Beyond Learning Management Systems

I received a collective email this morning with the following as a part of a forward. This transition is a part of our growth but with the growth comes growing pains and challenges.

Derek Keats wrote:
The concept of the learning MANAGEMENT system (LMS) as a contained environment for managing courses online is very 20th Century. At this time in the 21st Century, numerous learning opportunities exist outside the contained environment of the university, and many have called for personal learning environments (PLEs) as alternatives. Some have even suggested a mash up of web 2.0 tools be used, and institutional systems ignored altogether. Yet, institutions need LMS-like functionality even now. Here is where Chisimba's eLearning tools come into play. Chisimba can be configured as a fully functional eLearning environment with all of the functionality that you would expect in an institutional LMS, yet at the same time, it actively allows mashups with Web 2.0 content and functionality. For example, students and lecturers can use the blog as a personal learning environment, and integrate it with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others. Semantic web technologies, such as the Collecta realtime search can be incorporated, as can realtime updates of similar content from sites such as Twitter. Functionality provided by widgets, an increasing trend can easily be incorporated using very simple techniques such as 'filters.
Check out the following sites:
https://elearn.wits.ac.za
eteaching.uwc.ac.za
philippines.chisimba.com
cedp-courses.net

Prof Derek Keats, PhD
Deputy Vice Chancellor, Knowledge and Information Management
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
http://kim.wits.ac.za

Are we ready for this?