Hwb+ - Another Nail in the Coffin?

This post on the Hwb News page caught my eye this afternoon. In early July, the Welsh Government (WG) are running four Hwb+ Workshops to "explore the current use of the Hwb+ learning platform" and wanting to "hear your views" before planning the next steps in the LiDW programme. If you've read some of my previous posts about Hwb+ you'll know I've never been its biggest fan and in 'Gazing Into My Crystal Ball', suggested that maybe the contract for Hwb+ wouldn't be renewed. Dare I propose that the only reason these workshops are being held by the WG is that they already have a very good idea what the feedback from schools will be like - overwhelmingly negative. Therefore it appears that these events are an opportunity to gather further evidence of why the contract with Learning Possibilities for Hwb+ shouldn't be renewed in August 2018. I'd be extremely surprised, in fact astonished, if a different outcome arose from these events and from the national Hwb+ stakeholder online survey. This is another nail in the coffin for Hwb+. There was the loss of the Hwb Digital Leaders who initially supported schools in its national implementation; the ability to create classes and assignments within the Hwb platform and a perceived lack of regional consortia encouragement to schools to use Hwb+, focusing their efforts on other Hwb tools, therefore starving it of support. All of which, in my opinion, has helped to contribute to it probable demise. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of months.
BTW, I can't seem to remember a similar set of LiDW workshops being run for the other tools available in Hwb - Office 365, J2e, Encyclopedia Britannica ;-)

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