A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is an online space that is used to support learning and related administrative processes. There are a range of different VLEs available; the one used at SHU, Blackboard, is widely used in higher education. VLEs provide dedicated areas for individual modules that allow students and tutors to interact in a variety of ways, such as sharing documents, submitting assessments, and communicating with each other. The VLE is usually linked to other institutional systems, such as the Student Record System or web portal (e.g. shuspace), and makes use of the information from these systems to help automate many administrative processes, for example enrolling students on modules in the VLE. The VLE is generally so embedded within practice at institutions that it often becomes the ‘online face’ of a university as far as most students and tutors are concerned.

Although the benefits of using a Virtual Learning Environment in schools are obvious, there are plenty of sticking points to consider. As the learners themselves are all ‘Digital Natives’, the educators tend to be starting from a disadvantage as their own IT skills tend to be lacking when compared to the current IT savvy youth of today. Making any VLE as dynamic or versatile as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter is a tall order and virtually impossible for an IT specialist teacher, let alone a humble English teacher!