I think, as others have already commented, the challenge now is to come up with the “eduglue” that can help average, mortal (non-Jim Groom) teachers create their own loosely-coupled learning suites. Maybe that moves us dangerously back in the direction of out-of-the-box, one-size-fits-all learning “systems,” but we have to find a way to strike the right balance between the wide-open world of the the interwebs and monolithic, enterprise tools. WPMU is a great example of how to do that. What other ways can we bridge the gap?

I think we agree; I’m just not being clear.

What I’m saying is, in a digital world, there is necessarily something that captures/stores the learning that happens. It doesn’t — and I would agree with you, it *shouldn’t* — be a formal LMS such as BB.

But whether you use a blog or Drupal or whatever, it is impossible to replicate the “ether-ness” of a classroom discussion online. Our online discussions have to persist in some sort of database (unless you’re maybe talking about using a chat system, but even then, if I was in that class, I’d be storing all the chats for later reference.)

Re: the lesson plans, don’t profs have a syllabus? Don’t they plan each lecture? That in itself seems like a management process.

That’s all I’m saying — I’m trying to make a very general point, and probably I’m doing a poor job of being clear about it. But using Drupal for a class seems to me like a system for managing learning. A very flexible one, but it’s still something that “captures” learning.

If we got rid of the expensive, proprietary, closed-source LMS, wouldn’t we have enough to hire a Jim Groom clone at each campus? Maybe even two clones, one to support a WPMU model (or the like) and one to support an open-source LMS for those who prefer that option.

At least until the invention of eduglu.