Education

VLE – Frog

VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) is a web based tool used by schools that provides two-way interaction between teachers and students. Although Virtual Learning Environments were originally created to enhance distance learning, they are nowadays used more as a popular supplement to a traditional physical learning environment.

At my school, the VLE we use is ‘Frog’. It can be accessed from school or from home and includes features such as the school calendar, notices from the school, homework set by teachers and links to the school network and the school email. Uploaded lessons, subject information and resources can also be found on Frog.

The benefits of VLEs – Frog

• Frog is easy to use and has a friendly format
• Sources are more easily available to students so they can explore a variety of information from different places and various opinions and ideas
• Uploaded lessons can help students if they wish to re-cap, in order to retain more information than they may have done during the actual lesson. These can also help if a student is absent and they need to catch up with the work that they have missed
• In regards to homework, teachers can see which students have opened homework – not just when it is completed and sent back – so they know when a student deliberately hasn’t done it
• Homework can be set at any time of the day, and every day – even if School/ a lesson is cancelled due to bad weather or some other reason
• Frog provides students with new learning opportunities that could help them do better should they choose to use them e.g. the resources and uploaded lessons
• Parents can access their students work and information and keep an eye on how they child is doing and whether or not they are completing set tasks
• Frog saves paper as homework is set and completed and notices are sent over the VLE rather than on paper

The disadvantages of VLEs – Frog

• There is a worry that students become less concerned about missing school if all the work and lessons are available online anyway
• A huge drawback of VLEs such as Frog is the cost as it prevents many school from becoming part of the Virtual Environment and means they cannot utilise the available resources and help
• Not all students have computers at home so the VLE would be of little use to them and they would benefit more from homework and other information being provided in the traditional way
• Teaching and learning via a VLE means the ‘personal touch’ from the lesson is missing as the teacher cannot add their own ‘flare’ to them. Also practical lessons e.g. a chemical experiment, cannot be imitated by students at home. The lessons provided on Frog are mainly done in written format and miss the occasional excitement that certain topics could potentially provide, if taught well
• If someone is doing homework or a lesson on Frog they cannot seek immediate help if they don’t understand something or need help

My Uses of VLE – Frog

As my school has only had Frog for around a year now, I don’t think I am familiar enough with it to have realised its full potential or to get as much out of it as I could yet. Furthermore, very few of my teachers set homework on Frog so I rarely feel I need to check it. I feel that although VLE’s work fairly well alongside regular school, I don’t think I benefit very much from Frog. I much prefer lessons in classrooms as I find the social interaction between my fellow students and teachers more useful and enjoyable. I do however think that on days when school is cancelled e.g. when it there has been heavy snow, Frog is useful for accessing work that has been missed. I can definitely see the major advantages of Virtual Learning Environments however at times I feel that, in my school at least, Frog is a little under-appreciated and so unnecessary. I would certainly use Frog as extra support for my learning, but it wouldn’t be my sole resource as I prefer books and having the work directly in front of me rather than on a computer screen.

Online Revision

Online revision sites allow students to study various subjects, modules and topics for exams or just in general, via their computer at home. Obviously, with revision being extremely boring and demanding for the majority of students – the main objective of any useful revision method is to be as captivating as possible whilst also providing the necessary information – for this reason online revision sites use various methods such as animations and videos to enhance the enjoyment-factor. The two online revision sites I will be analysing are BBC Bitesize and Sam Learning – both of which I have used and have experience of.

BBC Bitesize

The benefits of BBC Bitesize
Revision available for KS1 up to GCSE
Because the target audience covers such a range of ages – from around 5 up to about 17, BBC Bitesize is easy to use
Each topic/ module has broken down revision then a mini-test to measure how much you remember – but you can choose whether to do the revision first or not, and how many times you do the revision exercises
Using interactive activities and videos, BBC Bitesize makes revision ‘fun’
Anyone can use it as it’s free, and can be used anytime
Concise and up to date study material is provided
There is a ‘Survival Kit’ that provides advice on how to manage exams and the stress that they may cause
BBC Bitesize offers games that test knowledge – so the students end up learning without even really realising it
The site includes many Teacher and Examiner tips which may be helpful

The detriments of BBC Bitesize
Not all subjects are included on the site e.g. GCSE Latin
Sometimes the information provided is not detailed enough so it may not equip people with the necessities for A* success
It is an open system – so doesn’t remember any of your previous work each time you go on so it is difficult for students to feel as though their progress and work is being tracked and remembered

My Uses of BBC Bitesize

Having sat my GCSE exams within the last 6 months, I have had quite a lot of experience of online revision sites and I did use BBC Bitesize a couple of times. I found it fairly informative, and the various methods of teaching used kept the learning experience interesting and relatively exciting – as far as revision goes. I did however find it lacked specific points about each subjects and seemed to only cover the very basics. My main issue with BBC Bitesize was the lack of personal touches as it wouldn’t save any of my previous work and scores so unless I had been keeping track, I couldn’t immediately see if any progress had been made since the last time I revised that topic. I didn’t use BBC Bitesize as often as I could have, because I found other revision sites more useful e.g. Sam Learning

Sam Learning

The benefits of Sam Learning

• Sam Learning includes a point-reward system. Students gain points depending on how well they have done in the revision questions/ mini-exams. Once a certain amount of points has been collected, the location of their ‘Avatar’ is changed e.g. from London to Paris, and the number of locations they have visited is logged. Also, time spent on Sam Learning activities accumulates and once a certain amount of time has been spent – you are rewarded a virtual ‘medal’. A student can pick ten of their friends whom which they can compete with to try and get the most points. These basic, and somewhat childish, rewards act as in incentive to do well and to revise as much and as well as possible
• Similar to BBC Bitesize, Sam Learning covers work from both Primary school and secondary school, including A-levels
• Can be used anytime
• Sam Learning uses various puzzles and interactive techniques such as drag and drop questions and step by step videos to keep the person interested and paying attention whilst they are revising
• As Sam Learning is ran through the persons school, their teachers can monitor the amount of revision they have been doing and the quality of that revision
• Exam style questions are extremely useful as not only as they replicas of what the student is likely to experience, but because after you have finished it shows you the correct points you should have made – so even if you got it wrong that time you can learn for the next time

The detriments of Sam Learning

• A lot of people have difficulty with the drag and drop questions as if you do not drop it in the exact place, the answer isn’t accepted
• The activities used for each subject are all basically the same, so can get a bit repetitive and boring after a while
• Some exercises are too long, this increases the chance of tedium
• The layout of Sam Learning could be described as cluttered and messy
• There is a daily point limit and once you reach it, although you may continue to do activities and questions, you do not gain any points from it – so the incentive is lost, and this may cause students to stop as soon as this happens
• The biggest problem with Sam Learning is that it is not free, and not available to everyone. In order to receive a centre login, personal login and password your school/learning centre needs to sign up and pay

My Uses of Sam Learning

In the weeks leading up to my GCSE exams, I used Sam Learning pretty much every day and I found it extremely useful. My friends and I would always jokingly compare who has the most points and discuss which locations we had unlocked. As for the actual activities, I found them very useful as I like to learn in a structured way. Comparable to BBC Bitesize, Sam Learning also didn’t seem to cater very much for those aiming for A* grades though. I found Sam Learning made revision somewhat bearable for me when I used it alongside traditional revision from books.

Online Learning Objects and Simulations

The aim of any Online Learning object or simulation is to provide information in an enriching and motivating way. Online learning objects can occur in many forms; from pages of text, to PowerPoint presentations and videos. Over the internet you can find learning objects for pretty much every subject.

The benefits of Online Learning Objects and Simulations

• Not just available to students, Online Learning Objects are open for the use of everyone who is interested
• Most websites require no personal information in order for you to view and participate
• The majority of sites are free – so there are no restrictions for people of any background
• Accessibility is further increased by the fact that Online learning objects and simulations are available at any time
• Online objects and simulations allows people to learn/ view things that they may not have access to within their everyday learning e.g. Frog dissection
• As previously mentioned, there is a huge choice range available – so students/users are able to be specific about exactly what they would like to learn

The detriments of Online Learning Objects and Simulations

• One of the biggest issues with learning objects and simulations found online is that the information is not accurate and could be completely wrong
• Another problem is that some work is biased and for some subject e.g. R.E it might be important to not only learn one side of opinions but to consider both of them
• Objects and simulations for old curriculums, holding information that is no longer necessary may not be removed from the internet so people may end up learning things that won’t come of much use to them in their exams
• Another major disadvantage of online objects is the temptation of plagiarism – some students will end up simply copying information and claiming it as their own, which is illegal

My Uses of Online Learning Objects and Simulations

My main use of Online Object is when I am trying to find extra information for homework and background information. I think it is great that a whole library of information is available online and think, used sensibly and correctly, it can be of great help to every student. After doing a bit of browsing online, I have found that you see videos or step-by-step shows of things that you cannot do yourself – the one I found that was particularly interesting was the dissection of a Frog. The idea that a limit to the resources of your home/school/other learning environment doesn’t have to hold back your learning is one that I find really exciting and a testament to the evolution of online learning.

School League Tables

School league tables allow the public and in particular, parents, to compare the recent exam results and ofsted reports in the hope of selecting a school that would suite their child/children. They also show other information such as attendance records, in order to give unbiased and factual information. They are supposed to act as a guide to how well a school is doing.

The benefits of School League Tables

• Other information instead of just exam results are shown in attempt to give people a well-rounded idea of what a school is like – the Ofsted reports are a particularly important part of this as they comment on many aspects of school life from care and support of pupils to their well-being and development
• The tables are generated by unbiased ‘third parties’ who have no interest/ investments in any of the schools so the parents get impartial opinions
• Parents can find out about lots of different schools very quickly, without having to browse through many brochures or separate websites
• School league tables can be seen by anyone and don’t require any personal information

The detriments of School League Tables

• Parents may be given the impression that good grades make a good school – which may be misleading
• Adds somewhat of a pressure to students to perform well in order to make their school rank highly
• It can be unfair to smaller schools
• The ‘top’ schools become extremely popular and can result in overcrowding
• Ranking the schools may cause tension between schools within a local area and may cause students to be embarrassed if they go to a school which repeatedly ranks lowly

My Uses of School League Tables

I have never really gone into a lot of thought over School League tables – probably because I am not a parent – but I do not see any problems with them. I do think it can be a little biased to rank schools based on their academic achievements but think that it is useful for parents to have a ‘comparison site’ because I imagine it must be a bit of a daunting task to decide which school is the ‘right one’ for your child as they have to consider both their happiness and the hope that they will do well.

Buying School Books Online

Thanks to the increased availability of buying books online through sites such as Amazon, the popularities of libraries and book stores has fallen, but the accessibility to school books has increased.

The benefits of Buying School Books Online

• You are bound to find the book you are after as over the web thousands of books can be transferred – even those that you may not be able to find in your local library
• Often you can find the book you need for a discount price when you buy it online
• If you cannot afford the book brand new, many people sell their used version rather than throw it away
• Also, you do not have to leave your home – so it saves you a trip to town, and saves you time which you can put towards homework
• Online book shops are open twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week
• Before you buy a book, you can usually find reviews about it so you know whether or not it is really what you need – for example, if you are buying a book that you thought might be good for background research

The detriments of Buying School Books Online

• Once you have ordered a book you have to wait, sometimes days, for it to be delivered so if you need it straightaway there is no point ordering it online
• Hoax sites may pretend to sell books – then you end up wasting money and gaining nothing
• Returning online-bought books isn’t as easy as returning them to a shop
• Whilst buying online you cannot really check that it is the right book that you need, unless you know the ISBN of the book you are looking for, and you cannot check the condition it is in

My Uses of Buying School Books Online

Most of the school books I own have been bought online. From revision guides to text books – I have found everything I need, mainly on Amazon. I think it is great as I have saved up to 20% by buying online, and has allowed me to have my own copies of the books we are studying – in which I can make notes and highlight certain text, depending on my needs. I have never had a problem with buying books online, but friends of mine have on occasion bought novel which they are studying online only to find they contain scribbles and drawings in.

At school, my biology text book has now been put online – this allows us to access it via the school website so we don’t need to buy a personal copy, neither does the school need to lend their copies out. I feel like this is probably the future for school books as it saves paper and money. I, however, bought a personal copy of the biology book in addition because I like to make my own notes and I also find it difficult to read the online-version.