Yes, I am an idiot. I have seen it in writing. On the Internet. In fact, I have seen a lot of things written about me since I wrote an article on my personal view of a Managed Learning Environment not long ago.
I don't mind what people tell me I am. I am old enough to cope with that. I am also old enough to realise that people have the right to reply (as do I when someone leaves me a comment about something I have written). I could have deleted some of the comments that were left about the previous article, but I chose to publish them and allow visitors the opportunity to discuss my thoughts. However, what I do mind is people trying to explain my reasons for making a decision that they don't agree I should have made in the first place, and dismissing my choices as wrong.
Today I clicked through a link in my stats list that took me to a topic on a forum that linked to my article, and there were some really interesting points that were discussed.
The topic began with a link to my article, and a comment "I guess they don't like [the MLE]". It was like someone dipping their toe into the water to gauge the temperature, and this person then stepped back and let others start ripping me apart, or else defending my point of view.
As I read through I became aware that apparently the reason I don't want to use the MLE is because I "refuse to change their own teaching methods. So, rather than admit that they don't want to change, they'll slag off the new methods".
Not wanting to change, eh? I've introduced blogging / shared docs / wikis / podcasting and heavens knows what else to the school over the past few years as the technologies have emerged, and as more do I'll keep introducing them to the school to keep abreast of the technology and change with the times. So, don't think that's the reason then, is it?
Our school website was also slated too for being 'barren' and 'unfriendly', having non-matched icons, and 'using a selection of tools spread out across various sites, rather than have a single collaboration site'. Is our website really barren and unfriendly? If so, I'll set a new theme up on it, it'll only take two clicks to do that :0) I also thought that having services spread out reduces the risk of a total outage and inability to work online, but I may be wrong on that too. Maybe keeping all your collaborative eggs in one basket is the best way to go...
The rest of the topic flip-flopped between either slagging me off, or else agreeing with parts of what I had said and then adding their own comments about the frustrations that they were having with the MLE. One poster agreed with me and commented that their staff "say the same thing". Maybe the staff in their school are refusing to change their own teaching methods too then...
The most recent post within the topic (when I viewed) did attempt to look at both sides of the issue and set out a number of [very well thought out] comments for each point being argued over in the topic, and I did find myself agreeing with their point of view regarding trying to roll out a blanket solution for 3 - 18 year olds within an LA. They finished with "I wouldn't be so quick to rubbish the opinions of the blogger in question - I believe he's had Fronter training and was turned off from the start. There are teachers out there with exactly the same experience with all LA provided training/platforms"
Absolutely true. And whenever anyone asks me why we chose not to use the provided solution, I tell them we already had much of it in place through our website, and have since added additional services that provide us with everything we need. The biggest test will be use of the system - and staff are already using it with their classes, and the kids have taken to it wonderfully. Surely, it doesn't matter what we use - as long as what we do choose to use is actually BEING used successfully? That's the most important issue with an MLE / VLE / LP solution.
