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Volume 9 Issue 1 - LMS for Education
By: Janine Yancey
Keywords: LMS, K-12, Technology
EDUCATION TRENDS – UTILIZING A LMS IN K-12 ALLOWS TEACHERS TO EXTEND THEMSELVES AND HELPS SOFTEN THE EFFECTS OF TEACHER/STUDENT RATIO
K-12 schools have been hard hit by this economy, requiring deep budget and staff cuts and sacrifices to continue to provide education to children and meaningful interaction between the teacher and the student. However, lean times usually foster technology innovations to make programs more efficient and provide business solutions, and the current technology afforded by the Learning Management System (LMS) is no different. Utilizing a LMS in K-12 will extend and expand meaningful teacher interaction with students at a time when education budget cuts are resulting in larger classrooms, higher student to teacher ratios, and less interaction.
LMS Benefits for Educators
Let's start with the basics and describe what a LMS can do for teachers and students. As used in a classroom, a LMS can allow the teacher to assign reading assignments and if assigned a pdf or electronic file, the teacher can verify that the student has clicked on the reading assignment. So now, there are tracking and verification abilities that teachers never had before. Also, there will be a variety of books and other reading material wherein schools can save money on the printing costs. In addition to assigning reading, teachers can also use the system to upload a podcast of their lecture on a particular topic. They can simply record their classroom discussion on any smartphone and email the audio file to themselves and upload it to the training system so that students can listen to the discussion or lecture long after that particular day in class. A teacher can also upload relevant video files to the system or point to web-links so students can get more information surrounding a particular topic.
LMS Benefits for Students
From the student's perspective – an LMS offers several benefits. First and foremost, key classroom lectures or discussions can now be offered 24/7 so that it's not a one-time experience. Students can refer back to the discussion and continue to derive knowledge from it weeks after the discussion was held. Second, a system allows students the flexibility to ask questions online. Teachers appreciate student questions but many students don't feel comfortable asking in front of a class or approaching the teacher directly. However, an online venue is more comfortable for some students, and teachers may actually get more engagement from them than they would receive from a classroom-only experience. Third, students can also engage in online discussions about class topics. For example, their impression of a book they just read or a new mathematical concept by typing in a comment and sending it. The teacher receives the comments and posts comments that he/she believes would be helpful to the rest of the group. All of a sudden, a classroom of 30-40 students can participate and engage in classroom topics in a brand new, liberating way. Historically, the top 5% to 10% of students in a class will participate – the rest often remain silent. By changing the venue so students can participate at their own pace and comfort, the environment may become much more inclusive and engaging, and prompt a significantly higher rate of student participation.
Educators' Concerns about LMS
After talking to several K-12 teachers, it appears the main teacher concern about a LMS is the added workload and extension of their workday. Frankly, these are very valid concerns. However, the extra workload should be weighed against the potential educational benefits for students as well as the more enriching teaching experience. Further, the possible workday extension merely tracks the workday extension of workers in all other industries. Many of us are now responding to work email 24/7 and our workday is no longer confined to 8 hours in the middle of the day.
Not only is the nature of "working" changing, but learning styles are drastically changing and the traditional classroom style teaching method doesn't work for our younger generation in the same way it worked for older generations. Millenials have grown up online and are more technically adept than most adults. Youngsters expect to be able to "google" information and have that information available online 24/7. Youngsters are also searching YouTube to find instructional videos on everything from playing with legos to tying a neck tie. Our younger generation goes online to find information and the answers to their questions. Therefore, it's probably no longer adequate or effective to provide a one-dimensional classroom lecture as their only source of academic instruction.
Education budget cuts are forcing us to come up with innovative instructional ideas to solve current education problems, which is the perfect time to introduce a technology solution that extends teachers' reach and prompts student participation and engagement. Just like email in the mid 90's and the Internet in 2000, I have no doubt we'll look back in a few years and wonder how we ever survived without technology in our classrooms.
By Janine Yancey. Janine is a trainer and founded emTRAiN in 2000 to provide eLearning courses and a user-friendly web-based learning management system to launch and track all types of training activities. Janine contributes content on LMS to Funderstanding.com, a site that provides information on curriculum, education, and other learning resources.
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