Paul Williamson has spent a great deal of time empowering teachers in different subjects to use their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) effectively. The successes have become increasingly apparent with every area of the school moving forward rapidly.

Broadgreen are one of the few high schools across the country that run a baccalaureate programme. The programme is highly successful one for their students and are Becta's ICT Excellence Awards 2008 - joint runner-up award winners for the Best whole school in the North West category.

Neil Oldbury at The Elizabethan School has a real interest in questionnaires and analysing data to improve systems throughout the school. He wanted to know which subject areas and teachers were using the computer suites throughout the school and whether the use of computers was impacting on raising standards.

Brian Elliott is in his fourth year at Moorside and is now the 'e-learning coordinator' who has been an integral part of how the school's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) has helped take a school with issues around ICT and how it was impacting across the school - to the most improved school in the country!!

Crossley Heath have used their Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in so many ways to improve teaching, the delivery of the curriculum as well as the enjoyment of learning taking place. The following description highlights the way the schools secure email system is being used to help students make dramatic improvements in the quantity and quality of assignments set.

We continue to look at colleagues ideas on how to use VLEs effectively and this week have Roger Broadie and Gill Deadman sharing their ideas ...

There has been much discussion on the value of e-portfolios, their purpose, how they are used, the data they contain and indeed whether they are worth the trouble of setting up, maintaining and developing. In this Article, Ray Tolley outlines in great detail why e-portfolios can provide meaningful evidence to their importance. He believes an e-portfolio has a number of essential characteristics: portable, personal, generic, flexible, lifelong and credible.

This Article is taken from a paper which suggests that the advantages of social networking may stimulate stronger and more influential collaborative knowledge building for professional communities of educators. It poses the question 'What is braided learning?' in the context of online communities of practice (C0P) with particular reference to the MirandaNet experience.

This Article is taken from a paper which suggests that the advantages of social networking may stimulate stronger and more influential collaborative knowledge building for professional communities of educators. It develops the question 'What is braided learning?' into a study of collaborative online professional practice. The research considered rhythms and phases of debate, roles of members and barriers to braided learning in the context of a professional community of practice (CoP). The focus of the detailed analysis was a discussion on e-portfolios in NaaceTalk.

This Article is taken from a paper which suggests that the advantages of social networking may stimulate stronger and more influential collaborative knowledge building for professional communities of educators. It presents a summary analysis of the findings including a list of suggested social networking benefits for professionals, recommendations, conclusions and ideas for further research.