We’re having a big push on the VLE during gain time. This involves:
1. I’ve set up courses for each department. As a basic they’ve got for each key stage they teach. In some cases we’ve done for one for each year group and where asked, we’ve done some for specific topics. They’ve all been set up to a common format, with all the teachers from that dept given teacher rights on those courses.
2. I’ve created the following framework to guide me (and the staff) in terms of rolling this out. After our experience with Kaleidos I’m keen not to overload people:
1. How to add resources to a page so students can access them
2. How to set up ‘assignments’ so students can upload their work
3. How to set up ‘quizzes’ and other forms of assessment, some of which can be self marking
4. How to create an online ‘classroom’ that encourages students to collaberate and communication online
5. What else can I do with this thing?
3. I’ve written a ‘Big Friendly Guide’ to step one in the list above. Although 90% of the content in the same, I’ve produced one that’s slightly different for each department, listing the courses they have had set up and showing their departmental homepage. While this has taken longer that producing just one I’m trying to make this process as much like a conversation as I can (as opposed to another initiative that people need to do)
4. I’ve set up a course on Moodle to host all the guides and other resources, including a text introduction, a mindmap and a 5 minute introductory video I made using Jing. I’ve opened it up to guests and it’s here. Help yourself if there’s anything there that’s of use to you.
5. Drop in sessions for people to come and work in room with me, Nick or another of our more experienced uses there for consultaion. This isn’t a ‘training course’ where people come, sit and listen. What it is is some protected time where staff can focus just on this, in a supportive environment where they can ask questions if they want.
So far, there’s a bit of a buzz about this at the moment. I just hope we can capitalise on this in the next few weeks to get widespread use of the VLE over next year!
This is super and I think you’re going about it the right way. I’m really looking forward to seeing your resources. For your drop in sessions I understand that you will be around but what if a teacher is teaching at that time every week? How often are you available?
During gain time I’m available quite a bit. I’m also doing after school drop ins as well.
During term time I get time (4 hours a fortnight this year, 2 next) to work 1:1 or in small groups with staff. While these are fixed, I tend to swap around with my other management time and my PPAPs to try and make sure I can see everyone who wants to see me. I haven’t found someone I haven’t been able to fit in so far this year. If I did, given that this was a school priority I suspect I could arrange some cover, even if that was just informally with the ICT coordinator or another member of the department who was looking for support.