For those of us who have been struggling hard to implement Moodle in schools this article comes as a confirmation of our own experience. If it cannot made clear to the teachers that VLEs are not just another data organization and communication tool we will not succeed in getting VLEs implemented in modern classroom practice. I see Moodle or other VLEs a s a base camp for my students from where they can start to explore the outside world via social software and web 2.0. It provides  a protected virtual classroom for them but can be opened whenever and wherever they want to. BUT: there is a long way to go and meanwhile VLEs are getting discredited by not being used properly!

Thank you Steve for writing on this topic in your blog. You have triggered a discussion on this hot topic

A recent report from Ofsted suggests that many virtual learning environments (VLE) offered by schools and colleges suffer from poor take up.

The director of learning and skills at Ofsted said take up of VLEs had been slower than hoped partly because teachers may not have had sufficient encouragement from their managers, had not been trained to use the online classrooms and, frequently, could not spare the time to keep the VLE up to date and post materials on it.

Why Some Elearning Isn’t Working | E-Learning Lounge via kwout

And here is a podcast on the VLE where Steve Wheeler discusses the topic.

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #009: The VLE Debate « e-Learning Stuff via kwout