I am very concerned with the way educational software is moving as governments around the world seem to be jumping on the bandwagon of educational software being used online be it in VLEs or specific sites.

I'm an educational software producer and it makes little difference to me whether I make products for use online or offline but I can't help thinking that online presents us with very real dangers in the future. On the one side I can foresee large companies taking sneaky advantage of the fact that they can introduce their products within games or simply on the pages where the games are. Thoughts of coca-cola and big mac rewards for tests completed hover in my mind. Yes I am sure that safety procedures are in place but internet content is changing by the second, so what is safe one day may not be later on.

On the more worrying front I can see undesirable elements of our society jumping on the same bandwagon for a completely different ride. It wasn't so long ago that we had to surround our schools with high fences and security entry systems and yet here we are apparently opening up the schools to the world-wide web. I noticed the post on Twitter below. Has anyone seen recently how the porn industry is now fully engaging twitter for it's own purposes?

Sure students seem to have access to all this content even on their ipods, mobiles and at home but as a parent of now grown up children I used to restrict use of the computer for internet use to when I could supervise and warn them of the inherent dangers etc. However, do we want to run the risk of allowing access directly into our classrooms?

Maybe my concerns are over the top or even unfounded. I'd be interested to hear what others think.

I must say I share some of olitwit's concerns in this area. I see where you are coming from HH but in my primary context, I am afraid, a lot of teachers don't have the practised eye that can spot a waste of time or a hidden message. I have tried to provide training on the former and will try to include the latter in future sessions but it can be a bit of an uphill struggle to be honest.

Grey_Olltwit:

governments around the world seem to be jumping on the bandwagon of educational software being used online be it in VLEs or specific sites.

Kind of the point of a VLE is that it's under the control of the school - load the exact content you want on to it, let users access it from home or wherever. I'd agree with you that many schools seem to be cheerfully handing their pupils over to some somewhat random websites, though.

dhicks:

Kind of the point of a VLE is that it's under the control of the school - load the exact content you want on to it, let users access it from home or wherever.

I understand that but VLEs in the first instance are www based and therefore open to infiltration by hackers and the like, however good your security measures are i.e. Windows 7 has not yet hit the shelves but it has already been successfully hacked and distributed.

HappyHippy:

VLEs are open to infiltration by hackers. Hmmmm. At this point I'm afraid the only argument left is to pack up the PC and lock it away in a cupboard. Don't get me wrong - I appreciate that people should be concerned if they can see a problem - but that particular argument just doesn't hold any water, There are plenty of ways to secure an online system to a very sensible degree and to simply refuse to use one is a very backwards way of looking at it (and while I don't suggest for a second that your post was intended as self promotion, it is interesting that you are prepared to accept payment online).

In retrospect I shouldn't have posted here as it's clear I'm seen as some selfish, uncaring, *** just trying to ply my wares.

Whilst your reply is rather fatalist you do provide an answer that alleviates my concerns. At the end of my first post I asked if I was over concerned. I am not in schools, in the main I assumed most people here are. I have no idea how secure systems are in schools for this kind of thing, hence my post. I don't want to know the details, just that there are precautions in place to make sure my scenarios don't happen. Before we had fences and door entry systems in schools, I don't think many saw it as a problem that just anyone could walk in when they wanted. It took awful incidents to make us do something i.e. "closing the gate after the horse had bolted".

I'm not sure what accepting payments online has got to do with it. My website is not intended for child surfers. I don't agree with children having full unsupervised access to the www. My products are for download by adults to be used offline by their children on standalone PC's or closed networks. My market is mainly parents. Schools are out of my league as I'm far too small to buy the necessary licences and accreditations that are needed to compete seriously in that market. Quite a few schools do have some of my programs because they used to be all free a few years ago.

I apologise for airing my concerns. It's good to know that everything in the garden is rosey and we have nothing to worry about.