Week 2 Wimba Archive

Our 2nd Wimba session covered a review of the systems: CMS, LMS, & LCMS. As a result of the session, I was further enlightened by the specifics and the differences of each. For example, there are two variations of CMS (Course Management System). These variations are available for schools and the Internet. CMS mimicks the traditional classroom where students absorb material and then are tested on it. Part of the CMS learning process is the evaluation (testing) aspect. CMS's include components such as the grade book, registration, attendance, and the course. An example of an Internet CMS would be a Blog.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are specific to the Learner and focus primarily on the learners in the corporate world. Instead of a course, this system targets the individual and trains on specific functions. LMS's are considered to be small scale compared to the others. An example of an LMS may be a lesson on Use of profanity in the workplace . From this example, I imagine that Learners would be exposed to a company's policy (prohibitions, consequences, etc) in full detail on the subject.

Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS), the most costly of the group, were derived from the Military and is such a large system that the greatest challenge requires an organization to find ways to take large tasks and break them up into component parts as well as find ways to balance between the needs of a huge organization and the individual needs of learners. Responsibilities are departmentalized in order for each department to write their own program.

The topic of Udutu was also discussed during the Wimba session. Udutu is a lesson or unit connected to FaceBook and is a learning platform consisting of online slides with a purpose. It would be great for Flash experts (and since I hated Flash, I won't be lumped with that group!) There are limitations on visuals with Udutu, but it is a free product and good for novice learners. The goal for Udutu is to get it to learners, but how? It focuses on what the best models to use are. As educators, it would be in our best interest to avoid the overuse of slides and assessments because this method dispenses too much content and tends to be ineffective for students.

I haven't started the Udutu exercise yet, but from what I understand there are 5 steps that should be addressed: 1) Input 2) Model 3) guided practice 4) to check for understanding and 5) Assessment. For this assignment, it would be in our best interest to pick a small learning idea with depth and creativity rather than a large unit with numerous assessments. Some examples of these learning ideas would be helpful for me with details outlining how the 5 steps are applied within the exercise.