This week it is Staff Blog week here at Webanywhere, so each day we will be sharing with you a new blog post from one of our employees. Today it’s Keith Taynton talking about when he taught English as a Foreign Language teacher in Japan and Sweden and witnessed the impact that technology can have on student engagement.

I taught English for several years in Japan where, despite its status as a highly developed technological society, technology use in schools is surprisingly low. Most schools only use computers to teach a computing curriculum. I never saw a school using a virtual learning environment like School Jotter, and in this respect, the UK is much more advanced.
This post is about how I introduced a learning platform into my English class as a Foreign Language teacher in Japan and observed student engagement and learning outcomes skyrocket.
I had a contact in a school in Sweden and we decided to use the learning platform website to connect our junior high school students (aged 12-13) together for them to practice English, a second language for everyone, in a practical, real world way. The platform was styled as a poster upon which multimedia elements could be pasted. For example, students could record a short video introducing themselves, add pictures and text boxes and decorate it with clipart and so forth.
Being able to practice the four skills of language (reading, writing, speaking and listening) in one environment for a real purpose thoroughly engaged all of my students, even the ones who perceived themselves as weak at English. The motivation and novelty of the project helped them to focus on applying their learning and the reward was more than just a score – it showed them that they were not alone in their struggles to learn English and that it was a very useful thing to learn because it opened doors to the outside world that monolinguals do not have.
In short, the website gave both sets of students exciting opportunities to reach out and apply their academic studies in a useful way. Foreign languages are a fairly obvious candidate for technology enhanced learning, but with a little imagination this could be applied to many other disciplines. Imagine studying music and being able to connect with schools in other countries to hear what their music sounds like, the instruments they use and even co-composing music. Geography and history could be brought to life by sharing stories with peers who live in foreign countries, enriching both sides by breaking down stereotypes and boundaries.
All these are possible with the technology available today. You’re limited only by your imagination.
Keith Taynton
 

Related Webanywhere pages

Read some of our case studies to see how we’ve engaged other teachers, students and parents using technology in the classroom.
EdTech15 is an upcoming education technology conference based in Leeds, featuring talks from influential leaders in the education technology field, visit the website to find out more.

“A VLE would take too much time”

“We’ve never used one before so we don’t need one”

“My staff aren’t so confident with ICT so it’s not for us”

 
Do these statements about Virtual Learning Environments sound familiar? I’ve heard each of them countless times over the course of my teacher training, subsequent years as a teacher and especially as I’ve delved into specialising in their usage.

It is very easy to label a VLE in the same way you would some unnecessary paperwork or a new fad dreamt up by a politician.

What if a VLE was labelled the same was as any other resource in the school resource cupboard? It becomes much more valuable and less scary when staff in school start to realise that a VLE is simply a tool that can be brought out when the occasion suits, which doesn’t have to keep chugging along behind everything you do, keeping everyone back at school an extra 30 minutes a day (even as ‘someone who knows’ about VLE’s, I can think of a hundred things I’d be better off doing as a teacher than being sat behind a computer updating a VLE on my own at 5:30).

The weighing scales in the resource cupboard; do you use them every day? Every maths lesson? Even the counting blocks have their time and place. A VLE is no different. In exactly the same way that you decided to use a physical resource, a VLE can be picked up and dropped into the curriculum as and when it fits you as a teacher and your children as learners.

Perhaps you’re onto Report Writing this half term. It would be great to compare the difference in format between newspaper articles and website articles, and then have the pupils write their own on an online Portfolio. They can even then peer assess the articles right next to professionally written articles at the touch of a button. Then, say, next topic, you are studying Shape Poetry. It would be fantastic to LEAVE THE VLE OUT COMPLETELY! Shape Poetry can be so beautifully written on huge pieces of A3 paper and coloured more creatively than a computer can handle.

Therein lies the secret of VLEs. They are brilliant when you use them as any other tool in your cupboard. Learn their advantages and disadvantages. What advantage will a specific function give to your class and your lesson? That Wiki tool will be brilliant for the collaborative writing part of the next topic.

After all, would you really shoehorn the weighing scales and counting blocks into taking your registers? Teaching Shape Poetry? You could, but you’ll hear “That could take too much time”, “We’ve never done that before so we don’t need to”, “My staff aren’t confident in doing that so it’s not for us”.

Related Webanywhere Pages

Here at Webanywhere we developed School Jotter a VLE which is developed by educators, for educators.

Mobilegeddon is here. In February earlier this year, Google announced that any sites that aren’t mobile-friendly will find their search rank plummet from April 21st, making it extremely difficult to find your site if it isn’t readable on mobile. It comes as very little surprise to anyone keeping an eye on website traffic over the past few years, nearly 60% of all internet browsing is now done from a mobile or tablet, which is why Google is now making it a top priority. This is something that schools need to fix if they want their site to remain in the top hits in Google.
 
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Our friends over at Early Childhood Education Degrees recently published a great infographic on how technology hardware is being used in schools, and we wanted to share their fantastic work with you. Click through to see the full infographic, with some excellent stats on how schools are engaging with new technologies:
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One of the biggest topics in e-learning at the moment is “gamification”, but there are a few misconceptions about what exactly this is, how you can implement it and how it can help students to learn. We’ll be covering these below, but in its essence, it’s taking concepts from video games and applying them to learning.

What gamification isn’t

Some educators see the word “game” in the title and baulk, having memories of substandard and outdated education software with more focus on entertainment than teaching. Likewise pupils might be sceptical of approaches to insert educational concepts into what’s traditionally seen as a “hometime” activity. This isn’t gamification though. While there’s certainly merit to a synergy of education and entertainment, gamification instead refers to methods of incentivising more traditional approaches, turning tasks into “games”.

What gamification is

Video games generally work on ideas of work/reward relationships – by putting in the work, you get a reward, for example defeating an opponent leads to the player gaining a piece of treasure, or completing a level and receiving an achievement. These can then be compared with others’ results, adding in elements of competition. This contrasts with learning environments, where aside from the long-term educational benefits, students generally have relatively little to gain in the short-term. By introducing achievement points & light-hearted competition, you let students track their own progress.

How you can implement it

The easiest and most efficient way to apply game-based principles to your teaching is through use of a VLE or other online environment. An open-source VLE has the ability to award badges which can display achievements and track progress. These can then be shared and compared with others, with rewards (both digital and physical) given to high achievers.
By a similar token, our own Merits system (free to School Jotter users) uses the concept of Merits as a currency for students, which can be spent either on customising their avatar or purchasing physical goods. This applies the rewards concept to learning and behaviour.

What this means for you

Gamification means more engaged students, who spend less time passively learning and more time actively discovering new information, for a proper flipped classroom experience. By incentivising hard work we appeal not just to students’ desires to better themselves but to show that they’ve bettered themselves. Engage your students, reward hard work and improve your results – gamified learning is a fantastic way to teach.

With the recent hacking of Sowerby School’s website, we’ve had a few customers contacting us concerned that the same could happen to them. We want to reassure all of our customers, whether they use School Jotter or any other of our products, that your security is our primary concern. The vulnerability through which Sowerby’s website was hacked is not present in any of our software, so you can rest assured that your content is as safe as it can be.
That said, there are certain precautions that we recommend all users should take. While a lot of these are common sense, users are often vulnerable to “social engineering” attacks, and we want to make sure you’re as safe as possible. We sat down with Webanywhere security and development expert Arthur Howie who had a few tips for us.

1. Never tell your password to ANYONE

Your login password should be a private string of characters that only you know. Any person with whom a password is shared is a potential vulnerability in the system. Our technical support will never ask for your password.

2. Don’t use the same password for multiple things

For convenience’s sake, it might be tempting to use the same password on your email accounts as on your school website’s login. This is very bad practice and means that if someone unscrupulous gets access to one of your passwords, all of your accounts are potentially compromised.

3. Make sure your password is complex but memorable

For example, don’t use “password1” – this is not good practice at all and is very vulnerable to “dictionary” attacks, where a hacker might try lots of common passwords. Your password should be a mixture of upper and lower case characters as well as non-alphanumeric ones if possible (ie #!£$%& etc). This will make you much less vulnerable to these attacks. It’s good practice to change it every few weeks as well. A great way to make a password secure while still being easy to remember is to simply make them long phrases.

4. Don’t use an easily guessable password

It can be tempting to use the name of a pet or loved one as a password as these are usually uncommon words, but you really shouldn’t. This is information that is easily searchable on the web and will be one of the first things an attacker tries.

5. Make sure your “secret question” is something only you know

In order to reset your password you’ll often need to answer a “secret question”, the answer to which you’ve previously set. This might be something such as “What school did you attend” or “Who is your favourite singer”. This information can often be gleaned from social media accounts or other sources, leaving you vulnerable, so make sure it’s not publicly available information – in 2008 Sarah Palin’s email was hacked in this way.

6. Ensure your antivirus is up to date

On any computer where you’re going to be entering personal information, make sure you’ve installed antivirus software – this is often available for free through your institution or even your personal bank. Without one, software could be installed without your consent and potentially capture sensitive login information.

7. Be careful what you click on

NEVER click on a link you’re unsure of. An email that purports to come from your bank or the government might simply be trying to “phish” your data. Antivirus software can sometimes prevent against this by scanning links ahead of time, but it’s no substitute for proper practice.
All that’s needed to keep yourself and your school safe online is to take the necessary precautions. We’re confident in our security at Webanywhere, and we want you to feel safe as well. If you have any concerns or questions regarding security or anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0113 3200 750, or email helpdesk@webanywhere.co.uk.

It’s in the news at the moment that British children spend more time on homework than most other European nations, and while we, at Webanywhere, are all for the high educational standards this produces, we have to ask the question of whether or not this time is being used effectively. With our suite of apps on the School Jotter platform, we can make the task of homework more efficient, productive and even fun! We’ve included the ways our apps can help out below, and all these apps are available for trial in the School Jotter app store, or you can request a demo here.

Portfolio

With our Portfolio app, it’s simple for students to create their own online learning journeys, in order to create a digital roadmap of their work. The simple, easy-to-use interface (which will be familiar to anyone who has used our Site platform to build their website) lets students and teachers add text, images and other media to create an attractive, interactive display. Teachers can set work to be completed online, then leave comments on pieces, giving quick feedback. As well as this, parents are able to log in and see what their children have been doing, giving a bit or parental oversight to the whole process.

Find out more about our Portfolio app or request a free demo here

Learn

Consider this the staff-side version of the Portfolio app. As a teacher you can create Learning Sites within the school website. These act like real websites but are accessible only by pupils and teachers, and content such as lesson plans and homework can be uploaded and displayed. Combining this with our other apps will really help to streamline your homework process.

Find out more about our Learn app or request a free demo here

Blog

Promote social collaboration with your students through our Blog app. Anyone who’s used a blog before will be instantly familiar with how this works – both students and teachers can create blogs and posts, as well as comment on them. Let your students take their group work online and collaboratively produce great content. Particularly good blogs can be shared or posted elsewhere – an added incentive to perform well!

Find out more about our Blog app or request a free demo here

Spellings

Coming soon from Webanywhere is our Spellings app! One of the most universally set pieces of homework in Primary Schools is the spelling test revision. As with any list memorisation there are various ways that each child might go about committing the information to memory, but we think our spelling app will help to make this both simple and fun. Easily create spelling lists for your pupils and embed the app into your school website for access at home. Users are shown a word briefly then asked to spell it out again – the gamification of revision in this way can really take the strain out of homework.

Find out more about our Spellings App here

Anti-Bullying Week 2014 has marked the 15th birthday of the ongoing campaign to make bullying unacceptable.
During that week, schools nationwide were encouraged to take part in this event by organising exciting ways for children to participate in group activities and raise money for awareness. The event has raised a lot of awareness and the work carried out should continue well beyond November.
Bullying can be described as repetitive behaviour from one party to another, with the intention of causing harm, either emotionally or physically. Bullies often target certain people due to ignorance towards race, religion, gender or sexual orientation or any other aspect such as appearance or disability.
Bullying during younger stages of a persons life is likely to come in the form of either; physical abuse, verbal abuse or cyber bullying.

National Survey Raises Concerns

During a national survey conducted by BullyingUK this year, it was found that many forms of abuse are still a major issue, concerning children, parents and even teachers.
The following alarming statistics were found.

• 93% of pupils reported that bullying occurred at school primarily during break, in classrooms and the playground.
• 81.4% of young people were bullied by more than one person. 62% of the children confided in their parents.
• 95% of parent respondents told BullyingUK that bullying took place in school, with 83.2% identified as name calling, 66% as physical bullying and 68.1% social bullying.

These statistics become even more concerning with these further results from the survey.

• Nearly 92% of school staff feel lunchtime and bank staff should receive training on tackling bullying.
• 74.5% of young people felt their school’s response was unhelpful.
• 61% of parents stated their child was bullied over 8 times or more.
• Once reported 62% of pupils said the bullying didn’t cease.
• 76.3% feel more teacher presence can help minimise bullying.
• 61.4% of staff feel it is difficult to keep on top of bullying within schools.
• 58% of children have taken time off school because of bullying, with a 1/4 missing more than a day off school and 10% penalised for taking the time off.
• 41% of children said bullying going on for 2 years or more.
• 40% of teachers have been assaulted by pupils.

Whilst victims of abuse are encouraged to share their problem with trusted adults, especially teachers, BullyingUK have found this may not be the most effective solution.

• 85% of parents said once the school was involved the bullying still continued.
• 35% of parents felt the school did not take the bullying seriously.
• Only 55% of children were able to confide in their parents straightaway.

Anti-Bullying Resources for Your School

However, with the continued support from many different organisations, counter action can be taken to combat bullying. The following list has been devised to help you raise awareness in your school as another step towards eradicating bullying forever.

• School resources for Key Stage 1 and 2, including Assembly PowerPoint from Beyond Bullying.

Download Beyond Bullying’s presentations here, which contain fact and figures and advice for tackling bullying, along with fundraising ideas.

• A free ebook download.

Get ‘Finding Your Inner Cherokee’ by Siobhan Curham for free by clicking here . The book is full of case studies, exercises and advice to help inspire and empower victims of bullying.

• Bullying and Cyberbullying, at a glance, NSPCC.

Information on bullying, with a focus on Cyber Bullying. Video showing action to be taken by victims to regain confidence.

• Am I a bully? Interactive guide.

BBC, CBBC and Newsround have put together an interactive guide to help everybody understand what bullying is.

• Cyberbullying: A Need To Know Guide from Webanywhere.

Cyberbullying is a growing problem, and one all schools need to know how to deal with. Webanywhere, with help from e-Safety Adviser’s Alan Mackenzie, have put together a free guide to tackling Cyberbullying in school, full of practical tips on implementing anti-bullying policies. You can download the guide here.

• TES Connect, Anti-Bullying Teaching Resources.

Extensive list of resources, here, for teachers to use in schools, Addressing simple friendship issues, through to detecting online abuse.

Understanding bullying.

The links below bring interesting information on why children may become bullies and the consequences of bullying.
https://learn2bebuddies.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/children-with-behaviour-disroders/
https://www.xraydata.com/consequences-of-bullying-the-short-long-term/

Now that we have worked out the different guises of the tech savvy teacher we are asking ourselves what does Webanywhere do to support that teacher? So the same headings will appear, just as they did in the last blog post, with how we support you.
Your students read your blog
We lead by example here, we have several blogs attracting very different types of audience. We work with different sectors in and outside of education and recognise that their needs are different. So giving you all the same advice is not an option. Blogging is a great way to communicate in a non-invasive way for us and you respond very well to that.
In School Jotter we have created a blog app that allows everyone to write and have their work published on the internet. The blog app is easy to use and what’s more, schools enjoy writing their blogs and receiving comments.
The blogging facility within an open-source LMS is a popular part of many schools VLE. Whether it is a teacher’s blog or a student’s blog it is a great way to keep in touch with students in between tutor group times or lessons.
You instigate your own CPD online
At Webanywhere we enjoy being proactive and it is very much encouraged by the senior management. So we are starting to offer free webinars offering support on using various parts of your school’s VLE or apps in the School Jotter suite. All webinars are recorded and posted online for those who cannot make the webinar live or would like to go over the information again at a later date.
We also hold regular events around the country for e-safety, OFSTED website requirements and how to meet them. We know these are not online but it is another way we can support you with your CPD.
You have made an online PLN
We hope you consider yourselves part of our learning network. You are brilliant at telling us what you think of our products and how we can develop them. We take note of this and we feel this is one reason that our products go from strength to strength.
It was great to see so many customers at BETT this year and get an update of what you are doing and your future plans. Webanywhere has a strong social networking presence and we offer help and advice to all rather than just informing you of our offers and service available.
You share your life with virtual colleagues you have never met
We are lucky and have some very strong relationships with schools and businesses around the country. We definitely share our working lives with you and include all of our customers when breaking good news about the company.
Your weekly schedule involves Twitter chats
Webanywhere does tweet and we do follow and chat with our customers and other interesting organisations using Twitter. But we do prefer a more personal touch, that is why we enjoy talking to our customers directly whether that is a telephone call or an email.
Summer break means ISTE and other conferences
Webanywhere works through the summer, you will be surprised how many teachers take training sessions during the summer break, we are not though as we know how driven you are. We also do large installs and implementations during this quieter period. We are also planning for the new school year just like you. Planning events and offers that will help you to make the most of the technology you are using.
You know the vocabulary
This should possibly read know our products and services, the vocabulary will then follow automatically. Every educational establishment and business is different, they have different requirements and need varying levels of support. Understanding that we know that what we did for one organisation will not necessarily work in another.
You turn to colleagues in other countries in times of need
We do have colleagues and people in our PLN that are in other countries and they are an invaluable source of information. But we also turn to our customers and ask for their help. In March we took some new School Jotter apps to a local event and invited schools to attend. We had headteachers, teachers, teaching assistants and administration staff. We showed them our new apps and listened to them as they fed back. This was an amazing session and the developer we took with us had a good list of quality suggestions to take back to the development team to work on. An update at the end of June included many of those ideas.
You are a digital citizen
Gosh, we hope so. We strive to be role model digital citizens and if ever we let you down please tell us. As we have always done, we stretch beyond with our enthusiasm and willingness to go further. We are still in front of market needs and we go beyond what’s expected to deliver a truly positive experience for our customers.
You are always hungry to learn, try and tinker with new tech
This goes without saying, it is part of who we are.