Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) are fast becoming a way for training individuals within corporations as well as some educational institutions. It allows for authoring, publishing, and managing learning content (Nichani, 2001). The LCMS can create instant Reusable Leaning Objects or RLO’s to satisfy the needs of the learner. For example companies can foresee the needs of what the employee (learner) will need and create a new course required to train them on a new product, which may launch in the near future (Nichani, 2001).
LCMS can also be customized to fit what the learner may need. Rather than attending an all day training session the LCMS is designed to allow the learner what is necessary or what they need. Along with catering to the needs of the learner they are also able to customize their learning experience through the LCMS (Nichani, 2001).
According to the article LCMS Round Up it is crucial to understand the differences between the Learning Management System (LMS), the Content Management System (CMS) and the LCMS. The article described the LCMS as combining the learner administration capabilities of an LMS with the content creation and storage capabilities of a CMS (Ellis, 2001). LCMS can be considered a very powerful system because it deals with the learning content (Perry, 2009).
After reading the articles on LCMS I immediately thought about a system my school has been using called PowerSchool. It not only allows the teachers to view tutorials on how to accomplish specific things, but it allows the administrators to input what they feel the teacher needs. For example if the administrator foresees that the teacher needs additional support in setting up their grade books they can then tailor the database to include more tutorials on grade books.
References
Ellis, Ryaan K. (2001). LCMS round up. Retrieved August 12, 2010, from
http://web.archive.org/web/20071012195821/http://www.learningcircuits.org/200
1/aug2001/ttools.htm
Nachani, Maish. (2001). LCMS = Lms + cms (rlos). Retrieved on Augus 12, 2010, from http://www.elearningpost.com/articles/archives/lcms_lms_cms_rlos/
Perry, Bill. (2009). Training professionals gain agility and power from LCMS
technology. Retrieved August 13, 2010, from
http://www.astd.org/lc/2009/0309_perry.html
It is great to see your school district using LMS for teachers. At times I think teachers are forgotten when it comes to training. Many districts focus on training the students to pass standardized tests and they “tell” teachers rather than train them. I am a firm believer that just as our students need differentiated instruction, so do the teachers that are delivering instruction to them.
ReplyDeleteWith all of these systems, I think it is very important that the school clearly assess what they plan on using the technology for. An LCMS gives you the best of both worlds with learning and course management, which would allow expandability for future development as well as the benefits of reusable modules. However, cost may prohibit a smaller institution from implementing this technology. They also may not intend to utilize all of the features that the management system contains at first, but perhaps would be able to introduce a LMS specific to their needs and then later upgrade to an LCMS. PowerSchool seems like a fantastic resource to have available to you, it is important that instructors are comfortable with the tools before they use them in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read all the articles about CMS, LMS and LCMS, I wish I could have some demo right before my eyes. Nichani used Amazon as an example but I still prefer to know some real "products". I found an open source LCMS ATutor http://www.atutor.ca/. It's not ...attractive. The PowerSchool you mentioned is far better and easy for eyes. Thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTamara,
ReplyDeleteI have not had the pleasure before now of interacting with you materials and wonderful analysis of the readings, but I really connected with your observation of how an LCMS takes the place of ridiculous face-to-face professional development. I can not express how much I generally hate undergoing "professional development workshops" within our county meetings/teacher work days.
Often times it takes more work for me to stay awake and focused on the material being presented than on the work they want me to do in my appinted area at school. I believe that LCMS systems not only benefit the leanerner, but also enable the employer (educational or corporate) to spend more time focused on learner needs, than overall general application of meeting objectives. Especially since the majority of the time there are only one or two elements of the presentation that employees do not understand.
If the learner had the ability to skim through a review of the material first and then use the LCMS to focus on the one objective they need to master, nine times out of ten the performance of the learner would increase more than half, because it not only gives them a focus and a specific goal to attain, but also gives them a sense of purpose.
Great reading analysis!
I'm jealous that your school is progressive enough to be providing personalized training! I also liked your comment on "all day training session". I will be attending several of "those" training in the coming week. It would be so nice to be able to pick and choose where I would like to be trained.
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