How are your platforms used?

We have just been given the Luton Learning Platform (as we are a school in luton ;-) ).

Our platform comprises of 4 areas, MyDesktop, MyClasses, MyPortfolio and MyMail.

All the features in MyDesktop: Calendar, shared file areas, personal file areas, and a diary are already available on our school system, so are not needed or used.

MyClasses just makes a class dependant MyDesktop - so that is the pupil profile equivalent of our system.

MyPortfolio makes a form of PowerPoint Presentations - Microsoft PowerPoint.

MyMail - the only part of the system that might be used. We have an internal email system but it isn't used. So this one probably won't be.

Staff have had access to this learning platform for over 4 months, yet only 6 have logged on, and this is only because our office manager is forwarding emails to it.

Just really want to know if anyone else has a learning platform that is used and what features it has on it. We are in a poor area of Luton so most pupils don't have internet at home. I really can't see it's use!

A lot of authorities are using this software which they rebrand as their own. It's made by a company called Netmedia and is used in a large percentage of Birmingham schools.

If it's any consolation, all sites I support have it, but as to whether they use it that's another matter. Generally speaking, it's seriously underused at all sites.

We use the same learning platform and make good use of it. I suppose it depends upon what you already have in place though.

We implemented the system about 3 years ago. I transferred all our intranet content to the system and set it as the default website for all students.

This at least made all staff and students get used to accessing it. From there one of our ICT teaching staff worked with each department to show its potential.

mydesktop - used as our intranet - notices, calendar, useful documents, bookmarks, surveys, weekly bulletins. Also governors have limited access to some of this.

myclasses - we have loads of these for individual classes, subjects, year groups, trips, clubs, student council, training resources.

myportfolio - probably the least used part of the system, not a great deal done with this.

mymail - used for all students (staff use exchange)

The problem with VLE's is that schools want them but do not understand what they are for. If a school through SLT leadership embraces and resources the VLE it will be used. The success of a VLE is not the technology but the way in which it is used.

I've worked with some schools where they have had definate plans and over time there has been school improvement. Equally I've worked with others that had no plans no vision and the VLE was a waste of time for them. Mind you that could be said of laptops for teachers and management information systems.

How many laptops have gone to teachers that have never been used in anger, likewise every year schools collect data put it in to the MIS and never do anything with it except run reports for the LEA

We've got Netmedia, had it for years and to my knowledge only one or two teachers have used it. We tryed to emrace it but its just so slow and unstable it was pointless. Just today the email was down. Teachers will never embrace and rely on something which isnt close to 100% reliable.

We have a new SMT who seem keen on getting Moodle on the go. As its got loads of content availible for it i hope we can have a go of it. IMO that was one of Netmedias biggest downfalls, what teacher wants to prepare classwork AND then transfer it to netmedia? If there were tools to do it easily then yeah but to my knowledge the only way to do it is to sit there clicking and waiting and waiting and waiting, then it crashes, and you give up lol

Ours isn't used by anyone, all across the county. It's such a waste of time.

We had the Netmedia vle for a while, it felt like it was designed for primary schools to me.

We never used it and moved onto sharepoint last year, haven't looked back since.

We have had the Uniservity VLE for a few years now, and it's really only been used as a general website, just advertising the school is what it is used for...

Nobody was really interested in supporting it, or promoting the use of it within the school, so it is dying gradually.

We don't put new users onto the system, until they complain. So anyone (staff or student) who joined the school since about August 2006 doesn't exist, and no-one has complained, yet.

It's a waste of money, but soon it will be a waste of the LEA money, not our schools, I hope they got a good deal.