Written on 20:18 by Unknown
I cant believe i am writing this post! I am a big advocate of the traditional VLE and have long since seen the deeper benefit of a carefully managed resource to help enhance teaching, learning and assessment. As a student myself I have seen other VLE's in action and also my job affords me the luxury of seeing other efforts across the region. I like the fact that you can manipulate the platform to meet your needs and use a variety of tools to better improve the features offered such as quizzes, online lessons and good integration with videos, photos and HTML etc.
But this is the problem. To better improve. As a lecturer and living in a fast moving technology based world I don't want better, I want best and I want it now! Furthermore the time and effort and potential cost put into shaping this environment is vast and generally creates a 'Marmite' type of appreciation. VLE's divide staff teams and also does not offer a consistent approach for learners and its no surprise that Ofsted have started to chip away at the value of VLE's and have released an E-Portfolio of their findings from the past 3 years. It can
be found here.
One of my biggest challenges is motivting staff to use a VLE in a constructive, active and participate way and also asking learners to buy-in on that journey too. Surely there must be and easier way and this is why i propose the question 'VLE or not to VLE?
I could be here forever discussing the range of fantastic free resources for e-learning that are available on the web, that can be used in better ways than those present on a VLE. Google Docs for instance can be used in dozens of collaborative and sharing ways which resolves issues about sharing documents with learners. Furthermore it allows use of easily created forms which can be adapted into quizzes and populated to a spreadsheet for tracking purposes. If sharing resources is a must then Dropbox or Google Drive is of real benefit and if you want to share videos then uploading content onto Youtube and embedding on a group page is a must. Let's not forget Flickr, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook to name but a few that will allow you to create a dialogue with your learners. Other pages like Slideshare, Prezi and Animoto give a tutor the platform for presenting lesson content and as with many of the aforementioned they are also available on most main mobile devices and operating systems. With free web-hosting or running a web-server, hosting other packages is breeze too.
In short, times have moved on and perhaps the time of the VLE has come and gone. Its successor, 'The Cloud' has made it's battle cry, loud and clear. Perhaps as we increasingly live life in the cloud, its time for institutions to make that leap?
Posted in
e-learning,
educaton,
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moodle,
ofsted,
vle
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Written on 08:41 by Unknown
Blogging Fresh Approach or Stale Ideas?
Blogging has had an epidemic rise in interest of late and everyone seems
to be contributing their ideas and thoughts to a growing social media
community. People blog about games, technology, education, flowers, Lego, cars, the latest products and so on. Retailers are now also using
blogs effectively to add new advertising and promotional properties to
their business without getting their hands dirty to speak. Instead they
rely on an ever willing fan base of bloggers who's reward for promoting
the company is products or its monetary equivalent. If you are
unfamiliar with blogging please check out these guides:
With this shift to online commentary it would be apt that our learners
embraced the blogging revolution as necessary part of their e-education.
I have used blogs in my teaching and learning in several different ways
including online diaries, personal research, staff development and this
e-learning blog and with the range of blogging platforms available today
and the perks of social media compatibility, there are opportunities to
use blogs for many more educational reasons. Here is a sample with some
associated pros and cons.
Research
Blogs offer a wealth of information to whoever should access them. With
blogs that are tagged you will be surprised to find interesting articles
that perhaps you never thought might fit your research. They are a
great way to find reviews of websites or resources or simply to view another persons ideas about something you are passionate about.
Generally the more professional blogs are linked to or hosted on their
own servers and can lead you to a whole new range of e-resources and
online commentary.
In a twist you could encourage your Learners to use a blog as their own
research journal where they post and share their own research findings.
This way it offers greater evidence of work and when the work was
discovered. Tis can be of benefit when logging a learning journey.
Group Blog
In the past my Learners have completed group projects sometimes as a
larger group and occasionally in smaller sub groups. A blog offers an
opportunity for the Learners to create and online account of the project
from its inception right up to completion. Because blogs allow
embedding of pictures, videos and other media they are great for making a
simple account of what they did that day into something more attractive
and meaningful. Furthermore blogs such as Blogster (other good
platforms available!) offer fantastic connectivity with a range of
services like YouTube, Google+, Picasa, Twitter and Facebook. This
allows Learners to easily access advanced features with little knowledge
and also offers great opportunities for promotion. This in itself
introduces questions about Safeguarding and E-Safety but many of the
major platforms have excellent privacy controls and blogs can be limited
in their access. Finally most of the platforms have smartphone and
tablet apps so blogs can be accessed and posts made literally from
anywhere at any time, perfect if you encourage your Learners to bring
and use their own devices.
Community Hub
This blog is edited and maintained by three like minded authors who
share a common interest in e-learning in education. Many blogs form
parts of communities such as Parenting of DIY. In these communities
there may be several groups of people that blog about particular topics
and generally share ideas with other bloggers. The more popular blogs
may receive some financial backing and thus offer competitors or rewards
for offering your ideas. With education blogs like this, one interacts
with like minded groups of people that share and comment on the blog
postings which in turn offers great opportunities for expanding learning
and is another way of linking with subject specialists. Similar to the
group blog, whole course groups could interact with a community blog
provided by the course leaders or a chosen few from across the year
group. This is a great way to evaluate learning opportunities with a
greater emphasis on qualitative data that can be achieved in an informal
and anonymous way. Again with the correct social media interaction the
community can be increased from a course group to a whole subject area
across the whole world, excellent for distance learning and diverse
learning groups.
Hopefully this overview has been helpful for some simple uses of blogs
in education. There are however still pros and cons to using blogs and
the choice to use them must be informed by the need of the Learners and
the subject content being appropriate.
Pros
Blogs can offer Lots of information but in bite size chunks
Connect to like minded individuals
The better blogs are updated regularly
Great social media connectivity
Good safeguarding and e safety controls
Accessible by many devices.
Cons
Validity of information can be an issue in higher level work
Most blogs are Opinion not fact unless research based
Some blogs may be run for profit so offer incentives to become involved which can lead to spam and sharing your details.
Monitoring larger or several individual blogs can be time consuming.
Learners need to learn online etiquette before posting to prevent slander and abuse.
Posted in
blogging,
educaton,
elearning,
facebook,
Technology,
twitter
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