7 Things You Should Know About NGDLE

The EDUCAUSE "7 Things" series is useful for quick information on educational buzzwords and tips on edutech trends. Last month they published 7 Things You Should Know About NGDLE, an acronym I was unfamiliar with, which stands for next generation digital learning environment. It says in the blurb "NGDLE is conceived as an ecosystem—a learning environment consisting of learning tools and components that adhere to common standards. While the traditional LMS provides administrative functions, the NGDLE is intended to directly support learning. To do this, next-generation environments must address five dimensions: interoperability and integration; personalization; analytics, advising, and learning assessment; collaboration; and accessibility and universal design. The NGDLE is conceived as both an ecosystem and a mind-set that will allow students and instructors to benefit from the full range of developments in higher education." and in the short document itself "The NGDLE concept seeks a balance between the openness of learning and the need for coherence in the environment."
This does seem to me difficult to achieve: wanting to take the richness of drawing on the huge number of cloud-based applications that educators and learners may be using nowadays and scrunch it into a system which is integrated and montitored (so you can get the analytics people obsess over).  Hmmm http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-ngdle
Photo by Sheila Webber: Freddie, January 2016