VLE's in Primary Schools

[HodgeHi]

Hello Each. Hope you had a good Christmas/break,

I am starting to look into VLEs now more closely since apparently we have to have one up and running by 2010.

Is there anywhere i can find out more about the requirements and what is to be expected from a VLE? i have found a PDF on the becta website about Virtual and managed learning environments but this was created in 2005. is there such a thing as a guide line or does it changed depending on what LEA you are under (Sandwell LEA is mine)?

I have looked at Moodle but cannot see a way to effectively integrate it with SIMS.net and this i think may be a key part of the whole VLE. We could sign upto one of the hosted VLEs but most of the ones people have mentioned on here are basically referred to as not the best it could be.

One of the things that is stopping us signing up is also the fact that most content for Primary Schools tends to be on the naff side. It seems as though because their younger content doesn't need to be as good as secondary schools.

Any info would be great.

Thanks

[matt40k]

First port of call, your LEA. Suffolk is University, it's pretty basic. Capita (SIMS) is Learning Gateway 2, which is build on Microsoft Sharepoint, which you can then add on real VLE content. You can get programs (well really reports) that will rip the usernames from the SIMS db and creating them account, much like for AD.

I do remember reading somewhere, becta I believe, that stated a VLE does require standard format, so you if you create content on say, MOSS, you can transfer it to a moodle setup. I guess there would be limits, but it is an important factor.

Moodle isn't Becta approved, basically, because it's open source, despite most university using it, because it isn't a company and have office hour support etc

[SimpleSi]

At the moment, there is nothing for primaries that's nice to use and useful to have.

We use Moodle as its free and we don't even have to pay for the hosting here in Lancs

However, you have to be dedicated (or an IT rich school with IT rich parents) and very very keen before it is any more than a toy/school advertisement tool.

Sims/VLE integration is something that High schools want/need/told to have.

In a forum in lancs recently, it became apparent that since most primary parents take their children to/from school - then there wasn't much benefit from online absence reporting for instance?

Thats not to say when some easy to use system comes along with every parent using their mobile/tv/computer to access information that sims/vle intefration in primaries won't be useful.

Just to show that I'm balanced I personally use Moodle for any work I do with pupils as I always have access to laptops/suite when doing so. I use it to keep records of their work and use online marking (0 for nothing, 1 for uploading something, 2 for uploading the right thing and 3 if the thing is actually good )

However, even when I've got all the laptops in a school, the children are working pairs so indvidualised learning is up the swannee

If in a "moodlised" lesson, each child had access to their own machine and had access to one at home - then the world becomes a different place and worth going for it.

until then - don't waste a lot of time on it

regards

Simon

[Ian_CUP]

One of the things that is stopping us signing up is also the fact that most content for Primary Schools tends to be on the naff side. It seems as though because their younger content doesn't need to be as good as secondary schools.

Any info would be great.

Thanks

Hi HodgeHi,

regarding content within VLE's you are right there is not a great amount at the moment aimed at specifically Primary level that has been integrated. Not wanting this to sound like an advert but at Encyclopaedia Britannica (who I work for as you might tell from my login name) we have been working with a number of VLE providers for some years. Some of them search our content across multiple resources including user generated content and allow it to be re-purposed in quite a clever way - direct into lesson creation tools. - Our content is more than just an encyclopedic research tool, - as it has a lot of multimedia, flash based learning games, interactive quizzes, videos, printable worksheets and more. - And it is linked to the Nat Curriculum.

Our primary database of content is specifically written in primary friendly language and in British English.

Forum Moderators,
Again sorry if this post sounds like a bit of an advert, - as you will see from my profile I have been a member of this forum for a while but not posted in this way before but this question did appear aimed at an area that we have been working on for some time now and might be of some use.

Ian

[eddieh]

It may well be worthapproaching a feeder secondary and talk to them about vles. We're planning to provide our key feeders with access etc at very low cost ... they might be willing

[Neil_Oldbury]

We use Frog for our VLE and have successfully integrated Britannica in to it. All staff and students can access the materials as easily from home as they can from school. We are currently developing a Primary feeder portal that will assist with our transition work. There should be no cost to the Primaries for this (we will stand the fee to help it get off the ground). I know that this approach will not give them the full VLE capabilities but we need to work with them to understand what they want and how they will use it before investing in a system.

[matt40k]

I work for DB primary and we have an exciting new Learning Platform aimed solely at the Primary education sector.

If you click on OpenDNS you will be able to view further.

Any questions you can email me at dbrett@dbeducation.com

I hope it doesn't have as much trouble as your email system

Never liked the web bit either

Note:
Based on my own opinion at previous job and does not reflect my current employers opinion.

(I was one of those schools in cambs that you guys sent out a dev during those pesky duplicate emails days)

[contink]

Just a thought but it helps to get the URL spelt correctly too...

[HodgeHi]

Thanks for all of the responses. Since creating the thread we have had some good news with regards to hosting our VLE on our own server. This will help us to achieve what we want. I am considering using the edu-moodle template and creating a primary-based template from that. Most of it is fine just possibly change some of the icons used and make some of the fonts a bit larger to allow the younger kids better access (more space to click on links).

I will also be looking at possibly trying to create some of the content myself (using flash). If any of them are any good then i will look to posting them up here on edugeek. The Boss has already agreed that we should start sharing more resources between schools.

Maybe an area on Edugeek to allow the sharing of resources for VLE's?

one more question though. Is there a way to specify a fixed layout for the modules that users have when they login and cannot change? I was looking at the fixed blocks section. Is this the correct thing to use?

I haven't really got into the Moodle side of things yet. We are waiting for our new server to arrive.

Thanks.

[HodgeHi]

PS. I have been thinking about the creation of an assessment module as well for pupils so they can see their progress and the grades /comments they got after handing in a piece of work. Possibly adding an assessment table to hold the data. I thought i doesn't really NEED to be in SIMS since we don't extract the data from there anyway as we don't use it.

Perhaps some graph/chart module blocks or something. Would this be easy?

[asjarvis]

In relation to content that can be integrated into VLE's especially moodle, please have a quick look at the following site I am learning : Games Based Revision and Assessment. I am learning is a package of interactive learning games that enables teachers to keep track of who is using the system from home an for how long. If anyone would like a demo of the I am learning please give us a call on 08008620131 or send me a pm with your contact details and I will contact you to discuss the possible implementation.

I am learning covers KS2, KS3 and GCSE.

Thanks