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Many schools are beginning to make good use of the Digitalbrain Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which provides staff and students with access to their own, on-line storage area as well as providing access to virtual courses and communities. As well as the VLE, Digitalbrain also provides access to a Resource Management Database (RMD) where staff can share teaching and learning resources.

The Digitalbrain Resource Management Database

The Digitalbrain Resource Management Database (RMD) provides an easy way for staff and students to search for learning and teaching resources. In addition, staff can add resources to the RMD and thus share their resources with colleagues in other Oxfordshire schools helping to reduce teacher workload.

The Resource Management Database is accessed by clicking the Oxfordshire Home tab once logged in to Digitalbrain. This will take you to the Oxfordshire Home Page from where you can browse the available resources by selecting from the available categories in the top left-hand panel. You can also search for resources matching a particular keyword by entering the criteria in the Search box in the top middle panel. Clicking the Advanced Search button (or clicking the Search for Resources tab at the top of the screen) will take you to a more advanced search screen where you can specify a range of criteria for the resources you are interested in locating.

The RMD can be used to store and provide access to any type of resource which can be stored electronically. It might be, for example, that you have found a web site which is particularly useful for a given topic. In a matter of a few moments, this information can be entered into the RMD and teachers in every school in Oxfordshire will have access to it. On the other hand, it may be that you have created a document or teaching resource of your own which is especially useful in a particular topic. As long as that resource can be stored electronically, it can be added to the RMD and, again, teachers in every Oxfordshire school can have access to it. This could be a PowerPoint presentation used as an introduction to a particular topic or a SMART Notebook file, an Excel spreadsheet etc. Anything which can be stored electronically can be added to the RMD in a matter of moments.

The main RMD is intended for use by teachers and secondary pupils. Primary pupils can access their own version of the RMD by clicking the Primary Site tab at the top of the screen. This will provide the user with a simplified interface which primary pupils can use to locate resources for particular curriculum areas.

At the moment there are about 1500 items in the RMD, which have been added largely by advisory teams and consultants but also by an increasing number of teachers in schools.

Contributing a resource to the RMD is relatively straight-forward and takes no more than a couple of minutes. The first step is to ensure that the resource is available for others to access. If the resource you are adding is a web site, this is already the case.

 If, however, the resource is one which you have created yourself such as a PowerPoint presentation or a SMART Notebook file, for example, the resource must be stored somewhere where it can be accessed by others. This could be in your Digitalbrain web space or in your school portal space. (If the resource is one which students are expected to access it must be stored in your school portal space – students are not able to access any resources in a member of staff’s Digitalbrain web space).

Once the resource is accessible to others, the next step is to add some information or “tags” so that others can use the RMD to find it. This is achieved by clicking the Create a Resource tab at the top of the screen and completing the details which follow.

Full details and instructions can be found at http://www.ict.oxon-lea.gov.uk/Digitalbrain