1. TECHNOLOGY AS PEDAGOGY
The Rhetorics of Course and Learning Management Systems
Andrea L. Beaudin | andrea.beaudin@ttu.edu
TexasTech University

2. Interest:
• Influence of technology, especially mandated technology, on
pedagogy and student-instructor interaction
• Larger issue of academic freedom
Research:
• Part of more extensive study rhetorically analyzing assumptions
inherent to specific CMSs / LMSs
• Analysis of the CMS/LMS and its implications for education (on the
micro and macro levels)
Rationale

3. Overview
•DefiningConcepts
•Theories ofTechnology and Human Interaction
•CMS/LMS as Rhetoric
•Applications
•Reverberations

4. Defining Concepts

5. What are CMSs/LMSs used for?
a) transmitting course content
b) evaluating students
c) evaluating courses and instructors
d) creating class discussions
e) creating computer-based instruction
(Malikowski,Thompson, &Theis, 2007, p.167).
Defining Concepts

6. CMS vs. LMS
both “manage courses, deliver content to learners,
conduct learning activities, and evaluate learning
outcomes,” but LMSs “are designed with the learner
in mind and promote a focus on the learner in
addition to the content” (Roqueta, 2008, p.59).
Defining Concepts

7. Technology and Human Interaction

8. Dominant views:
• determinism (technology drives culture) (Ellul; Kurzweil)
• constructivism (society drives technology) (Pinch and Bijker)
Most of these theories hold at their foundations concerns about
POWER.
Technology and Human Interaction

9. Andrew Feenberg: “technological hegemony”:
• “hegemony”: "form of domination so deeply rooted in social
life that it seems natural" (657)
“The narrow focus of modern technology meets
the needs of a particular hegemony; it is not a
metaphysical condition.” (663)
Technology and Human Interaction

10. Are CMS/LMSs tools of technological
hegemony?
CMS/LMS as Rhetoric

11. LMS are not pedagogically neutral technologies,
but rather, through their very design, they
influence and design teaching. As the systems
become more incorporated into everyday
academic practices, they will work to shape and
even define teachers' imaginations, expectations
and behaviours.
Coates and Baldwin, 2005, 27
CMS/LMS as Rhetoric

12. Any serious advocate of e-learning as a vehicle
for pedagogical transformation will need to
confront and resolve the inherent conflict
between order and creativity, between the
checklist-based quality of observable outputs
(“content”) and the qualitative evaluation of
teaching and learning quality, and between
autonomy and independence on the one hand
and regulation and control on the other.
Wise and Quealy, 2006, pp. 904-905
CMS/LMS as Rhetoric

13. Applications

14. “The Blackboard Learn Content Management module is
the only academic solution that provides true document management
capabilities … Users can access files from anywhere, anytime. And they’ll be
able to collaborate better—without involving the technology staff.This
module will improve:
Efficiency: Save educators time with centralized management of course
materials used across multiple courses, sections or departments...
Quality and Consistency: Improve curriculum on every level through
centralized management and distribution of curriculum resources.
Collaboration: Promote user-driven collaboration and sharing within and
outside the institution, school or district.
Return on Investment: Rely on one easy-to-use, flexible solution that meets
academic, general content management, and collaboration needs across
your organization.”
Blackboard, Inc., 2011
Applications

15. “Social ConstructionistView”
• “All of us are potential teachers as well as learners - in a true collaborative
environment …
• We learn particularly well from the act of creating or expressing something
for others to see…
• We learn a lot by just observing the activity of our peers…
• By understanding the contexts of others, we can teach in a more
transformational way (constructivism)…
• A learning environment needs to be flexible and adaptable, so that it can
quickly respond to the needs of the participants within it.
Combining all the above, if you as a learning facilitator want to take advantage of
your growing knowledge about your participants, giving them tailored opportunities
to share ideas, ask questions and express their knowledge, then you need an
environment which is flexible, both in time and space.”
Moodle, 2011
Applications

16. Integration and Community
“TheWriting Studio provides an interactive, online space that supports writers,
writing classes, and writing groups. “
•“To help you as you write...”
•“To support writing classes, the Studio offers a course management system that
includes most of the tools found in commercial systems -- as well as wikis,
ePortfolios, blogs, and other tools that support the learning and teaching of
writing.”
•“To support writing groups...”
•“To help you share your work with others, the Studio offers blogs, wikis, and
ePortfolios -- as well as a robust course management system.The blogs, wikis, and
ePortfolio tools can be used within courses or on their own, and you can decide
whether to share them with others. Depending on your preferences, all of your work
can be completely private (or at least as private as anything can be on theWeb),
shared with only a handful of others, or open to the world.
•“To help you learn to write...”
Writing Studio, 2012
Applications

17. Considerations for further study:
• Close analysis of specific LMSs and how they
construct relationships, interaction, and theories
of learning
• Case studies of instructors evaluating how
pedagogy affected by method of course delivery
• Research into implications for academic freedom
• Analysis of how CMSs affect conceptualization of
education
Reverberations

18. Presentation PDF available at
http://bit.ly/GJ8vsR

19. Blackboard, Inc. (2011). Blackboard Learn: Products. Blackboard. Retrieved
December 1, 2011, from
http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Products/Blackboard-
Learn/Teaching-and-Learning/New-to-Learn/Content-Management.aspx
Feenberg, A. (2003). Democratic Rationalization:Technology, Power, and
Freedom. In R. Scharff &V. Dusek (Eds.), Philosophy of technology (pp. 652-
665). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Malikowski, S. R.,Thompson, M. E., &Theis, J. G. (2007). A Model for Research
into Course Management Systems: BridgingTechnology and Learning
Theory. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 36(2), 149-173.
Moodle. (2011, October 21). Pedagogy - MoodleDocs. Moodle. Retrieved
December 1, 2011, from http://docs.moodle.org/21/en/Pedagogy
Roqueta, M. (2008). Learning management systems. Distance learning, 5(4), 59-
66.
Writing@CSU. (2012). About the Writing Studio Project. Writing@CSU.
Retrieved March 23, 2012, from
http://writing.colostate.edu/about/studio.cfm
References