Firstly, many thanks to Gareth for putting me on this article - "Is Web 2.0 the problem for VLE's". Having just rad this article and finding it quite enlightening I thought that it was apt to post about it as it certainly got me thinking on teaching and learning pedagogy. I felt compelled to post about this article as so much of it has resonated with me as to why we are using FROG. I confess to agreeing with the majority of what was written, but feel quite smug in the fact that FROG is providing Costello Technology College with the means to help students and staff shape the learning environment within which they work. Collaboration is they key, students being participants , collaborators and creators rather than mass consumers. I have always been a strong advocate in the use of true Web 2.0 technologies and FROG is allowing us to do just this at Costello. Getting students to actively construct the environment and move away from being passive consumers is so important and this represents a change in dynamic within schools. The article acknowledges how time consuming VLE's can be to manage - we've always had a view that this should not be the case and that students must be involved in shaping the environment. Getting students to create content is extremely powerful. The key messages in this article are interesting at the core of our E-learning principles. It is about change management and seeing progressive incremental change within the school environment that when combined and observed from a broader perspective will lead to transformational change.
Yesterday I was on the phone to Russell Prue (ICT Evangelist) talking about the session he is going to run for all our staff on 28th April. We had a great chat about technologies and again one of the really salient discussion points was about how staff shape E-Learning. Getting teachers to see the potential of Web 2.0 technologies and collaboration. With E-Learning environments being so much more than just digital repositories (staff just uploading lots of pdf files of 'stagnant' content). I'm re-assured by what I read and what we are doing and continue to try and achieve. I for one am pushing how we use FROG - I have students creating podcasts on the fly in lessons. Students participating in online discussion forums during the lesson. Sharing their work to their peers for the purpose of peer review outside of the classroom. The tides are changing. How deep staff are prepared to wade into the water is something that we will be finding out with our E-Learning on FROG at Costello.
Yesterday I was on the phone to Russell Prue (ICT Evangelist) talking about the session he is going to run for all our staff on 28th April. We had a great chat about technologies and again one of the really salient discussion points was about how staff shape E-Learning. Getting teachers to see the potential of Web 2.0 technologies and collaboration. With E-Learning environments being so much more than just digital repositories (staff just uploading lots of pdf files of 'stagnant' content). I'm re-assured by what I read and what we are doing and continue to try and achieve. I for one am pushing how we use FROG - I have students creating podcasts on the fly in lessons. Students participating in online discussion forums during the lesson. Sharing their work to their peers for the purpose of peer review outside of the classroom. The tides are changing. How deep staff are prepared to wade into the water is something that we will be finding out with our E-Learning on FROG at Costello.
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