T-Learning Annual School Survey 2010 - Results!

So, the results of T-Learning's annual survey have come in! All schools within our community have been given the opportunity to complete our survey so that we can learn more about trends in usage as well as potential ideas for development.

We received inputs across Primary & Secondary Schools as well as Hospital based education centres who all use Taecanet Springboard to deliver personalised learning resources to pupils from home as well as in school.

A few of the outcomes are noted below, which have been submitted by teachers:

71% of pupils enjoy using Taecanet Springboard.

100% of Primary School teachers agree that Taecanet Springboard has a positive effect on pupil attainment.

64% of teachers think that it is easy to allocate work using Taecanet Springboard and to monitor student progress.

In addition to a number of other uses, 93% of teachers use Taecanet Springboard to deliver homework.

All of these outcomes are very positive and reinforce what we have heard over the years in terms of pupils enjoying and benefiting from the resources. Ease of use for teachers is also at the heart of what we do, which appears to be recognised in this survery which is also encouraging.

What is a little surprising is the significant number of teachers who use Taecanet Springboard to deliver homework.......a staggering 93%. We have heard from teachers that using the service in this way really helps to tidy up and simplify the whole homework process. No more pleas of 'Sorry Miss, the dog ate my homework!' By virtue of the fact that all of the resources have already been created by other teachers, work can be allocated in seconds, and all of the marking is done automatically makes this online tool very homework friendly. In addition, with access to technology (including broadband) becoming more pervasive, it seems this is a real opportunity for schools to work more efficiently by delivering homework online, which will engage students and help to improve attainment.

Many thanks to all of the teachers who took part in the survey. If you would like any more information on the Taecanet Springboard services, please contact chris.davison@t-learning.net or call 0871 288 4580.

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.

Nokia/Ovi Announcement - Free Nav!

Nokia's worldwide unveiling is now over and the major announcement for Nokia/Ovi is that they are now offering free mapping/navigation services through their devices!

This will be a big blow to external sat nav providers and gives further proof of the inevitable convergence of disparate services onto mobile devices. For more info on this, you can visit the official Nokia site at http://events.nokia.com/ovimaps/index.html

For more informal information and opinion on this release, please visit http://www.womworld.com/nokia

This seems a fitting time for T-Learning to be running our mobile elearning project. By enabling students to capture and share valuable learning resources through mobile devices we hope we can add real value to education by utilising technologies, which are prolific throughout the younger population. Mapping and navigation could be a valuable assest here.

Mobile Learning Project Underway!

We have now completed the first training session for the T-Learning mobile learning project, which took place at Furze Platt School in Maidenhead.

This school has been handed six Nokia N85 devices and has created a 'team' of 5 students and one teacher. This team was trained yesterday afternoon by Nokia expert Jay Montano, who travelled all the way from Cardiff to help get this project underway. Many thanks to Jay for his help! Jay's blog can be found at http://www.mynokiablog.com

Over the next month, this school team will be using the devices to create valuable educational resources linked to Key Stage 4 Science. The devices will be used to capture and upload content, which will then be used to create 'learning journeys', which can be shared amongst our community of schools. Three other schools will also be partaking in this project, working on different Scientific areas, and I will post updates on progress in due time.

T-Learning are experts in the creation of online learning communities. This project underlines our focus of providing shared user generated content as a way of helping students to engage with education. By helping to share best practice, we also hope to make life a bit easier for teachers.

Further updates will be available through http://www.womworld.com/nokia . For more information on this project please contact chris.davison@t-learning.net

T-Learning Deliver 1 Million Learning Journeys In 7 Months!

So, we have come to the end of another school year. We have reached some interesting milestones while helping schools to deal with key objectives such as personalised learning, assessment, inclusion, intervention and home access.

Within this school year, our community of schools have completed over 1 million learning journeys! This is testament to how useful schools find Taecanet Springboard in helping with the above factors and for continual learning, revision and extension work across the curriculum.

At T-Learning, our model is simple. We collate knowledge and resources from hundreds of teachers, and share that with the wider schools population. This means that ALL teachers can get involved (no matter what their ICT capability) and easily involve themselves in the provision of ICT to enhance education. The ease of use from the teacher's point of view is matched by the pupils ability to log on 24/7 and complete motivational and interactive learning journeys with rewards throughout for good work. All of this student activity is tracked and reported to the teachers in order to help with personal or whole class intervention.

As well as the cross curricular learning community, we have also recently undertaken work to set up a sustainable online PE learning community with the help of Youth Sport Trust (YST). This work has now been completed and enables both BTEC & GCSE PE teachers and students to benefit from a similar formula as described above. Within this school year, over 60 schools have completed around 100,000 learning journeys in PE, which is really encouraging.

For more info on T-Learning's innovative services, please contact chris.davison@t-learning.net