Choosing a VLE

[confusedteacher]

Hello,

 

I hope I'm OK posting here. I'm a teacher, not an IT professional. I really need some advice about which VLE to use.

 

I teach in a slightly different way though...

 

I teach pupils indivdually on the phone. For various reasons these children can't access school in a 'normal' way so at the moment they have daily 1:1 lessons on the phone with me. I then set them tasks to do for homework which normally involved using books, sheets etc from a pack of books, textbooks and resources that they have been sent.

 

What I'd like is to be able to put work for them on the VLE (probably saved as documents they can download, put their work/answers/essays/whatever on then save it on the VLE so I can access it, mark it and resave it so they can get feedback.

 

I don't know much about VLEs at all. I've had some expereince with Kaleidos which I liked but apart from that I don't know anything! Someone has suggested Moodle but I think you need some IT know-how to manage this. I think you can do video calls on Moodle as well, so there's the potential that I'd be able to see my students during lessons which would be good!

 

So I'd appreciate any advice that you can offer on which VLE might suit my students and I the best! I'm not particularly tech-savvy but am willing to learn what I need to to make a VLE work for us!

 

Thank you

[clareq]

What about google docs? A quick search found this:

[jinnantonnixx]

Something here

 

VLE

[twin--turbo]

Most VLE's will cost £££'s and all of them require management.

 

As moodle is free it's the best choice VLE for small scale deployment but may not be the best solution.

 

Aty the basic level the idea of google docs may work,

 

or look at a Content Management system Like "Joomla".

 

Rob

[confusedteacher]

Thanks for your replies!

 

I've watched the youtube video about google docs and like how it appears to work - especially that it appears that you can give immedate feedback on documents.

I'm working my way through the other suggestions. There is almost too much choice!

 

I'm wondering about google docs... on the youtube viedo example it showed the guy logging onto a university account. Can anybody tell me how I'd go about setting up a similar 'virtual school' account which I could log onto as well as students, other teachers and parents?

 

Slowly starting to see how things like this could massively enhance the learning of these students!

 

Thanks again.

[plexer]

You can setup google apps for education and whilst some knowledge is needed it will pretty much walk you through it.

 

This way you would have a safe and secure environment with which to teach.

 

Ben

[jmak]

To use it the way a school or university would, you need to sign up to google apps for education. To do that, you need to be a recognised educational establishment - you then get access to the google apps for business service for free. However, you can probably do what you need to without that - there are some different T&Cs, but the main thing you don't get is the admin function which allows you to control the domain. Schools would use that to do things like set policies across the organisation on who can do what, set up accounts in bulk and set up and monitor emails.

 

What you've described your need to be so far can be achieved with the standard consumer offering. All of your users will need to sign up individually and manage their own accounts. You can still share, collaborate and comment on their work - you do it by sharing documents based on their google (gmail) account details. You can also create a website with links to resources and other information using Google Sites - also free.

[confusedteacher]

I'm quite excited about using Google Docs now. It's going to make a big difference! Thank you all for your contributions and advice.

[GREED]

From a personal point of view I'm intrigued by your profession, of teaching over the phone! Love to hear how that works, successfully obviously for you!

[confusedteacher]

Thanks!

There is a new option on the scene now... eschools. I've never heard of it but have been doing a bit of research online and it seems to have some attractive sounding features. Think google docs still offers something very easy to use and very accessible.

Any thoughts on eschools?

[Ephelyon]

Is this something that ties back into a "virtual school" provision for non-attenders?

 

If you do have some budget to throw at this, there are some good resources and links back to other providers here:

 

Blended Learning | Virtual Learning | k-12 Education Pearson

[GrumbleDook]

If you have a search in a search engine of your choice for NotSchool or Children's University, you will find examples of inclusive learning, including using technology.

 

If you are an individual tutor then it is something you have to factor into your charges / costs but if you are involved in a wider group then there are plenty of others doing the same thing.