The effect of ICT on school life (Part 2)

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)
A VLE is a website that allows teachers and students to exchange work or lessons online, it can be accessed anywhere at anytime. Teachers can add extra research material, a hand-in for work (which can have set opening hours), Q&A with the teacher, statistics of the whole class, notes, videos, parental access, tests and learning goals. Each student has their own portfolio area for their work and can have a grid showing their progress on the work they are undertaking. An advanced feature is that you can view (in real time) the teacher writing the notes on an interactive white board (see SmartBoard), this can be incredibly useful if a student is ill as they can access the work from home. Users can their subjects to favourites to ensure they can reach the subject of their choice easily. There are many different VLEs on the internet: two of the most popular being "Moodle" and "Fronter". The use of VLEs can help students beyond the classroom making homework and coursework more interesting for the students, they can access all the help they need from their school at any time.

Moodle Homepage Screenshot

The Fronter Homepage for Southend High School for Girls

Advantages:

• It saves paper! By sharing the files online, it saves the need for printing, this means that the conept is fairly eco-friendly and can help promote a "Green" image for the school/college where it is used.
• Students/Teachers can access documents at anytime, this means that if a student was absent for a lesson, they can easily catch up on work, keeping up to date with important work.
• Parents can keep track of their child's/childrens' progress. The system allows parents to see if their child is underperforming and perhaps encouraging their child to work harder.
• Files are available for multiple download, with a file online, any student can access and download their teachers work again and again, there is no restriction. This saves the teacher from manually sending the file to every student.

Disadvantages:

• A student must have access to the internet if they wish to access it at home. This can be difficult for families in unfortunate financial circumstances. Therefore it is not completely accessible to everyone.
• It is not completely safe, most VLEs do not have virus software fitted into the system, this means that viruses could be easily transferred from a student file onto a teacher's computer.
• It could be mis-used, teachers from other "under-performing" schools may gain access to better schools' files and "steal" work. This is an example of plajorism which is unfair to the person that has put time into creating good work.
• A student must also have a PC/mac at home to access the work. This is also extremely costly and difficult for low-income families.

Bibliography:
http://uk.fronter.info/
http://fronter.com/southend
http://moodle.org/

News stories about the effect of ICT on school life:

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7824736.stm
2. http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/10/16/232696/Schools-not-adopting-IT-fast-enough-says-Becta.htm

The effect of ICT on school life (Part 1)

SmartBoard

The smartboard has changed the way that teachers run lessons in schools in the developed world. The smartboard is a special whiteboard made with DViT (Digital Vision Touch) technology so that the teacher can display an interactive whiteboard/activity on the screen that can be written on with virtual ink or simply clicked/scrolled. For the system to work, a reasonable computer (laptop or PC), a projector, USB cable, the Smart Board Software and speakers (if sound wishes to be displayed). The board is fitted with 4 pens (of Red, Blue, Green & Black) and a rubber. However, they are not ordinary pens - they use ZeroInk technology, the pens do not have ink and are fitted with sensors that react to the screen so that it acts as that colour pen on the screen, the rubber is used to rub off the pen marks made. The technology means that teachers can make lessons beyond the classroom with video explanations, educational games and the sharing of other students' work. Some models are beginning to be fitted with projectors; thus meaning the school does not need to buy one separately (which is more expensive). The "SmartBoard" company are now developing a "SmartBoard" table that allows students to interact together on one shared surface, the teacher can create activities for the students to do. Businesses are also now using the technology, it allows an e-conference to be conducted over the internet, saving time and money on travel if the people in the conference are far apart.

SmartBoard being used by a teacher



ZeroInk used in Maths

Advantages:

• Saves the cost of replacing traditional used/stolen ink pens.
• The ZeroInk technology means that the board will always look clean. This means that the text on the screen will be easily read by all members of the class.
• Each lesson's work can be saved onto a file. This means that teachers can compare work and improve lessons. It also means if a student was absent, the student can easily access and copy up the teacher's notes.
• Teacher's can plan the lesson ahead and write out all of the lesson's notes before hand. This saves valuable lesson time in which notes would be written on the board meaning the teacher can spend more time helping students whilst the notes are up. If this was done traditionally, the teacher would likely have no time to help students and spend most of their time writing up the tasks or notes.
• Any computer (with the installed software) can be used with the SmartBoard, this saves the time of re-writing notes on the board in a different room; it can just be loaded straight to the board from a previous lesson.

[Jing Video]
[Jing Video]

Disadvantages:

• It is incredibly expensive; a standard board (no projector) costs over £1000. This can be hard for a school to buy if it is in a remote area with only a few pupils.
• A projector is needed to display the work along with a PC/Mac, this costs up to £1000 for both. Once again, this is difficult for small schools.
• It requires electricity to run, so therefore if there is a powercut and there is no manual method, it will be difficult to give the work to students.
• It is not a multi-touch surface, this means that only 1 thing can be drawn/clicked at a time, this makes navigation fairly sluggish.

Bibliography:
http://smarttech.com/
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/SMART+Boards/prod.asp