e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Author: Michael Feldstein

  • Sakai OAE 1.0 Released

    I’m a little late reporting this, but the Sakai community has released the long-awaited 1.0 version of its Open Academic Environment platform (formerly known as Sakai 3). Here’s an overview:

    As you’ll see, it takes a very different approach from conventional LMSs. It doesn’t yet have some of the core features of an LMS either (e.g., grade book and test engine), but it clearly is useful today for certain kinds of academic collaboration needs and represents a promising direction. When you throw this in the mix with the new commercial entrants that Phil Hill blogged about recently, it adds up to really interesting times ahead in the LMS space.

  • Rethinking Assumptions: Part 2

    In my last post, I wrote about a new application category that has grown out of the need for textbook companies to re-imagine their traditional product for the Digital Age. I suggested that the perspective that these companies bring to digital learning environments contrasts markedly to those of traditional LMS developers. Consequently, they are bringing some novel approaches and innovation to the space. As you might imagine, content is at the heart of textbook publishers’ thinking, since it is at the heart of their business model. This post will specifically explore some of the wrinkles that textbook publishers face when educational content goes digital and how they are dealing with it in their platform designs.

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  • Rethinking Assumptions: Part 1

    I have long promised that I would clear some time to write about what I’m learning from my new job at Cengage. Well, finally, this post is my first installment. Coming at the design of digital learning environments from a textbook publisher’s perspective has been enlightening in several respects. First, in the world of the LMS, we have tended to start with a generic model and put all the specifics into what we tend to call the “long tail.” It’s important, but it’s still the tail. But for textbook publishers, the tail wags the dog, so to speak. We don’t just think about people who want to teach and learn. We start by thinking about teaching and learning English. Or math. Or world languages. Or music. It’s always quite specific. Second and relatedly, we don’t start by making a list of all the tools and activities that one needs for a class. We start from the content and then think about the tools and activities that are necessary to teach that content. Third, because textbook publishers generally sell to teachers and students rather than institutions, there is more of a focus on (wonder of wonders) teaching and learning. The institutional concerns are there, but the enterprise sale comes after delivering a quality educational experience. All too often, the dynamics of the LMS market put things the other way around. And finally, there is some advantage to coming late to the game and being able to start with a blank sheet of paper. So all in all, it’s a fascinating place to be. In this first post in the series, I’m going to talk about a basic change in orientation than undergirds some of the innovation we’re going to be seeing in digital learning environments over the next few years.

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  • On Innovation and Commodification

    I had a wonderful time at the Moodle Moot two weeks ago. Conferences for different LMSs tend to have very similar presentation types (how to migrate, tricks for making the grade book usable, great Web 2.0 tools that integrate with the platform, ways to improve training and help, etc.), but the crowds are different. Moodle Moots tend to be heavy with people who are very pedagogically focused and sophisticated. (They also, apparently, attract a high percentage of iPad owners.) Anyway, it was fun.

    One of the best parts of the experience was getting to spend time with David Wiley (who, in addition to being a pioneer and major driver of OER propagation, is also one of the truly great human beings in the field of educational technology). David and I had dinner the last night of the conference and got to talking about how textbook publishers are moving in the direction of developing platforms that go well beyond the book in terms of what they deliver to students, e.g., Cengage’s MindTap, Pearson’s MyLabs, etc. He asked me whether I think open source and open content could build something similar. I replied that the infrastructure being built around Khan Academy is a step in that direction. David mused that it must be frustrating for textbook publishers to face not only competition from other publishers but also the open content movement constantly working to undermine their business model. I didn’t give him a very good answer that night. This blog post is my attempt to formulate a better one.

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  • More Posts Coming Soon

    I know it’s been awfully quiet lately at e-Literate. That will change soon. As I previously noted, we will have some guests posts from Jim Farmer and Phil Hill. I am also delighted to announce that Kim Thanos will be joining us as a semi-regular guest poster for at least the next few months. Those of you who know Kim probably know that she is the consummate facilitator and is superb at eliciting insights from the people she speaks with. What you may not know, because she is so humble, is that she is also one of the keenest, shrewdest observers in the educational technology industry. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.

    My pace of blogging will also begin to pick up a little. I have tons to write about. My time is still pretty constrained, but my stamina is starting to adjust to this new pace of work, so I hope to be able to make a little more time for writing again.

  • The Blackboard Acquisition: Two Views

    As busy as I have been lately, I have tried to keep up on the various analyses of Blackboard’s acquisition by Providence Equity Partners, Inc. There seem to be two schools of thought. The first school, which seems to be getting the most play, is moderately negative for higher education. The second school, which I’ve seen gestured to in a few places here and there but never fully and clearly articulated, is neutral to positive for education.

    I honestly don’t know which of these analyses is more accurate. Both are grounded in the known behaviors and motivations of private equity firms like Providence. Neither is supported by a lot of publicly available information specific to this deal. But the facts will come. My goal with this post is to provide a framework through which the facts we learn in the future can be interpreted by comparing them to one hypothesis or the other.

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  • More Blackboard Acquisition Coverage Coming

    Jim Farmer tells me that I really should write at least one analysis post on the Blackboard acquisition myself. Since it’s Jim doing the asking, I’m going to do that. But I still don’t feel like I’m going to be able to do justice to an event of this magnitude. As a result, I will be pulling in some guest posters to get a range of opinions and analysis. Jim says he has another blog post in mind for the topic. We also will be hearing from Phil Hill of the Delta Initiative, and I’m working on lining up a couple of more people, although I don’t have anything to announce in that regard just yet.

    As always, I’m carefully hand-picking guest bloggers who I consistently learn from every time I talk to them. I’m not picking anybody based on what opinion I think I’ll get from them–in fact, in some cases I don’t know what opinion I’ll get from them–and I don’t censor my guests or require them to toe any editorial line. I just want to know what they’re thinking, so I’m giving them space to tell us. If this strategy works well and doesn’t eat up too much of my time, I may start doing it on a more regular basis.

    Anyway, stay tuned.