The last thing most teachers will be thinking about right now is September. It’s a an age away – a whole new school year! Before then, there are sports days, end-of-year award ceremonies and gifts from pupils to look forward to!
As an e-learning company dealing with thousands of schools in the UK and worldwide, naturally Webanywhere’s workload ebbs and flows with schools’ needs. We’re therefore usually pretty quiet over July and August – which is why we’re offering schools a limited offer.

Plan to start the next school year in style with a new school website design, introducing new pupils and parents to your school, and we’ll knock off £100 if you’re a Webanywhere customer, and 20% if you’re not yet using our School Jotter website system.
To find out more, just get in touch here, quoting our website redesign offer. Before you do, however, we recommend you take a look at some of our latest website designs below.

In the latest of our regular app blog posts, we take a look at the forthcoming Surveys app.
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The App Store is where you can find out more about the Webanywhere education apps currently available. You can also use the App Store to set up a free trial of any of these apps.
To make using the App Store easier, we’ve created a tutorial video, which you can watch below.
If you don’t have access to the App Store, just take a free trial via any of our product websites, such as School Jotter, Jotter Learn and Surveys. Requesting a free trial for any of these products will mean you’ll get access to the App Store, where you can set up further trials yourself.

If you need further information about any of our education apps, or the App Store, get in touch here.

Webanywhere’s range of education apps is continuing to grow. We’ve now four more apps available to save your time, reduce costs and engage your pupils.
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Since the launch of Webanywhere’s brand new e-learning apps in February, Learn and Merits, we’ve added many more to the list – in fact, we now have 12 apps either about to be launched, or currently available!
So you can get an overview of what these are and how they work, we’ve put together an easy-to-digest guide.
This will help you choose the combination of apps that will most suit your school – i.e those that will save you time, engage your pupils and improve your home/school connections.

You can download the guide, 12 Education Apps That Will Benefit Your School, here.
Once you’ve taken a look, find out more about our brand new range of app packages, or book a demo to see the apps in action, by clicking here.

One of the key starting points to improving attainment in your school is to make sure your pupils are engaged with learning. Hook them in from the start and they will want to participate, work hard and see the results.

So how do you stop a classroom from becoming disengaged with learning? It’s simple – make the way you teach them exciting! Below are five steps to increasing pupil engagement using video.

Make it simple

Video is a very fun and different way to not just teach (it plugs into the flipped classroom model very well) but also accept homework. Make sure however you use video, it’s easy for pupils to create a video and upload it to your VLE (although today’s digital natives may be more technically-astute than many of the teachers within your school!).
Alternatively, you could set up a video camera in the classroom, and pupils could take it in turns to answer a question they have been given. This would then require very little technical ability on their part, and you would just need to a basic knowledge of using a simple video camera.

Give them control

Giving pupils the chance to influence how they learn. Give them the opportunity to either respond to a homework question via a written answer or to via a self-made video – chances are most of them will take the option of creating a video, even if they have to learn how to do it!
A video gives them the opportunity to be more creative in their learning – and can also be an opportunity for them to provide the content for classes. For example, a pupil could research a question or find a video clip that the rest of the class has to answer or comment on.
A useful open source video system that allows pupils to create, edit and upload videos is Kaltura.

Give them training

As we’ve already mentioned, getting children to use video needs to be a simple process, so training is essential to ensuring they understand how to use the technology, and fully embrace it in their learning.
Once you have begun using video, particularly for homework, make sure you are on hand to help and answer their questions. For homework, ensure there is somewhere for them to either access a quick guide, message you with questions, or both.

Analyse

If you’re using a VLE in conjunction with your use of video, monitor usage. Look at how often children are using video, who are using it the most and spending time on it, and train or guide pupils accordingly. For those confident, multiple users of video, turn them into mentors for those who need help.

Integrate your video solution

As we’ve already mentioned, having a VLE within your school to host the videos will make implementation much easier. Make the tools they need and the videos you want them to watch easily accessible. Integrating seamlessly with an existing solution, like a learning platform, will mean video is adopted by pupils (and other teachers in your school) more quickly.
You can then work to making video an everyday part of learning within school, from providing videos on a regular basis for homework tasks, to making classroom time a little more fun. Video could be used for everything from being an alternative to textbooks and writing, to giving pupils a chance to really get creative my making mini films, demonstrating, say, what they’ve learned in class about the Romans, or farm animals.

As an e-learning provider, it pains us to say it, but it’s true: there are teachers who hate educational technology.
Sometimes it’s a simple case of not having been exposed to technology enough in a school environment (and even in their private lives). But there can often be more deep-rooted reasons that stretch back to a bad experience with a particular system within their organisation.
There is also the belief that technology, and in particular social media and online communities, can distract from learning and actually harm a child’s success in school.

We recently came across this blog post which, although it dates back to 2012, still rings true. On the one hand, Webanywhere often hears the very reasons that are listed in this blog why teachers hate technology (or, as the blog post corrects, are annoyed by it). Most importantly, though, the blog post lists what a teacher wants from a tech solution, and without meeting these requirements, is doomed to failure.
The reasons why teachers tend to be annoyed by technology are:
When something takes more time with technology that it would if it were handwritten.
We agree whole-heartedly with this. One of the key benefits of technology is that it can save you time; if it doesn’t forget it. However it’s good to also look at the bigger picture: for example, if lesson prep takes slightly longer by using a VLE than it does without, it may be off-putting, but ultimately you are saving lesson prep time in the future. In other words, once you have created a lesson on your learning platform, you can return to it again and again, wiithout an extra prep.
There is, of course, the fact that online learning could engage the child more than a piece of paper, and therefore benefit their learning.

Games and programs that have no relevance to learning at that moment in time.
The blog post we’ve linked to above mentions that ‘teachers must know the technology better than the students.’ The is completely true, and some may argue this is increasingly difficult to achieve as today, many children are using technology literally as soon as they are able to use their hands.
To ensure that teachers are one step ahead of the learners a significant degree of training and guidance needs to take place – Webanywhere are aware of this, of course, and it’s why we provide full training plus unlimited support on all our products.

Solutions that are not useful.
In wanting to join the technological revolution in education, many schools may jump straight in without considering the options. Obviously finding a solution that is of use to a school, its teachers and its learners is the ultimate make-or-break; if it’s not useful, it’s going to fall flat on its face.
In fact, whether a piece of technology is useful or not can be determined by the above blog post’s list of things teachers want in a tech solution. They are a solution that:

• Is NOT used in my classroom (or at least, not yet)

• Is ACCESSIBLE to all kids

• ENGAGES kids

• TEACHES something truly valuable

• SAVES TIME

We recommend that every school, when looking to take on an e-learning solution, considers the above list. If all the above points are relevant, and the solution does not meet all of them, forget it!
The blog post concludes that teachers don’t actually hate technology after all – they just want something that works. Going back to our what we said at the start of this blog post, we can imagine most teachers who have been nodding their heads to the points above are the ones who have had bad experiences with education technology in the past. All we can say at Webanywhere is that, with every solution we create, we have the above criteria in mind.
For those who are new to technology, speak to us about solutions that are easy to use and won’t bamboozle you. We’re happy to talk edtech to anyone who needs help, guidance or opinion!

e-Portfolio systems are becoming increasingly popular schools, because they allow pupils to display their work in one safe, secure online location.

Webanywhere was one of the very first e-learning companies to introduce an e-portfolio system, when Student Jotter was launched back in 2008. Since then it has been honed, improved and adopted by hundreds of schools around the world – changing its name to Learner Journey in the process.

Now, after launching a brand new range of education apps in February this year, Webanywhere is evolving Learner Journey to form part of this suite.

We will continue to offer Learner Journey for the foreseeable future, and anyone who purchases it or has purchased it will still receive full help and support for the duration of their contract. But the new incarnation, Portfolio, will soon be available as its eventual successor.

The Portfolio app will integrate with existing apps like Learn, Blog and Merits, and will allow users to create a mini website to display work and achievements, as opposed to what is currently more like a social media profile, and these can be shared with peers who can view and comment on the content.

There are other significant differences between Learner Journey and Portfolio: in order to make the new app more versatile and to meet customers’ needs better, the social networking feature and the portfolio element have been split. Now, the portfolio part of Learner Journey will be the Portfolio app, whilst the social networking element will be represented by another all-new app, Social, which will be available to buy later this year.

Therefore, those who do not favour a social networking system can stick to the Portfolio app only; those who want to promote safe social networking in schools but have no need for a portfolio system can simply go with Social.

Look out for more announcements regarding Portfolio and Social, as well as the other apps currently available and in development, by keeping an eye on this blog and our Twitter handle (@webanywhere_ltd). If you would like to talk to us about any of the education apps available or forthcoming, get in touch here.

Webanywhere offers an end-to-end LMS service.
Now, we’ve taken our services one step further, and developed our own range of plug-ins – which we call our Apps – to help make your VLE more engaging, useful and easier to use.

These exclusive apps are only available from Webanywhere, and all of them are already being used by leading independent establishment St Alban’s School. We’ve given an overview of each one below – but to find out more, simply get in touch and book a demo here: https://www.webanywhere.co.uk/contact
Team Organiser
Create and organise teams for sports events. When you select students to be a part of these teams, they’ll automatically get a confirmation message to say they’ve been chosen, along with event details.

Stock Management
Keep track of equipment lent out to students, and make sure everything gets returned!
Group Communicator
Send group emails or SMS messages to parents, students or other members of staff.
Sanctions Management
Manage and keep track of detention sessions and sanctions given to students.
Output As
Print data from other modules into PDF format.
Forward Planner
Create a school diary for printing – and send key dates and events direct to your school website, all in one simple process.
Academic Reporting
See information about every student – from grades to notes from other teachers
Helpdesk
Log calls and see their status  – and view the information on multiple devices.
Timetables
See a full display of lesson plans for students and staff. Clicking on a session within the timetable will take the student to the course that they have to do.
Absence Overview
Get an at-a-glance report of who has attended classes – and who hasn’t!
Scores Viewer
Display house or team scores on the homepage as a graph.
Resource Booking
Book any resource (for example, rooms or cars) for any length of time. This module also integrates directly with PASS.
Teacher Cover Management
Input a lesson plan for a cover teacher to pick up – before they even arrive at school. Can also be used for normal lesson planning.
Messenger
Get notifications when messages are received via other plug-ins/apps. A number appears on the menu bar to denote a new message; clicking it will take you to where the message is.
Training Requests & Courses
Manage staff training. Maintain training budgets, nominate staff members for training and keep track of where repeat training is needed. Staff can also request new courses.

Last month, we posted the first of our Featured App blog posts, giving an overview of Bloganywhere, our new blogging app. Continue reading →