I would agree that like so many other items of technology many VLEs have not
delivered the goods. From the students point of view some are as restrictive
as old fashioned didactic teaching where the teacher insited that the
library only stocked the one course book. The way most VLEs isolate
students from content for other courses means that the student is being
driven by the person controlling the course. Where does that leave managing
ones own learning. We use Blackboard not particularly well but it is very
much the blind leading the blind. The way Blackboard prevents users,
including teachers from seeing content for other courses is, I believe
counter productive, The students get to see one view point only and when
teachers cannot see each others work there is no incentive to share and what
is worse, better materials may exist in your own institution and you do not
know about it. So far the best systems I have seen are those where people
have developed their own system from their old intranet.
-----Original Message-----
From: Virtual Learning Environments [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of Malcolm Ryan
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 6:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VLES] "doing things to students rather than empowering
them"
Thanks for that Dan - how do others feel about the issue of VLEs being
institution driven and not really empowering students or am I on a very
thin piece of wood here?
Dan Stowell <[log in to unmask]>@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> on 11/11/2004 10:45:14
Please respond to Virtual Learning Environments <[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: Virtual Learning Environments <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
cc:
Subject: Re: [VLES] "doing things to students rather than empowering
them"
>Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 12:15:41 +0000
>From: Malcolm Ryan <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Snapshot survey on VLE funding
>
>Of course one aspect of all VLE whether free or not is that they are
>essentially about the institution doing things to students rather than
>empowering them. At a number of recent workshops with colleagues we have
>been introducing them to a number of 'free' tools such as Smartgroups,
>Quicktopic, MSN, Hot Potatoes, etc and extolling the virtues of them being
>set up and used by students in partnership with us (sometimes) so that
they
>have control of the technology. How many institutional VLE facilitate such
>an approach?
Moodle does have features to facilitate this approach - the best example
being that a course can be based primarily around open discussion. Students
can also create/edit wikis, keep journals, participate in workshops - there
are quite a few tools with the teachers and students on a (roughly) equal
footing.
In lots of ways Moodle follows a similar path to WebCT, but I think this
respect is a particularly interesting difference. It very clearly tries to
allow for a "social constructivist" approach...
Dan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Stowell
Faculty Information Support Officer (Life Sciences), UCL
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/is/fiso/lifesciences/
Room B07A, Drayton House, 30 Gordon Street, London
Phone: +44 (0)20 7679 5472 (within UCL: dial 25472)
Email: [log in to unmask]
***************** List information: *****************
Remember - replies go by default to the entire list.
Access the list via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/vle.html
The Ferl VLE Focus Area is at http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?page=76
To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with the message: leave vle
_______________________________________________________________________
Malcolm Ryan (Flexible Learning Co-ordinator)
School of Education & Training, University of Greenwich, Maritime
Greenwich Campus
Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, Greenwich, London. SE10 9LS
TEL: +44 (0)208-331-9741/9230 FAX: +44 (0)208-331-9235
E-mail: [log in to unmask] URL:
http://gre-guns2.gre.ac.uk/pcet/pcetweb.nsf
Work at home: +44 (0)208-488-6614 Mobile: 07808-594930 (SMS facility)
Location: http://www.gre.ac.uk/about/estates/maps/maritime_directions.htm
CeLTT Programme URL: http://www.gre.ac.uk/celtt
Getting to Grips with eLearning URL: http://www.gre.ac.uk/celtt/workshops
***************** List information: *****************
Remember - replies go by default to the entire list.
Access the list via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/vle.html
The Ferl VLE Focus Area is at http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?page=76
To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with the message: leave vle
---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.786 / Virus Database: 532 - Release Date: 29-Oct-04
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.786 / Virus Database: 532 - Release Date: 29-Oct-04
***************** List information: *****************
Remember - replies go by default to the entire list.
Access the list via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/vle.html
The Ferl VLE Focus Area is at http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?page=76
To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with the message: leave vle
