There is a lot of literature on Virtual Learning Environments and what role they are playing in schools today.
To see how this compared to the reality of teaching while trying to incorporate 21st Century technology I had a quick chat with my brother-in-law who teaches in Belfast.
It would be interesting to hear how other teachers experiences compare.
Hello Andrew could you tell us a bit about what you do?
Sure, I am a PE teacher in Grosvenor Grammar school in Belfast and am also Head of Learning for Life and Work.
Is the integration of elearning a big consideration in your school?
Yes it would be, every classroom in the school has an IWB, internet connection and data projector. The staff room is also online and there are wireless routers around the school as well.
It’s fair to say though, it would be more a consideration in some departments than in others. Our modern languages dept for example are hugely into it with wikis, and blogs and podcasts all on the go.
Do you actively try to incorporate elearning?
Not as much as I probably should, I do get my pupils to do their work on the intranet within our school and save it in their own particular folder for me to assess and give feedback on. I would also have discussions going on the vle.
Would you spend a lot of time preparing online lessons?
Not a serious amount to be honest, all of my theory classes for PE are done through Power point and IWB but it wouldn’t take up a huge amount of my time.
So for you, what are the drawbacks of online learning?
I suppose the downside would be the technical hitches that occur that totally wipe out your lesson if it is planned in an ‘e’ format. Also the opportunity for excuses the pupils can give for not having work done is greatly increased. Server down, computer crash, virus, couldn’t get online etc etc
And the upside?
I think it increases the interest level from the pupils and connects a bit more with them at their own level and in a format that they are comfortable with as they are using similar things in their everyday lives.
Any final thoughts on the matter?
Just the difficulty of quantifying how successful these emethods are. It’s hard to know if the kids learning improves significantly as a result of e-input. Also, a lot of the pupils are still a little computer shy believe it or not. They aren’t all as computer literate as everyone thinks.
So it would appear Andrew incorporates online learning to a degree, but without exceeding his comfort zone. I know he is a well respected teacher, so the limited use of elearning obviously isn’t an issue, which begs the question – why bother?
If you have any thoughts on the matter, please leave a comment…
Tags: education technology, eLearning, Moodle
