Top 5...Reasons schools should stop paying for an LMS

1. Money is tight in schools. An LMS can cost thousands, some up front for a website and some ongoing costs.  

2. Integration. Integration is key in my world. If a website wants me to join and I can't use my Google account for single sign in, I look for an alternative. Sometime I cave in, but if I can avoid creating yet another username and password, I do at all costs. The same goes for LMS's and their lack of sign in options. Signing in is just the start, once in, I want students to access Google Drive, Evernote or Microsoft 360 in one click, If they have to upload everything, I am fast losing patience!  I can see that this may not be relavent for non-GAFE/360 schools, which begs the question - are they any non-GAFE/360 schools left??

3. Free and cheap alternatives exist. Some alternatives are much better. My favourite alternatives are Social Media tools, Google Sites, Evernote, Edmodo.com, Blogger, KidBlog and good old Wikispace! You may find that you need more than one of these tools to replace your LMS. 

I spent years mastering an LMS in a previous life. Then, like many teachers, I moved onto a new school that had a different LMS...and started the mastery again. How I wish that I could have mastered an open platform like Blogger and been able to take my skills with me into any new school, rather than being constrained by the limitations of a fixed system.

4. Student Management Systems (SMS) can/will communicate with parents without an LMS. A few years back the idea of having parents log in to view student data was appealing, and our trusty LMSs allowed this to happen, but why go to the trouble of integrating the two when you can go straight to the horses mouth in accessing through the SMS?

5. The Big Bad Wolf. LMSs talk a big game when it comes to 'security online'. The ship has passed on the idea that we need to lock our student in the 'kids internet' and assume they won't climb out the window into the 'real internet'. Netsafe and others focus has long been on education, and the false sense of security that teachers, parents and pupils get that an LMS is safe is concerning. Do teachers really think they will not venture out of all the content you have created within your LMS - and if my kids didn't venture out, I think I would be worried!

The questions that all schools need to ask is this. Why? Is it because our website is hosted with them? If so, I would suggest using a free tool like Weebly or Google Sites and talk to your community about their skills - you would be surprised at how many people would put together a website in their free time!