smith1195 Posted January 9, 2007 Posted January 9, 2007 Before my visit to BETT on Friday please could you clear something up for me. We are a school in London and have access with to the LGFL's digitalbrain which we find totally unusable and generally rubbish. Now that BECTA have released their lsit of approved VLE does that mean that the LGFL will adpat to one of these new VLEs? At the present time we have set up our own messageboard where kids download homework, post messages etc. We are now ready to jump to the next step but need clarification. IF LGFL don't release an improved version what do you think our best bet is? Thanks Craig (btw we are a Junior School)
GrumbleDook Posted January 9, 2007 Posted January 9, 2007 I will include this in my list of questions to ask Becta.
Grommit Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 We also hate the Digital Brain Our Borough is chosing a VLE supplier that they hope the schools will adopt borough wide.. I'll tell you what it is when we are told
Face-Man Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 The LGFL have just gone through a biding processes for an MLE to replace digital brain. (This is because they didn't even bid for it). The prefered bidder is due to be revealed at Bett. Also synetrix who run the infractructure for the LGFL are annoucing their new VLE that schools can use. Interesting the Becta spec for MLE may be challenged by the EC see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/08/becta_ec_complaint/ As the moved the goal posts after the tender. However I think the digital brain contract still has a couple of years to run. If your LEA is part of BSF it will have to tender for a MLE/PLE as well so anything you invest time in now will soon be replaced anyway.
Geoff Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 LancsNGFL and CLEO (Lancashire and Cumbria respectively) have standardised on Moodle. Quite amusing given the situation surrounding Becta and BSF currently. I'm left wondering how long such an Open Sourcxe approach will last? Will it be under threat at all due to recent events?
CyberNerd Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 My understanding is that the government will fund LEA's for adopting Becta acredited VLE's - so yes moodle is probably doomed in England - why would an LEA adpopt an open source system if they don't have to pay for the Becta acredited system? "The British government is supplying £40 million to Local Authorities to acquire learning platforms, with the strong recommendation that they select successful candidates from Becta's approved list. Schools wishing to use platforms not selected by their local authority are free to do so but must find the money from other budgets," said Weston's letter to the EC. This is why the openschools alliance launched their campaign against Bectas procurement and 111 (so far) MP's agreed that the situation is ridiculous. http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=31752&SESSION=885
webman Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Wonder what this means for our LEAs own offering then (county-wide sharepoint + classserver)...
bishopsgarthstockton Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Why dosent the lea suggest open source software like moodle. im totaly confused to why you would need to pay for something when you can have it for free. pluss the govement could spend the money else where in schools. am i been plain dumb?
webman Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 bishopsgarthstockton: That would be far too easy
Grommit Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 The LGFL have just gone through a biding processes for an MLE to replace digital brain. (This is because they didn't even bid for it). The prefered bidder is due to be revealed at Bett. Also synetrix who run the infractructure for the LGFL are annoucing their new VLE that schools can use. Interesting the Becta spec for MLE may be challenged by the EC see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/08/becta_ec_complaint/ As the moved the goal posts after the tender. However I think the digital brain contract still has a couple of years to run. If your LEA is part of BSF it will have to tender for a MLE/PLE as well so anything you invest time in now will soon be replaced anyway. Has it been announced Yet ?
CyberNerd Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Why dosent the lea suggest open source software like moodle. im totaly confused to why you would need to pay for something when you can have it for free. pluss the govement could spend the money else where in schools. am i been plain dumb? No, not dumb -This would be an obvious choice. More to the point: why doesn't Becta recommend an open source solution that has commercial support behind it. There are many companies that do offer moodle support - and moodle has a userbase of over 7 million. I think the awnser must be in the way Becta do their consultation, that is they rely too heavily on large companies who have a vested interest in selling software (and their partner companies software in the case of some). Or maybe the Becta staff get too many sweetners to disrupt the situation?
GrumbleDook Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Please remember that the Becta recommendation is not for a product ... but a service provider. From what I can gather (and I am trying to get confirmation) if an Local Authority goes with a differrent setup that still meeats the criteria then there is not a problem ... the criteria is for accreditation and it is on that basis that schools and LAs can choose. If they choose to go in-house then that is their option.
CyberNerd Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Please remember that the Becta recommendation is not for a product ... but a service provider. That's a smokescreen if an Local Authority goes with a differrent setup that still meeats the criteria then there is not a problem a minor detail is that the approved suppliers don't meet the criteria according to TFA If they choose to go in-house then that is their option. This is also my understanding - but I was under the impression that if they did go for the becta approved then they get government funding otherwise they meet the costs themselves - even OS isn't completely free.
smith1195 Posted January 10, 2007 Author Posted January 10, 2007 Interesting information, thank you. Does that mean that LGFL would more than likely go for a BECTA approved one to get the funding? Guess I will just have to chat to the lovely people at LGFL on Friday!
Face-Man Posted January 12, 2007 Posted January 12, 2007 I've found out a bit more about the fragmation of the VLE/MLE offering on the LGFl. They will continue to be Digital Brain (though they may not have any staff left soon). Synetrix the infrasturcture provider will offer a moddle solution "I2Q" and another service based on M$ sharepoint. The LGFL are about to annouce it own prefered MLE (which I've heard may start with the letter "f"). And then BSF is coming the loads of LEAs who will then get to decide on their own ones... PS.. It's amazing you can get wireless in the BB house
smith1195 Posted January 12, 2007 Author Posted January 12, 2007 Been to Bett and heard much the same as you. Was very impressed with Net Media's VLE today. Anyone had any experiences of it?
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now