Lesson 11 Reading Reaction

One-Stop Shopping With Learning Management Systems
The idea of teachers sharing resources across the district is fabulous. If this can be done without having to travel from one town to another to meet is even better. School District 91 encompasses the towns of Vanderhoof, Fort St. James, Fort Fraser, Burns Lake, Topley and Grassy Plaines. It takes approximately 2 hours to drive from one end of the district to the other. That is off course if the weather is good. Therefore the idea of creating online pro.d. videos as well as opportunties to exchange resourses would be a blessing to many of the teachers in this northern B.C. school district.

Being able to purchase software that allows students and staff to collaborate using blogs, podcasts and wikis brings this application into the Web 2.0 realm.

Mike Smith explains that his students are more motivated during his algebra lessons. He states that in the traditional classroom setting only one or two student would answer his questions, but now using the new system he gets 100 hits within 15 minutes. The students are helping each other learn. I currently have an English class in which there is very little discussion that happens. Would this learning management system solve this problem? I do need to wonder if all student are on task and how the teacher can control this. Is it possible to see all the conversations taking place?

According to Ross, student attendance and the overall feeling of being engaged is improved in the classroom. This is yet another advantage to the Learning Management system.


Is the learning management system the end to all of our motivational problems? I doubt it. I am not against on line courses, after all that is what this blog is about. However, they are not for all students, especially the unmotivated ones. Like any educational program, it works for some, but not all. I think that including this type of system as part of your curriculum is wonderful. After all, variety is the spice of life and this holds very true in the classroom. Adding this type of lessons may encourage some of your unmotivated students to take part in lessons. It is worth a try.

The climate of the classrooms is better," he says, "the attendance of the students and teachers is better, and the overall feeling of being engaged is better."