learning - Academic Conferences Limited

John Jessel
‘“reduce the clicks” is my motto’. Uniformity of pathways was considered as important, colour coding
often helping. When designing pages it was felt that ‘it has to be obvious to the pupils as to how it
should work’ and ‘scrolling horizontally is a no no’, vertical scrolling being more manageable.
Reliability - Rather than this being a matter of the technology breaking down, the concern was with
planning methods of working in sufficient detail so that learning outcomes can be achieved in a
dependable way. Where the methods are innovative and carry a higher level of risk, backup strategies
were included for achieving the objectives.
Inter-institutional comparison - Because the trainers worked across schools that were known to each
other there was interest in how other institutions were approaching particular curriculum areas and
solutions to common problems were shared. In one instance a teacher from one school visited the
school where the trainer taught to see particular methods in action. Although this could have been a
recipe for uniformity, it was felt that one institution was never a blueprint of what happened in another
and so this was regarded as a form of enrichment.
Ownership - The need for teachers to take ownership and negotiate and augment aims to serve their
interests was considered essential at many different levels: ‘rather like a lesson plan innovation is
developed within an institution’ (teacher); [Innovation is] ‘something you develop yourself and have
control over rather than have it thrust upon you’.
5. Summary and conclusion
Although the VLE in secondary education may have the potential to enhance learning, effective
uptake may not occur automatically. One reason for this is that VLE technologies make innovative
demands on practice – both by learners as well as teachers. Innovation within the school setting is
something that does not occur in isolation and has to be considered along with other initiatives,
changes and demands occurring within that context. Innovation has its costs: it became clear that
time was needed to identify and adapt suitable resource, to structure content and develop new ways
of working This can also involve the kind of detail expressed in the form of the general principle that
emerged from the workshops. Much of the work associated with development appears ‘invisible’ in
that it is done in advance of the use of the technology. The use of the VLE has implications for the
role of the teacher and the learner. The work highlighted the fact that the teacher was not solely
instrumental in passing on an established body of knowledge. Teachers acted as facilitators bringing
together curriculum, teaching and technical experience in a jointly creative enterprise. It is also likely
that a certain amount of inertia can be involved in the adoption of new technologies as evidenced by
the move away from assumptions of the VLE as a storage and administrative system towards a more
participative learning medium.
Insofar that a curriculum can be viewed in not only in terms of learning outcomes but also in terms of
the means and wider learning context there are implications regarding the impact of VLE
technologies. The work connected with writing news reports illustrates, for example, how, on the one
hand, technology can be used to enhance existing curriculum objectives, while, on the other,
technology can be used to transform an existing curriculum and introduce new challenges.
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