The release of School Jotter 2 saw the UK’s most popular school website management system get even better – find out what’s new.
But we haven’t stopped there; School Jotter is under continual development, as we use customer feedback to develop new features and functionality, and strive to improve the speed and performance of School Jotter websites.
Recent new additions include an HTML editor, for the more technically minded member of staff looking to change website code themselves (the Webanywhere support team are always on hand to make the changes if you prefer), and wide ranging enhancements of features such as slideshows, forms and calendars.
We have also added more application servers to improve load balancing and also improved server specifications – put simply we have invested in improving the performance and speed of School Jotter websites!
Continual product innovation and investment ensures that when you become a School Jotter customer, you will have all the latest tools at your disposal, and your school website will be outstanding.
School Jotter 2 allows you to add forms to your school website. This is the perfect way to get feedback from parents, or to make things like absence forms easily available.
The submissions made via the website can be easily managed, as the School Jotter 2 software stores the results, and gives the option to export results to a spreadsheet for analysis / sharing.
Here is a step-by-step guide to adding a form to your site.
- Navigate to Manage> Forms
- Click Add Forms
- Give it a name, and click Fields to add, change or delete fields
- Select field type from the dropdown box – choose from Text field, Text area (to allow longer comments), Dropdown (to add a list of options) Date (to create a Date field) and Captcha (adding a security option, ensuring forms are only submitted by real users!)
A list of questions / options can be added, and easily moved up and down. You can set it so that when a form is completed by a visitor to your website an alert can be sent to an email address of your choosing.
To upload your form to a web page, click Edit Page>Insert Items>Forms. Choose your form, save the page and then test your form. Your test entry should now be recorded in the submissions section of the content management system. To view submissions, navigate to Manage> Forms, and click Submissions.
For more School Jotter guides, visit the FAQs section of our Support page. We also run a Customer Training Centre that offers a host of resources on both School Jotter and School Jotter 2
Michael Gove has made the decision that the Harnessing Technology Grant for 2010/11 will be cut by £100 million to contribute to the development of “Free Schools” nationally. This translates as an in year cut to local authorities and schools of at least 50%.
This suggests essential ICT systems will be unable to be maintained and improved – unless schools can find smarter ICT solutions, or use technology to achieve efficiency savings elsewhere in the value chain. Here are some ideas worth exploring.
1. Switch your email exchange servers for cloud-based services
There’s a viable alternative to maintaining your own email exchange servers – services like Google Apps or Microsoft Live are free and both provide fully secure, branded virtual space for email, document sharing and storage. You can even retain your existing school-specific email address. London Grid for Learning estimates that London schools have saved approximately £11m since transferring to Microsoft’s service last year.
2. Forget software licences – go Open Source!
Open Source software for learning platforms and e-learning content enable development and ongoing upgrade costs to be minimised.
3. Upgrade to the latest OS and save on power management
If you upgrade to the latest operating systems you will be able to take advantage of enhanced power-saving features, saving costs of between £23 and £46 per computer per year.
4. Switch to remote access
Microsoft’s latest operating platform (Windows 7) makes setting up remote access much more straightforward. Additionally some VPNs make use of free software packages that need no special hardware or software on the network to enable remote access.
5. Allow pupils to use their own laptops
Recent British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) research revealed that secondary schools spend 48% per of their ICT budget on new computers. Schools may consider asking parents to contribute by providing their children with their own computers for school and home use.
6. Change the way you communicate
Like encouraging parents to provide computers, this requires a significant cultural shift. The way in which student relationships at school are formed and nurtured are being reshaped as hallways of classrooms switches to social networks on digital learning platforms. There are inherent dangers in students using social networking that need to be managed – however, safe messaging tools for use in the classroom and at home can be provided, enabling students to access multimedia resources in a controlled environment.
Teachers are becoming open to the possibilities for social media tools in the classroom. In the hands of the right educators, they can be used to engage in creative ways and inspire discussion among even the softest-spoken students. However popular social networking and content sharing sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are often blocked by schools because its content can’t be moderated – even though they can be a good source of high-quality teaching resources.
Student Jotter is a system for e-portfolios and secure social networking that enables teachers to incorporate safe, secure social media into their lesson plans. Teachers can share their lesson plans, quizzes, videos, podcasts and other resources in a shared library. A community section allows teachers and students to network and collaborate with other members who share the same educational interests. Class discussions are no longer intimidating for some students to participate in.
Everything is hosted in the cloud for free. Some great tools are included: An online gradebook, customised quizzes, secure messaging, classroom blogs, the ability to track assessment and a customised profile page. Student Jotter also enables students to easily share their work projects with classmates.
The interface is easy to navigate and teachers can monitor and edit any of their students’ messages and blogs posts. They can also control how private they want the e-portfolio to be; student-and-teacher only, allow parents to log in with a password, or make them publically available.
In summary, School Jotter is a better way for teachers and students to organise themselves, and a place to put their work.
Is your school using social media for teaching and learning? What resources do you use? Let us know by leaving a comment below!
Webanywhere customers that are LMS users may be interested to read that the core functionality of the world’s most popular open source LMS is built around five principles that have guided development since the earliest days. These beliefs can be clearly seen in the design (the forums, glossary, wiki, etc) which all provide ample opportunities for students to create materials in a safe/secure online environment which can instantly be seen and reviewed by peers.
The five principles are:
- Students can be teachers and teachers can be students. Everyone can be a learner.
- We learn well by creating and expressing for others.
- We learn a lot by watching others.
- Understanding others transforms us.
- We learn well when the learning environment is flexible and adaptable to suit our needs.
Interesting thinking, I’m sure you’d agree!
A recent survey by the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) has revealed that just 2% of primary school teachers believed that investing in new libraries was more important than investing in ICT for the classroom. This would seem to suggest that, as schools see their funding squeeze, many feel under pressure to spend what they have on new technology rather than traditional learning materials.
Ray Barker, director, BESA commented: “Due to the increase in the provision and use of interactive whiteboards, pupil computers and supporting digital content, the importance of traditional library facilities is of concern, especially where banks of computers have been provided in the space that may have previously held storage for books. The growing use of eBooks and of the internet for research, is putting pressure on schools to justify expenditure on traditional books.”
Barker added: “We are now naturally experiencing a reduction in estimated ICT allocations from school budgets. However, despite schools being faced with many financial pressures, the survey indicates schools are managing the cuts sensibly and with optimism.”
At Webanywhere we’re helping schools to stretch their ICT budgets by developing digital learning platforms that use open source technologies and creating innovative product pricing ‘bundles’ that lower the unit cost of provision.
Learnanywhere integrates Global Grid for Learning (GGfL) digital resources
In September this year we launched Learnanywhere, the new easy to use VLE designed specifically for Primary Schools. And to be frank, since that time we’ve been amazed by the excitement and enthusiasm around the new product!
Now, we’re pleased to announce that we’re making it even better.
New! eLearning Content from GGfL
Learnanywhere already provides the ability to incorporate publicly available web content and we’ve now gone one step further. We’re excited to announce that we’ve integrated the Cambridge University Press Global Grid for Learning (GGfL) digital learning library with Learnanywhere, extending the capability of the VLE to incorporate exclusive GGfL multimedia resources including interactive learning objects, video clips, audio files, images, animations, documents and ebooks.
With GGfL integration, Learnanywhere users can:-
- Access 1 million digital learning resources sourced from over 40 global content providers including most leading brands in educational publishing.
- Create even more fantastic e-learning course and lesson content.
- Motivate and inspire learners by delivering a unique learning experience, using resources that are not in the public domain.
To find out more, call us on 0800 862 0131 – and start creating even more amazing learning experiences for your students 🙂
Following the spending review Webanywhere has released new pricing packages to help schools beat the cuts and improve their efficiency.
Our pricing options have been created to ensure that the provision of learning technologies to students need not be compromised to meet recalibrated budgets. By choosing one of the bundled suites, schools can make considerable cost savings compared with purchasing individual products.
Additionally, schools can look to make productivity gains by using individual Webanywhere products to change the way that existing services are provided. One example is Payschool, which enables schools to collect electronic payments from parents for school trips, meals and donations – providing longer term cost saving solutions compared with traditional payment methods such as cash and cheques.
Schools are facing tougher decisions than ever before to close funding gaps while maintaining quality of service.
WebAnywhere is 100% committed to developing new web-based technology solutions that allow schools to maximise their ICT investment while improving efficiency.
