I’ve only just begun to explore Canvas so I have used Blackboard as my primary LMS, though when I was teaching classes in the teaching credential program at CSU Long Beach, I used Ning to show single-subject credential students to create learning modules for their Language Arts classes. Together, we were able to create some pretty awesome multimodal, interactive lessons and resource pages. But that was before those money-grubbing jerkfaces started charging for their site-building platform.
In reverting back to Blackboard, I only use the basics: announcements, discussion boards, but mostly posting files to the content folders. I guess with the lack of the “wow” factor (or maybe just my knowledge) of Blackboard features, I rely on making interactive PowerPoints/Prezi/Google docs that don’t tell students what to know but show them how to think about the material. So, for example, a PowerPoint might introduce a term/concept, provide a link to a Dave Chappelle skit for illustration, then ask what, how, why questions to get the analysis jumpstarted before they share thoughts in a discussion board or in a more formally submitted assignment. Essentially, this basic technology helps me to visualize my scaffolding, just as it provides students a model for brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, and revising ideas. In this way, content like the PowerPoint slideshows have proven to be a useful resource for mapping the question-based critical reading, writing, and thinking processes of our course without merely documenting answer-based content or formulas that would forego the necessity of actively attending class. (This is important because I find that a lot of students erroneously expect that they can review materials on Blackboard in lieu of attending class.)
Because my main pedagogical needs are, in the language of Warnock’s map, the delivery of course lessons, creation of audiovisual materials, and facilitation of group projects, I was most intrigued by Warnock’s mention of programs external to the LMS, such as Second Life and video games. Not being a gamer myself (though I’m always reading to throw down a round of Just Dance) the learning curve for incorporating these prospective technologies feels daunting because I would surely be the avatar continuously walking into a wall as non-virtual me struggles to remember which button does what. However, my husband who teaches at CSU-level is currently involved in a system-wide technology course redesign for which his grant is focused on developing video games expressly designed for writing and composition courses—all the more reason to prepare our students for such innovative uses of technology upon their transfer to local four-year universities.
When he delivered this nerd news, I immediately thought back to my little brother—now award-winning scientist savant—who struggled through school because of ESL issues that bred a general anxiety toward reading and writing. I coached him through these linguistic issues through the role-playing games in which he was so immersed. In co-playing these virtual narratives with him, I witnessed his development of not only vocabulary acquisition through engaging contexts, but also process-oriented critical thinking and rhetorical analysis as his verbal and physical responses to events in the game resulted in distinct consequences to his avatar. Indeed, before I severed all ties with the show (R.I.P. Glenn!), I tried my hand at playing The Walking Dead video game (all while my brother heckled me for my lack of dexterity and speed), and while “playing” I realized the great weight that every word I said bore on the unfolding events and my relationships with other characters in the game. This dialogue-centric game revolves around matters of audience and rhetoric. Interspersed, of course, with lots of blood and guts.

My brother’s critical thinking skills proved to be invaluable when he pursued a major and career in science, as many of our students will, because STEM courses must cover so much content there is rarely time for discussing ethics or critical thinking. As my brother told me upon his graduation from UCLA, “I have the scientific knowledge to build bombs and cook meth, but our classes never addressed why we should not do that.” Since then, video games have been used to develop skills central to our discipline: https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/01/16/gone-home-a-video-game-as-a-tool-for-teaching-critical-thinking/
Video game narratives are so much more developed now (and being written by graduates of legit video game-writing college degree programs) that I am intrigued by the possibility of incorporating such technologies as a branch off of whatever LMS in use. That is to say, I don’t see the LMS as being the primary tool for online education. Rather, the LMS is the launching pad from which students can develop their skills through external resources and activities we have crafted for them, anything on the spectrum from a PowerPoint to a video game. I envision students returning from their explorations to the LMS as a home base for reflecting upon their experiences on the branches of the technological learning tree. How can we explore possibilities for scaffolding technological branches such as reading- and writing-centered video games into our learning modules and our course narratives overall?
p.s. Warnock’s point about talking on the phone with students made me think about how the only person I use my phone to call is my mom. What has been more useful is a tool recommended to me when I taught at Fullerton College where many students did not have computer access—the Remind service that allows you to text students reminders and updates from a distinct number that keeps your personal number private. In case you’re interested: https://www.remind.com/
