Education

VLEs

Otherwise known as a ‘virtual learning environment’ or ‘e – learning’. A VLE is completely web based and it models real – world education by integrating an equivalent set of virtual concepts, such as: tests/tasks/classes/homework/classrooms etc… it also has the ability to preserve other external academic resources.  This bit of software is normally used in schools and other educational establishments, why? Because people believe that sites like these make learning more interactive. This is known as ‘blended learning’ and to date statistically, it has been proving that since 2007 a lot more schools are getting involved with this program, making VLEs come to big rise in reputation and production. Even my school has a VLE!

St. Marks Schools VLE

In an overview of a VLE, a student will work over the internet to reach out to their ‘online tasks’. Teachers are able to upload to this site at any point seeing as they have internet access and space to actually put the work in. once a student has completed a task on a VLE his/her teacher will then be able to mark it and post his results to him/her over his VLE account. Newer VLEs also include perks such as ‘Wiki, Blogs, RSS feeds, Podcasts & 3D virtual learning spaces’.  All of this perks create a multimedia experience not only for the students but for the teachers too!

Advantages of VLEs:

• Accessibility – anyone with access to the internet can use it. Student wise, even children with special needs can use the program. Making life a lot easier for them, and hopefully making them learn a lot more clearly and positively
• As you can repeat the work on the site – you can learn at you own pace
• Can open a VLE at home
• Really easy to revise on there (downloading teachers work examples)
• For students with disabilities: they are very popular with people who are deaf/No need to take notes or have a scriber as you have formats to suite special needs/it also available outside office hours (meaning that the person with the disability wont need help  of the assistant/carer if its formatted for them)
• Can save time for tutors/teachers
• It encourages communication & collaboration
• Signposting is also encouraged

Disadvantages:

• Facial expressions would not be available to do (paralinguistic cues etc...)
• The only communication would be via the written text so poor writing skills could result in a disadvantage to the reader
• Always the chance of unclear/misunderstandings through written text
• Very expensive to set up not every school has the money to set one of these up

Frog logo

In my own personal experience, my school has a VLE and this particular VLE was published by Frog. Now Frog has its advantages and disadvantages in my own personal opinion. It has a lot of free space for teachers to use up and it’s also easy to ‘download’ teachers work to help with your own! However having animated GIF images on their makes it very slow at times and can also be hard to navigate through opening numerous new tabs. Although those are problems, they can be easily fixed! And in time I’m sure I’ll get better with the user face. And I reckon a lot more schools will try their hardest to invest in them!

Online Learning (Revision)

BBC Bitesixe logo

There are many different types of revision sites online, the most well known ones being BBC Bitesize and Sam learning. Learning online has become a very new and successful thing, a lot of schools introduce sites like Bitesize too their students to make them become more ‘interactive’ with their own work. These sites can be good also to those who have short attention spans, for example it may be hard for one of them to listen to a teacher babble on about the science ethics for an hour or so, however if he/she were able to go on the internet to find out what a chain reaction is they would be able to play games on it and maybe even watch a really eye catching video about it!

Advantages of Online Learning (Revision):

• Convenient  (can access a revision site online at any given time)
• Cost (it is free to use most of the time!)
• These sites are normally reliable and give true/honest work  

Disadvantages:

• Personal contact (although it’s learning through an online service, there is no face – to – face communication which in every case is a bad thing)
• Not all sites are professional/correct, you have to be careful with what site you use (check reviews)
• Not everyone trusts them!

Atom taken from Google images

Personally, I have indeed used revision sites on the internet. I used BBC Bitesize actually to revise science in years 10 & 11, I personally struggled with science and found it really boring, that’s when I got told by my review tutor that I should try find other ways to learn around it. I took it upon myself to try out Bitesize only because I heard good feedback. However, I did use it and I found it a lot easier to concentrate with science and watching short clips and playing games and regular Q&A made it a lot easier for me to learn. And obviously I’m not the only person out there whose tried this, I know it wouldn’t  work or fit in with certain people but for me it helped a lot and I even started answering questions with confidence in my science lessons!

School E – Mail

E - Mail picture taken from Google images

Having a school e – mail is crucial to your every day to day life in school, especially in secondary school/college. It allows you have to have a private school e – mail and from which you can access this from home and in school. Having it there means the only e – mail you will get is mail from school evolving around newsletters to homework. Without having a school e – mail not every student would know what’s going on and there will be the people who will be off sick and miss out on work or people missing the football/netball trials. It happens, so by having a personal school e – mail you can catch up with literally everything you need to know.

Advantages of School E – Mails:

• Very easy to use
• It’s a free service
• You can forward messages to other people who might of been missed out by accident
• You can send your school work to your home
• Can be accessed at home
• Normally sends the mail quite fast
• Information at your finger tips

Disadvantages:

• School servers can crash
• Sometimes teachers can be a bit forgetful to send mail
• You can’t really send massive files
• Some e – mails can be upsetting/emotional (otherwise known as cyber bullying)
• Lacks the personal touch
• E – mails are best as an abbreviated form

Homework skit taken from Google images

Yes, I do have my own school e – mail, and yes, I do check it regularly. I do this as my a – levels are more on the coursework side than theory. This means that I am constantly being set work which needs to be done! All it takes is good organisational skills to keep up with it though, and you can organise through e – mail as some teachers will link you to sites where you gather more information or simply give you the presentation that you were presented too in class. I have teachers who do this for me and it is very helpful, they always tell you what you need to of done by their next lesson. And if you don’t there’s no real excuse! This is also a good way to pick out the lazy from the hard working ones!