The Ecology of Virtual Learning Environments
As my readers know I've been thinking a lot about kindness and how it manifests in digital learning. I've made no secret that I personally value a sense of community in my learning and teaching practice. But there's more to online education than just the people. The technology itself can be either a huge help or a massive hindrance to the learning process. ( "ENVIRONMENT" by Enokson is licensed under CC BY 2.0 ) When I did a quick twitter poll recently and asked people what they refer to moodle as, either a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) or a Learning Management System (LMS), I wasn't surprised in the slightest to find that the result was that people call it a VLE. One person specifically commented that it sounded more accessible than LMS. Another commented that it was both. One interesting response indicated that they didn't care what it was called as long as it did the job. But that's precisely my...