Hello
In Northumberland, the LEA has committed to a system called 'Virtual Centre' developed by Durham University Business School. At the moment, the system is being trialled within a number of High Schools (we have a 3-tier schools system) and in Adult Learning, where I work. There is one FE College in the County, using LearnWise, but I think they have expressed an interest in joining in the project.
The Schools do use a variety of other systems, including Moodle, Fronter, Blackboard etc. etc. as they had already made the 'leap' before County took the step to go with Virtual Centre. The changeover to Virtual centre will be fairly slow, I guess but the logic suggests that it will be the way to go. I think it's a longhaul project, but eventually every school in the county will have access to a huge bank of resources, common materials, lesson plans, schemes of work etc etc. The system is very schools-driven - unlike most VLEs there are no spaces or templates in which to upload stuff, although there are communicatiosn tools and a simple MCQ tool (haven't played with this yet...), however, it does base 'courses' around schenmes of work - when you've written a scheme of work you can then create lesson plans for each session in a simple format. The plans also allow you to identify appropriate steps on Bloom's taxonomy of learning, as well as allowing you to indicate styles of l!
earning
etc.
I think one issue that we ought to consider is the way teaching and learning is going in schools - many schools appear to have bought into 'turnkey' systems - for example a complete KS4 system, inc,. lesson plans, teaching resources, simulations, multimedia resources etc. all supplied by teh big educational software suppliers who have teh Curriculum Online kitemark. There is also a big marketing drive towards subscription services - there's one in Newcastle called 'Amazing Grades' - to be honest I don't knwo much about them , but I do know that they are one of a group of orgainsaitions who basically sell filtered/approved websites to schools, tailored again to keystages, yeargroups etc. There's gold in them there hills....
Point is, if schools can buy in all this support, what's the attraction of a VLE? I don't know the answer, but I do think the market places are subtlely different (HE, FE, Schools, ACL, Work-based learning, Prison Education etc etc.) and that one size does not fit all. Clearly there are schools who have made a real go with VLEs, i realsie that, but I am speculating on one of the reasons why, despite it being a fabulous opportunity, there isn't much substantial collaboration between teh sectors.
Finally, another project which I have a [very] loose connection with is in the Tees Valley, where all 5 of the major Adult and Community Learning providers (Middlesbrough, Darlington, Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton) are collaborating on a shared Moodle, firstly as a sharing area for tutors and layter on as a delivery tool for adult learners in eth region. I would suggest that this project is well worth keeping an eye on for all sorts of reasons. Details are on teh aclearn.net site.
Best rgds
simonf
------------------------------
Simon Fitzpatrick
VTLE Developer
Northumberland County Council
Adult Learning Service
07742-223347
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-----Original Message-----
From: Virtual Learning Environments on behalf of James Clay
Sent: Wed 5/17/2006 3:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VLES] LEA Advises against Moodle!!?? [No Viruses detected]
Would be nice...
However colleges in the same geographical area rarely if ever collaborate on
these kinds of things, so with many more schools
Too often the advantages of collaboration and single joint solutions are
ignored in favour of the advantages of remaining in *control* of your own
systems.
How many colleges now share their VLE with local schools?
How many Universities share their VLE with local colleges?
Moodle 1.7's collaborative features is certainly an interesting perspective,
the concept of Open Content is not new, http://oci.open.ac.uk/related.html
and there are some big names working on open content (BBC, Open University)
and spending large amounts of money, there are many barriers to
collaboration and sharing of content that need to be overcome.
One thing I would say, when it comes to sharing VLEs and or content, what
technology you use should be at the bottom of the list when it comes to
listing the important things that need to be in place to make this happen.
James Clay
Director Western Colleges Consortium
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
www.westerncc.ac.uk
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Virtual Learning Environments
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Trethewey
> Sent: 17 May 2006 15:08
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: LEA Advises against Moodle!!??
>
> Wouldn't it be great if an LEA committed itself to a single
> solution for all it's schools and colleges.
>
> I believe Moodle is about to release a version that will
> allow shared ownership of collaborative content across
> multiple institutions.
>
> It might reluctantly talk to your MIS system but imagine in
> exchange getting talk, collaboration and progression across
> all phases of education with a portfolio that is
> automatically handed on.
>
> Fantasy I hear you say
>
> Community Hub I say (http://docs.moodle.org/en/Community_hub)
>
>
> And what authority can afford such a solution outside of open source??
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Virtual Learning Environments
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Megan Robertson
> Sent: 17 May 2006 14:13
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [VLES] LEA Advises against Moodle!!??
>
> One things that schools might wish to consider is what is
> used further up the system in their area. If a school knows
> that most of its students wishing to do sixth form work go to
> one or two centres (FE colleges, 6th Form Colleges or schools
> with a 6th form), it might be worth finding out what they
> use... or even if they will share in some way.
>
> Although actually 'out of area' I am finalising arrangements
> with the IT support person in one high school (an 11 - 18 one
> about 40 miles away) to come & visit here to see how we do
> things... as much to see the system in operation and how it's
> made straightforward for teachers to use as to see the
> particular package we use (Bluespheres Create if you're curious).
>
> Megan
> ILT Champion, City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College
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