Arnaud Mandan livens up MFL by inviting famous French and German guests from the past onto their VLE forums. Dave Calver came up with the idea of getting his students to write questions to a virtual World War I veteran in order to get an idea of what life was like living in the trenches before writing their own assignment on what life was like.

As part of a longer article to published in the next edition of Primary Focus, Jim Fanning provides his blog of a two-day flexible learning course. Is this the way of the future?

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 ...

Our first 'hot-seat' guest is Phia le Roux. She will be answering your questions from 9 January 2008. Phia has kindly agreed to share an hour per week 'live' at 4-5pm every Wednesday and will pick up and answer any other questions at 8.30am Mondays and Fridays. Please fire all your questions on what podacasting is about, why podcast, how to get started, what you need to get started, potential difficulties, problems encountered etc.

BETT 2008 was the ICT event of the year!!

Yet for several years I went through a phase of returning home with a headache and wondering why I had bothered. I have often thought that with a little more planning I could have got so much more out of the visit. Here are some thoughts whilst they are still fresh in my mind designed to make the most of the event.

I shared several comments from colleagues in the last issue of Sharing Success on the end of school web-sites (for sharing educational material). The conversations and opinions developed into a really interesting thread - with colleagues contributing factual and objective views ....

Julie Cooper is the Chair of Governors at Gloucester Road Primary School in Cheltenham. Her role was primarily a mother and parent governor until the school went into Special Measures when she decided that rather than take her children out of school she would take action to help get the school out of trouble.

This article emerges from some recent discussions on Naacetalk and expands on some points I contributed to that discussion. The initial topic under discussion was 'why e-learning does not appear to be taking off in schools'. Whilst at first glance, this is a true picture, if we dig deeper, we might find that some significant changes are beginning to take place. Evidence of growing networks of educators online clearly indicates there is an increasing number of teachers prepared to engage with e-learning, and associated new technologies.

Ray Tolley has been a prolific poster on the Naace talklists and always has a valid point of view. This month he takes the 'hotseat'. Live sessions will be on Thursdays 8, 15 and 22 May from 4-5pm. Please post questions before during and after the live sessions.

I kicked off the 'hotseat' by asking Julie what were the most influential ICT features/changes made. Julie felt her greatest challenge as Chair of Governors was the governors and the LA.