Catching up with the blogosphere today I came across Dai Barnes’ blog post titled “VLEs, what/who are they for again?” This struck a chord with me as it was one of the many questions we pondered upon whilst sketching out our early ideas for OPENHIVE.   Our thoughts revolved around: “what’s wrong with existing learning platforms today?”, “why aren’t teachers using them?” and “what are the blockers?”

As the discussion unfolds on this blog post there are some really crucial points being surfaced.  What difference does technology make to teaching? What are the stumbling blocks that limit the widespread adoption of technology amongst teachers?

Andy Kemp commented “This in my opinion has been the major stumbling block to a widespread adoption of VLEs and other technology in schools as for some teacher it requires a significant change of practice. And for many of our excellent and experienced teachers this does not equate to an improvement.”

In all of this, I see the importance of both “choice” and “flexibility” for teachers and their technology, alongside other tired and tested teaching methods.  Look back into the annals of time; a newly published book has rarely been adopted as whole.  Teachers have always taken the bits they wanted to use and blended them into their own teaching materials, and it’s the same for technology.  Teachers aren’t going to immediately abandon their tried and tested approaches, but they will experiment and evolve their practices. It’s like the first time a teacher provokes a discussion in class around a topic rather than presenting what is needed to be understood. It’s small steps at their own pace. Technology is just another string to the teachers bow, it can add richness, diversity and allow learners to move at their pace.  Choice of tools isn’t just for teachers to enjoy!

The comments succinctly remind us that “every teacher, like every student, is different and we must help them find which bits are right for them”.

This is exactly why choice and flexibility has always been a core element in our philosophy behind OPENHIIVE.  We acknowledge that teachers have different teaching styles, preferred approaches and varying levels of ICT skills and so we built OPENHIVE in a way that fully integrates a vast mix of teaching and collaboration tools in one place.   Some teachers may prefer to use email to communicate with learners; others may enjoy using forums, instant messaging or video conferencing.   OPENHIVE helps teachers to blend and weave different technologies into their teaching.

By offering this choice of integrated learning technologies from a single database (connected to the school’s MIS system), schools are able to deliver a solution that allows teachers to use the tools that suit them, their learners, their subject and class.  Teachers adopt new services with greater ease and the learner has one seamless learning journey in OPENHIVE.

Importantly, the modular nature of OPENHIVE means that there are opportunities for both leaders and followers when planning the implementation and adoption within a school. A teacher can utilise the applications with which they’re confident and build upon these strengths.  Utilising the more technologically savvy teachers, who often have a good understanding of the pedagogic benefits that technology brings, helps to create an environment in which teachers, as learners, can set their own targets, based upon their aspirations and skills.

So, successful adoption of learning technologies comes down to design, usability, flexibility and choice. It’s true that not everyone will use an array of learning technologies available to them.  But let’s remind ourselves that it’s using the relevant technology that makes a positive difference that’s most important.