The shortcomings of these approaches rest in their lack of integration and the control required by many universities. The experience of many educators parallels my own—learners are very active with technology, but once in an LMS space, they seldom do more than the minimum required (a particular concern in courses where dialogue and theory are important to explore). This may be a function of students taking on “the student role”—defaulting to passive behaviour—once in an academic environment. It may also be due to the change in behaviour expected by educators—where learners must leave their tools behind and adopt tools with limited functionality. For an individual used to Skyping, blogging, tagging, creating podcasts, or collaboratively writing an online document, the transition to a learning management system is a step back in time (by several years).
Martin Burrett on 15 Mar 12This is a fabulous site for creating free ebooks by uploading photos from your computer, or by using the well stocked gallery of props scenes and characters provided by the site. Just drag and drop your items into place. Books can be private or shared using a url link. A free signing is required. You can also have your ebooks made into real books for a fee. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
