Thinking aloud: MS Teams, Domain of One’s Own and EdTech

Darwin did not say "In evolutionary terms “specialisation” has often been said to be an evolutionary dead end; their lineages having reduced capacity to persist or diversify. Is this the fate then of some of the more specialist EdTech that is currently seen across education, and sometimes the corporate learning markets. "

Back in 08 Myself, Cormier and Stiles asked a question about virtual learning environments (VLEs). Extinction or Evolution? Some might have seen the question as a tautology, certainly at the time of writing we anticipated that the VLE of 10 years later would have evolved and changed and look very different, but have the same lineage. In the end the VLE hasn’t changed that much, I might also argue it hasn’t adapted either. But most of the digital platforms we see in education have.

I am seeing a trend where Microsoft Teams is gaining a lot of traction. Several Universities and Colleges have started to migrate toward a Microsoft only (although it appears to be a Microsoft mostly) offering for their learning environment. What MS Teams has done successfully is made itself into a hub, and through its API, third party tools such as plagiarism detection, content streaming, e-submission etc, which can be used as stand alone tools are now accessed through Teams.

Because of this approach centering integration, I have witnessed discussion (Twitter, EdTech events, Forums) about whether Microsoft Teams is a replacement for the VLE or learning management system (LMS), and for a while I have been trying to think about that question and come up with an answer.  Itt turns out that it’s the wrong question.

Some VLEs have already built an integration into Teams, and some institutions have  recognised that the primary role of their existing VLE is a content repository so the implementation of that integration makes a lot of sense. (Of course leaving aside the very distinct possibility that someone will be taking their content out of one drive to move it to the VLE which will be accessed from teams –  one of those steps just might not be necessary!) But it is not a case of choosing between Teams or the VLE. What Teams highlights for me is the move toward more integrated thinking around digital, and this focus on integration has left us with something that, when we step back, could be used as a VLE. The way an empty building could be used as a school. For me I think of Teams as a digital ecosystem, or at least that seems to be the direction of travel. Where the VLE is bounded and constrained, Teams doesn’t have to be. Furthermore a lot of the configuration is in the hands of the user.

Let’s look briefly at why an institution might start using Teams as a learning platform with students. There are probably reasons, such as cost and support, technical and operational as to why the institution would like it. But one reason stands out to me; it is going to be part of the students’ skill set when they graduate. As we wrote back in 2008:

…it could be argued that, in the context of developing students who draw on a broad range of experiences, encouraging them to think more holistically about their education in the context of their own future development, the application of a bounded, modularised and time-limited system, such as many VLEs, is counterproductive to the skills they will need to develop to keep a portfolio to support learning in their future careers.

Or as we say later – no student graduates and is grateful that they know how to use <insert name of your VLE>. In addition, not only are they able to use the common tools of the workplace – all of their work will also be easily transferable and accessible to them.

So if the question is not “Teams or the VLE?” what is it?

Perhaps a more appropriate question then is “should we go down the Domain of One’s Own ecosystem route or the Enterprise ecosystem (Teams) route?”

What is Domain of One’s Own (or Domains as many refer to it)? Audrey Watters describes it eloquently: 

the Domains initiative provides students and faculty [staff] with their own Web domain. It isn’t simply a blog or a bit of Web space and storage at the school’s dot-edu, but their own domain — the dot com (or dot net, etc) of the student’s choosing. The school facilitates the purchase of the domain; it helps with installation of WordPress and other open source software; it offers both technical and instructional support; and it hosts the site until graduation when domain ownership is transferred to the student.

And then — contrary to what happens at most schools, where a student’s work exists only inside a learning management system and cannot be accessed once the semester is over — the domain and all its content are the student’s to take with them. It is, after all, their education, their intellectual development, their work.

But even this framing I have been playing with, MS Teams vs Domains, is a false dichotomy. If we are to prepare students effectively then we need to recognise that they should be exposed to a blend of enterprise and Web-based tools. The amount may vary depending on the student but a well prepared graduate must be able to make choices about their digital workflows in their futures.

We should show progression in how we work digitally with students, not just showing them the utility of the tools available to them, but help them develop their approaches to digital, how they engage with the tools and how they engage with other humans through the medium of digital. Enterprise tools can build a student’s confidence and capability, and when they are ready we should further enable their own digital journey, giving them the capacity to experiment and explore other tools, for example through a Domains approach.

Diagram showiming a mix of Teams and Domain's

Dave Cormier talks about “education in a time of abundance”; we live in a time of abundance of information, of data, of potential connections. For education, for students, our digital platforms and ecosystems need to be more porous. We need to bring data and information in, and we need to get data and information out. Combining enterprise solutions, such as Teams, and web as platform approaches, such as Domain’s is a way of better preparing our students for working in a world dominated by digital.

For many years we have been striving to connect the VLE, e-portfolios, and other elements of EdTech, trying to “sell” a solution to a problem of our own making – “how can students access their information and data once they graduate?” I am starting to think that a combination of, for example, Teams and Domains might help us produce a graduate well-rounded and able to make sense of this digital world. And if we support them in how they gain knowledge about digital, support them in how they connect and communicate, we can also help them to realise a pro-social web.

As for many aspects of EdTech, I think it is worth thinking of them in a Darwinian mindset. In evolutionary terms “specialisation” has often been said to be an evolutionary dead end; their lineages having reduced capacity to persist or diversify. For some of the more specialist EdTech that is currently seen across education, and sometimes the corporate learning markets, one needs to consider if they are at that evolutionary dead end.

86 comments

  1. Is MS Teams the IFTTT of education that we explored as part of this report you led?

    http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/6845/1/JR0090B_NDGLE_REPORT_EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY_SINGLE_PAGE_MAY18.pdf

    1. No, but yes, maybe… I think when we worked on that we were looking for a “hub” that tools like IFTTT and Zapier could link through to. And if I remember correctly you tried to do something similar with the institutional VLE but had problems with the APIs? I know that Zapier integrates with teams and so you can set up “zaps” between web services and Teams, but I don’t think IFTTT does (yet). Also an IFTTT/Zapier like tool exists within O365 called Microsoft Flow. I think Teams is approaching some of the things we discussed in the report, for example providing a hub, or platform where you could use APIs to loosly couple services together and see them in one place – I’m still experimenting with this and looking to hear from people doing the same thing.

  2. Helen Clare says:

    Interesting question. Just starting a project and a key task is to select a learning platform… think that task is not as straightforward as it seems! May need to pick your brains…

  3. Simon says:

    Isn’t the ultimate dream is that it’s just education? However, I think Edtech as a research domain will always remain because it specifically explores the relationship between education & technology.

  4. Lawrie says:

    I really don’t know. And as a research domain, technology used in education is fine. I think “EdTech Industry” is another proposition.

  5. Lawrie says:

    I wonder also as we move toward @davecormier ’s vision of post-digital – is there actually a role of EdTech’s or learning techs?

  6. Tom Davey says:

    Any instrument can be a tool for learning. But I think there’s absolutely space for things to be designed with learning outcomes in mind (as opposed to building learning experiences out of existing tooling). (Nope, even I can’t tell if I’m answering your question!)

  7. Simon says:

    Who’s to say MSTeams isn’t EdTech? MSoft clearly has a strategy for education, just because the tech might be used elsewhere first doesn’t not make it EdTech – after all it has edu specific features. So I guess I’m suggesting EdTech industry will remain whilst it’s profitable?

  8. Simon says:

    I think “we” (the community involved in EdTech) might be ready to discuss post-digital but some of our education colleagues are still at pre-digital.


  9. Lawrie says:

    But isn’t the edtech industry a neoliberal construct? And it also might be a passing phase as we move toward postdigital education.

  10. Lawrie says:

    But i wonder how much of our ownership of the EdTech agenda is holding back their progress….

  11. Tom Davey says:

    I think the framing of Edtech Industry could be quite useful in the current climate (where technology is driven to fulfil *very* different, usually hidden and not society-centred outcomes). Again, I’m probably answering a different question.


  12. dave cormier says:

    I don’t know anyone who owns the EdTech agenda, except where i’ve met people who run publishing companies and major vendor companies.


  13. Lawrie says:

    Which are invested in its own existence

  14. Lawrie says:

    So in the current paradigm are those who work in EdTech (in HEIs) working to exploit the niche, or move the sector on to a new paradigm

  15. Simon says:

    Looking back at your original question – I suppose we might be moving to a position where technology is not ‘solely’ developed for Education but used more widely across our life experiences. could we then argue it’s not specifically edtech and not labelled as such? – not sure.

  16. Lawrie says:

    Or as we sometimes call it #Tech

  17. Simon says:

    Ooh good question. Diplomatically I’d say that depends on the service/department within which these self identified “edtech” people sit.

  18. Happy to talk. @AppleZac and @SumpterJohn will have loads of good thoughts on VLEs.


  19. And that. Although I suspect I know what this is about and the VLE model may be more appropriate.




  20. Zac Gribble says:

    Yep, always happy to chat 🙂




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