Last Week I Learned... Canvas and iTunesU

This semester at Columbia I am facilitating two courses with two different course management systems. At Columbia's School for Professional Studies, we're using the Canvas LMS. At Teachers College, we're using iTunesU. It's actually been quite helpful to be working in theses systems in parallel and understanding the affordances and limitations of each system, especially when viewed through the lens of teaching and course style. Right now I am definitely enjoying the iTunesU aspect more as it is challenging me to be more creative with how not only the platform but the tool that it runs on (the iPad) is used in the design of activities and sharing of materials. With Canvas, it is required to think of the "lowest common denominator" as far as what else students might have access to (a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, an internet browser, and not much else).