Hidden potential
Hidden potential
Screenshot of the home page for the ePotential website. This resource has been produced by the Victorian Department of Education to help teachers integrate ICT into their learning and teaching. It includes a continuum and survey tool with benchmarks.
http://epotential.education.vic.gov.au
At the time of this review, the site was locked down so that private school teachers, curious tertiary educators and budding student teachers can only examine the main menu and little else. Clicking on the "tour as a guest" button will gently escort them back to the home page (a strange way to treat curious and interested educators).
The front page notes that Victorian Government Schools can access all the deeper layers. I suppose that they can contemplate quietly logging in and leaving the others guessing and gasping about the wonders that must be contained within.
The error message: "INSERT INTO entityuser (entityid,userid) VALUES ('66713',null)" rang a warning in my ear about about the freedom of good educational information.
I have some deep concerns and unresolved doubts about the value of Government money being spent on a hidden and closed portals such as the digilearn portal using Learning Federation Objects. Whilst there may be good commercial reasons for shutting these doors to authenticate users, protect intellectual property and recover costs, I can think of a hundred reasons why education should be open and free.
Until they fix this bug, I have more important things to do.