Sports Colleges Conference 2010 - Summary

Today was the final day of the Sports Colleges Conference in Telford, which was a great success for all involved. Many thanks to Ian Cawley, and team, from Youth Sport Trust for his great support, and for putting on a good event. You can see our stand (730) pictured left.

T-Learning have been working with YST for a number of years now, and we were at the show to help spread the word about our collaborative project. We have worked together, along with four Specialist Sports Colleges, to produce interactive resources for GCSE & BTEC PE Theory. These are now being used on over 60 schools to help students engage with PE Theory in a new and innovative way, while improving standards both in delivery by teachers, and in attainment for students. By offering access to shared, community generated resources, it seems that all parties are benefiting. If you would like more info on the project, and would like to see the impact that Taecanet Springboard for PE has had on GCSE results, please follow this link http://www.taecanet.com/yst/conference.htm

We had a lot of interested parties visit the stand, and as revision is vital at this time of year, this was the focus of many discussions and demonstrations. Surprisingly, quite a few teachers wanted to explore the other resources we offer (such as Science, History, Geography, RE & Citizenship) as they were so engaged with the offering across PE.

Our community based PE learning network was also represented at one of the 'Sharing The Challenge' sessions where supporters; Tony Downey (Blessed Robert Sutton School), Mick Tizard (The Cavendish School) & Kirstie Hartwell (Charters School) were on-hand to describe the project to interested parties. These teachers have experience of the project, ranging from strategic organisation to building the actual content used within the network. All of these perspectives were valuable when informing teachers about the community and the impact it has had on PE Theory education so far.

Many thanks to everyone who was able to visit the stand. We hope to see you all again very soon and I would encourage any interested parties to contact chris.davison@t-learning.net

Bridgewater School See Benefits Of Mobile Project

Bridgewater School in Manchester (http://bridgewater.publishpath.com) are taking part in the mobile learning project, supported by T-Learning, 1000Heads & Nokia.

The School were recently trained on how best to use the devices by Nokia expert Phil Campbell and it seems the students are fully up to speed already, capturing valuable content for the project.

Science teacher, Chris Percival, commented;

"We are working on the learning journeys. We have videoed a great debate about nuclear power which was a whole lot of fun. We hope to plan a field trip too!"

It seems that mobile devices are very useful at capturing content in a number of different formats which can be used to enhance education. The real benefit will come when we have been able to share the resources with the other schools involved.

For more information on this project, please contact chris.davison@t-learning.net

Sports College Conference, Telford 2010

T-Learning will be attending the YST Sports Colleges Conference 2010 at the International Centre, Telford on stand 730.

Here, we will be showcasing the output of the collaborative project between T-Learning, YST, and 4 Specialist Sports Colleges. Taecanet Springboard for PE is helping students to improve motivation and results in GCSE PE Theory by providing access to shared learning resources.

Following the roll out of the project in 2008/9, 80% of Sports Colleges who took part in the project reported improvements to their GCSE PE results.

More information on the project can be found at http://www.taecanet.com/yst/index.php, and you can follow the link to the Conference 2010 information.

Furze Platt School - Mobile Revolution Continues

We have been working with Furze Platt School in Maidenhead (www.furzeplatt.com), as part of a mobile learning project. By enabling students to use Nokia devices to create and share valuable learning resources, we hope it will engage and motivate students, as well as producing some great content that others can use to help with their teaching and learning.

Furze Platt Science teacher, Jill Heales, had this to say about the familiarisation session with Nokia expert Jay Montano, as well as the project in general;

"The session with Jay motivated the pupils, and gave them a good idea of what they need to do to capture and upload content. The project is going great but the only thing holding back our progress is a lack of time to meet regularly and agree how to move forward, as school life is so busy. That being said, all of the students are really enjoying what they are doing".

We are really pleased that everything is going well, and we really look forward to seeing what intersting content the schools come up with later this month.

Jay Montano's blog can be found at http://mynokiablog.com . For any further information on this project, please contact chris.davison@t-learning.net

Independent Schools Begin Nokia Challenge

Both Bridgewater School (Salford) & Claires Court (Maidenhead) Schools have now been trained as part of the T-Learning Mobile Learning project. This means that three out of the four schools now have the capability to begin creating and sharing educational content.

These sessions took a familiar theme with representatives from T-Learning and 1000Heads hosting the session. However, the main part of the training saw Nokia experts train the pupils and staff on how to capture and share valuable resources.

At Claires Court, Steve Lichfield (pictured left) was the nominated expert, and he was able to show the pupils all they needed to get up and running. By using Vodafone as the network provider, access to Ovi Share worked seamlessly, and pupils were able to upload content during the session. Steve's blog can be found at http://www.allaboutsymbain.com/

The Bridgewater session was run by Phil Campbell. Again, the group were taken through the major 'capture' functions of the phone, and how to upload to Ovi Share. Phil went into detail about the various applications, which can be used on the devices to further prepare the students and encourage innovation. Phil's blog can be found at http://blog.me.dm and a specific post on the project can be found at http://blog.me.dm/nokia-loopback-bridgewater-school

It looks like all the fun work begins here for these schools! Thanks to Steve & Phil for their time and expertise.

Please contact chris.davison@t-learning.com for any further information on this project.