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.

The Real Motive Behind SOPA, PIPA and ACTA

Google and Facebook block content in India after court warns of crackdown | World news | The Guardian

There's a quote near the end of this article:  

But, like many other governments around the world, India has become increasingly nervous about the power of social media.

which indicates the real motives behind the recent attempts to introduce legislation on copyright and internet piracy. Ostensibly aimed at protecting the interests of copyright holders, their effect would be turn the internet into a delivery portal for content from media corporations, and  enable governments to crack down on what they would view as inflammatory material. Governments have seen the role that social media played in the 'Arab Spring' and, despite praising the liberating role the internet at the time, they can see the danger it presents to them and their ability to control information, and the people they supposedly serve.

Learning with 'e's: Conversation as curriculum

Another blog post from Steve heeler (I do read other blogs!)Learning with 'e's: Conversation as curriculum.



Proposing a dialogue approach to teaching across all areas of the curriculum. This is to give students a democratic voice in the classroom and break down the 'power differential' between teachers and students.  This should lead to a full engagement with the subject matter rather than passive consumption. Students should feel that the learning is worthwhile if they engage with it in this way - instead of simply turning up because they have to, or that they're taking in just a bit more stuff to be regurgitated in an exam or essay that they don't really understand, but know is necessary for a pass.

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.

Information overload: Victorian style

I found a good article recently by Terry Friedman. He writes about compiling a list of the worst 100 blogs, as a service to people to save them trawling through the mountains of crap that's out there. In doing so he provides a quote from Oscar Wilde, written in 1886.

Wilde was talking about compiling a list of the worst 100 books to give to university students, and in doing so he provides a remarkably prescient description of what we call 'information overload':

Indeed, it [the list] is one that is eminently needed in this age of ours, an age that reads so much that it has no time to admire, and writes so much that it has no time to think. Whoever will select out of the chaos of our modern curricula ‘The Worst Hundred Books’, and publish a list of them, will confer on the rising generation a real and lasting benefit.

The bit in bold could apply to blogs, and the 'noise' that we get from the internet. Information overload Victorian style! Some things never change.