Lancashire Schools Take the Lead in Online Learning – Moodle is the Way Forward, says Mark Greenwood

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 31, 2007 --
In 2008, all schools should have a Virtual Learning Environment, an online presence for accessing learning resources. For one school in the North West, this all began back in Spring 2006 when a small group of teachers at Our Lady’s High School Preston trialled the CLEO-offered Moodle VLE with some year 7s. Such was the enthusiasm with which it was embraced that within six months Our Lady’s was offering Moodle training to other schools in the North West and became North of England lead school for its VLE.

According to Assistant Head Mark Greenwood, Moodle took off so quickly because it was that it was presented as a useful tool for all departments, not just ICT. Although ICT were involved in the trial, so were other departments such as Geography , and early on in its progress, English and MFL were making regular use of it too. The weekly staff briefings incorporated a ‘Moodle Moment’ where teachers would talk about how they were developing it, motivating those more cynical amongst the staff to ‘give it a go.’

18 months on, the school is not complacent. Moodle is kept fresh by MFL and Geography teacher Mary Cooch whose timetable includes hours allocated to updating and extending colleagues’ knowledge of the VLE. Our Lady’s has broadened the range of its CPD to include Moodle for Primary Schools and subject-specific Moodle training.

While other schools around the country are wondering which VLE to go for and how on earth they’ll ‘sell’ it to their staff, Lancashire, thanks to the foresight of CLEO and the enthusiasm of Our Lady’s Preston, have got it covered.

For additional information, see the school’s VLE on http://vle.olchs.lancs.sch.uk

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