LMS teaching versus Community Learning: a call for the latter
Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics
ISSN: 1355-5855
Article publication date: 2 November 2012
Abstract
Purpose
Unlike Sisyphus – condemned by Zeus to an eternity of perpetually rolling a massive boulder uphill only for the boulder to roll back down – universities, students and academics seem destined to educational technology experiences ranging from futile and frustrating to effective and engaging. As technology evolves, related costs, applications, interoperability and purposes evolve – as do the students. The purpose of this paper is to propose two contrasting ideologies of technology‐mediated education, LMS teaching and Community Learning, to question the inexorable march towards the former.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach used is a literature review and case study.
Findings
Most traditional universities would embrace a Community Learning ideology, yet many of these same universities practice LMS teaching. This paper draws on the literature to contrast these two technology‐mediated learning ideologies, and argue for Community Learning. These contrary ideologies help administrators and academics reflect upon, and then align institutional ideologies with their educational pedagogy and technology. The paper includes a short case study to illustrate aspects of Community Learning, a few simple ideas for shifting towards Community Learning and future research avenues.
Originality/value
This paper answers calls for critical discourse of effective educational technology use, particularly LMS technology, and adds to a nascent research field that uses ideologies to help explain technology consumption. In addition, this is one of a few papers that reviews social media as a learning management system.
Keywords
Citation
Murphy, J. (2012), "LMS teaching versus Community Learning: a call for the latter", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 826-841. https://doi.org/10.1108/13555851211278529
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited