21st Century Education & Learning Environments & Web 2.0 and Education 23 Sep 2005 09:03 pm
CMS Cont.
After some help from different sources to get my head around the whole CMS idea I decided to start throwing some ideas around and give some food for thought….
1) How do we make effective use of CMS’s in schools without them just becoming another task for teachers to worry about adding to thier work load?
When I started at my current school we introduced a school intranet that was sold to staff as the next “big thing” that was going to make our lives easier. While some of it sounded exciting to many staff the program never really took off as well as it could have due to the lack of input taken by teaching staff. To solve this we employed someone whose job was to focus on the intranet development. Once again it didn’t work as well as many would of wished for due to the lack of content provided by the educators. Will CMS be different? or How can it be different?
2) How do we draw students to using the CMS?
Once again a probelm we had with the intranet project was getting students excited about it. We went with a basic (fast loading) interface. Unfortunatly, that didn’t get studnets interested in using the service. This was a typical example of us as staff not thinking about the students and what they would be looking for in their learning aides. I would have to say that the school CMS’s I have seen recently are very plain and would not attract student use. The final problem we had with the intranet that I see as a possible problem with CMS’s was the way we didn’t have the system updated often enough.
Be interested in your thoughts? Stay tuned for some exciting upcoming news too!!!!!! 
on 25 Sep 2005 at 9:38 am 1.csessums said …
Our institution took the deep plunge into CMS course cultivation. We bought the one-size-fits-all mammoth aka WebCT Vista. I argued for a smaller, customizable system that would ease instructors into the world of teaching and learning using technology. As things go, faculty have been slowly adopting Vista but only in limited capacities, i.e., distributing lecture notes, articles, and posting syllabi. A few adventurers have wholly integrated their courses and content into Vista with mixed results.
I found this link the other day after talking with a colleague re: VLE/CMS/LMSs–
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_moreequalssimpler/index.html
The upshot reported by the authors: the more users, the simpler the system should be.
Currently, I am investigating the use of weblogs as means of enhancing the classroom experience. I am debating wether I should show and tell the students what to do vs. letting them learn and play on their own with a little guidance.
Again, at my institution, instructors have an option whether they want to use a CMS to enhance their f2f courses. WebCT is powerful but not a very enticing, exciting environment. For purely distance learning courses, instructors are required to work in WebCT unless their department has adopted a different platform (i.e., Moodle or Blackboard).
I think a question to ask might be how will we use the CMS. What is our goal in delivering instruction/training online?
Of course our faculty always ask: What’s in it for me? Will I get support in this task? Will I receive adequate training and preparation time?
I’m curious to see how things work out for you.