Thread by @jrichea

A few thoughts (rant really) regarding the Brightspace decision & removal of Google Classroom from our online spaces. I've kept out of it because I just thought the decision would be reversed as sanity & logic prevailed. Apparently I was wrong...here's some thoughts [a thread]...

1st this debate has been ongoing for years now. I was in the tech resource teacher role way back when G Classroom was rolled out & did a lot of work in supporting Ts & Ss with both platforms. I honestly can't believe we're back here. But here we are & I'm shaking my head again..

Brightspace is a true LMS system that has a ton of functionality & options. It's meant for online learning and not necessarily blended like G Classroom. It also means that to use it there is so much to learn which is overwhelming & unnecessary for most...

Finding or doing anything requires 10 clicks & even then it may not be enough. As well the UX (this so matters!) is complicated & turns people off instantly. When it comes to the classroom it therefore means you can't do anything on the fly & must prepare well in advance...

It was developed for post-secondary as well which kinda works for secondary but doesn't at all for elementary. Imagine a grade 1/2/3/etc. on it... this thought makes me cringe every time. And yet elementary makes up 2/3 of our system as @tina_zita always reminds me 😜...

Secondary is only 4 grades out of a 13 grade system... why are we providing something that only kinda supports such a small portion? We don't do this for anything else, so why this? And if we are strong advocates for equity, this certainly is not it...

As well, anyone who's stepped foot in an elem classroom knows YOU CAN'T PLAN so far in advance & need the functionality to ADAPT & MODIFY on the fly... something Brightspace really isn't good at because it was NEVER meant to do this...

The other part is that Brightspace has always showed off features that "are coming... we promise" and yet never show up. I sat through presentations of "new features" which were just static photoshopped images of what may be possible and yet never deliver...

And so we would build pro learning 'courses' with the understanding of the features that were coming. Waited... waited... waited... and guess what? Never happened...

And so we as "experts" of the LMS, trained to help & support others and know tool inside & out also lost faith in brightspace. So how could we ever encourage classroom Ts to put their faith in trust in the same LMS?...

It also didn't help there was only ONE person at board level to support entire LMS system. Yes... ONE. So trying to get quick, immediate support was always difficult & slow which led to further frustration and opt out of the system...

And yet when people asks for updates & improvements on G Classroom these are done pretty quickly and are based on USER INPUT. This goes a long way in education... products that respond quickly to Ts are loved & loyalty follows...

So the question remains why? If we know it's not best for Ss, it doesn't serve the majority, it doesn't serve needs of Ts & Ss, it goes against the aspects of Empowering Modern Learners, etc., then why move back in this direction? ...

I hear the arguments for data & privacy and definitely agree... but that's not G Classroom. It is simply a 'shell' on top of Drive that makes it easy to do all the file sharing & distribution for Ts...

Therefore the concerns about data security should be directed at Drive, not classroom (well rest of G suite really). So it can't be about that otherwise entire suite would be shut down...

So only thought I have is that D2L has a contract to be exclusive LMS system and Classroom infringes upon that. It became bigger & more popular and now it's getting the boot... but that should be the case for all boards no? It signed contract with #onted not just Peel...

So I'm back to square one... it can't be data security/privacy, it can't be legal, it can't be about functionality, so what is it? I

I think all Ts & Ss have a right to know & complete transparency in this decision as we are the ones impacted. Burying it in 50+ page reopening plan was not a good look & further increases scrutiny & lack of trust in decision making...

So is this just another misinformed, illogical decision made by someone who doesn't understand importance of it in learning & further illustrates disconnect between those in classroom & those not? Or is there a justifiable, logical reason that we may not like but can understand.

Regardless... if the decision is enacted you will see a great reversal of Ts moving back offline. All the work done on incorporating tech into classroom will suffer. Just because brightspace is only LMS doesn't mean that it WILL be used. It won't. Plain & simple...

And for others, it will mean increased burden on trying to incorporate tech into classroom, developing own Sites to function similar to Classroom, and further digitally divide classrooms. This is not what we want in #onted.