OFSTED says VLEs are a 'cottage industry'...

Since the start of the year, the expectation is that schools have been moving towards the provision of a VIRTUAL Learning Environment (VLE) to support the physical school community. This is a way of extending the support that schools offer, and allowing for anytime anyplace learning...
Now OFSTED has surveyed a (small) number of schools and found that the 'technological revolution' that could perhaps have been expected (?) hasn't taken off as planned...
Ofsted’s new study of virtual learning environments (VLEs) reveals little new, re-iterating that schools and colleges have not made great progress with their introduction or use. They use terms such as "cottage industry" to describe their use and, while it’s difficult to imagine a cottage industry based on using a VLE, its obvious what they mean: amateurish would be a simpler word.
The benefits to learners are so far "not yet obvious", say inspectors. However where they were more developed, particularly in colleges, such services were able to "enthuse" students.
In most places surveyed by Ofsted, the use of such VLEs was "not widespread" and where it was in place it was often the result of the enthusiasm of individual teachers.
"We found that the exploitation of VLEs at curriculum level resembled more of a cottage industry than a national technological revolution," inspectors concluded.The report, based on more than 40 different institutions, found no example where a VLE provided a "comprehensive" range of materials for every subject.


Christine Gilbert is quoted in a GUARDIAN ARTICLE today as saying:

Some schools and colleges were using VLEs as "dumping grounds or storage places for

 rarely-used files, rather than for material that enhanced the face-to-face learning done inside the classroom".

"The best VLEs allowed learners to reinforce their routine work, or catch up on missed lessons. In those best cases, the material offered was fun and helpful. In the least effective examples, documents had been dumped on the

 system and forgotten."

Visit the OFSTED WEBSITE to read the full report (downloadable as Word or PDF)

I'm sure that there are some great Geography examples out there.

Does your school have a VLE ?
Do you make use of it for supporting and promoting the work of the Geography department ?

Does it have a particularly good Geography section ?
Do you have evidence that it is being well used ?

Tell us about it (don't be shy) in a comment below, or contact aparkinson [AT] geography.org.uk

Comments

Anonymous said…
For the past couple of years we have been using Moodle. I have been trying to promote it in the school, but uptake has been slow in some departments. I think that many do see it as a place to dump material, however the best response you get from students is when it is used as a place where they can interact with one another and build up joint knowledge.
The glossary aspects of moodle, where students can all add to the glossary for a topic and peer mark one another, has had great success. Also the use of forums within moodle is great where students post responses to a certain topic e.g. carbon offsetting - hip or hype? but are encouraged to back up their arguments with fact. Once again the teacher or students can assess posts. Of course it is useful as a place where students can access powerpoints or notes that are missed and of course saves on the huge amounts of photocopying. I am still getting to grips with many aspects of moodle, but I would really recommend it. It is open source software and therefore is free. This does not mean its tacky. 60% of universities in the UK use it and Open university does for all its courses.
If you want to look at a section of the Geog moodle site for the edexcel AS unit 1 section relating to climate change(you may notice some "borrowed" material) have a look at http://englishcollege.moodle.ae/course/view.php?id=117 . I have set up a temporary username and password which both are "trial"
Alan Parkinson said…
Thanks for responding so promptly Piers. Hope all is well...
I will add your responses to the others that I have received so far and collate the thoughts. So far, all the schools who've replied have used Moodle. Any other VLEs out there ?
Mrs Smith said…
I am representing our faculty on the working party for new VLE that is being launched gradually from Sep 09. We are using uniservity and we are getting very good support from them and training. Our head is very keen on this taking off as we are quite far behind other schools in terms of having a VLE. So far i have uploaded the new curriculum for year 7 and 8, so if lessons are missed they are able to download materials. Also, there are additional homework activities. I have also set up geog chat facility that year 7s were becoming familiar with and using. There is a member from every faculty on the working party, so hopefully it will get filtered down and people should use it. Everything is going to be done via the VLE soon, including assessment and it is very early days. Some people are very negative about it, saying things that have been highlighted in your post. I should think the most important thing is to keep it updated and actually use it as an additional tool for learning. Liz Smith :)
David Rogers said…
Hi Alan

Have been at two schools one used Moodle and the other Uniservity. On both counts the use of the VLE was poor due to a lack of vision from SLT. Also, although the enthusiasm for VLEs is out there, often there is no time or training to create resources. Big issue I have come across is what constitutes admin tasks and learning tasks on the VLE.I am yet to be convinced, though this is mainly because I am yet to see a good example! Another example of technology before thought??
Alan Parkinson said…
Thanks Liz and Dave
Vision is something to bear in mind. We went for LP+ at my previous school and I remember a meeting discussing the importance of having a uniform 'look' and template to each department's area. Do colleagues think this is important, or can each subject have its own 'identity' ?
Any other contributions ? This is good stuff so far !
Anonymous said…
VLEs cost. Many HODs dont have the money, time or inclination to invest in them. I'd love one but am aware that I'd not be given time to upload resources. Suggesting they're a dumping ground suggests to me that some NQT has been brought up to believe that anything older than five years old should be deleted. Some resouces are timeless. Providing a range of Word, Publisher, Powerpoint, Paint, Excel files allows students to explore and learn from a range of sources. If I had a VLE I'd put almost all my folders up there. They're meant to be LEARNING environments - As we learn in different ways give them lots of stimuli.

I'd really appreciate having a technician/secretary to manage a departmental VLE. It'd be fantastic ---- or maybe I should offer my services instead. Then I wouldn't have to teach....

Bernard O'Connor
Winston Smith said…
Try Wycombe High School:

http://whs.moodledo.co.uk/course/category.php?id=106

http://whs.moodledo.co.uk/course/category.php?id=114

http://whs.moodledo.co.uk/course/category.php?id=175

These are areas that can be seen without logging in. There is more in hidden areas!

Hugh Mothersole
Winston Smith said…
Try Wycombe High School:

http://whs.moodledo.co.uk/course/category.php?id=106

http://whs.moodledo.co.uk/course/category.php?id=114

http://whs.moodledo.co.uk/course/category.php?id=175

These are areas that can be seen without logging in. There is more in hidden areas.

Hugh Mothersole
Anonymous said…
We're lead school in the North for VLE development (yes, Moodle again) and encourage and train others around and about as part of our Specialist School Role - (Geography training next week in fact!)My experience is that for it to succeed you need a)committed support from Senior Management and b) the drive from the bottom up, ie pupils being involved from day one nudging and pushing their teachers to put work on Moodle for them. I also feel strongly, as has been mentioned before on here, that a VLE which has nothing more than Word docs or Powerpoints will not succeed. It needs interactivity - voting/surveys/wikis/online tasks which give instant feedback or which can be marked and returned online. We're an 11-16 school and use it in all subjects but Geography was one of the pilot subjects when we first began in Spring 2006.The pupils took to it as it " speaks their language" - it does the kind of stuff they are doing online anyway, just in a more focused way. I do 90% of my geography marking, lessons and homeworks on Moodle - it's actually made me more efficient as a teacher because I hated handwriting marks in my mark book - now, Moodle saves me a lot of effort in that respect. Here's ours I'd be interested to see other VLEs succeeding in Geography usage as so far I have only met those teachers from other, commercial VLEs who've come to me to learn Moodle as their schools have decided to turn their backs on the likes of Fronter even when their LEA has chosen a particular commercial VLE as part of the BSF initiatives. Not that I want to appear biased at all :)
alex Handy said…
I help oversee the Learning Platform (both VLE and Portal) for my school. We use Kaleidos and have begun this year targeting 6th form teaching. Currently we use the VLE section for:
1. A place for all PPT's and wider reading to be stored and accessed from home
2. We will be starting to set and mark work online when a better CMIS (register) integration is completed.

We use the Portal for:
1. A Blog site where pupils comment on news stories that are put online
2. We have a rebranding wiki started to aid with revision
3. Year 11 have a blog site for the DME exam

We are looking at how we are going to expand the use across the school. The main issues are:

1. Access to ICT to ensure pupils know exactly how it works, which in turn will help learning from home.
2. Learning Platforms not being as user friendly as free blog/websites meaning a greater level of training is required to complete fairly simple actions
3. For setting and receiving homework there has been some difficulty linking the Learning Platform with the register system to make a "live" link.
Alan Parkinson said…
Thanks Bernard.
Is it perhaps too soon to report on the use of VLEs ?
If OFSTED were to visit a school how high would this rank on their priorities for judging a department; and how high up the personal priorities would "developing the VLE" lie for the average teacher ?
Which VLEs are most commonly used ?
Please keep the comments coming.
Anonymous said…
(Six months later)

We are using a VLE to for all homework activities. Students are encouraged to use the portfolio features to organise their work.
We use Netmedia's VLE which has immense functionality. I have developed a series of 'Geography' classes that cover a range of themes - being able to use such interactive resources as the USGS shake maps, NOAA's Hurricane tracking graphics, Google Earth etc has really given Geography a real time relevant edge.

The students are able to put themselves through 'Masterclasses' for various aspects of Geography - most notably Map skills. Interactive resources (that are tracked by the teacher) are used to develop new and existing skills.

The VLE phenomena maybe a 'cottage industry' at the moment but this time next year a massive shift will have occurred and Ofsted will be looking at the feasibility of VLE use as a school assessment criteria.
Alan Parkinson said…
Thanks for bringing this topic back "to the top" Anon...

Interestingly, I was in a meeting with HMI today, and VLEs were mentioned again...

I think the development of some VLEs has probably reached a point now where it would be worth collecting some examples of good practice...

Thanks for the contribution to the discussion...
Hi Alan
I have spent a lot of time on our MOODLE VLE. I can arrange for guest access if you would like.
We have KS3 and KS4 well covered
all year 12 and 13 units so far online.
We have also encouraged primary schools to use it. As AST this will be a job of mine next year to upload resources the primary schools want.
I am now for KS4 and KS5 putting homework on the VLE that they access, will drip feed into KS3 from Easter.
Hope this has been useful
Alan Parkinson said…
Thanks Danny...
It occurred to me today that the snowy weather would be a perfect time to see whether VLEs are actually being used by teachers to continue to conversation with students, or even to kick off the year's work, given the snow disrupting many schools, particularly in Scotland (and Sheffield, where I started off today..)

There has been some discussion about this on my Twitter feed today and the use of some online platforms for gathering students together and also doing some crowd-sourced data gathering e.g. how deep is the snow outside your house in cm and what is your postcode, and you could generate a map of snow depth...

Thanks for your continued support on the Ning too...