鈥淎 VLE would take too much time鈥�
鈥淲e’ve never used one before so we don鈥檛 need one鈥�
鈥淢y staff aren鈥檛 so confident with ICT so it鈥檚 not for us鈥�
Do these statements about Virtual Learning Environments聽sound familiar? I鈥檝e heard each of them countless times over the course of my teacher training, subsequent years as a teacher and especially as I鈥檝e delved into specialising in their usage.
It is very easy to label a VLE in the same way you would some unnecessary paperwork or a new fad dreamt up by a politician.
What if a VLE was labelled the same was as any other resource in the school resource cupboard? It becomes much more valuable and less scary when staff in school start to realise that a VLE is simply a tool that can be brought out when the occasion suits, which doesn’t have to keep chugging along behind everything you do, keeping everyone back at school an extra 30 minutes a day (even as 鈥榮omeone who knows鈥� about VLE鈥檚, I can think of a hundred things I鈥檇 be better off doing as a teacher than being sat behind a computer updating a VLE on my own at 5:30).
The weighing scales in the resource cupboard; do you use them every day? Every maths lesson? Even the counting blocks have their time and place. A VLE is no different. In exactly the same way that you decided to use a physical resource, a VLE can be picked up and dropped into the curriculum as and when it fits you as a teacher and your children as learners.
Perhaps you鈥檙e onto Report Writing this half term. It would be great to compare the difference in format between newspaper articles and website articles, and then have the pupils write their own on an online Portfolio. They can even then peer assess the articles right next to professionally written articles at the touch of a button. Then, say, next topic, you are studying Shape Poetry. It would be fantastic to LEAVE THE VLE OUT COMPLETELY! Shape Poetry can be so beautifully written on huge pieces of A3 paper and coloured more creatively than a computer can handle.
Therein lies the secret of VLEs. They are brilliant when you use them as any other tool in your cupboard. Learn their advantages and disadvantages. What advantage will a specific function give to your class and your lesson? That Wiki tool will be brilliant for the collaborative writing part of the next topic.
After all, would you really shoehorn the weighing scales and counting blocks into taking your registers? Teaching Shape Poetry? You could, but you鈥檒l hear 鈥淭hat could take too much time鈥�, 鈥淲e鈥檝e never done that before so we don鈥檛 need to鈥�, 鈥淢y staff aren’t confident in doing that so it鈥檚 not for us鈥�.
Related Webanywhere Pages
Here at Webanywhere we developed 糖心Vlog传媒聽a VLE which is developed by educators, for educators.
