Sunday 22 June 2008

E-Learning - differentiation in action.

Doug Belshaw is moving into this field.

"I’ve mentioned this in passing in a couple of blog posts previous to this one: from next academic year I shall be E-Learning Tutor at my school. This new post (solicited by me, it has to be said) involves me spending 50% of my time (15 periods of 50 mins) per week teaching History and a bit of ICT. The other 50% will count towards the E-Learning Tutor role."

Doug asks about his job description - and it is not trivial to try to define it. Will it encompass VLEs? Or are all the Web 2.0 read-write technologies included as well?

Rightly, differentiation still remains a hot topic requirement in classrooms. It is really difficult to achieve well - at least consistently over a long period. But VLEs could be the additional places where all students could have learning re-enforced or even learning take place when it has not been learned in the first place. And the top end would also be able to extend. Who will be in this top end? Not necessarily just those who the teacher might expect to be there...

2 comments:

Doug Belshaw said...

Hi George,

VLE's could really shake things up. But, initially at least, I don't think they will in the UK. Why? They're likely to be full of multiple-choice questions and you-missed-my-lesson-therefore-read-this type of material.

I'm hoping to shift my school towards real interactive learning using educational technology. It would be great if it were twinned with 1:1 laptop access but, at least where I am, that could be a long way off...

Unknown said...

Doug - thanks for your comment.
You are right - as it stands at the moment. I had a look at our own Moodle site that we have had up and running for a couple of years and it is somewhat as you describe (we also have emergency school closure work for Primary students - as yet untried!).
But what would a VLE look like if it was to do what we would want it to?
Very interested in following what you do with your role - in our school we have called the post the Learning Resources Centre Coordinator (since we have just built a new LRC) and she too starts her new role next academic year.