The Emperor's new clothes?

I'm grateful to all those who have commented on my recent 'Monkey Business' post. I also seem to have stirred up some passion from the edublogging community, judging by some of the blog responses to my Edupunk rant on VLEs. Felix Grant (on his delightfully named 'The Growlery' blog) wrote a couple of posts agreeing with much of my argument that VLEs are overpriced, restricted in their functionality and poorly designed, and made the point that:

"My own (frequent!) contention is that every (yes, every) benefit of the institutional VLE for the learner can be obtained elsewhere with a little thought, using combinations of other information and communication technology tools which are freely and publicly available and already transparent to the target learner. Also, conversely, that most (not all, but most) of the disadvantages of the institutional VLE can thus be avoided".

These are interesting views, espousing a similar approach to my own. James Clay over at e-Learning Stuff was a little more circumspect with his post entitled: 'A bad workman always blames his tools'. He urged users esssentially to make the best of what is available, and reminded us that VLEs are only tools, used well or badly depending on those who wield them. He also advocated a hybrid approach:

"Using a VLE does not preclude you using other web based tools, it can be the cayalyst. With RSS it is possible to use the VLE as a focus for other web based services".

I agree - I use wikis as a central portal to link to other tools and resources, but it might just as well be a VLE (albeit an expensive option). As for bad workmen - can I respectfully point out that the skills of good workmen are often constrained by poor tools. Helen Whitehead over at Periodic Fable responded by posting 'VLEs - A boon or a bust?" She argued from a similar perspective, in a very much 'wait and see', don't 'throw the baby out with the bathwater' stance:

"Designed for learning, they keep everything in one place and provide for a variety of ways to teach and learn, at a variety of levels of expertise. Recent discussions about the future of learning, e.g., at the Learning Futures Festival and JISC online 08 have shown that there are new more personalised and flexible technologies coming along for learners to manage their own learning. Until then, the VLEs are our familiar territory and it's up to us to find creative ways to use them".

I agree they keep everything in one place, but aggregators can do that and so can wikis - for significantly less cost.

The week culminated in a very enjoyable Skype panel discussion facilitated by James Clay where Dave Sugden, Rob Englebright and Dave Foord and I all held forth about our opinions on the future of the VLE. One of the conclusions from the discussion was that the choice of tool may reflect the learning philosophy of the user. A podcast of this discussion will be posted up onto e-Learning Stuff next Sunday, 30th November.

So, the jury is still out on VLEs. Not everyone wants to ditch them in favour of a patch-work, do-it-yourself approach to using social software, even if it could ultimately benefit learners more. I concede that VLEs have their place in the panoply of learning technology tools, but to consider them the only institutional solution for e-learning would be folly. Look to the horizon, and the rapid advances being made in new social software tools, and we may begin to realise that the status quo cannot be sustained for ever. We need transparent systems that teachers and learners can use easily, without having to think too hard about anything other than the content they are learning.

One final word - I still suspect that the 'one size fits all' approach and the poorly designed VLE systems most universities and colleges have lumbered themselves with, are being covered over by the respectability of huge subscription charges and corporate branding. I hope though that it won't be long before the Emperor's new clothes are seen for exactly what they are.