An article in The Chronicle posted last month online, “Textbook Publishers Push to Provide Full Learning Experience,” posed an interesting question about the future of online teaching and learning: how immersive do we truly want our technology systems to be?
It is not a jump to say that, technologically, products which are designed to work together will likely be better integrated, easier to use, afford better joint support, and require less investment of time and energy (and thus, money) than individual products which have been bridged together by different companies. However, when considering a system like Flat World, a textbook publisher-cum-LMS creator, there is a question that has to be asked: is this, pedagogically, a good way to run an online education program? Additionally, how much room is there for growth and development with a system like this if it is intrinsically tied to a textbook that might not necessarily work for all or part of the faculty and students of a university?
As people who ride the line between technologically savvy and pedagogically sound (with some financially feasible tacked on for good measure), what are our thoughts about tech/text monopolies happening within the LMS playing field? Take to the comments and sound off!
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