The death of the VLE?

There has been a debate for a few years now about the future of the VLE. It seems that reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated, although the fact that there is a discussion is of interest to me, as someone whose job is to develop an institutional VLE, and to support staff in its use.

The argument against VLEs is that they are owned by the institution, and are there to restrict and control the activity of its users, and that they promote traditional approaches to pedagogy that do not reflect the age of digital collaboration and the new tools available to students and teachers. They are bloated and cumbersome, and are slow to adapt to the needs of their users.

Compare that to the flexibility of 'web 2.0' applications, that adapt according to the needs of users, are owned by users and reflect the way that many students use digital media and applications. They are cheap, adaptable and support learning far better than VLEs.

It is clear that in the longer term these collaborative tools will become ubiquitous, and that the days of the VLE are numbered - however, that is still some way off.  The reason is that the use of web 2.0 tools by students and teachers alike is exaggerated. Most are limited in their ability to use these tools, and the argument that there are 'Digital Natives' isn't backed up by evidence .  The fact is that most teachers, and even learning technologists, don't use these tools on a regular basis, and neither do students. Many are unsure about how to use web 2.0 tools, and social networking applications in education - the VLE offers them a safe starting point, and a route into digital tools in education. There is also the issue of data protection, and ownership of the material that is written and posted to internet tools, and these tools do not provide the institution with the sort of user data sets and usage statistics that institutions increasingly need as part of new funding regimes. The data sets are available from a VLE as a part of a wider managed Learning Environment.

These tools can, however,  be embedded into VLEs - the major VLEs have the ability to stream Twitter feeds and RSS feeds. They allow videos from YouTube and blogs to be embedded, and they have chat, discussion forums, wikis and blogs built-in.

The 'personal web' - the aggregation of tools adaptable by users to their individual needs, will win in the end, but for the moment the VLE is alive and kicking. The main question isn't whether the VLE is dead, but how institutions are going to manage the integration of increasing user-choice tools, and their VLE.

Apples iPad Textbooks: Everything You Need to Know About iBooks 2

Apples iPad Textbooks: Everything You Need to Know About iBooks 2.

When I first heard of the iPad and the digital readers such as Kindle, I could see the possibilities for both fiction and non-fiction.

The possibilities for non-fiction and text books are obvious - more interactive content, rich with multimedia, and links to other resources and possibilities for annotation and collaboration offering a better learning experience.

The possibilities for fiction are also interesting. It won't be too long before more interactive fiction appears, with multimedia content and links to external resources and material. I was thinking it might be analogous to video games - such as Grand Theft Auto IV. You have the main storyline, but alongside that runs other 'missions' and side stories which introduce a range of other characters and broadens the profile of the main character. I can see fiction including such references to the back story of characters, and side stories, as well as ambient sounds, news footage, metadata and so forth.

BBC News - Children 'switching from TV to mobile internet'

BBC News - Children 'switching from TV to mobile internet'.

More reasons why schools and colleges need to embrace mobile learning and the use of mobile devices as learning tools. Rather than banning them.

There is an issue, outlined in the comments section to this story, that children are becoming socially isolated and failing to develop social skills. I'd suggest that they are simply developing new types of social skills and ways of communicating with each other.  People still socialise, they still talk to each other. Those who lack social skills would probably have been the sort of people who lacked social skills in any age.

Five Tips To Get Your Stuff Organised With Chrome Extensions

I like Chrome because of its unfussy layout, and speed. It does have its problems, notably in my line of work - if you want to edit a VLE such as Moodle or D2L it fails  to support some editing functions at all, or only supports others with a tweak to the code (e.g. the WYSIWYG editor in Moodle 1.9+). This is a minor gripe though.

What I like about Chrome is the extensions that can be added to organise your online stuff with the click of a button in your tool bar. The extensions I use include:

1) Last Pass is a password manager. It save all of your passwords in a secure 'vault', and logs you in automatically when you open a password protected page. It creates secure passwords for you, or you can use your own. It synchronises your data so you can access it anywhere. Just remember to check the box to log out when you close down your browser!

2) The main curation tools also have extensions for Chrome. Tools such as Delicious, Diigo, Pearltrees and Evernote all have their own buttons that can save your stuff. I have been a bit of a gadfly when it comes to these tools, trying out each one. My preference though is for Evernote and Diigo. I use Diigo because it is used by colleagues at work and they have a shared account. Otherwise I would only use Evernote.

3) Tweetdeck is a great app for bringing all your social networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Buzz, Foursquare) newsfeeds  into one space. If you can't download the desktop application due to network restrictions, then use the Tweetdeck extension for Chrome. One caveat is that the extension doesn't seem to have as much functionality as the desktop app and the settings seem to be limited too.

4) There is an extension for Google Reader that puts a button in your tool bar and lets you know how many unread articles are waiting for you. There is a also a Subscribe button which allows to to add a subscription easily. There is a similar extension available for Gmail.

5) Speed Dial 2 organises your favourite sites and apps. It opens in a new tab and allows you to categorise your favourite sites, and add an icon. It is much easier to use than a drop-down list of favourites, and more visually appealing.

BBC News - Atos boss Thierry Breton defends his internal email ban

BBC News - Atos boss Thierry Breton defends his internal email ban.

ATOS ending internal emails (not external ones). My experience is that internal emails are mostly useless, and often get send out to people who don't need them anyway. Much better to use tools such as messaging or Facebook. The problem then of course is companies having to be persuaded to allow such tools on their network. I imagine complaints from IT people about compromises to their network, and from management suspicious of 'frivolous' use.

My PLN

Looks a bit sparse, but then these are the tools I use and get my information from. Where do colleagues fit on this - do they have to, given that this is an online PLN? I'd put them in the Staff Room.

Personal Learning Networks

An article from Steve Wheeler. Apparently everyone should have a PLN, otherwise you are not fully equipped as a professional. The tools listed are not recommended, but what perhaps should go in the respective sections. My version will follow.