Week 3-Digital Tool 7 Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Learning Management Systems

Proprietary Learning Management Systems
This type of LMS is mentioned in the study notes as expensive and when you take a look through the course like to Blackbaord it quickly becomes apparent that this is the case.  They have great backup systems and their information is well documented.  The individualisation of the system for each individual client through management teams would be an expense that most small organisations and state funded institutions would either not be able to afford or would consume an already limited amount of their budget.  Not to mention its impact, or lack of for people that are limited in technological skills or the time and money to develop these skills.  What about families that have no computer or mobile phone, families living in poverty?  How does this system work for them?  Will it be damaging to their children's education and will their financial situation lead to their children being bullied at school.  To me it reads as a fantastic technology but at a financial cost that not all can afford.

Open Source Learning Management Systems
Open Source LMS's are a much less expensive than Proprietary LMS's with greater accessibility to information and for people across a  vast cross-section of society.  The downside though needs serious consideration as these systems generally aren't afforded backup support and documentation can be poor.

In today's technologically advancing work we must be able to offer current information at rapid speed to not only have success with providing students the education they must have to succeed and develop in today's world but also prepare them for our world of the future, and for this we need viable information to be available when needed, 24 hours a day.  I guess, like everything else in education, it all comes back to finance.  If you can afford the best LMS,s then by all means utilise them to promote current and productive technological learning but if you can't then isn't it better to work with the inferior Open Source LMS's than none at all?



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