Busting the excuses for not enabling an LMS
Online learning has truly transformed the way we approach education. It has made education more varied and inclusive. With the introduction of technology embedded learning ecosystems, all sorts of issues can be now settled in one go, at one place. Such a quick medium of lesson delivery has certainly made the lives of students more easier and flexible. Several LMS are catering to the growth of this transition from traditional systems of learning to the new age digital based learning platforms. Let’s then first understand what a truly efficient LMS does that makes the task seem that simple, that quick.
The LMS full form stands for Learning Management System which is a system that provides for a single all-in-one platform to do all the educational related tasks then and there. From submission of assignments to correcting them, from streaming of video lessons to their direct feedback from students, from assessments to record-keeping and data storage, inter alia are all managed at a single place making the educational delivery system as easy as it could be. When such a collaborative and cooperative approach is followed indeed it would end up opening up the growth potential to leaps and bounds. Perhaps, that is what is the so-called power of technology. All the stakeholders like teachers, students, SMEs (subject matter experts) and various other concerned staff could contribute their expertise to make learning more functional and practical that certainly enhances the quality of the content in hand. Not only that, the connecting of social media tools has also largely contributed in making the platform more collaborative and hence social. This is one step in the direction of fixing the problem of lack of in-person human interactions in the virtual world of online classrooms. Let’s take a crisp and to-the-point example to understand it in a better way.
You might have heard about red-tapism and how it hinders and delays decision making in administrative frameworks. Just suppose if there is a single way to get all the approvals done, wouldn’t the decision making become quicker and hence more accountable? To our misfortune till now we have not known such a way but that doesn’t mean there is no way to do it. Lately, just like government departments, education departments have also realized that if they have to make the entire process from the birthing of educational content to its timely delivery more efficient, they have to digitize it. And, that is why we are witnessing this large scale digitisation in almost every sphere of our lives.
Still, all of this doesn’t mean that technology has got almost zero drawbacks. There are always two sides of the same coin. Remember? Such large scale digitisation has no doubt made our lives simpler but at what cost? We have to carefully ponder over each and every perspective before switching to it in a full fledged way. Ofcourse, since the introduction of technology-based learning platforms we have spent enough time carefully balancing the pros and cons of it. To clearly state the point that to imagine that a technocentric approach would magically solve all our problems would be like telling us that the tip of the iceberg is the end of the matter. We are rational enough to realize how foolish such an idea is.
The bombardment of information in such a huge manner which is the norm in edutech platforms where resource pooling is considered highly productive could sometimes result in information overload. This could overwhelm the brains of students. Also, the mad-race of moving from one task to another and especially when it is rewarded could really be stressful for slow-paced learners. But, then there are many technological tools that are also available for the diagnosis of the aforementioned issues. If we paint an overall picture, we find that what is needed is not a full-fledged acceptance and also not a full-fledged denial. What we really need is a carefully planned guidance program with suitable inputs like some targeted motivational quotes for students by exploiting the technology enabled feedback mechanisms to ensure that all the disadvantages are converted into advantages in a time bound manner. Technology is the reality of our times, it is high time we accept that. So, whatever harms there are to it need to be addressed instead of discarding the methodology altogether because we can’t for any longer deny the huge benefits it serves which are very few and hence can be easily tapped.
