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

Calling All 'ISA Affiliated' Independent Schools

This is a call to arms!

T-Learning are working with the Independent Schools Association (ISA) and a number of it's member schools to help create an Independent Schools learning community designed to share resources and distribute best practice. T-Learning are experts in the creation of community learning initiatives, with an existing state sector project involving hundreds of schools. Thus far six subjects have been created in this space at KS1-KS4 through teacher generated content, providing over 5,000 Learning Journeys for students or teachers to access immediately helping to save teachers time and to improve school standards.

We would encourage any ISA school to join this community as it will provide an invaluable resource to help teachers improve standards, and to deliver personalised learning to students.

To help teachers join in, there is an online social network which is live today! This is a free provision, currently available to all ISA members. For an invitation, please contact ian.nairn@t-learning.net or James Wilding head@clairescourt.co.uk with your email address and school details.

James is the Principal of the Claires Court group (http://www.clairescourt.com/) and one of the founder members of the ISANet community. All new members will be given a warm welcome and have the opportunity to network immediately with existing members. Already, blogs, videos, photos and more are being shared. There are also different groups being created all the time, so ANY subject specialist should be able to find like minded colleagues to converse with.

Come on down!

Join Our Growing PE Learning Network!

Following on from the Sports Colleges Conference earlier this month, I would like to welcome: The Lammas School in Leyton, Wood Green High School in Sandwell, Cumberland School in London and Wey Valley School in Dorset into our teaching and learning community.

This is a positive indication that Sports Colleges and other schools alike see the benefits of developing personalised learning across the GCSE & BTEC PE courses. Initial feedback has been extremely positive and we look forward to working closely with the above schools in the coming months.

If you would like to know more about the collaborative PE project, please go to http://www.taecanet.com/yst/index.htm . Here you can learn about the origins of the project and submit any questions/comments you may have.

We look forward to expanding our PE community, as we have with other subjects across the curriculum.

For more general information about Taecanet Springboard please visit www.taecanet.com where you can hear how schools are using the service to deliver personalised learning and to help engage and motivate students. To find out more about how schools are using the service and what impact it has made, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/casestudies.htm

Independent Schools And The Personalised Learning Agenda

T-Learning were very pleased to attend the recent Independent Schools Association (ISA) Annual Conference in Oxford. Following our success in working with Independent Schools such as the Claires Court group (mentioned in numerous other articles below) we were able to present our ideas to the attendees. This presentation was chaired by James Wilding, Principal of the CC group, who was able to give the delegates a unique insight into how we have helped their schools to achieve personalised learning across all 3 sites.

The event was an undoubted success and we would like to thank Maggie Turner and her colleagues at ISA for a great few days.

We are working to help Independent Schools to take ownership of the personalised learning agenda, as we feel they have traditionally been thought leaders in personalised learning. By creating a specialised online Independent Schools learning community, we hope to enable this sector to be the leading force in this field, and to take control of shaping their own destiny.

If you wish to know more about the presentation, and our work with ISA, please email ian.nairn@taecanet.com

More Schools See Exam Improvements Using Taecanet!

Feedback is key to any service related business, in order to help improve standards. Taecanet is no different and we are now receiving feedback from many different schools. One such school is Blessed Sacrament Junior School in Liverpool, and their feedback on our online elearing service is as follows.

Following an initial familiarisation session, teachers now get together to discuss and set appropriate Units of work for students. Multiple Units are set at one time, usually a mix of subjects.

Their main focus is home use and students who cannot gain access at home are allowed into lunch clubs. They use this technique to reinforce class learning. Parents have reacted very well and like the fact that they can play a role in the education of their child. Some parents have even brought PCs based on how much they are beginning to see the benefits of learning through ICT. This is a very encouraging shift, as it shows the transparency that using ICT in education can provide across both school and home. Teachers report that lessons are more productive when Taecanet work has been completed. Science results were 8% better than LEA guidelines and teachers were very candid in suggesting Level 4 SATs improvements were down to Taecanet! Another example of improved knowledge was when a student in class told the teacher a fact about Henry VIII. The teacher was not aware of this fact and when quizzed about where they learned it, the student suggested it was on Taecanet Springboard. The teachers attest to the fact that students learn even more than they need to on the service, and more than through text books because of the wealth of info contained on Taecanet, which leads to a more rounded learning experience.

Teachers use the teacher centre to track student Reports online from home, so that they have prior knowledge when they return to class the following day. This gives them a distinct advantage over traditional homework. Teachers and parents like the focused nature of the service, meaning increased safety and less distraction for pupils. They even suggested that Taecanet helps to improve the family unit, as there is more shared info across the family as well as more collaborative tasks such as homework. Even though some teachers in the school have limited ICT skills, they are still able to use the service. Even teachers who were initially resistant are now accessing the service, and taking that valuable ‘first step’ into using ICT, thus improving their skills. The school are now interested in booking further training to help staff reach the next level of competency.

The above feedback suggests that Taecanet Springboard is doing what we set out to do! It helps to: engage pupils, improve results, open up access outside of school and help teachers....to name but a few things. We look forward to hearing back from more of our schools in the future.

To find out more, please visit www.taecanet.com where you can apply for a free guest account. Please contact enquiries@taecanet.com if you have any questions.

Can E-Learning In Schools Benefit Future Life Skills?

At Taecanet, we like to think that our services transcend traditional educational boundaries, and this is reflected in our nationwide customer base. Taecanet Springboard has been successfully implemented in high & low achieving public sector schools, Independent schools, PRUs (Pupil Referral Units), Home and Hospital Services and more.

We can help schools to improve attainment, to engage pupils and learn in a way that suits them. For more info on how this has been achieved, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/casestudies.htm . Taecanet can also offer much more than increased curriculum knowledge, as the online format helps to bring education into the 21st Century, and can therefore help to improve life skills for students (and arguably teachers too).

James Wilding is the Principal of Claires Court Schools in Maidenhead, Berkshire (http://www.clairescourt.com/). Claires Court is made up 5 school divisions on 3 school sites: Co-ed Nursery, single sex boys and girls at junior and secondary level and a co-ed 6th Form. The school has been using Taecanet Springboard for a number of years to deliver cross-curricular elearning. They have also recently taken part in KS3 'SOSCA' assessments, set up by the University of Durham. This assessment takes place on a PC, and James reported a strong correlation between students who use Taecanet Springboard for curriculum work, and students who fared best in the SOSCA tests. James commented;

"Our top end learners are now expected to pass on-screen assessments for Law, for medicine, for entry to Imperial College and post degree for most blue chip schemes – over 15% already for University entry."

"....assessments on screen are really hard to use if you are wedded to paper and pencil problem solving, and we reckon we need to give the boys and girls a lot more practice at working on screen."

"Our SOSCA science performance was stunning…and when spoken to about why, those candidates that performed the science assessment felt that the variety of work that they had completed using springboard was one of the key reasons."

We are obviously delighted to play a role in any sort of school improvement, and we look forward to continuing our successful working relationship with Claires Court, as well as all the rest of our subscribers. For more information on Taecanet's services, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/ or email enquiries@taecanet.com