Interesting post. I went full out for Moodle last year to assist my Geography students but found the whole thing far too inflexible and cluncky for both them and me. I've ditched Moodle and now simply use a Wordpress blog - I find it far more effective and instant!
Emma
· 1 year ago
The majority of ‘approved’ VLE suppliers aren’t education-specific. Therefore, however much they may protest that they’ve built their VLE solution from the ‘ground-up’, it’s likely to be heavily influenced by the world of business. That's interesting. Many of those are unfamiliar to me, as I'm working in Higher Education. Here, the main providers (in the UK at any rate) are Blackboard & WebCT (now part of BB), with Moodle to a lesser extent. While I have a number of gripes about WebCT Vista - the fact that it wasn't built for Education isn't one of them. Given the fact that something over 60% of HE Institutions in the UK use Blackboard or WebCT, I'm surprised that neither is even mentioned by BECTA.
Does this mean that they don't have the features that BECTA requires, or that the don't implement them well enough?
John Sutton
· 1 year ago
Speaking purely from a primary school persepctive, my feeling is that the "mandatory" parts of a VLE are highly unlikely to interest teachers overmuch. I can't realy see Y1/2/3 logging on to a VLE to do an assessment activity at home. Of much greater interest is access to tools such as blogs and wikis where students can collaborate and reflect. The VLEs that have tried to do a "primary school friendly" theme have simply fallen into the old "make the font bigger" trap!
Mark Berthelemy
· 1 year ago
Hi Doug,
It's worth remembering that Becta's list isn't about "products", it's about the capability to provide a "service" (which includes things like financial stability). It's only intended for LA's which are going through large procurements as it saves them having to go through a complete pre-qualification process (under EU rules).
So you could ask any of the providers to give you a Moodle solution if you wanted. It is a pity that there isn't a Moodle specialist provider (or any other Open Source provider) on the list, but, in general, they're just not geared up to lead on those big tenders.
Karyn Romeis
· 1 year ago
LOVE the cartoon, it says so much!
Nick Dennis
· 1 year ago
Doug,
That is ridiculous that they have contacted the school. If they REALLY wanted to improve their offering, they could have asked for your help. It just shows how terrible their product is AND how they value the views of their customers/end users.
Nogbad
· 1 year ago
I had criticized TALMOS in this section.......
This is appalling - I know nothing of this product but will happily publicise their inappropriate response to your comments. It looks like they simply "don't get" what web 2.0 is all about, probably a poor indictment for any technology vendor (and I spent a lump of my life working in that environment).
Jo Badge
· 1 year ago
Doug - really daft of TALMOS to take this action. I've blogged about it and contacted them.
Doug Belshaw
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the support, guys. It disappoints me greatly that TALMOS are more interested in silencing those who have found their product wanting rather than on getting user feedback. They didn't even try to contact me directly. :-(
Clarence Fisher
· 1 year ago
Not sure Doug how they have the right or ability to do this? I'm confused. Do you blog from school or is your blog somewhow related to your school? I do not agree at all with this action and I am curious about how it could actually happen.
mrkp
· 1 year ago
I agree with your comments that VLEs are already out of date. Working within the primary sector we were 'given' the VLE solution by our LEA. They and consequently we went with Fronter. Without wanting to sound 'commercially damaging' everything was so slow and time consuming it became redundant as a tool compared to the flexible web 2.0 tools that we've started using instead.
Will Richardson
· 1 year ago
Doug,
I'd be interested in hearing what your school's response was. Did they just accept this demand without comment? Did they argue? Did they talk to you?
Bud Hunt
· 1 year ago
Doug,
I'm concerned, too, about what's happened here - any chance of an update?
Paul Hamilton
· 1 year ago
TALMOS is a name that should be made famous--as an example of a company that practices intimidation and censorship of the very worst kind. If this kind of abhorrent practice is allowed to go unchallenged, your experience is unlikely to remain an isolated incident for long. Unless TALMOS backtracks and apologizes here, I sincerely hope that this sad strategy will backfire badly.
--Paul
Doug Belshaw
· 1 year ago
@Will, Bud, Paul: Basically, a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) called me in for a quiet word. They showed me the email and said what TALMOS had asked to happen (me to remove the post and EdTechRoundup podcast). I did wonder how they found out where I work seeing as I never mention it online.
I have a good working relationship with the member of the SLT who talked to me. They said that the school couldn't force me to remove the post, but I could see that to avoid bringing up issues to do with Web 2.0 and Acceptable Use Policies before I'm in my new position, it was best to modify the post. Hence what you see above.
I think that the fact that it shows I've had to retract my comments, coupled with the response from the edublogosphere, speaks volumes... :-)
Sinclair Mackenzie
· 1 year ago
Presume that they are now sending similar letter to Apple threatening legal action if the ETR podcast is not taken off iTunes? No? Why ever not? I'm off to google for reviews of TALMOS products to see if they have silenced the whole of the web.
Emma
· 1 year ago
I'd forgotten what you'd written - but was able to locate it via Google's cache. I have to say they seem to be very sensitive ... it wasn't particularly bad really!
It will be interesting to see, though, what impact this has on searching for Talmos ... I've just searched Google.co.uk - and didn't find a reference to this post ... yet. Wonder what will happen in the next few days?
See the email I'm just about to send you.
Dafydd
· 1 year ago
What an amazingly stupid decision by Talmos to demand that their commercial product only gets favourable reviews! The company* that produces this piece of software is based in India, where such anti-competitive practices may be lawful, but may I assure them that they are not lawful in the E.U.
*CORE Projects & Technologies Ltd.
Doug Belshaw
· 1 year ago
A representative from TALMOS contacted me 3 times yesterday and told me repeatedly that they were merely attempting to start a dialogue. Although I feel that they have back-tracked quite a lot, I'm willing to let the matter rest now.
I leave it up to readers of this post and comments as to whether you decide the makers of TALMOS are a company with which you want to do business. Do read other websites which have opinions on the products first, of course. ;-)
All Comments
That's interesting. Many of those are unfamiliar to me, as I'm working in Higher Education. Here, the main providers (in the UK at any rate) are Blackboard & WebCT (now part of BB), with Moodle to a lesser extent.
While I have a number of gripes about WebCT Vista - the fact that it wasn't built for Education isn't one of them.
Given the fact that something over 60% of HE Institutions in the UK use Blackboard or WebCT, I'm surprised that neither is even mentioned by BECTA.
Does this mean that they don't have the features that BECTA requires, or that the don't implement them well enough?
It's worth remembering that Becta's list isn't about "products", it's about the capability to provide a "service" (which includes things like financial stability). It's only intended for LA's which are going through large procurements as it saves them having to go through a complete pre-qualification process (under EU rules).
So you could ask any of the providers to give you a Moodle solution if you wanted. It is a pity that there isn't a Moodle specialist provider (or any other Open Source provider) on the list, but, in general, they're just not geared up to lead on those big tenders.
That is ridiculous that they have contacted the school. If they REALLY wanted to improve their offering, they could have asked for your help. It just shows how terrible their product is AND how they value the views of their customers/end users.
This is appalling - I know nothing of this product but will happily publicise their inappropriate response to your comments. It looks like they simply "don't get" what web 2.0 is all about, probably a poor indictment for any technology vendor (and I spent a lump of my life working in that environment).
I'd be interested in hearing what your school's response was. Did they just accept this demand without comment? Did they argue? Did they talk to you?
I'm concerned, too, about what's happened here - any chance of an update?
--Paul
I have a good working relationship with the member of the SLT who talked to me. They said that the school couldn't force me to remove the post, but I could see that to avoid bringing up issues to do with Web 2.0 and Acceptable Use Policies before I'm in my new position, it was best to modify the post. Hence what you see above.
I think that the fact that it shows I've had to retract my comments, coupled with the response from the edublogosphere, speaks volumes... :-)
I'm off to google for reviews of TALMOS products to see if they have silenced the whole of the web.
It will be interesting to see, though, what impact this has on searching for Talmos ... I've just searched Google.co.uk - and didn't find a reference to this post ... yet. Wonder what will happen in the next few days?
See the email I'm just about to send you.
*CORE Projects & Technologies Ltd.
I leave it up to readers of this post and comments as to whether you decide the makers of TALMOS are a company with which you want to do business. Do read other websites which have opinions on the products first, of course. ;-)