Objectives:The primary objective was to understand the contemporary public health nurse's (PHN) role and the issues that they face working in rural Ireland. Design and Sample: This study was based on an ethnographic approach with 13PHNs working in rural areas in the South West of Ireland.
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are important infrastructure and digital educational spaces that are widely used. The lecturers’ voices on VLEs and their use were not adequately captured in the #VLEIreland project. Therefore, following the development and piloting of a questionnaire consisting of a common set of questions, lecturers were surveyed across seven Irish higher education institutes. There were 580 responses from staff who use the VLE, with the analysis based upon the 521 valid responses. The findings will explore the VLE features or tools used by lecturers, their attitude to the VLE, and barriers to the use of the VLE and related issues, including that of intellectual property ownership. Lecturers are broadly positive about VLEs, with 7 in 10 of those who use the VLE strongly agreeing that it is helpful. However the adoption and use of VLEs is not without difficulties. In particular, time pressures emerged as barriers to use, limiting the use of VLEs and engagement with training. Despite this, 91% of respondents answered Yes to the question “Are you interested in making more use of online tools in your teaching?” Drawing on the issues highlighted in the findings, this paper will explore the attitudes of lecturers to the VLE and the enablers of, and inhibitors to, their greater engagement with the VLE.
In this paper we chart the history of selected metaphors that have been used to describe Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) over the last 15 years. Martin Weller famously claimed in 2007 that "the VLE is dead". This provocation positioned the VLE as an object of history, forcing us to consider its past, present and future. This notion of historical mapping is important as many educational technologies that failed to deliver on their promises can be easily forgotten. Hence, we sought to develop a short history of VLE metaphors. Using a defined search and selection strategy we selected 30 metaphors spanning a 15-year period from 2004 to 2019 derived from a variety of sources ranging from social media to scholarly publications. We first arranged the metaphors according to a chronological timeline. Next we sought to unpack their significance by thematically analysing them using the notion of metaphorical concepts. Through this thematic analysis, six organizing metaphorical concepts were generated: Straitjacket, Behemoth, Digital Carpark, Safe Space, Smorgasbord and Pathfinder. We then used these metaphorical concepts as a lens, to map and explore historical developments and debates over the past two decades of educational technology. As the world scrambles to go online during the COVID-19 pandemic there has never been a more important time to remember and reflect upon digital learning history. Through this work we contribute to the history of educational technology by remembering its metaphors and what they have taught us. After we had navigated these historical seas, we noticed that the VLE was still here, as a limpet resolutely awaiting the next wave.
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