The follow-up activity this week is to reflect on our knowledge and views of learning communities.
From a teacher’s perspective there are many advantages to VLEs becoming more widely used. The main selling point is the accessibility of VLEs such as Fronter or Moodle. By having the resources, instructions and the chance for assessment of the children online through the internet and the web, teachers can set homework and/or classwork that is readily available to the class. Whilst working in a Primary School through my job and on BSE, I observed the prior approach used by most teachers of giving a physical copy of the homework for children to complete. One recurring problem became apparent when children forget to bring the physical copy back into school to hand in. Whereas when teachers use a VLE to set homework, it could be something uploaded and handed in online; this then eliminates the situation of “I did my homework, but I left it at home”.
Children may also enjoy using VLEs for the ease of accessibility because all the resources and teacher’s instructions are online and can be referred back to at any time. This makes it easier for children to understand the task and enables parents/carers to have a grip on what the children’s homework/classwork is at any time throughout the school year. Also, as most of us have done homework and honestly forgotten it, some children may appreciate the use of a VLE to avoid the stress of scourging through their school bag looking for homework could now be a thing of the past.
However, VLEs may not be the best option for everyone or every school. As teachers will need to learn how to use a VLE, some may be nervous about involving computers when they have been handing out homework physically for years. Also, not all VLEs are created equal; some may be very clunky and difficult to edit and adapt to suit your class. The BBC has done research and found schools to support the evidence that some VLEs to be clunky, but some believe it opens valuable communication between school and home (2010).
Children may not like using VLEs either. For example, similarly to teachers as some VLEs are hard to use, children could have issue uploading or downloading homework/classwork from home. Also, even though it is 2016, some children may not have consistent access to the internet and the web away from school. Another issue raised by Barber & Cooper (2012) is the opinion that using computers and the internet is likely to been used at home for leisure and switching that focus to appropriate use for educational purposes is a challenge for schools.
Personally I love the idea of using VLEs in my future classroom as I prefer involving technology wherever I can to make my life simpler. Some of the barriers to using VLEs I believe can be avoided if the school trials the software first before deciding which is best for them. Additionally, by giving teachers an input to what they want from the VLE will avoid some of the pitfalls and allow them to see the benefits to using one. Selwyn (2011) argues technology-based education is seen to provide a more conductive way to facilitate the informal, collective and communal forms of learning which many educationalists believe to be important.
Video URL – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hltvryZ-Llc
For more information on how to use Moodle – [embeddoc url=”https://eportfolios.roehampton.ac.uk/linfootj/files/2016/10/using_moodle_2e-19dialr.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]
References:
BBC (2010) Why you should use a Virtual Learning Environment, accessible here: http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/WhyyoushoulduseaVirtualLearningEnvironment.aspx
Barber, D. & Cooper, L. (2012) Using New Web Tools in the Primary Classroom, London: Routledge
Cole, J. & Foster, H. (2008) Using Moodle, 2nd Edition (first edition published 2005), Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media Inc.
Selwyn, N. (2011) Education and Technology, London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
YouTube video (2014) Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), accessible here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hltvryZ-Llc
You mentioned some poor characteristics of a VLE that may hinder how successfully a child may engage and use this online platform. What are your opinions of what makes a good VLE and which ones would you consider including into your google classroom?
I believe if the VLE environment is a welcoming one in which children can assess one another’s learning and their peers assess them, then children are going to want to use it. The setup and introduction to children for them to use any VLE is a crucial aspect, just as continued feedback would do the same to encourage them.
Did you see any VLE’s at BETT that you would be interested in using in the future?
I talked to someone on the Google Classroom stand and they said about they were in progress of adding features, but would not tell me exactly what! I also went along to the 2Simple stand because my BSE school were using this in the Year 1 classroom I was working in. They spoke about what you could do with Purple Mash and I was interested to hear about 2Code which can teach children with no prior knowledge coding techniques in “free-code mode”.