I learn, you learn, we all learn with iLearn?

(apologies for posting this a bit late - computer problems and lack of computer access on a trip to New York prevented me from posting sooner, so without further ado...)

As I mentioned in class, what seems to be one of the main issues regarding my experience of iLearn is in its lack of aliveness I associate with the classroom experience. There is a deadness or a less dramatic sterility to communicating with other classmates and the teacher in an online forum, which only allows monologue entires that may or may not be acknowledged, or even read, in the disconnected and less urgent discussion forum that is iLearn. What I'm talking about is hard to argue for, since it is a discussion about the feeling I get when working in the iLearn universe, so it's hard to get specific about what this problem is. Is it unique only to my experience of iLearn as a specific type of person? It's arguable that I'm the type of student who savors interaction in live dialogue, who loves to feel the impact of a spontaneous instant response and likes to leave some of the same impact when sharing my own opinion. iLearn lacks this quality that I find in the classroom. Although this could be a complaint resulting from the specific type of person that I am, there is something to be said for the potential power of the academic atmosphere and that iLearn is an addition that does not enhance such qualities, but merely becomes a inessential supplement.

What I've noticed about iLearn is that the "conversations" professors have with their students is one that creates the tool as unapproachable, potentially useless, unnecessary, scary, etc. This, I believe, is the first problem in implementing more use of CMS. An embracing creativity is required by professors to make iLearn a matter of fact in the learning environment. As it stands, the problem becomes more about the people who are the access points to the tool, rather than the tool itself. I have had one professor who has used iLearn consistently, and in multiple capacities, in all my time at SFSU. The majority of my professors either don't acknowledge its existence, talk about it as if it were an "alien" technology, and maybe post one or two things to the site, but not enough to keep students using and checking it regularly.

But assuming a CMS like iLearn was used extensively in our school system, it must be acknowledged that it is merely the immature beginnings of what could potentially completely transform our classroom experience and our experience of school in total. I consider it a test. One of the first attempts, albeit a feeble one, to use technology to transform yet another societal structure.