Self-Described 'EduPunk' Says Colleges Should Abandon Course-Management Systems - Nick DeSantis, Chronicle of Higher Ed

U. of Mary WashingtonLearning-management systems lure professors in with handy features, Jim Groom says, but in the end they limit the Web's possibilities for teaching. Enlarge Image Jim Groom doesn't hate learning-management software. But he's certain it doesn't make teaching any better. For Mr. Groom, an instructional-technology specialist, the features that attract professors in the first place—like grade books and quizzing tools—are traps that squash creativity and bury thorny issues like fair use. When professors try a learning-management system that promises to improve teaching, it "really encloses space, and it encloses the possibility of the Web," he says. Mr. Groom charges so-called open-learning management tools with co-opting the spirit of EduPunk, a term he coined to express the do-it-yourself ethos he champions. These days he avoids the word because he fears people were preoccupied with the label rather than its goals. He uses a new creative outlet instead.