So the entire conversation about the drawbacks of the LMS as a solution for learning technology has got me thinking quite a bit about my own institution and program and choices we make in adopting certain technologies and not others. While I don’t want this to be about my institution because it’s not meant to be a criticism of my employer and their approach it is important to know where my perspective comes from. I work in a small rural institution that serves a large geographical area in northwest BC. Prior to the pandemic pivot we had very few courses offered on line. To pivot in the pandemic the majority of faculty upped their game in our LMS. We once hosted just grades and announcements there and now we had content and assignments and checklists. We added synchronous sessions with videoconference and at times some of us used outside apps to support the learning (flipgrid, polleverywhere, kahoot, google jamboards etc).

Our institution supports our LMS and a videostreaming service called Bluejeans.  This worked well to support the case for banning AI proctoring (see previous blog post Surveillance Presentation Preparation ) because one of the supporters of the ban noted that if the institution does not support the technology we cannot support instructors using it. However, our institution has not come up with any supports or recommendations outside of the LMS and videostreaming. Which makes me wonder about how institutions actually make choices in technology adoption and support. Certainly budgets come into that decision but what else?

Some initial thoughts about this are instituions must have some kind of process or framework for choosing what tech to support and what tech to recommend and I imagine this includes questions such as:

Does the technology require students to share their email or any personal information with the technology? If this is the case it’s a no from me.

Does this technology forward any of the learning opportunities the institutions says it is aligned with in their strategic plan? If yes , I would support the adoption.

Does this technology allow students to create a web presence to help them establish their career? If yes, I would support.

Does this technology adoption allows students to engage with 21st century learning skills in  a way that can also support the learning outcomes of their course or program? If yes, I would support.

This rabbit hole started because of Jolee Chan’s question about e-portfolios in a previous blog post (thanks Jolee) and then finding out my institution is in fact thinking about buying into an e-portfolio solution which led me to looking at SPLOTS (off track but still interesting) and a presentation for BC Campus that Brian Lamb hosted about them.  Brian led me to Liesel Knaack at North Island College who encourages and helps instructors develop e-portfolios for their students using wordpress and that’s where I am. This feels like a rabbit hole and yeah I know APA is not here (I’ll do it later) but I wanted to just start a record of this rabbit hole here. Maybe some of you will find our considerations are intersecting which is why I am posting this.