When I saw that Drew Buddie, ICT Co-ordinator at the Royal Masonic School
We learnt about setting up a VLE and getting pupils to visit and use it. It seems that the key is to make it seem that it's not an extension of school and that the look should and be fun ((while at the same time getting pupils to do work on it that really helps them improve). It was really interesting to see a VLE like this one, as the other VLEs I've seen in action have all been very much fitting to the image of the school it belongs to. I suppose that it all depends on the requirements of each school...I know that my husband was asked to make their VLE specifically in keeping with the school colours and crest etc...
For me, the main part of this session was fantastic, as Drew showed us how to add content to a specific part of his school's VLE. We were all designated as creators for a week and he talked us through how to create a course and then how to add files and links to that course and also how to create a quiz. It amazed me how versatile this Moodle VLE, which is FREE, can be. I hadn't realised that one could have courses or activities that were available for a certain amount of time...ensuring that pupils hand their work in on time. In addition you can track who works on which activities (brilliant for parents at parents' evening to show how much or how little work their child is doing). I also hadn't realised that pupils only see the courses for which they are registered when they log onto a VLE (I know, common sense really). I was really interested to see also that there is a Hot Potatoes module available to add to the Moodle VLE, as that is something else that we are developing our use of. One of the other useful features of Moodle that Drew showed us was the chat module. This can also only be opened for specific times, for example, he gave us the example that he used this the night before an A Level exam so that pupils could ask any last minute questions. All of the chat is recorded which meant that pupils who couldn't take part in the chat could still access it later on to see what had been discussed.
We learnt about setting up a VLE and getting pupils to visit and use it. It seems that the key is to make it seem that it's not an extension of school and that the look should and be fun ((while at the same time getting pupils to do work on it that really helps them improve). It was really interesting to see a VLE like this one, as the other VLEs I've seen in action have all been very much fitting to the image of the school it belongs to. I suppose that it all depends on the requirements of each school...I know that my husband was asked to make their VLE specifically in keeping with the school colours and crest etc...
For me, the main part of this session was fantastic, as Drew showed us how to add content to a specific part of his school's VLE. We were all designated as creators for a week and he talked us through how to create a course and then how to add files and links to that course and also how to create a quiz. It amazed me how versatile this Moodle VLE, which is FREE, can be. I hadn't realised that one could have courses or activities that were available for a certain amount of time...ensuring that pupils hand their work in on time. In addition you can track who works on which activities (brilliant for parents at parents' evening to show how much or how little work their child is doing). I also hadn't realised that pupils only see the courses for which they are registered when they log onto a VLE (I know, common sense really). I was really interested to see also that there is a Hot Potatoes module available to add to the Moodle VLE, as that is something else that we are developing our use of. One of the other useful features of Moodle that Drew showed us was the chat module. This can also only be opened for specific times, for example, he gave us the example that he used this the night before an A Level exam so that pupils could ask any last minute questions. All of the chat is recorded which meant that pupils who couldn't take part in the chat could still access it later on to see what had been discussed.
In the name of fairness, I should point out that there are several other VLEs available but this particular session focused on Moodle and was of particular interest to me because we are to use this type of VLE, ourselves.
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