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.

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

Mobile Project Gathers Pace!

Students from Furze Platt School in Maidenhead are now officially underway. There are definative plans afoot for content creation, and the students are really engaging with the Nokia N85 handsets, which are being used for the project to create valuable Science resources.

One of the students from Furze Platt commented;

"I'll be making a video of a reaction, probably cutting it and slowing it down in Final Cut. I continue to be amazed by the phone; with it's WinZip compatability, the FM transmitter and the WiFi".

We are so pleased to be working with such motivated individuals, and we look forward to the final results in a few weeks!

Keep up the good work, I say!

Hackney School Rewarded After Completing Online PE Homework!

T-Learning will be presenting a prize at Hackney Free & Parochial School in London on Thursday 17th December. This is to commemorate the fact that a student within this school completed the 3,000,000th Taecanet Springboard learning journey on 8th November 2009 at 9.56pm.

The school will receive a financial donation from T-Learning and the pupil in question will also receive enough iTunes vouchers to keep them occupied for the next few weeks!

This caps a great first year, following the release of our PE elearning resources, which over 60 schools are now using. The first year has proven a great success, with 80% of Sports Colleges partaking in the project, reporting improvements in GCSE PE results.

T-Learning have teamed up with Youth Sport Trust and 4 Specialist Sports Colleges in order to produce interactive learning resources for GCSE & BTEC PE. For more information on the collaborative project, please visit www.taecanet.com/yst/index.php or contact chris.davison@t-learning.net

PE Resources Score Big For Schools!

Following our collaborative PE project with Youth Sport Trust (YST), our schools have been prolific in their use of the KS4 PE resources so far. Over 100,000 learning journeys have now been completed, which equates to over 3,500 hours of extra tuition across the 60 schools involved. What was the result of all of this activity?

Students completed work both inside and outside of school online, and feedback suggests that they were motivated to learn, which matches feedback from our other subject areas. Teachers also saw significant improvements in attainment with 80% of the Sports Colleges involved reporting improvements over last years GCSE grades. Although these stats are unverified at present, we are very encouraged by this initial release.

We have also seen evidence of improved results across other KS's & subject areas, which strengthens our belief that Taecanet Springboard can motivate pupils and improve attainment through the provision of personalised learning.

T-Learning are experts in the creation of sustainable elearning communities. Our PE community was established some months ago with the help of YST and 4 Specialist Sports Colleges, in which teachers produced the resources which now populate the service. Schools are now beginning to see the benefits of this project. For more information on this project, please contact chris.davison@t-learning.net or visit www.taecanet.com/yst/index.php

Need Help With PE Theory Revision? Talk To T-Learning!

Many thanks to everyone who managed to attend the T-Learning stand at the Sports Colleges Conference in Telford last week (pictured above). I'm pleased to say it was a huge success with over 100 schools visiting the stand over the two days, which certainly kept us on our toes!

Thanks also to Ian Cawley and his team from Youth Sport Trust (YST) for their invitation to the exhibition and for their excellent support in making our collaborative project a success to date. We are delighted to be part of this collaborative network made up of 4 Specialist Sports Colleges, YST and T-Learning, in order to distribute best practice and deliver effective teaching and learning resources for KS4 PE. With revision high on the school agenda at the current time, it could not be a better time to get involved with this project.

So far, feedback from schools has been extremely positive. Scott Cordon form Chasetown Sports College described Taecanet Springboard as "absolutely fantastic" and he "could not speak highly enough of it students love it and staff like the service too, because Units are easy to set up and teachers get instant feedback of student progress”. At present, with revision occupying much school time, this instant feedback through Reports is key to guiding teachers on targeted revision activities for whole classes as well as individual students. For a full copy of the case study, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/yst/casestudy.htm

Following on from the show, we would like to welcome Wood Green High School in Sandwell, Lammas School and Sports College in Waltham Forest and Cumberland School in Plaistow, London, into our teaching and learning community. We very much look forward to getting you started in the coming days to help with your immediate revision needs.

Visitors to our stand will have all the info needed to get involved. However, should you like further information please visit www.taecanet.com and follow the YST link at the foot of the page. Otherwise, please email ian.nairn@taecanet.com with any specific requests.

Middlesbrough ICT Event

Many thanks to everyone who attended our stand (above) at the Middlesbrough ICT Event at the Riverside Stadium last week. It was a great venue, and a pleasure to see some of our existing customers, as well as some new faces. I have to say that the food was great too!

We have a number of subscribers across Middlesbrough (as well as the rest of the NE), and events like this give us the chance to spend some face to face time with these schools, as well as introducing our service to new parties. Feedback from the event was that local schools think Taecanet Springboard offers an easy-to-use service, which is helping students to learn in a way that suits them. Personalised learning allows students to learn as individuals by working at their own pace. The fact that teachers and students can access the service online means that 24/7 learning can be achieved for students, and planning and preparation is completely flexible for teachers. Students really enjoy the activities and are highly motivated while using it. Teachers can save hours in terms of planning & prep and even marking, by tapping into our teaching and learning community. The service has been created BY teachers FOR teachers, therefore meeting teacher's needs.

Taecanet Springboard has a positive reputation for helping schools to improve results. For more info on this, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/casestudies.htm. For a free guest account, or to arrange a visit, please email chris.davison@taecanet.com with your request.

Thanks again and I hope to see you in the coming weeks, if not, next year!

Some Good News For SATs Results!

The vast majority of people involved in education have the same goal; to help students learn, improve and achieve as best they can. A key requirement to facilitate this is to provide both students and teachers with a comprehensive tool set, which meets the needs of the parties involved. As teachers are increasingly busy, ICT is now playing a valuable role in helping schools to modernise education, provide teachers with excellent interactive resources, and giving students increased ownership of their own learning. With ICT giving teachers so many options, and by giving students a platform on which they enjoy learning, student motivation is increased and results can be improved.

Taecanet Springboard provides teachers with a live online teaching and learning community, and by sharing best practice, both teachers and students can thrive in the ways described above. Students can benefit from personalised learning, engaging materials and the fact that they can access the service online, 24/7. Teachers can benefit by having access to a pool of resources from hundreds of teachers, as well as time saving features, such as automated marking (making it easy to spot strong/weak areas) and the rapid release of work, meaning that a Unit of work can be released to a class in about 30 seconds!

Year on year, we have received feedback from schools suggesting that Taecanet Springboard has helped to improve results and in some cases, massive improvements have been witnessed. To see case studies relating to this, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/casestudies.htm. We have most recently heard from Woodside Primary School in Gloucestershire (http://www.woodside.ik.org/).

In the case of Woodside Primary, not only did they achieve their best ever results for Science (100% Level 4 & 66% Level 5 - against predicted results which were 94% Level 4 and 54% Level 5) but they also for the first time achieved 100% Level 4 for Literacy & Numeracy, with Taecanet making a positive impact on Literacy through improved reading levels.

This is brilliant news, and to this end, we would encourage more schools to get involved to see if we can help in the same way. Please visit www.taecanet.com to apply for a free guest account, or call 0871 288 4580 to speak with the team about how we can help in your school.

We have also previously outlined feedback from Claires Court School in Berkshire, describing how using Taecanet Springboard has helped their students to achieve fantastic results in the new 'SOSCA' online assessments. For more information on this, please see the blog article below this one.

We would like to thank all subscribing schools for their on-going support, and also welcome interest from new schools and other interested parties. We will be detailing other 'good news' stories in the near future and look forward to continuing this trend of improved results next year!

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

Collaborative Learning - Sharing Knowledge Through Teacher Networks

Some would say collaboration in education is the best way of efficiently sharing best practice in order to help raise standards. By sharing techniques and resources, schools can improve efficiency and the quality of output. This thinking underpins the Taecanet model, and with hundreds of teachers acting to collaborate, the rest of the teaching population can significantly benefit. After all, why should teachers continually re-invent the wheel?

We see ourselves as integral to the dissemination of this 'knowledge share' to which teachers, themselves, actively contribute. Teacher's expertise for teaching is matched by our expertise to build their input into educationally valuable digital objects, and distribute them online. In this way, easy access is achieved, and so far, millions of Learning Journeys have been completed. In many cases, results have also improved accordingly. To find out more about how Taecanet are helping schools, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/casestudies.htm

As a result of this successful collaboration between education and industry, Taecanet are now undertaking more specialist projects. A collaborative project is now underway involving Taecanet and the Youth Sports Trust. This project was initiated by Tony Downey, Headteacher at Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College (http://www.robertsutton.staffs.sch.uk/), who saw Taecanet as a valuable partner to help facilitate shared knowledge across a number of schools. Mr Downey commented;

"I very much liked the process of collaboration between schools and industry, and I think Taecanet are undertaking work that I have not seen from anybody else".

"What I liked about the service, was how receptive I was as a learner. The user is invited to learn and improve, and then undertake assessment. The mixture of engagement and interactivity, which make up the learning process, is the closest thing that I have witnessed to a real life school scenario."

"I have been impressed with the output of materials so far, and I look forward to the finished product and it's release in the future".

Other schools, such as Charters School, Cavendish and Kingdown Schools have now joined forces in order to create KS4 G.C.S.E and BTEC P.E. modules, which will be distributed through the Taecanet Springboard service. There will be an Autumn Term trialling process involving 20 schools, before the results are presented to the Sports Colleges Conference 2008. A significant proportion of the work has been completed by the teachers involved, and Taecanet are delighted to be involved in this innovative and exciting project. Please click here for the full article from the Youth Sports Trust website.

If you would like any more information on this project, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/contact.htm and type 'P.E.' before entering your query. More general information on Taecanet's services can be found by visiting www.taecanet.com

SEN thumbs up for Taecanet!

Over the years, we have gained much experience in the world of ICT in education. Taecanet Springboard has been successfully implemented in hundreds of schools, and we are now seeing an increased awareness and interest from centres outside of the 'mainstream schools' market. PRUs (Pupils Referral Units) and Home and Hospital Services still have a responsibility to provide valid educational experiences for students under their care. In some cases, the plan is to return these students to mainstream education in the future, and therefore, maintaining curriculum links is vital. Even if the students have been permanently excluded, their education provision should not suffer. In fact, it should be used as a focus to facilitate achievement and motivation.

We have recently received feedback from Rob Davies at The Summit Centre PRU in Wigan. The staff were recently trained in using the service, and the centre has seen a good take up of Taecanet Springboard to date. It seems that the students are really keen too! Rob commented;

"Its going really well. Sometimes we have a problem getting the young people off Taecanet to start normal lessons!". I hope the second sentence is somewhat tongue in cheek, as we don't want to partake in starting a student mutiny!

This is excellent news, and further proves that Taecanet Springboard can engage students from a diverse range of ability levels and educational extremities, ranging from high level achievers in traditional mainstream to SEN (Special Educational Needs). Along with effective teaching, ICT can unite and invigorate learners and in some ways, level the educational playing field. By providing flexible and motivational materials, teachers can decide what work to set, and how to deliver it, based on the individual needs of students. Inexpensive, shared valuable teaching resources will work to benefit everybody; not just the privileged few. This is where Taecanet's role is so vital.

For more information on how Taecanet Springboard can help SEN centres, including PRUs, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/casestudies.htm where you can also read case studies from mainstream schools. To arrange a demonstration or for more information, please contact enquiries@taecanet.com

Technology Savvy School Is Rewarded!

Friday 28th March saw the unveiling of a plaque by Teresa May MP at Holy Trinity Primary School in Cookham, Berks. This was to celebrate the school's completion of the 1,000,000th Learning Journey on Taecanet Springboard, and the day proved quite a success! As you can see by the top picture, the event was celebrated by (from left to right): Arthur Burgin (School Governor), Graeme Aldous (Headteacher), Rt. Hon. Teresa May MP, students, Ian Nairn (Taecanet founder) and Fiona Tattershall (Head of PTA). We were also joined by some local journalists covering the event, and there was press coverage in the Maidenhead Advertiser newspaper and on Time106.6 FM.

As well as the plaque being unveiled, the school also had the opportunity to try out their own Virtual Classroom, which was offered as part of the prize to the school for reaching this milestone. Holy Trinity shared a live online lesson with the Virtual School in Florida. This meant that students on both sides of the Atlantic were able to share a live lesson; a feat that would have been near impossible otherwise. This was extremely successful, and again highlighted just how much ICT can impact education, and can make things happen that were simply not possible before its introduction.

Mr Aldous commented "Today was just the start of expanding our horizons internationally using ICT. The students just loved the experience and the technology is easy to use and exceptionally effective". Glowing praise indeed! We are delighted to be able to help put Holy Trinity on the international map, and will continue to support their activities in the future.

Taecanet's ethos is of collaboration, in order to help spread best practice. Our offering of both synchronous and asynchronous learning tools helps to make the concept of blended learning a reality, meaning that different learning styles are easliy catered for. We make teachers the focal point of our services, so that students (as well as other teachers) in the UK and abroad, can benefit and achieve even more.

Many thanks to all involved for a great day. For more information, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/news.htm where you can read the press release, or contact enquiries@taecanet.com for more information on Taecanet.

Do Teachers Make Effective Use of ICT?

I have come across an interesting article suggesting that a third of the teachers still struggle to make good use of technology in their teaching. To add to this issue, the research also suggests that 62% of teachers think that ICT improves student attainment. What a quandary!

This research was conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), in which 1000 teachers were quizzed. A major reason for the lack of ICT usage in schools was due to lack of resources and poor reliability. In my opinion, the only way to improve this is through strong leadership and to make time available to teachers to improve skill levels. This was also reflected in the research where teachers suggested that ICT Leadership needs to be improved, and a poor 44% of teachers consider their schools use of technology to be 'innovative'. For the full article, please click here

Given the possibilities that ICT affords many schools, this does paint a stark picture. Although technology in schools has been well funded in recent years (to the tune of £3 billion) by the Labour Government, you have to ask whether this funding has been spent effectively. This research suggests not. Although much hardware is in place, questions must be asked on whether training and implementation have met the needs of teachers. What good is a PC if you don't know where the 'On' button is!?

Would suggesting that teachers are incapable be accurate? Or is it more that a lack of leadership and strategy has let them down? Another article taken from Times online promotes even more stark figures by suggesting that 80% of schools are failing to make good use of ICT (for the full article please click here) This would suggest that leadership does need to be improved, and negative attitudes surrounding ICT altered, so that the massive investment to date can reap the rewards that we know ICT can provide.

Taecanet Springboard (www.taecanet.com) offers an extremely easy to use, easy to access service, which is proven to raise attainment levels. We, at Taecanet, hope to play a part in improving and sustaining the use of technology in education, so that teachers can see the true value of blended learning.

ASE 2008 Round up

ASE 2008 was a great success, and it was a pleasure to meet a host of attendees, as well as a number of existing customers. This is one of the better events of the year, mainly due to the fact that attendees have a genuine interest in helping to raise educational standards. Thanks to everyone who was able to attend.

During the three days, I was unfortunate enough to be pulled out of the crowd to pet a giant millipede at the open exhibition section. This was a (not so) pleasant surprise, but it is nice to witness more enthusiastic people out there, who are bringing science to life for students. We also had a visit from Galileo (pictured left), who wowed his audience with his tales and theories. This seemed to be the biggest draw at the event, only bettered by the free tea and coffee stand!

I think the reason that teachers are drawn to Taecanet, is because we offer a very 'teacher centric' approach to teaching and learning. We simply facilitate a huge knowledge share designed to disseminate best practice, so that both teachers and students can benefit from the strongest learning materials available. Our role is to harness this knowledge and create the teacher generated 'Learning Journeys' that schools use to help improve their results and bring subjects to life. Hundreds of teachers have contributed to our service, so that ANY teacher and ANY student can benefit from their combined knowledge. Teachers tell us that they can save hours in terms of searching for, and delivering appropriate content, as well saving time by using our automated marking system and teacher Reports. Students can learn at their own pace, both in school and at home via the web (or anywhere online), making homework easy and accessible. We have a good reputation in helping schools to improve results, including SATs. For more info on this, please visit http://www.taecanet.com/Addlestone.htm

For all those who entered the free Prize Draw, this is the moment of truth! I am very happy to announce that Liz Boakes from Michael Primary (IM6 1AJ) on the Isle of Man is the winner! Your school licence will commence today, and will be valid until 8/1/2009. It includes access to Yr 2 - Yr9 Science, History, Geography, Citizenship and R.E. Please call 0871 288 4580 to claim your prize and we will then begin to load your school up, so that you can begin using Taecanet Springboard. Congratulations to Liz for winning this prize.

For any other interested parties, please call the above number to book a free on-site visit, so that we can fully explain our approach to teaching and learning, and offer you a demonstration of Taecaenet Springboard. Alternatively, please email chris.davison@taecanet.com to book a visit. Feel free to visit http://www.taecanet.com/ for more information.

Thanks again to all ASE attendees. Best wishes to you all for 2008.

1 Million Journeys!

Taecanet, and our associated schools have reached a huge milestone in the last few days with the One Millionth Learning Journey being completed!

At 16.31 on the 5th December 2007, a pupil from Holy Trinity School in Cookham, completed Journey number 1, 000, 000 as part of their homework. As it turns out, this could have been awarded to any number of schools, as this accolade went down to the wire. Schools from Bracknell Forest and Gloucester were completing journeys mere seconds before and after number 1 million. Ian Nairn, founder of Taecanet said;

"Pupils from literally dozens of schools were simultaneously doing Taecanet homework online; Holy Trinity beat other schools to the 1,000,000th journey by only two hundredths of a second!".

Headteacher, Graeme Aldous was very pleased that his school had won this award.

"We are all excited by the success and looking forward to making good use of our prizes. Having been one of the earliest subscribing schools and the one that completed the 1,000,000th learning journey is an unexpected and very pleasant surprise".

As a reward, the school will win a free 1 year subscription to Taecanet Springboard, as well as a free Virtual Classroom licence. This will help Holy Trinity to connect with other schools, either locally, or internationally.

Mr Aldous, on a more general note, went on to say the following about Taecanet Springboard.

"Our teachers and pupils find it an innovative, creative and enjoyable online learning service, it brings all the benefits of the internet with none of the drawbacks, it has made a genuine and profound impact upon our Key Stage 2 Science SATs".

For the full article, please click here. If anyone would like more information on Taecanet Springboard, please call 0871 288 4580.

Congratulations to everyone at Holy Trinity and all of the other schools who have contributed to this achievement!

SSAT 2007 prize winner......

Many thanks to all those who were able to visit us at the 2007 SSAT Event in Birmingham. We had a lot of interest in Taecanet Springboard from schools all over the country from as far afield as Dorset to Leeds! The thing that sets the SSAT events apart from many others, is the quality of the delegates. I get the feeling that the teachers at SSAT have a genuine interest in finding solutions to their problems, and raising standards in their school, which must be applauded.

To that end, I think teachers can see that we are on the right lines by offering a content and assessment based 'knowledge share', in order to disseminate best practice and save teacher's time. The beauty of Taecanet is that it is teachers who generate the content for the service, and we merely use our expertise to harness and spread this knowledge to our 500 school subscribers.

Our Virtual Classroom facility uses the same philosophy by offering schools the chance to collaborate online, in real time. This is an excellent way of sharing expert teachers across networks of schools without the need for anyone to move physical locations. In terms of mentoring or specialist teachers collaborating with local clusters, this technology can be prolific.

We were also offering a free prize draw for every person who visited the stand, to offer a free Taecanet Springboard Licence for one year, starting today. I would like to congratulate Heathcote School (E4 6ES) in London as the winner! We met Barry Hersom, the Headteacher, who expressed an interest in our service, and the school can now benefit from the knowledge of 100's of teachers. This licence will provide you with coverage of KS1-KS3 History, Science, Geography, Religious Education and Citizenship, as well as any other subjects added over the next 12 months. Please call 0871 288 4580 in order claim your prize.

Many thanks to everyone that visited our stand, and welcome aboard to Heathcote School! If any other schools wish to book an on-site appointment with us, please call the number above or email chris.davison@taecanet.com

Slow internet - fast students!

It can indeed be a problem for some schools, trying to offer effective online elearning to pupils, while having to deal with limited bandwidth. However, this does not necessarily mean that such learning has to stop, as there are a multitude of ways to make the most of current provisions. From my personal experience, here are some such options when using Taecanet Springboard for teaching:

Whiteboard activities - It is easy to use Taecanet Springboard on an interactive whiteboard. Teachers can guide students through Learning Journeys on the board in order to help weaker readers, or simply to increase class participation. Students can be invited up to control the board, and press the buttons in order to go through the Journeys. By doing this, students can be polled for correct answers and whole class participation is acheived extremely easily. This will be motivational for students as they are learning in a new and exciting way, and at the same time, teachers can benefit from the integrated content that is easily accessible through the service. As there is only one PC being used at a time, the internet connection should be fast and efficient.

To facilitate such activities, all teachers are provided with 'student' usernames, so that they can guide their class through work on the whiteboard, or simply gain confidence with the system in their own time. Another way to promote this usage would be to access the 'Help' file as a teacher. Within there, teachers can access all of the content within the service, in isolation. By using the 'Unit Explorer', ALL available content can be accessed in seconds, without the need to use the pre-prepared Journeys. This section gives teachers increased ownership on how they would like to use the materials, and it will provide an excellent starting point for personalised research. No longer do teachers have to sought through millions of web hits through search engines, because we have already paid teachers to do this legwork! Save hours in terms of planning and preperation and take advantage! If you are doing a topic next week, see what you can find in the Unit Explorer!

Homework - As Taecanet Springboard is an online resource, teachers can easily allocate work for students to complete at home. With more and more households being equipped with broadband, this will increasingly be an option for schools. For those students who cannot gain access at home, teachers can set a longer timescale and perhaps create 'homework clubs' where students can get online in at lunch or before/after school. This has been especially effective in a number of schools that I have visited. This technique will reduce the need for large bandwidth by staggering student's use of PC's, while retaining your delivery of essential personalised learning. Some will complete their work at home, some may come in at lunch, some after school.....and so on. This will ease the impact on your school systems, and give students increased ownership over their work. Win win.

These are just a few basic ideas that I can point to through my experiences of working with classes. Please comment below this article if you know of any more!