How often is your VLE used?

[Michael]

Hello all,

 

As some of you are aware, I support a number of schools and I'm finding a consistent pattern - schools forced to use a VLE and pay for a VLE, but how many schools are proactively using VLEs to support the Lesson Objective, upload documents or links to websites and generally involve the VLE with the learning experience?

 

Interestingly I have it on good authority that despite VLEs being forced on schools, they're not actually mandatory anymore.

[sparkeh]

My three primary schools have one, none use it despite repeated attempts to get people engaged.

Our LA adviser told us that it is not mandatory but the DfE believe that the use of a VLE is a feature of an outstanding school and so schools should be using them.

My wife's school have their VLE integrated into their school life and was commented on during their outstanding inspection.

 

This is obviously just my experience and not gospel truth

[Michael]

Thanks for that. Please remember to vote

[Pete10141748]

Our VLE is used for email, nothing more.

 

Staff don't like it, pure and simple. Yes, it puts all their resources in one nice place, but the learning curve to actually make decent VLE resource is far & above their interest level in using it to teach, especially when they already have hundreds of Smart Notebook files, powerpoints and websites they are familiar with already.

 

[voted "never"]

Edited March 15, 2012 by Pete10141748

[Little-Miss]

I didnt think they were mandatory with a the government?

 

As some of you know my head has been keen to have a VLE put in place so will be interested to see the outcome of this survey as i dont feel after all the time and money that will be spent on it that it will get used!

[edutech4schools]

Old expensive system never used. New Free system used much more. (goole apps for ed in primary school)

[edutech4schools]

Update: for example the teacher in the class next to me is teaching year 3 (primary) databases. He has just created a blank database in google docs and sent it to the website. The children visit the website and are filling in the form/database. At the end the teacher will have a spreadsheet and charts with all the info collected. Very cool.

[Michael]

The results are very interesting. Any more voters for this please?

[mthomas08]

Ouch 6 people say never! I hope they are using open source/moodle based systems.

[Michael]

Ouch 6 people say never! I hope they are using open source/moodle based systems.

 

The point is there will still be a cost with hosting and support/upgrades etc...

[cromertech]

Currently very rarely but we are moving over to a Moodle system that will be used just because the training has been delivered better. I'm getting help requests for adding ever advanced items to it every day

[winng]

My experiences in different schools and authorities is such that Primary schools were early adopters and Secondary schools didn't have the time or resources to make a VLE work for them. In schools where they 'successfully' use a VLE, it is only being used by the ICT dept to host worksheets for the OCR National course. My current school has it on their SIP however, I am trying to steer them towards using Google Apps (at no cost) for Email, Calendar and online collaboration, etc.

[mthomas08]

I guess lucky for us we actually have a driving force pushing it, we even have an art/mfl teacher pushing it forward and they are not IT. With Frog because its not cheap, you have to really drive to get usage out of it. ANother lucky thing though is because staff and students are constantly wanting home access to everything this will help, plus when one department gets something (like a fancy website) they all wanted one.

 

And because I am able to put the time in to it I can do a lot of fancy websites and get content over, even course assignments with videos and embedded pages (plus tables to show how well they are doing/marked work).

[OverWorked]

We had a paid-for VLE forced on us by the LA. Staff made an effort with it in the first year but it fell out of use when we were badly let down by the vendor's poor support.

 

We now have locally hosted Moodle, which is used frequently by the one teacher who wanted it. It runs on a VM and maintenance by me is minimal.

 

Some staff are using Live@Edu.

 

There are so many free alternatives to VLEs out there now that staff can choose what best suits them (without involving tech support much). The day of the VLE is over, I think. I groan when I get sales calls from increasingly desperate VLE vendors.

 

Pete10141748 sums it up well.

[quietriot1983]

We don't have a VLE, as I know none of the teachers would use it. We paid for Honeycomb for 2 years, and I tasked the most ICT-savvy teacher with using it and reporting back as to how useful it was etc....he never once logged on.

[Teknosgirl]

We use Moodle which has been adopted by Lancashire. Support for hosting etc over last few years been free but likely to change soon. Great resource which offers anytime anywhere learning and has been well received by children. Due to see latest version tomorrow which is meant to be much easier to use.