), 397+.

Goins Billy LMO Week 2 Reading Activity – Response 1 to Kenya Ayala

Original Post by Kenya

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.

My Comments
As I mentioned during the Wimba session this week, in order to best understand each of the platforms I refer back to the purpose of training. In a business setting where LMS systems are typically deployed, there would be smaller and more specific types of training that would more than likely be driven by job tasks or company policies.

In a CMS, you have a wide variety of programs and learners whose purpose for training is to complete a course program for a certfication or degree.

Finally on a larger scale there exists the LCMS, which is similar to the LMS in that it is focused on the individual learner and their required job or skill.

Goins Billy Wk 2 Project: Utudu Setup

1. Goins, Billy

2. Prior Project Selected: Student Comic Books

3. Creating Comic Books is from website I created with Flash, Dreamweaver. The unit topics covered include creating a comic book style storyboard, editing digital photos, and assembling the comic using desktop publishing software. However for the purpose of this assignment, I will complete the introduction and the storyboard lesson portions of the unit.

4. Original EMDT course: Digital Media and Education Applications, November 2009.

5. Initial Appraisal of Udutu Scenario: My initial appraisal consisted of Udutu’s Self Directed Learning Scenario template. For this project, students will create a storyboard product, which will serve as the assessment portion for this lesson and as a working draft for their final product. I believe that this template will allow students to work at their own pace, view/review media driven instruction, and best suit the more practical applications of the lesson.

6. Original project link:
http://web.me.com/billygoins/EMD573/index.html

Goins Billy LMO Week 2 Reading Activity:ADL/Standards/Scorm

Introduction

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).

The need for standards


Image source: Academic ADL Co-Laboratory

The above graph illustrates the flow or evolution of ideas and concepts and follows to the point they become accepted standards. In addition to compatibility issues, the establishment of standards increases efficiency and minimizes costs. Summarizing the an example by author Atsusi Hirumi, if the cost to create a multimedia instructional unit is $1,000 and if 1,000 organizations pay that cost individually to create their own unit, it would result in an expenditure of $1,000,000. Comparatively, if the institutions shared the development cost each institution would pay $1 each. (Hirumi, 2005)

Balancing the details
In describing the functionality of the Shareable Content Object Reference Module (SCORM) concept, military representatives often compared it to the “Rubik’s Cube™” (Duncan, 2005). A SCORM provides the ability to take stand-alone sequences of content be reused or applied to different courses or move entire courses from one Learning Management System (LMS) to another. SCORM libraries or media repositories allow these segments to be stored, retrieved, and used simultaneously across different learning environments and by multiple users. Two important considerations when constructing a learning module are the granularity and reusability. Granularity could be described as the level, size, or amount of content. Too little or too much content will impact the overall reusability of the module, meaning its ability to be used in multiple courses or learning environment.

Sequencing
In order to progress and complete SCORM based training, users must have a clear path of navigation. Learning paths provide a limited or predetermined path through course material while branching offers a non-liner method that is dependant on the individual’s response to a question.

Organizing
Returning to the idea that SCORM objects are stored and shared training segments with a wide and varied group of users, organization is essential. Metadata provides a common nomenclature for indexing objects for storage and searches and provides useful information and descriptions for potential users.

Closing
The ADL Initiative continues to provide an effective standardized means for developing and distributing learning content that is easily integrated into a variety of platforms such as LMS.

References
Duncan, S. (2005). The U.S. Army’s impact on the history of distance education. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 6(4), 397+.

Hirumi, A. (2005). In search of quality: An analysis of e-learning guidelines and specifications. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 6(4), 309+.

Goins Billy Wk1 Project: LMO Overview

The Process of Change

The methods for teaching or delivering training are ever changing and refining. My own learning, as with most individuals began with family, then progressed into a formal classroom setting along with an everyday practical approach as I worked and learned from those experiences. This combination of classroom and on the job training (OJT) continued while in the military, with the additional offering Career Development Courses (CDCs) which were essentially correspondence courses designed to increase my job knowledge and skill level.

In my latter years in the military and as I transitioned into the civilian work force, I received training through the use of computer based training (CBT) modules which most often related to annual requirements regarding safety issues and military or corporate policies.

On the military side, the CBT’s eventually evolved into a web-based system that I now understand to be a Learning Content Management System (LCMS). Often within this system, I would encounter items or steps that would be used repeatedly. These reusable learning objects (RLOs) would contain practices or check list items that applied to multiple jobs such as safely powering down equipment.

On the manufacturing side, I progressed through the company and was enrolled into an apprenticeship program where I began using what I now know to be Learning Management System (LMS) to learn specific tasks. Upon completing the course, I was promoted to a journeyman level operator and received a state certification in the area of industrial heating ventilation and air conditioning.

While working various shifts during the manufacturing job, I began taking college classes. Though I preferred evening campus courses, there were times when scheduling required me to take a satellite course, delivered through an early and unstable version of teleconferencing and as I’m doing now at Full Sail University take courses online utilizing a course management system (CMS).

My online experience with the Education Media Design and Technology program at Full Sail has introduced me to an emerging form of online learning and a new model emphasizing connectivity and social learning. The emergence of social networking (SN) tools including the personal learning environments (PLEs) are considered a form of disruptive technologies that may assimilate current methods of delivering training and education.

This reinforces my original claim, based on my own learning experiences, that the methods for teaching or delivering training are ever changing and refining. Going through the reading this week was for me a time of reflection and allowed me to see not only the progression of my own education but also the organization and evolution of the learning systems encapsulated in a variety of domain structures such as colleges, businesses, and the military. So for this particular activity, I drew from my own experiences, which hopefully explains the lack of outside citations.

Goins Billy LMO Week 1 Reading Activity – Response 2 to Travis Davis

1st Paragraph from Original Post by Travis Davis

Wk 1 Reading: History of Virtual Learning Environments

“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).

Response

In a response post to Keith Lay, I remarked that one reason that education tends to be behind the technology and e-learning curve is due to the resource demands and intrinsic limitations resulting from legislations such as No Child Left Behind and Response to Intervention. As I look at your posts recount of the History of VLE’s, I’d like to consider future possibilities instead of current limitations. In future versions of VLE’s, I imagine training in virtual environments such as Second Life, where simulations take the place of more traditional methods such as lectures and textbooks. Taking that concept to next level, the idea that video game environments could potentially replace or greatly supplement textbooks (Takahashi, 2009) and even college classrooms (Carvin, 2008) is being seriously debated and discussed. To borrow a quote from Dr. Suess, “Oh the places, you’ll go.”

References
Carvin, A. (2008) Should video games replace classroom learning? Learning.Now. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2008/03/should_video_games_replace_cla.html
Takahashi, D. (2009) GamesBeat09 preview: Bing Gordon foresees games replacing textbooks at school. GamesBeat. Retrieved from
http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/01/23/gamesbeat-09-preview-bing-gordon-foresees-games-replacing-textbooks-at-schools/

Goins Billy LMO Week 1 Reading Activity – Response 1 to Keith Lay

1st Paragraph form original post

LMO Lay, Keith E-Learning development

As miraculous as they are, our brains are poorly designed for learning. In fact it is not at all designed for efficiency or order and, instead, develops best through selection and survival (Jensen, 2008). The direct teaching approaches that the West inherited from church and state sanctioned universities were the norm up through the mid twentieth century. Throughout history, communication technology, especially those of the written word and image media, challenged their claimed authority. In the early twentieth century, views of constructionist education theories emerged with John Dewey and others, suggesting that humans best generated knowledge and meaning through experience (Soltis, n.d.). Unfortunately, public utilization of this 'experimental' active learning approach was fiscally untenable until technology could offer a practical method of creating a unique learning environment for each student.

Response
One of the reasons I enjoy being a technology teacher is that technology is constantly changing and evolving. I began working with computers in the military on systems that used punched paper tape and data cards as the medium for storing and programming information and in comparison I’m constantly amazed at the digital / computerized products and services available. Your post is a reminder that educational communities adapt these changes at an infinitely slower rate than the purchasing public. Your statements concerning the necessary investment, platform and design restrictions, and a lack of teacher training are solid explanations for the lag in adaptation. Along with these issues, I’d like to add that there is a short sidedness of vision enhanced or re-enforced by budget and narrow curriculum standards. Fueled by the fear of failing standardized tests and not meeting annual yearly progress under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and now with the addition of the Response to Interventions (RTI) mandate, school districts focus give budget, time, and manpower priority and efforts to meeting these goals. My expectation is that until LMS and other e-learning platforms can demonstrate correlations between such products and significant improvement in standardized test scores adaptation will remain painfully slow.

Goins Billy LMO Week 1 Reading Activity: Learning Platforms

Introduction

Intelligent commentary requires at minimum, an understanding of the topic being discussed, which is why this article begins by defining learning platforms specifically Learning Management Systems (LMS) / Course Management Systems (CMS). In his introduction, George Piskurich (2003) describes e-learning and related systems as an evolving synthesization of facilitating teaching and learning through technology. In the past, that may have included structured or non-structured learning delivered by a cd-rom, today that may include a web or network based system enhanced by assessment, management, collaborative, and multimedia tools. A simplified list of basic LMS functionalities include web based access, self-contained tools for authoring, administrative, rights management, and authentication features, local accessibility, and a means of interaction/communication (Toedt, 2006). LMS content, delivery, and functions vary greatly and are utilized in academic, business, military, and many other environments.

Valued attributes

A buyers’ guide search for LMS’s from the ELearning Guild yielded 281 results, an advanced web search for LMS’s products and vendors resulted in 28,700. With such an extensive list, it may be surprising to discover that 50% of the LMS market share can be attributed to only six companies (McIntosh, 2010). Published in January 2010, ELearing! Magazine boasted 1,755 nominations for their 5^th Annual:Best of Elearning! Awards issue (Roche, 2010). Across categories voters for the award winning nominees consistently mentioned such attributes as flexibility/customization, collaborative/interactive content, and complete/self-contained product solutions.

Closing

LMS/CMS’s have been evolving for many years. Early computer based training formats were digital equivalents of texts and multiple choice assessments and in effect the learning process was a transfer or gain of information. Today these systems have transformed into a rich immersive learning environment with real time collaborate tools, simulations, customization, and large scale distribution and connectivity.

References

McIntosh, D. (2010). Learning management vendors. Retrieved from http://www.trimeritus.com/vendors.pdf

Piskurich, G. M. (2003). The AMA handbook of e-learning: Effective design, implementation, and technology solutions. NY: AMACOM

Roche, J. (2010). 5^th annual: Best of elearning! Awards issue. Best of Elearning!, 5(6). Retrieved from http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/b2bmediaco/elearning_20101201/

Toedt, A. (2006, February 28). What is a learning management system? [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://www.bazaar.org/content/view/10/25/

Goins Billy Week 1 Reading Activity Related Videos

eLeaP™ Learning Management System (LMS/LCMS)

Meekshome
Based on The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, this discusses the potential for a disruptive technology in the LMS market that serves, at least initially, the middle and high school level.