Ilearn

It is Tuesday evening, 8:00 pm, and I am writing under some ironic circumstances. The power on my entire block is out so here I am, “blogging” on a Word doc by candlelight.

We pretty much all established that learning took place in the presence of others last Thursday. While the Coopman and Kotkamp articles criticized the power and hierarchy of these CMS tools, I think that in the learning environment, hierarchy is good so long as intention is in good faith. I might have a pretentious teacher that garbles on and on but that garbling is what I am learning. It’s not good learning, by any means, and I think what these articles are trying to do is encourage the dynamic environment that is ideal learning – where both student and teacher learn and grow with strong interaction on all sides. One problem I had with these articles was that they seemed dated but then I saw that they’re quite recent, the Coopman being written just a few months ago. Thus, I agree with Professor Hanley in that these articles undermines the potential of CMS – for example, both articles criticize the fact that students cannot upload files because they do not have access unless the teacher allows it. This is simply a critique of the teacher that exercises such power rather than the CMS programs.

I frequently used Ilearn last semester. It was a good supplement to my classes for forums, posting articles and getting and turning in assignments. I would stress the word supplement. In order for Ilearn to come near an in-class learning experience there would have to be a lot more functions – chat, video capabilities, etc. On a side note, chat would even be limited to having students online at a coordinated time. I certainly did not feel like I was equally engaged as a student in Ilearn with the times I was in class.

I wished the minute we started sharing our learning experiences in class that I didn’t pick diaper changing – let me just get that off my chest. With regards to new media, I think videos are an excellent tool and would be great if incorporated in CMS’s. I learned how to play basic accordion over the summer just by using youtube, and accordion is no easy instrument! If most of our learning involved someone else, then a video would be the closest we could get to a typical education using just new media. Anyone can read and learn but in terms of that dynamic, interaction learning that we’re striving for, there CMS should branch out to video- be it clips or video chats. There will always be limitations to this interactive learning that would be sacrificed in place of in-class learning – facial and vocal expressions, the convenience and immediate response of Q & As and an overall social quality that engages people rather than people being engaged with their computers.