Alan - Thanks! Rereading this post in the morning made me realize I shouldn’t be writing late at night. Lots of rambling, redundant and clumsy bits in there. Doh. I’ll leave it all in for posterity

I wasn’t meaning to advocate that schools adopt 2 LMS applications - I just used that as an example of what might be concluded if we start by looking at the needs and preferences of students and teachers, rather than starting with a multi-year contract with a single Big LMS Vendor. Maybe a single LMS will solve whatever clusters and groups that are identified. Maybe dropping the LMS altogether will. I have no idea. Not enough information at this time…

Can’t the chef just make a good meal or is it up to the individual to choose the portion size, pacing, food compliments and special sauce from the buffet.

Whether digital natives or not, some people feel they can make better decisions than the chef on how to prepare a meal - they will want the buffet.

My stomach still aches from the last time it was left up to me.

So this is not about food. This is about technology choices. How did the expression go, “Nobody ever got fired for choosing…… (insert large vendor here)”

To my mind this is where a lot of the problems take place. Nobody asked the chef, or there is no chef to ask. So people that know nothing about food or health walk up to the buffet and make decisions that they are not prepared, or otherwise, to make.

On a consumer level, I’ve had this same experience. Recently I went to purchase some new jeans, and was overwhelmed at how many varieties I had to choose form, and that I did not really understand the difference between say, Regular, Original, Relaxed, Slim, Straight, Boot Coot, Boot Cut Relaxed Levis. I can recall when there were 2- Levis and Wrangler. The same can be said for a number of items. At some point the value of having choice creates this wary disconnect of not being able to wrestle with choices.

Likewise, I agree with Jason that in design, there are a lot of wonderful things that happen when you need to create with a limited set of tools, rather than having everything form the warehouse. It puts the creative process where it belongs, in your mind, not in the hands of the tools.

I am not so sure if a choice of different LMS-es mean much to students– they are not as focused on what the tol can do per se as to what is provided for them to do their class work. I think we were aiming more to variety of systems that can provide a different set of opportunities, perhaps one system with more open ended writing tools. The best LMs is one that really does not draw attention to itself.

Keep up the great flow of posts!

http://headspacej.blogspot.com/2006/08/paradox-of-choice-and-usability.html