Andrew Chambers Weblog

Of early LMS systems and bits of string…

atscatsc — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:45:52 +0000

I remember a previous life and researching the early LMS systems. I seem to recall I found 6! WebCT was one of them, firstclass and topclass too. I seem to recall the pre-cursor of Blackboard, and a lotus product? I don’t know, I can’t remember. But WebCT 0.9 Beta stood out (It was known as Campus Edition then). So we went for it (with v1 of course). Actually the IT department went for it. And it worked. And it was real, real, basic – to say the least. Discussion, adding content, adding grades, making a homepage, maybe a few other tools. But we had one thing on our side. Distance Education. We couldn’t fail. And didn’t. It is still used in that place. Still alive, but of course upgraded and much changed. But I moved on (after 5 years). But alas no distance education. So how could such a tool be used??? It beat the heck out of me. For several years in fact. But I’m more sure of the direction, now having finally used it in teaching. Over 10 years consulting about it but with no real fundamental understanding of its use. How could I? Shame, shame…

More history… Before the web there was and there will always be…

atscatsc — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:29:54 +0000

The textual Internet. At least I guess that is what you would call it. Usenet, gophers, muds, moos, all sorts of strange things. I remember the immediate pre-cursor to web sites. It was very strange navigating by keyboard and not seeing pictures. And yet it was alluring.

I remember even attempting to write guides for academics on how they might use such services. It all seems so quaint now. I wonder if they ever used them? Or even understood what might be around the corner (I certainly had no idea). Still it was a first step. Small moves, small moves…

A re-awakening and a brief history of time…

atscatsc — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:49:43 +0000

It’s been a long time since I really last blogged. About 10 years. Before there were blogs there were people with skills who could edit web sites with their bare hands and a text editor. That is when I first started blogging. Only it wasn’t called blogging then. What made me do it? A drive to appear to be a know it all? Probably. To help people? Probably. I’m not sure I remember. So what did I blog about. Funnily enough educational technology. And that is the theme for this blog too. Only this time I do know what I am talking about

Stay tuned. My thoughts on Learning Management Systems and how these compare with Web 2 technologies may be worth reading about. Maybe.

Time will tell.

atscatsc — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:32:07 +0000

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Hello world!

atscatsc — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:46:01 +0000

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