To someone running a school website, it’s not always clear which developments in the web you need to follow. Many websites are commercial projects and so what matters to them may not matter to you.
One of the most important developments in recent years is the growth of SSL certification. This raises two important questions for anyone running a school website:

• what is SSL? and
• do I need it for my school?

What is SSL Certification?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It’s the name for the predecessor of Transport Layer Security (TLS), a system that lets computers communicate safely with each other. Though SSL is now redundant, the phrase “SSL certificate” still refers to a public key certificate, an important part of the TLS system.
An SSL certificate is a digital file associated with your website. It has two important effects.
Firstly, it provides evidence that this is the real version of your website and not an imposter using your name to gain people’s information.
Secondly, it is used to encrypt information your users put into the website. This means that, if someone intercepts the information, they will not be able to read it. Only you can decrypt the data and read the message. This is very important when making financial transactions or sharing private information.
You can tell if a website has an SSL certificate in three ways:

• Its address starts with https instead of http.
• Your browser may show a padlock next to the site’s address.
• Depending upon your browser, the browser bar may change colour to draw attention to the certification.

Why Does SSL Matter?

Whenever you use the internet, you are sharing packets of information. This might be something seemingly small, like a request for the contents of a website to be sent to your browser. It might be something more important, like details of a bank card. Every time you click on a link or fill in a form, you share a little bit of information and you get a bit back.
For websites without SSL certification, this information is not encoded. If someone intercepts it then they can read the information you have sent. The growth of wireless networks and mobile browsing has created more possibilities for interception than ever before.
SSL is important because it lets people use your website more safely. Those packets of information, however big or small, can’t be read if they are intercepted.
This has a lot of implications for a school website.
 

Peace of Mind

One important thing that SSL provides is peace of mind. Not everybody understands SSL or the importance of internet security, but most people have noticed the padlock symbol in the browsing bar. They know that it shows that a site is safer to use.
SSL certification gives reassurance to your site’s users. Internet savvy parents will recognise that you are security conscious and that your site is safe to use. Even those less informed about technology will recognise that familiar padlock logo.
Importantly, browsers sometimes flag up sites that don’t have SSL certification, with a glaring red symbol to show that the site is not secure. This can be alarming for users, whether or not they understand what SSL is. It may not be something you want associated with a school site.
 

Sharing Information

SSL lets you securely share information through your website. This lets you turn the site into an interactive experience, a valuable hub for communication and work.
With SSL certification, you can provide secure webforms for parents to send messages to the school, book events, and keep up on their children’s activities. You can provide online spaces such as e-portfolios for pupils to upload their work and network with their peers. Your website can become a central hub for learning.
You can also use a secure website to communicate with staff. Information and resources can be shared through a secure site.
 

Visibility

One of the reasons for a school to have a website is to increase its visibility, both in the local community and in the wider world.
Visibility on the web is increasingly dependent upon SSL certification. Google, the most popular search engine, gives higher search rankings to sites with SSL certification than to those without, as it steers its users towards safer sites. If you have SSL certification, your site will show up higher in the rankings and so be more visible to people surfing the web.
 

Setting an Example

Schools have to consider a factor that most other websites don’t – their role in educating both pupils and parents.
Schools set examples, whether good or bad. If pupils and parents regularly see a school website without SSL certification then they will get used to it. They are more likely to view unsecured websites as safe to use. After all, teachers are expected to know what they are doing, even in areas outside their expertise.
On the other hand, if the school website is certified then parents and pupils are more likely to treat this as the norm. They will ask questions if they see a website without signs of certification. This will make them safer in their use of the internet.
 

Does My School Website Need SSL?

SSL certification isn’t essential for a school website. It’s not yet the universal standard for legitimate websites.
But certification brings a lot of advantages. It lets you make your website more interactive for pupils, parents, and staff. It provides a sense of security for people using the site. And it supports the school’s role as an educator, setting an example in the safe use of information technology.
You might not need SSL certification to get your website up and running, but to create a modern site and set your school up for future success, it’s almost certainly worth the extra effort.

Today, there’s an app for almost everything.
Just by downloading an app, you can make certain aspects of your everyday life easier: it may help you plan your schedule, track your fitness, do your weekly shopping, keep up to date with your social media profiles, or countless other tasks.
The explosion of apps is just part of the ongoing reign of the mobile device. Smartphones and tablets (though primarily the former) are essential companions for millions of us, helping us get through our professional and personal lives. Businesses and organisations are consistently recommended to invest in mobile advertising, and to ensure their websites are optimised to be mobile-friendly.
Your school can benefit from embracing the mobile market too, across both your website and an app – but why do you need both?
 

The Benefits of a Mobile Website

Mobile websites are basically similar to any other site: they revolve around connected HTML pages, incorporating numerous features and media.
However, what makes a mobile website different from those we tend to explore on our computers is that they are designed for smaller screens and touch-screen interaction. Google’s search algorithm now gives greater prominence to websites which are mobile-friendly, and this is only going to increase in years to come.
Mobile websites can present any form of media, just as standard domains do: images, video, text, animations, and submission forms can all be incorporated into your mobile website. Whereas accessing websites on mobile phones may have led to clumsy, monochromatic visuals once upon a time, you can now expect the same performance as you would on a high-end PC.
Mobile websites are immediately available, unlike apps which need to be downloaded. Why does this matter? Well, for example, let’s say you send an email to parents inviting them to check important resources on your site, and include a link to the relevant pages.
Parents will then be able to click the link and go directly to the information they need to see; if they do this on their mobile phone or tablet (as many of them will, especially if on the move or if they have no desktop computer at home), your mobile website will present the key information in a clear, accessible way.
If the same resources were available only via your app, parents would then either have to go to the effort of downloading it before they could access it. Alternatively, they may prefer to contact your school to get the details – taking more time out of their busy day.
Another reason your mobile website is an essential complement to an app is that they are compatible across multiple devices. Your app may only be available on, say, Android and iOS, meaning parents with a Windows phone would be unable to use it, but they would be able to reach your mobile website with no trouble.
Mobile websites have broader reach, too, as not every parent, grandparent, or guardian will feel comfortable downloading an app; they may even not understand how to. You need to ensure your online presence is as accessible to everyone as possible.
With all this in mind, it’s easy to think a mobile website alone is enough, but apps are equally important.
 

The Benefits of a Mobile App

Your school should invest in setting up an app for various reasons. First and foremost, mobile apps enable you to send push notifications or alerts to parents and other key users; these allow you to keep them informed of details either instead of, or alongside, emails and letters.
These notifications can be used for less-important information or to remind them of upcoming events. Notifications can either be clicked on to go to the relevant page of the app, or cleared from the screen if they are irrelevant. These are much less hassle for the recipient than a letter or phone call.
Another key difference between apps and mobile websites is that the former can be used offline. Not all functions of the app may be accessible without an internet connection, but others will be: parents and guardians can check on school calendars, reports, and more whilst offline.
A school app may also include maps of your grounds, the location of upcoming sports events, and destinations for field trips. Parents can even explore what homework has been set, take part in surveys, and more. Mobile apps do consume storage space on users’ mobile devices, so it’s vital to keep them down to a manageable size; if your school app demands too much storage space, parents may be reluctant to download it.
Your app typically requires more time and attention to manage than a mobile website, but giving your students’ parents a portal to your school they can carry with them at all times is an effective way to build bonds.
Mobile apps typically require access to certain functions in a user’s phone, such as finding their location, accessing contacts, and others. You need to make them aware of this before they download the app.
Offering an app also demonstrates that your school is on the cutting edge and able to meet the demands of modern life. If you want to give parents and guardians access to complex data on your school – such as Ofsted reports, visual information through graphs and charts – an app can process this a little more efficiently than a mobile website.
You can include certain features across both mobile sites and apps, of course. Communication options, such as email submission forms and click-to-call buttons, may be integrated into both with minimal effort; these provide users with a choice of contact methods in the palm of their hand, without having to dial a number, drop into the school, or even worry about typing email addresses properly.
 

The Bottom Line

Optimising your website for mobile devices and releasing an app will empower your school to build stronger relationships with parents and guardians, catering to all types of mobile device and preferences. Those who would rather download an app than navigate their phone’s browser will be satisfied, while anyone reluctant to add your school’s app to their device can just hop online instead.
Both school mobile websites and mobile apps allow you to customise their look and feel, reinforcing your institution’s ‘brand’ with your school’s colours and logo. Putting your school at the forefront of mobile technology is key to to maximize engagement and build strong bonds for years to come.

Your website is your school’s chance to make a powerful first impression.
If someone with no knowledge of your school’s past achievements, results, or history arrived on your site, what would they take away from it? Even before visitors read a word of your content, they will still form immediate opinions based on the overall design and layout.
They should get a feel for your school’s values and goals within seconds, without having to root through blocks of text or search for information on other websites. According to the Department for Education, there are a number of critical factors that must appear on maintained schools websites:

• School contact details
• Ofsted reports
• Admission arrangements
• Curriculum
• Exams and assessment results
• School complains
• Behaviour policy
• PE and sport premium (for primary schools)
• Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium
• Governors’ information and duties
• Performance tables
• Special educational needs and disability information
• Equality objectives
• Charging and remissions policies
• Values and ethos
• Requests for paper copies

As you can see, this is a fairly extensive list, but simply incorporating all of the features outlined above into your website is not enough. You also have to consider:
 

Offer Smooth Navigation and Accessibility

Simple layout and intuitive navigation are vital for good school websites. Every visitor – be they a parent, a guardian, a pupil, a governor – should be able to find the information they need with minimal effort.
Said resources should be separated into relevant categories and arranged in a logical manner.
 

Ensure Cross-Device Functionality

School websites should be accessible on desktop and mobile devices alike, to cater to users regardless of their location.
Your website should be optimised for handheld devices and smaller screens, to avoid slow load times or low-quality visuals.
 

Embrace Visual Content

While text is obviously important to relate essential information to visitors, images and video play a huge part in how your website is received.
Provide users with a comprehensive gallery of your school and grounds. Showcase your most attractive classrooms, your pupils’ past work, your sports facilities, your ICT suites, and more. You want to offer parents and prospective pupils an insight into your school’s everyday look and feel, but don’t just display the areas you are most proud of – give visitors a broad overview of your entire school.
 
The best way to see what your school website should look like is to explore some of the best online today.
 

Four Examples of Outstanding School Web Design

Warden Park Secondary Academy

Warden Park Secondary School’s website is a terrific example of exceptional school web design. It’s bright, colourful, and benefits from an incredibly-accessible layout which makes finding all the information you need incredibly easy.
The homepage boasts strong visual media, with a changing set of images presenting a glimpse of the school grounds, the different types of education it offers, and more. A well-written roster of updates is inluded, keeping parents informed of the school’s latest achievements, term breaks, fundraising activities, and other key news.
At the bottom of the homepage, there is a selection of icons directing you to the site’s different sections, including ‘Information for Parents’, ‘Information for Students’, ‘Career Opportunities’, ‘Contact Us’, ‘Curriculum’, and a few others.
At the top of the homepage, you will find clickable buttons taking you to their newsletter, calendar, contact details, and Twitter profile. The menu button reveals numerous options, demonstrating how strong the website’s layout is.
Overall, the white and blue colour scheme keeps the site clean, neat, and easy on the eye across both desktop and mobile devices.
 

Asquith Primary School

Primary schools should be warm, friendly, inviting places – and Asquith Primary School’s website reflects that.
The homepage is beautifully designed, featuring soft colours and a simple interface. The school’s logo, incorporating its name and motto (‘growing to succeed’), is presented in a gentle yellow, while the surrounding deep blues, purples, and greens are vibrant and dynamic. A number of buttons (decorated with icons) offer easy navigation throughout the site.
You can go directly to ‘key information’, ‘curriculum’, ‘parents’, ‘pupil zone’, and ‘contact’ at just the click of a button, without having to scour the site. Contact details are presented at the top right of the page, with the school’s full address, the name of the headteacher, and the phone number. The website benefits from fast responsiveness, too, with fast loading times.
 

Guardian Angels Catholic Primary School’s

The Guardian Angels Catholic Primary School website incorporates a bold mixture of yellows, blacks, and whites, grabbing your attention as soon as you arrive.
The logo is a striking visual, and its black-and-white colour scheme contrasts strikingly with the yellow behind it – creating a strong first impression on screens of any size. To the right, the school’s full address, contact number and email address, and headteacher’s name are all present.
The website’s homepage includes strong visuals, with each link to subsequent pages accompanied by an attractive, professional photograph of the school’s pupils. All of the most important sections are accessible instantly, including ‘about us’, ‘newsletter’, ‘upcoming events’, and more.
Another excellent addition to the homepage is the personal letter written by the headteacher, welcoming visitors to the site and outlining the school’s values.
 

Meols Cop High School

The Meols Cop High School website places a strong slideshow of images at the heart of its homepage, presenting a number of its pupils, the school grounds, and classes underway; you get a real sense of the school’s identity and inclusiveness in a matter of seconds.
One particularly effective part of the website is the year 7 parent’s evening survey results on the homepage, providing an honest breakdown of how newcomers and their parents responded to the school. This is an innovative addition that demonstrates how well the school fares in a key area.
The calendar, current vacancies, news updates, and other features are all present on the homepage too, turning it into a hub of information. Visitors can learn a great deal about the school, its values, its goals, and its successes from this one page.
 
The four websites explored above incorporate the crucial features we discussed earlier: great school web design, accessibility, cross-device compatibility, and the criteria specified by the Department of Education. Every school should invest in a high-quality website that reflects their ‘brand’ and presents visitors with everything they need to know.

Captology is the study of computers as persuasive technologies. The term was coined by scientist B J Fogg, whose Persuasive Technology Lab is at Stanford University. He specialises in creating systems to ‘change people’s behaviour’ and while you might be thinking he works for a covert government agency, nothing could be further from the truth. In 2007, Fogg taught a course on the ‘Psychology of Facebook’ and his students designed apps that saw 16 million users in ten weeks, making a number of the app developers quite wealthy in the process. Persuasive technology is anything that encourages the user to modify their behaviour. This can be information or incentives delivered via websites, apps, mobile phones, games, etc. The question is whether persuasive technology is actually coercion or simply a way to encourage or motivate someone to act in a certain way?
Consumerism
Even something as seemingly benign as a website allowing you to stay logged in could mean you visit that site more often and even spend money. Amazon’s famous one-click ordering and same-day delivery make shopping fast and uncomplicated. Yes, you could shop around and find the same item for less, but this would mean logging in, adding the item to the basket, checking out and filling in your payment details. Amazon has made it mind-bendingly simple, which is why its shares perform so well. Getting points or cash back for using a credit card is another example of persuasive technology, as the consumer might otherwise pay cash for the item or not buy it.
Pressure and Guilt
How often have you acted under pressure? When you watch the horrific and tear-jerking ads for dying children in third world countries, what makes you pick up your phone and text a donation? Even something as overtly positive as a fitness app can motivate out of guilt. They want you to believe you should be: lighter, thinner, stronger, fitter, more flexible. By using social media to compare results (similar to what weight-loss classes do) this motivates users to stick to diets or face embarrassment. It’s quite amazing how peer pressure alters behaviour. Opower’s home energy management software lets you compete with the energy consumption of similar homes but for the pinnacle in throw downs, you can now upload your utility bill to Facebook and compete with your friends. Baby Think It Over, an infant simulator, is aimed at stopping teenage pregnancies by taking the user through the sleepless nights and inconveniences of having an infant to care for.
Incentives
Many apps use incentives to change patterns of behaviour. Get Rich or Die Smoking is a clever little app that shows you what you could buy with the money you’re saving by not smoking. Kwit also tries to get users not to smoke but they use gaming and achieving levels as their rewards. Others give you daily words of wisdom or support from the community of addiction-breakers. How well they manipulate choices depends on what motivates the individual user.
Macrosuasion and Microsuasion
While an entire piece of software aimed at altering behaviour is seen as macrosuasion, smaller design elements within larger programs are classed as microsuasion. An example of this would be a school learning management system with a facility to offer praise or rewards for completing tasks. The function of the LMS is to educate and the incentive is designed to persuade. Webanywhere’s school web design, School Jotter, is no exception and with the Merits app pupils can create their own avatar with points earned. The more merits, the more they can customise their avatar or donate to charity. It’s behaviour modification but through positive motivation.
We cannot escape persuasive technology, as it permeates everything we do and experience, in one form or another. Whether it’s a form of coercion or free will is difficult to determine. Perhaps we all need to take a step back and ask who is pulling our strings?

Does the device that a learner uses to access their learning really matter? Are there inherent advantages in using a mobile rather than a tablet? A tablet rather than a laptop? A laptop rather than a desktop? With BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and blended learning becoming more prevalent these are questions that are well worth considering as there are advantages and disadvantages in using any tool. However, if an education establishment truly wants online learning to be effective, course content has to be able to be accessed by the widest range of devices possible.
It is the crucial issue. From clunky laptops to sleek phones – providers should have the fact that learners will access their learning on a vast range of devices (some of which may be less than cutting edge) in the forefront of their mind during the development of online courses so as not to exclude anyone from obtaining the training they need. The broadest range of options should be available, including both web-based tools and specific apps on different platforms. Anything less means an unlevel playing field and in education, that’s not a model anyone wants to be working with.
Online learning is a tool that offers a chance to reach people where beforehand hurdles such as geographical location or socioeconomic factors means they may have been kept away. To keep it as open as we possibly can, we have to understand that the the tools that learners use are as varied as the learners themselves and the upmost must be done to ensure that access is as fair as it can possibly be.
Ultimately it is a question of personalization. If we assume that learners can be more effective when using their own device as it is one that is comfortable and familiar to them, then ensuring that they are able to use their device (in whatever form it comes) is part of the process where we see the learner as an individual who has unique needs. Catering to those differing needs is part and parcel of helping each individual learner both access and optimise their own learning.

Using tech compliments the way I work but I completely understand that it’s not for everyone. Different teachers have completely different (sometimes highly idiosyncratic) ways of keeping on top of things. From extremely tech-centric, to utilising a bit of tech, to forgoing any kind of technology whatsoever, there’s a whole spectrum out there. I tend not to make any kind of value-judgement on the way people work as I’ve seen the most connected teachers be completely useless and those who wouldn’t dream of picking up a mobile to help in their teaching absolutely storm it.
 
But then again, it’s always nice to have the choice. Whether tech savvy or tech-averse, being able to work in a way that means that you’re at your best is always going to be important. I use my phone to organise my workload, communicate with colleagues, streamline certain mind-numbing admin activities, so what can an institution do to try and smooth the way for someone like me? And they should because I rule.
 
Firstly, let’s talk a little bit about one of the essentials, one of the building blocks of effective tech use in school; internet access. Undoubtedly the provision of wifi in education establishments in reference to speed and reliability have improved exponentially in the time that I’ve been teaching. But even now, there are places where this central tenet is neglected. Spotty, unreliable or easily maxed-out provision can be a real headache and effectively means that anyone using mobile technology is scuppered before they start (unless they fancy maxing out their 4G allowance, which is always an option but seems a bit like having to buy your own whiteboard markers, exercise books and A4 paper – tools that should really be provided). Decent internet and wifi that reliably reaches every room in every building is pretty much an essential now (and not just for me as a teacher, but for the kids as well.)
 
The culture in a school and how it views a particular way of working is also something that can either facilitate or discourage being productive with mobile apps. There have been places that have viewed my use of a phone or tablet to sort myself out with something akin to deep suspicion. I can’t really blame them as it’s the same way that I view the kids with something akin to deep suspicion when they’re on theirs. But then again, I’m a professional, and an adult (I won’t go so far to push it and call myself ‘responsible’) and I think we’re now at a point that mobile device use, if not entirely ‘normalised’ in schools, is not as much as an anomaly as it once was. Being comfortable with staff using tech to help with their work, perhaps actively encouraging it (yet not enforcing. I’m still firm in the belief that a professional should be able to make a choice in how they work) can make life a little easier. Establishing an in-house forum where teachers can share some of the tools that they’re using and perhaps demonstrate the apps that are helping them conquer the day-to-day grind can also go some way to removing any possible stigma as teachers convince others that they’re not constantly on the Facebook or happily Snapchatting away as everyone else gets some proper work done.
 
Because proper work is proper work, no matter how you go about doing it. Recognising that it happens in different ways, and making efforts to try and enable it, whether it be using pen or paper or the shiniest new bit of kit, is key to helping teachers do the best that they can. An environment that identifies how to support teachers in the way that works for them is an environment that values professionals and the work that they do. That value then carries over to the kids as it’s often the case that what’s good for the teachers is also good for the students. Not everyone works in the same way, but by making it easier to work in the way that best suits your teachers, a school can help their workforce reach their potential.

The pursuit of ‘authenticity’ in education when it comes to student activities is always a hot topic. The question of whether we can truly prepare students for a life outside school when we teach them within the walls of the classroom is one that comes up again and again.
What steps can teachers take to bring the wider world into their place of learning in an effort to engage children and help them to see the work that they are doing in a wider context?
 
Student Blogging
Student blogging is one of the ways that teachers can bring an authentic audience to their students, increasing engagement, and widening the horizons of any classroom-based activity. It’s often the case that children’s work is only really seen and commented on by their teacher. By using blogging platforms, a child’s efforts can potentially be seen by a global audience who can constructively comment on that work. When a child understands this, they often increase the effort they put in as it’s not just a teacher who will be reading what they wrote. There are sometimes drawbacks as an audience is not guaranteed and the teacher must be confident in things such as privacy settings,
 
Video Visits
Bringing experts into the classroom has always been a sure-fire way to increase engagement and the scope of a particular project. However, there are often organisational hurdles that go along with these types of visits. Video conferencing software can be used to great effect to try to alleviate some of the trickier logistical issues of having visitors in school and can also be used to make links between classes and schools where previously, geographical constraints would have made this an extremely laborious process. Tim Peake discussing his time in space with children in the classroom whilst actually in space has been an excellent recent example of this, and the possibilities are numerous as video conferencing offers the next best thing to a physical presence in the classroom.
 
Project-Based Learning
Project-based learning offers a mirror to how hurdles are overcome in the world of work whilst presenting an alternative to the more linear breakdown of sharply defined subjects. Students try to find the answer to a complex question or a challenge often framed in the real world and have to use a cumulation of their collective knowledge and skills in completing the task. English, maths, science, art and a sense of collaboration all go towards successful achievement in a closer reflection of how things work outside of the classroom.
In utilising these ideas and more, teachers can begin to explore the idea of bringing authentic learning to the classroom, and by doing so, give their students a taste of what things are like in the wider world, preparing them for their journey as learners and their negotiation of it.

Without putting too fine a point on it, I’m not the most organised individual in the world. My working life as a teacher is punctuated by panicked running to half-forgotten meetings, surprise that quickly morphs into heartbreak when the kids turn up to what I could have sworn was a free period and the less I say about my failure to get my bus duty day right the better.

It’s no excuse but I’ve got a lot on my mind (although if you saw me gormlessly wandering the corridors, it may seem like the exact opposite). There’s so much that goes on in school on a daily basis that, for me at least, things can get a little crowded, brain-wise. The sheer volume of tasks that need carrying out and the information that has to be retained means that even as something deceptively easy as prioritisation becomes a chore in itself as I struggle with a to-do list that rolls away into the middle distance and over the horizon.

For a poor unfortunate like me, mobile apps offer the prospect of straightening the looping, meandering tributary of my workflow into something that more closely resembles efficiency. This is no mean feat, considering. Mobile apps can save me effort, time, let me communicate with a wide range of people easily and make me look vaguely competent and less sweaty from all the last-second, panicked corridor dashing to that very important meeting that I’d completely forgotten about until I saw the whole team walking in the opposite direction from me.

The first advantage of using a phone to complete a range of tasks during the day is that it’s always with me. It gives me a central hub where formerly I might have folders, notepads or a pc roughly the size and shape of a back-to-back terrace anchoring me to a certain geographical location. Mobile apps let me be…well…mobile and for someone who doesn’t have their own room (like my good self – I’m assuming they think I can’t be trusted and they’re probably right) travelling light, or at least lighter, is a huge advantage. Of course, I still carry the essential things I need for the class (I dream of one day working in a paperless school and ditching my trusty folding trolley) but it does mean that there is less of a burden to bear.

It’s not just the limiting of physical weight that is an advantage of using mobile apps. They also offer the opportunity to shift and automate some of the more menial tasks that you come across freeing up a bit of cognitive space. Calendar reminders with notifications, to do lists with alarms and other streamlining features act as a digital tap on my shoulder, guiding me to where it is I’m actually supposed to be at any given moment during the day and make my life slightly easier when I get there. It frees me up to concentrate on some of the more in-depth tasks and lessens the ever-constant worry that I may have missed something important.

With the right systems, mobile apps can also make communication in a school or across schools easier. With the current trend in chains and mergers, with institutions over a number of sites with staff in great numbers, making sure you can get in touch with who you need to quickly and easily (especially as there’s no guarantee that they might be within grabbing and shaking distance) is becoming more important. Messaging and mailout services mean there’s easy ways of getting in touch with people, saving time, travel and effort.

Because that’s what me using apps is all about. It saves me an amount of effort in doing certain things and allows me to redirect those efforts into different parts of the job. It makes the way that I work easier and more efficient and also has the added bonus of making me feel a little bit more competent with some of the things that formerly would have left me in a spin. It’s not a spectacular game-changer but in my case, it’s a way of working that really does help me be a little bit better (although with a little less corridor running, I have put on a bit of weight).

In the next post I’ll talk about how school culture can encourage or hinder the use of mobile apps.

Keith Tellum is our Education Support Manager and expert in staff development and technology-based learning. He agreed to share his experience in the eLearning field with our readers to help you understand and leverage the power of online learning technologies.
 
1. What is the most important change in eLearning you have witnessed in the past years?
For me, this is the widespread availability of cloud technologies to education. At a basic level this has hugely increased the amount of storage available to pupils/students and staff which means that it’s now possible to make much more use of video and sound for assessment. This expands the ways you can teach and learn, and people can start to become more independent in their learning by the ability to watch or listen to themselves. Link this to one of the tools which allows you to include questions and information points in streaming video and we’re starting to develop new ways of learning outside the classroom. In a recent interview with some students, they also mentioned that it made it impossible to lose their work owing to lost or corrupted USB drives.
Another aspect of cloud-based learning is the ability to share documents and work on them as a group. In the past we’ve asked groups of students on educational trips to update a shared presentation with their photographs and reactions to their trip, and let students still at home share in the experience.
However, the most important thing here is that it can increase the opportunity for pupils to have feedback on their essays and tasks via the comments feature. From my experiences working in the educational field one of the most common requests from students was to have more formative feedback on their work so they could be sure they were on the right track.
 
2. Is there an eLearning influencer you admire? And if so, how does he/she inspire you?
As you can probably tell from the comments I’ve made so far, the thing I’m looking for in technology is that it changes and expands what we can do in learning. The most useful encapsulation of this concept was, for me, Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model.
This model gives stages of moving from using technology simply as a substitute for things we do already (e.g. typing up work instead of writing it) through to the redefinition stage where we can learn in ways not possible before the introduction of technology. An example of redefinition (the R of the SAMR model) would be a recent class where a teacher invited several local businesses to contribute to a class discussion via a Twitter hashtag. It would have been impossible to get several people to give up their time to come to the school for a short session, but they were all willing to contribute from their own offices.
 
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of online teaching and learning?
For most teachers the major disadvantage comes down to time. Creating effective online courses and setting learning tasks can be very time consuming, and there are many other demands on them during the working day. If someone in the school can be given time to develop the platform or learning materials this will obviously help, but technology should aim to be able to save time where possible.
In my early career I was faced with the challenge of taking what I’d been working on as an e-learning mentor and actually applying it in the classroom. There was quite a high workload at the beginning putting the online part of the learning together, but I found that as the year went on the work put in at the beginning paid dividends and I had much more time to work with the students on their projects.
In some cases, especially with older age ranges, the preparation doesn’t have to involve intensive work, but extends the learning process through discussion forums, and, more recently, the use of social media.
One of the main advantages of online learning however, is to make learning more accessible. I’ve seen various instances where students have been provided with screenreaders, coloured overlays and magnifiers which have made it much easier for them to learn. In some cases, technology has enabled a student to participate in a higher level course than would have been possible had the technology not been available. For me, this has always been one of the main factors in why technology is now an indispensable part of learning.

How would you describe a modern teacher? Today we are sharing some skills and attributes that we think modern teachers should possess.

Engage in professional communities

Teachers should view personal and professional development as a continuous process. One of the best ways to engage in personal and professional development is by networking. Network with other industry professionals by attending education conferences and events or by joining professional online communities for educators. Networking with other teachers is a great way to exchange ideas about different ways of teaching and to share other useful tips.

Keep learning

Being a teacher does not mean you should stop educating yourself. Like with any other profession, there is always something new to learn when you are a teacher. Modern teachers should be curious and proactive in terms of gaining new skills and knowledge.

Understand technology

Modern teachers should be willing to explore new technologies and the different ways they can improve teaching and learning. Technologies are constantly evolving and changing, therefore, teachers should be flexible and adaptable in order to stay up to date with changes in technologies that could support education.

What is more, most students are tech-savvy, this means that having an interest in different technologies will definitely help you engage with students more.

Participate in social media

Incorporating social media into lessons can be a challenge due to lack of knowledge, accessibility and issues like e-safety. However, teachers who are using social media can benefit in a number of different ways. For instance, different social media sites can help make lessons more interactive as well as they can extend the learning outside the classroom.

Social media is also useful for engaging with parents and for promoting the school image online. What is more, joining different discussions or connecting with people of social media are great ways for networking with other industry professionals.

Know when to take a break

This is very important for keeping high levels of productivity and for reducing work-related stress. Modern teachers know when it is time to slow down and relax for them and for their students.