By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
As an eLearner, you may be mystified by the jargon that flies
your way. Granted, the people who are
generating the jargon do not seem be too dismayed by the strange, disorienting
language they are speaking, but for the average person, the vocabulary can be
very alienating. I've selected a few
terms that you'll probably encounter often, and I've related them to your
eLearning experience. My definitions
are not very technical, nor are they extensive.
However, they should be helpful to you.
Learning Management
System
A Learning Management System (or LMS) is a complex software
package that allows one to create a system for delivering course content while
simultaneously performing administrative tasks such as grade recording, e-mail,
registration, and records. Most learning management systems are web-based, and they
use complex programs that include numerous languages and protocols.
In many cases, the LMS is connected to relational databases (developed by
Oracle, for example), so that the student can register for classes, pay for
classes, check grades, purchase textbooks, visit the virtual library, and send
e-mail -- all with one common log-in.
Examples of currently popular learning management systems include:
Blackboard
WebCT (bought by
Blackboard, will change)
Desire2Learn (Canadian
company, currently being sued by Blackboard)
Angel (has content
developed by textbook companies resulting in ready-to-use course content, also
features an e-portfolio)
Moodle (open source - probably the most popular)
ATutor (easy to use, but
bland)
OLAT (Swiss, available in
14 languages)
Sakai (developed by a
consortium of universities and the Open Knowledge Initiative - OKI - was very
popular in 2004; one does not hear as much about it now)
M-Learning
M-Learning, which is short for mobile learning, refers to distance education
and training that is delivered by means of mobile devices such as mobile
phones, portable mp3 players, digital cameras, PDAs, and other items. A key feature of m-learning is portability
and "on-demand" access to instructional content.
Open Source Software
Open Source Software refers to
software in which the program or the code used to create the program is
"open," which is to say that it is not protected or encrypted. It can be modified by users, and is usually
available free of charge.
There are many types of Open Source
Software, mainly differing in the licensing term under which (altered) copies
of the source code may (or must be) redistributed.
Podcasting or
Pod-Casting
A form of audio blogging or
broadcasting using the Internet, podcasting is conceptually linked to
broadcasting, but is functionally related to the mp3 player, which can be an
iPod. The iPod is the digital audio player made by Apple computer, but
podcasting does not actually require the use of an iPod. In general, podcasts use mp3 files for the
audio.
Podcasting involves making one or more audio files available as
"enclosures" in an RSS or Atom feed. A pod-caster uploads
content to a place on a webserver. Then,
he or she creates a list of music, and/or other sound files (such as recorded
poetry, or "talk radio" material) and makes that list available in
the RSS 2.0 format. The list can then be obtained by other people using
various podcast "retriever" software which reads the feed and makes
the audio files available to digital audio devices (including, but not limited
to iPods) where users may then listen to them at their convenience.
Portal
Usually used as a marketing term to
describe a gateway site, or an organizer Web site that functions as the entry
point to various services and information gained through the Web. A
"Portal site" tends to include a list of web sites organized around
topics, a search engine, or both. A Portal site may also offer email and other
services to entice people to use that site as their main "point of
entry" to services, information,
and archives.
RSS -- (Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary or Really Simple
Syndication)
The first commonly adopted protocol
for sharing and syndicating web content.
It is often used to share and distribute the content of blogs. It is in XML and consists of an XML-based
summary of a web site, which allows at-a-glance updating and information
sharing.
There are RSS "feeds" which are sources of RSS information about web
sites, and RSS "readers" which read RSS feeds and display their
content to users.
RSS is being replaced by a newer, more complex protocol called Atom. In the meantime, new versions of RSS are
continuing to be released.
Social Network
Applications / Websites
The architecture of social network
sites resembles a gigantic web or net, but instead of consisting of evenly
spaced sites, it looks like an agglomeration of hubs and spokes. Each hub is a website, and the spokes are
connections to other websites, which are accessible through the website. What makes the social network powerful is the
fact that individuals can incorporate other people's lists of sites, and they
can subscribe to the lists, update address books, view profiles, and be
"introduced" to members of the network.
In order to be able to find out
what people have in common, it is usual for people to label themselves, or to
put "tags" on themselves in order to give a sense of how to classify
them. The lists of attributes are often
called "tags." Tagging has
been criticized for being inaccurate. It
has also been praised for allowing people to form interest groups and to form
connections across the globe that have to do with topics rather than
geographical proximity.
Wiki
Derived from the Hawaiian term for
"quick" or "speedy," a wiki is a collaborative approach to
building a database or a large body of shared, collectively built and edited
information. Perhaps the most famous "wiki" is wikipedia, which
contains entries on topics, and it allows anyone who has registered with wikipedia
to edit and add to entries. Often
criticized for being biased or incomplete, wikipedia is also credited for being
at least as accurate and inclusive as the average traditional encyclopedia.
XML -- (eXtensible Markup Language)
XML is beginning to replace the very simply HTML
because it allows one to have functionality with complex documents and data
structures. XML is often used with news
feeds, inventories, glossaries, inventory descriptions, real estate properties,
etc.
As long as a programmer has the XML schema or formatting protocol, they can
program different functions, and can work with processing data that fits within
the template or the schema.
[Listen to the companion podcast at:
http://community.elearners.com/blogs/inside_elearning/attachment/871.ashx - 4.2 MB]
Watch Susan!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8063795562472037046&hl=en