Today livemocha, tomorrow liveFigaro?

The web 2.0 and online and digital media capabilities enhancing education are part of what is generally called e-learning. A learning management system (LMS) is “software for delivering, tracking and managing training/education” (Wikipedia, E-Learning). The benefits of such a system are improved performance, and increased access and convenience for the learner, among others.

One such system that highlights these attributes is the Blackboard Inc. LMS, which claims to “engage and access learners at all levels.” The increased flexibility of what lessons to engage in, repeating lessons, and tracking student progress, can create a revolutionary type of learning that really personalizes education to a point never before possible. With average 34 students in a NYC public school classroom (when I was in high school) the teacher has to move somewhere around the speed of the middle of the class in order to engage the greatest number of students. A program that can enable additional learning opportunities can engage students who are ready to move faster, and allow repeated lessons and tracking of students at the bottom class to make sure that they aren’t left behind. Blackboard’s site says: “In fact, according to the 2008 America’s Digital Schools research summary, credit recovery ranks as the most widespread use of learning management systems.”

These systems can also bring entirely new courses to schools that do not have the faculty to offer advanced courses or additional foreign language courses. It also claims that classes that are fully online are the "same rigor" as normal AP classes. However, when it comes to foreign language learning it appears that “blended learning” (online plus in person) is favored. This is not surprising, as it is generally acknowledged that being thrown into a country and being surrounded by only the foreign language is usually the fastest way to learn a new language. Sites such as livemocha have taken the “blended learning” idea to a new level combining its lessons with a web 2.0 social media environment where you can communicate with people from all over the world using instant message, audio, and video. These help bring the in-person aspects needed to learn a language available through online systems, and certainly suggest that this could be replicated with some art forms, perhaps vocal training that relies on audio and visual? However, it does not appear that there are sites with the same interactivity as livemocha yet for voice lessons, except for maybe Jeannie Deva but she’s “so sensitive to a singer’s voice that she can tell what the singer is doing just by listening. She doesn’t need to see the singer standing in front of her to know exactly what muscles they are tensing or what they are doing wrong if their voice doesn't sound good. She can tell just by listening to their vocal sound” (jeanniedeva.com). But language is also based on the muscles of the face, use of lips, tongue, breathe, throat, voice, etc., and if language can be taught via audio and video of the internet, then shouldn't voice lessons be possible as well?