I’ve been thinking more and more about the direction being taken in some jurisdictions at the moment in regards to solving the problems we all have with technology integration in schools, in particular on the moves toward a Virtual Learning Environment. I understand that what they’re looking for is a single framework that will allow staff, students and parents of schools to access classwork, deliver and participate in lessons, collaborate, share and generally connect with one another in an easy to use space. This is a desirable goal, but I wonder about the approach companies that are going to tender for this might take to such a problem. Schools are very different beasts to the corporate sector, and unlike businesses that generally work in well defined industries, sectors or divisions, the way teachers work can be so vastly different that trying to come up with an all-in-one solution that works for everyone is going to be pretty much impossible, IMHO.

So many of our schools have IT departments or sections that end up being managed by a non-educational authority or personnel, and unless these people are willing to actually delve into the deep, dark, unfathomable depths of IT use in schools, most of the time the solutions and ideas they throw about are sound in the corporate world, but come up against a heap of difficulties in the education sector. Universities tend to get away with it a bit more – their clientele area a little older, expected to be “responsible adults” and their teaching methods somewhat more traditional as a general rule – but schools don’t.

So can a VLE-type solution cope with all this? Well, in my mind there’s only one way such a solution would work – make sure what you’re providing is not restricted to specific technologies (make sure it uses open standards, for example), and ensure that accessibility and ease of use are of utmost importance. Allow teachers to change the way things operate – if they have the skills, why not add functionality to it that can then be made available to others? If they don’t have the technical know-how but they do have the ideas, hook them up with someone that could make it a realist. With technology moving so quickly all the time, it doesn’t make sense to lock yourself into a specific arrangement now that leaves you at the mercy of the developers. Social networking is a big deal (though some would argue it’s almost saturated already), but who knows how that is going to evolve in the next 3 years?

What the VLE should be is a system that exists solely to link other things together. It doesn’t have its own blogging system, or its own social networking tools. Nor does it have its own specific implementation of video-conferencing, or online classroom delivery. All of these tools are already out there – all it needs to do is draw all of these things together so that teachers and students who don’t know what is out there have easy access to the tools they need to come to grips with the connected world around them.

I mean, the biggest and best VLE in the world already exists – it’s called the Internet. It does, however, suffer from one very significant problem (that is only going to get worse), and that is that its size and lack of order can make it a scary place. This is the problem that VLEs need to overcome – they need to be the sieve that helps us filter out the useful from the useless, the factual from the fictional. That in itself would be a lesson worth its weight in gold. And that’s a lot of gold.

We use an administration, budgeting and timetabling package in our schools and there are a myriad of things I don’t like about it. To be fair, there are a number of things it does well, too, and I wonder how many of the problems we do experience are related to infrastructure or configuration issues on our networks. However, all that said, I wonder sometimes if we are forced to bend, twist and re-shape what we do to fit within the framework provided by these applications, rather than them acting as tools to assist us in our tasks. I know there are a number of teachers in the schools I’ve been in that don’t want to go anywhere near the system, simply because it just isn’t easy for those who don’t understand it – the interface alone is enough to scare away the timid computer user!

So, when developing my application, I’ve kept a few things in the forefront of my mind:

1. What I’m doing should HELP the teacher do what THEY want to do, not force them to work within a specific set of rules that forces them to change what they do;
2. It should be easy to use and not require any specific software download; and
3. There should be plenty of opportunities for collaboration on the software, and for feedback and comment to take place between those using it.

It’s still a little way off yet, but I hope that working on it between now and going back to school should be long enough to get a fairly robust demonstration of its capabilities finished.

I’m always exicted about the potential technology has and I’ve seen just how fantastic it can be with kids of all ages and abilities in my classroom and the classrooms of others, not to mention reading and hearing about the achievements and experiences of educators all over the world. There’s always plenty to blog about, and here’s hoping that over time, my thoughts and ideas will extend into the blogosphere like yours, and contribute to what I feel is very interesting discussion amongst connected educators.