e-learning or just doing the job these days?
“E-learning is learning facilitated and supported through the use of ICT. It may involve the use of computers, interactive whiteboards, digital cameras, the internet, the college intranet, virtual learning environments and electronic communication tools such as email, discussion boards, chat facilities and video conferencing. E-learning should form part of the overall teaching and learning strategy for courses. There should be appropriate references to e-learning in schemes of work, lesson plans, assignments, course reviews and staff development plans. An overall strategy for e-learning should be supported by senior managers.”
From Nigel Ecclesfield’s review the Ofsted Inspector’s Handbook from the standpoint of ICT and e-learning signposted from Seb Schmoller’s fortnighly mailing. Many people regard this view as so wide as to be less than useful. My take on this can be summarised below;
- Blogs in education
- What is a VLE?
- Online learning overview
- Blogs and VLEs
- Five things to do with a forum (subtext: I can use generic Web tools to teach outside the institutional framework if needed)
But your mileage will probably vary. I became aware how much institutional history has to do with all this recently at a local Moodle user’s meeting; some Colleges are using the Intranet and MIS data to write records to the Moodle MySQL database, and other Colleges are using Moodle as an Intranet!