When Webanywhere looks at learning trends – which will often inform the direction our products take – we look to what’s happening in America.

Often, whatever happens in the USA feeds through to the UK, and then the rest of the world, afterwards. One of the latest trends is mobile learning, something we’ve blogged about in the past here and here.

Many schools are still hesitant about adopting mobile learning, and even more so about introducing a Bring Your Own Device policy (BYOD). But a recent blog post we read on www.eschoolnews.com highlighted why the trend is actually booming – despite those reservations.

In fact, there are six main reasons why mobile learning, and BYOD is booming – and here they are, based on a recent annual survey completed by parents and educators in the US, called Speak Up, by Project Tomorrow.

1. School and district administrators said in the survey that tablets (41%), mobile apps (22%) and BYOD (22%) have had “a significant impact on transforming teaching and learning.”

2. Of those who completed the survey, 86% said mobile learning increases student engagement.

3. 67% said mobile learning helps each student to personalise learning.

4. Mobile learning helps students develop skills they will need when going to college and starting their career, such as problem solving (51%), teamwork and collaboration skills (47%) and strong communication skills (37%).

5. 32% of the technology administrators who completed the survey said that BYOD “helps schools address budget challenges while still giving students access to technology.”

6. In 2010, the same survey had revealed that only 22% of schools would allow learners to use their own mobile devices in school. THe latest survey, however, showed that this number had rocketed to 41% – with an additional 10% having implemented a BYOD policy. A sign of the times indeed!

If you’re thinking of trying mobile learning, or you would like help with setting up in mobile learning in your school, get in touch with us here.

Pupil Premium grants for schools increased at the end of last year – although, as you may have noticed, Ofsted has stepped up its requirements around evidencing the impact of the spending.

It means every school is now accountable for every penny spent – so making sure the money is spent wisely and effectively is of paramount importance.
In November, Professor Steve Higgins from Durham University led a discussion on Pupil Premium with the National College online community (you can see the full transcript on the DfE website (here). He covered purchasing technology to have a positive impact on learning, and provide evidence of improved learning. “Invest in technologies which you see will work well with your children and families, but look carefully at impact,” urged Professor Higgins.

Last month, we launched School Merits, part of our suite of e-learning apps, and it’s a perfect example of how technology can be used to help improve engagement as well as evidence the improvements. School Merits is a reward system that allows learning to be tracked and recognised, as well as flagging bad behaviour. It’s such a perfect tool for helping to engage learners that, this month, we will be running a webinar to show how it can help make a difference.
The webinar will cover behaviour interventions, feedback interventions, mentoring interventions – and then explain how the reporting feature within School Merits will allow you to evidence the subsequent improvements in attainment.
Making A Difference With Pupil Premium will take place on 28th March at 12pm. To sign up for the webinar, simply email your name, school name and school postcode to events@webanywhere.co.uk.

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!

It is called sharenting!!

That is a big word for those parents who innocently share too much information about and images of their children. Even the posting of a sonogram to your social media account can provide too much information to strangers who should not have that data.

The result is what many schools have been warning parents about- the danger of cyber bullying. Too much sharing can lead to a myriad of abuse from their fellow classmates as well as other children who gather on those websites designed for students to hang out.

According to the schools, this oversharing can put your child or children at risk of harm through mugging, theft and other bullying options.

What Are The Dangers Of Sharing Pictures Or Videos Of Your Children On Social Media?

The biggest danger will be exposing your children to predators. Even when you have strict privacy settings on your social media account, those privacy settings do not stop close friends from sharing your information on their not-so-strict social media accounts.

That sharing can lead to many dangers for your children. Plus, even strict privacy settings can be hacked by expert hackers who will use the information you post for nefarious schemes.

It is possible that oversharing can lead to identity fraud later on in your child’s life. Most likely, the exposure of your children to the public can lead to cyber bullying that brings devastating results.

What Is Cyber-Bullying?

Cyber bullying is more digital than physical. While it leads to physical results, cyber bullying takes place solely online using a phone, laptop, tablet or PC. It is where one or a group of individuals share false information about the targeted child.

This activity is done just about anywhere information can be shared online. Gaming rooms, texts, apps, social media outlets and more. Plus, the content is designed to harm another individual through negative, harmful, false, or mean content.

Even e-mails are not excluded from being a format used to cyber bully someone else. That negative content is not just written but can be done through altered or unflattering or embarrassing photos and videos.

Cyberbullying takes place in almost all online activities with just about any type of data possible.

How To Deal With Cyber-Bullying?

One of the most important steps you can take is to check your local laws. There may be some anti-cyberbullying laws that will guide the school in what action they can legally take.

Also, the school can develop its own policies directing teachers and the administration on how to respond to cyberbullying. These policies can lay out the discipline to be used or if expulsion is appropriate to stop students from being cyberbullies.

Also, schools can create a safe atmosphere that allows bullied students privacy to report cyberbullying. Encourage students to find someone they trust to share what is going on. Those trusted individuals can be parents, a teacher, school counsellor, and even a privacy contact page on your school web design.

One of the drawbacks to fighting cyberbullying is that only the targeted student and those the messages are meant for know it is taking place. Most often parents and school officials and teachers have no idea what is going on till a child becomes brave enough to talk about it.

How To Protect Your Child From Being Cyber-Bullied?

There are several steps you can take to help protect your child from being cyberbullied. Here are a few suggestions to get you on the right path:

– educate your children to identify cyberbullying and then teach them not to respond in kind. Instead, teach your children to be respectful to others whether in person or online

– teach your children not to respond to cyberbullies but keep the information saved as evidence it is taking place. Also, instruct your children to block cyberbullies

– set boundaries- this is where you create rules for internet and phone use as well as what internet sites they can go to and which ones are off limits.

– help your child create privacy and location settings and instruct them that participating in cyber bullying is wrong and unacceptable if they participate in it

– monitor your child’s online activities and know how to identify cyberbullying

– document everything- take screenshots, record dates, times and the nature of the cyber bullying and other documentation so you have evidence if needed.

When you need guidance in this delicate issue, contact our company. One of our priorities is protecting children from cyberbullying.

Interesting article debates whether childrens’ behaviour is being influenced as the line between fact and gossip becomes increasingly blurred thanks to unmoderated social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo.
Link to Telegraph article

The NASUWT Teachers Union has said that trying to understand the full impact of the Education funding cuts at this time is ‘like knitting fog’.
Certainly, after the backlash over the scrapping of 700 school building projects, the chancellor announcement that there will be £15.8bn to “rebuild and refurbish” 600 schools should mean that schools won’t need to find this funding from other budgets – what’s your take?

The headline messages we picked out are:

• The schools budget will see a real reduction in Department of Education resource spending of 3% by 2014-15.
• 60% reduction in real terms in capital spending over the Spending Review period. However over the Spending Review period there will be a total of £15.8 billion of capital spending. The average annual capital budget will be higher than the average annual capital budget in the 1997-98 to 2004-05 period.
• Funding grants streamlined i.e. Education Maintenance Allowances ended; procurement and back office savings; 33% admin reduction in real terms by closing NDPBs, reducing headcount, reducing the costs of the DfE estate and cutting nonessential expenditure.

Next steps will include further details contained in a Schools’ White Paper, a Special Educational Needs and Disability Green paper, and confirmation of local authority allocations for schools and early years provision.  We’ll keep an eye in developments and keep you updated on further announcements that are expected throughout the next three months.

As school managers will be aware, the Department of Education has been asked to prepare plans for cuts of between 10% and 20%. This would come to between £5.71bn and £11.42bn.
While it is now widely expected that front-line schools budgets (those received from local authorities via the Dedicated Schools grant,or DSG) will be protected from the worst of the cuts, the full impact on school spending will require very careful reading of the detail.

Of particular interest is the impact on ICT investments within schools. The cuts inevitably carry some threats to the modernisation of the teaching and learning profession – some projects have already been scrapped, including education facilitator BECTA.
On the other hand, there may be opportunities for schools to save costs and increase efficiencies – particularly in areas such as cloud computing, open source and even the prospect of local authority collaboration to achieve savings through sharing resources and/or technology expertise.
Whatever the outcome of Wednesday’s announcement, many schools will be looking very hard at the small print before making planning decisions for their next budget year.

The press is increasingly featuring stories that warn of the negative impacts of social media on school age children. Popular public social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are regularly blamed for sinister activities including cyber bullying, stalking and even gang violence.
Many believe, however, that the long-term educational benefits of social media far outweigh the risks. Most schools already use the Internet for teaching, and social media concepts are already essential elements in the lives of most students of Key Stage 2 and above.

Schools are already beginning to incorporate ways of using Facebook-like tools such as discussion forums, photo albums, blogs and secure messaging to develop subject learning through closer collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Safe Social Networking Tools are Available!
What’s required by schools is a means of controlling the perceived risks associated with social media. Banning is one solution. The other – dare we say more productive! – option is for schools to incorporate purpose-built internal social networking software as part of their ICT portfolio.
Webanywhere has developed Student Jotter as a way for students to share their work with peers within their social network, turning academic work into fun. Student Jotter avoids the dangers associated with social media use at school. Teachers can monitor and moderate everything that students post online, and third party influences by advertisers or other sources of inappropriate content are completely eliminated.
Social media used for teaching enables students to comment and critique each other’s work, collaborate in teams, and to securely send messages to each other and their teacher with queries or to start a discussion.
There are undoubted dangers in children using public social networks and schools cannot afford to take these risks lightly. However safe internal solutions are now available that schools can entrust to their students, providing them with familiar cutting edge technology and creating controlled social learning networks within the classroom and at home.
Visit the website of Student Jotter, our innovative system
for e-Portfolios and Secure Social Networking to see how it can benefit schools.