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Jotter Blogs enables you to create multiple different blogs. A blog is like a folder or container. Within each blog you can have multiple posts, which are like individual diary entries. You can create as many blogs as you like, and post as many entries as you like.
For example, you might have a blog called Class page and inside that blog add posts about what you’ve done in class. You might have another blog called School events and then post things that have happened at school in there.

As soon as blogging is switched on for students, they will all be able to create their own blogs and posts, which everyone else in the school can see and comment on.
The word blog is the bringing together of two words, web and log. A blog started out as being the work of a single person recording information about themselves or their interests, sort of an online diary. With web 2.0 technologies allowed the blogs readers to post comments and thus start a conversation about a post, making blogging a way to engage with like minded people and interactive, rather than the reader having just a passive role.
Today blogs are used to collaborate, collect information in one place whilst brainstorming and reach out to others that share your interests.
Blogs have now made it into the classroom and have become a useful tool in many ways. Firstly as a communication tool and a way of recording events and more recently as a way to encourage collaboration, engage boys and improve literacy skills. In your blog you can encourage peer support, everyone taking an active role, whether as a teacher or a learner and hopefully both!
Blog posts can be made up of text, images and links to websites and files.

Jotter Mobile just got even better with the release of v1.8, which will roll out across all apps by May 5th.
After lots of market research our developers have created the features you most requested, and we hope you will benefit from this free update.                     
Here are some of the changes you can expect to see:

Custom apps:

• Custom sections in the navigation structure. Each custom link consists of a name, icon and an URL. You can define up to three custom sections.
• Reordering and disabling of sections in the drawer menu and the dashboard tray. These are edited from the Mobile Centre module.

All apps:

• Notification badges on sections within the app. These show that new content has been added but not read by the user.
• New expanding dashboard tray option. This can be configured at the delivery stage or can be added with PCR.

If you would like more information about v1.8 or Jotter Mobile please call 0800 862 0492 or fill out our short contact form.

In 2007 we launched the original School Jotter website system. Since day one we have received praise for how the system makes it easy for teachers to manage their school’s website. In 2012 we released School Jotter 2, which further tailored the system to the needs of our thousands of customers.

Introducing 2.5

Our latest product innovation, School Jotter 2.5, expands on this by pairing our class leading website system with a range of eLearning software, which empowers schools to bridge the gap with parents, governors, and students.

Modules

With School Jotter 2.5, our platform now includes extra modules which ease communication, such as a Surveys module to gain feedback (perhaps for a parental survey) and a Blogs module which headteachers and other staff can use to engage parents with day to day school life.

According to The Joseph Rowntree report, engaging students and parents with a child’s learning is one of the key influencers on student attainment. Using the School Jotter 2.5 eLearning software, such as Jotter ePortfolios, students can showcase their work, and this can be shown to parents, while teachers can give online feedback.

Amazing Value

Our new School Jotter 2.5 offering represents great value, as it saves money compared with buying the equivalent products separately. With unlimited users, storage and training, upgrade to School Jotter 2.5 TODAY and your school can save £500 on the recommended retail price. Please call use for more information.

As a retired primary teacher I find it unsurprising that numerous studies show a gender gap where girls are significantly outperforming boys in literacy. One of the latest studies, commissioned by Save the Children, has found that the female advantage is established even before they step foot in the classroom. Understanding the Gender Gap in Literacy and Language Development was undertaken by researchers from Bristol University’s Graduate School of Education. Apparently in the 2014/15 school year, one in four boys were behind in language at age five and started Reception without being able to follow simple instructions or speak a full sentence. The report also states that for those children who start school behind, few will catch up.

Factors
While the gap appears to exist for all socio-economic groups, it was wider for those children eligible for free school lunches. Whereas the overall ratio was 25% of boy starters unable to answer simple “how” and “why” questions compared to 14% of girls, this escalated to 35% and 23% for lower income families. Several of the schools where I taught had ‘breakfast clubs’ before school, run by volunteers. It was a sad fact that this club was bursting at the seams. Whether this was simply due to poor time management by parents or because of economic factors, cereal and toast were gobbled up greedily. Once the children’s blood sugar levels rose, behaviour improved and they stayed on task longer. But where gender difference is concerned, evidence from the Save the Children study couldn’t definitively point to biological, developmental or social causes. An earlier study in 2008 by the Institute of Education (part of the Millennium Cohort Study) found that for both sexes attainment was better for children with two working parents, particularly if they held qualifications. Pupils in stepfamilies or with one parent had lower achievement.
Department for Education
The DfE produced a report in 2009 entitled Gender and Education – Mythbusters Addressing Gender and Achievement: Myths and Realities where they tended to refute most of the gender gap findings, however the evidence spoke for itself when it came to girls attaining higher in English. At key stage two, the gap is considerably wider for writing than reading but this is hardly news to me, as I repeatedly felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall trying to get boys to write. The DfE say that increased provision has been made for Early Years practitioners to try and redress the gender gap but is it too little, too late?
Solutions
I recall an old study that maintained girls were better communicators because female babies tended to be carried facing inwards, whereas boys faced outwards. Facing inwards allowed babies to see their parents’ faces and be spoken to directly. They would learn to read facial expressions and understand nuance more quickly than if carried outwards. Somewhat controversially, the Save the Children study advocates treating boys more like girls. Girls tend to be sung to and have nursery rhymes recited to them. The researchers want to boys to experience this in equal measures, as well as having storybooks read to them and being given rewards for good performance. More creative activities such as painting and drawing are also seen as a way to help with cognitive development. But is it fair to lay all the blame at parents’ feet for the gender gap in attainment? Schools need to build a trusting relationship with parents and carers, working with them to promote the importance of one-on-one activities at home. Pupils need to be taught the value of being self-reliant and independent learners, which will raise self-esteem.
Role Models
There are relatively few male Early Years practitioners in UK schools. It’s more typical for men to teach at secondary level, with a view to obtaining headships. With so many single parent families where dad is seldom seen, a positive male role model is vital. In my last primary school they had no less than four male teachers out of 12, one of whom was in Early Years. This state school had some of the best behaviour I’d experienced and the male teachers certainly contributed to that. They provided a different caring style and allowed children to see a more natural gender mix, representative of society. Surely the DfE should do more to recruit male teachers into primary and particularly Early Years.
Methods of Delivery
There is little doubt that even the youngest pupils relate to technology, as it can be exciting and varied. In my KS1 class, while girls would often grab a book and sit in the reading corner, the boys competed for the two computers where they could play games, albeit with an educational objective. More provision should be made at Foundation Stage for pupils to have access to a virtual learning environment. Lower achievers could work through specially designed modules to help them catch up with language skills. As many schools may not have the funds to provide sufficient portable devices to use, a BYOD (bring your own device) policy could be introduced, so that pupils could bring in a tablet or smartphone from home. If boys are more reluctant to read and write, interactive storyboards and gamification could provide the catalyst needed to spark their interest. The beauty of BOYD is that any elearning content can be easily accessed at home as well as at school, hopefully encouraging parents to get more invested in their children’s education.

Kids on the phone wind me up no end. Telling kids to get off their phones when they’re not supposed to be on them winds me up even more. Kids ignoring me after I tell them to get off their phones when they’re not supposed to be on them is liable to send me into apoplexy whilst carpet bombing detentions in the general area of said kid as they continue to remain blissfully unaware and firmly ensconced in the world of Snapchat, YouTube, WhatsApp and every distraction the digital world has to offer.
So annoying. But then I’m one to talk.

When it comes to being on the phone, there are times that I’m worse than the kids. To the detriment of such minor annoyances as social interaction, the all-out horror of ‘family time’, or meals where some of the food actually goes into my mouth rather than down my shirt as I gaze lovingly at my tiny little screen to the world, I’m pretty much surgically attached. ‘Glued to the screen’ doesn’t quite cut it – I’m more cemented. I’m nothing if not massively hypocritical when it comes to the kids.
So phones, yep – a lot of the time they are tiny little distraction machines that eat focus for lunch and have productivity for pudding.
But…
Technology isn’t usage and usage isn’t technology. It’s true that in many cases, a mobile in your hand means nothing else gets done and it does take a modicum of self control not to get lost in the world behind the screen. But having said that, a phone can also be a fantastic tool for a busy and almost pathologically disorganised teacher like me. With the right apps, it can become a great way to save time, cut down on workload, and organise your day in such a way that it may give you a few extra minutes (which could, ironically, be spent telling more kids to get off their phones). It’s true, there is a world of distraction out there, but then again, there is also a world of help as well.
For me, my phone is a toolbox – it contains a whole bunch of things that I can use to get my job done. A bunch of equipment that formerly would have filled a decent sized bag – cameras, sound recorders, endless reams of paper, art supplies, games, whiteboards, notice boards, to do lists, maps, projectors; all these things can be squeezed into a little black rectangle, whacked into your pocket and taken with you, everywhere you go. That’s a lot less lugging and for me, less lugging is what it’s all about. Efficient, easy, portable – the abundance of mobile apps means that there’s often something available that can really help. Sometimes it’s even free. Free stuff rules.
The perception of the mobile phone as a hurdle to productivity isn’t necessarily a false one but when it comes right down to it, the phone itself is pretty much blameless. It’s what the user does with it that turns it into a help or a hindrance. In my own situation, it can often be a bit of both but ultimately that’s down to the type of person I am rather than the phone itself. And even at my most slack-jawed and unresponsive, the benefits that it represents far outweigh the annoyances.
In a case of ‘physician, heal thyself’, I try to model the use of mobile tech for learning with the kids, show them some of things that I’ve discovered that I think might help them in their own studies, maybe prize their faces away from the gossip, self-affirmation and the more addictive elements turning them towards things that’ll help with productivity, understanding and streamlining cumbersome processes (because there’s plenty out there). In doing so, I try to remind myself that there is a world away from social media, lolz and likes – a world where instead of a barrier, mobiles and the apps they contain can make the difficult job of teaching ever so slightly easier and that the screen can act as window to a different way of working rather than a mirror of some of our less wholesome traits.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop telling them to put their phone away, mind.
In the next post, I look at how effective use of mobile apps can improve your workflow.
Tom Starkey is an educator based in Leeds. He’s written for the Times Educational Supplement and Teach Secondary magazine. tweeting at @tstarkey1212 and writes at stackofmarking.wordpress.com.

We’ve created a handy infographic to help explain some of the more confusing aspects of website creation, click on the image for a higher resolution version!

Webanywhere are pleased to have been featured in this week’s Yorkshire Post business supplement in an article entitled “Elearning provider looks to States for growth”.
The article quotes our CEO, Sean Gilligan who explains that the company’s purpose is to create jobs and develop young talent whilst continuing its expansion, more particularly in the US.
Our Education Technology conference which is held at the Hilton Leeds City on the 23rd of June is also featured with Sean stating that “with the rise of web-based learning and tablet computers, there’s never been a better time to bring this conference to the heart of Leeds”.

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.

We’ve reached the time of year again where snow is in the headlines. Upland areas are inaccessible, cars can’t use the roads and the power’s in danger of going out – all of these having a massive knock-on effect for schools.
As a headteacher, you have the difficult task of considering whether or not to open your school, or perhaps you’re a parent worrying about sending your children out into the cold. At Webanywhere we believe technology can help with the problems weather brings.

Teachers – Tell parents whether your school is open with Broadcast

Whether your school is a small village primary or a huge comprehensive secondary, getting out the message of closure is often a hassle. If you do have to close you rely on parents checking your website, reading the newsletters you sent out or hoping they’ve listened to broadcasts on the radio or local TV.
The Broadcast app in the School Jotter suite can help with this. With its easy-to-use interface, you can instantly get the message out to thousands of people. Of course, this doesn’t just have to be used for snow – you might want to use it to promote a charity drive or a new promotion at the school – and with detailed segmentation you can target specific parts of the school as you wish, and it has some of the best value tarrifs on the market. For a free trial of the Broadcast app (and the School Jotter suite), visit schooljotter.com.

Make sure your learning can be taken online with a robust VLE package

Establishing good e-learning foundations is not just good for your pupils’ digital literacy – if the school has to close it’s a good way to make sure they can continue learning at home. Webanywhere have several options for VLE provision, and these come with full SCORM-compliance, so you can buy-in new content or port existing courses. Our Learn App for Jotter provides a simple interface to create learning “sites”, which can be accessed from any device, while our more robust provisions are ideal for larger rollout, and as a certified provider you know you’re in safe hands. As above, you can get a free trial of Learn from schooljotter.com, or contact us to find out more about it.
If your content is all online, you know you don’t need to worry about where your students are when they learn. Combine the flexibility of a VLE with the power of the Broadcast app and you can quickly plan for any eventuality