News
BATLine launched to help schools deal with bullying
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ducation communication specialist Groupcall has launched BATline (Bully Action Team), a new service that provides schools with a dedicated incoming text number allowing any learner, parent or stakeholder to report any type of bullying or incident to the relevant person within the school. To mark the launch, Groupcall has teamed up with theatre and “film in education” company, and renowned anti-
bullying campaigners, Actionwork, to run a competition that will help engage students and young people in activities for Anti-Bullying Week and beyond.
BATline automatically converts any text received into an email and delivers it to the relevant person/people within the school. Schools may wish to create their own email group, i.e.
BATline@schoolname.sch.uk, or may choose to have emails forwarded to a single person. When a person reports an incident they can opt to remain completely anonymous; an incredibly important feature for students who fear there may be repercussions for their actions. Schools can, however, elect to receive the mobile phone number that the text was sent from to ensure that all reports are legitimate. Stuart Abrahams of Groupcall explained why developing BATLine has been a priority, “Sadly in this day and age, we hear all too often about stories of bullying within schools, whether it be physical, verbal, cyber or emotional. We pride ourselves on being communication experts within the education sector; it made sense, therefore, that we develop a system that facilitates communication and help for those who need it most.” The Anti-Bullying Week competition aims to outline how people can connect and communicate safely online. Students are invited to demonstrate their ideas by designing a gadget, drawing a picture, writing a story, taking a photo and so on; they can be as creative as they like. First prize is £300 and all winners, runner-ups and shortlisted entries will be displayed in the Anti-Bullying Week online gallery.
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www.antibullyingweek.co.uk
New research reveals disparities of productivity across countries and sectors
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ew research from the iOpener Institute for People and Performance, which analyzed responses from over 30,000 professionals, reveals significant differences between personal productivity levels in different countries and industry sectors. The findings also show a clear relationship between Happiness at Work and personal productivity.
The Institute measured components of Happiness at Work including energy levels, time engaged and feelings of happiness. Productivity was measured as ‘time on task’; the time that workers are actively producing
outputs that make a tangible contribution to their organization. The international average for time on task is 58.8%, but there are significant differences between the various industry sectors. The Education sector is one of the best performing sectors with 63% time on task but the Biotechnology sector is at the bottom of the table with 53.2%. Even greater differences are shown when comparing the different countries surveyed. Mexico is shown to have the highest productivity (73.2% of time on task), whilst Portugal has the lowest (43.3%). Jessica Pryce-Jones, founder director of the iOpener Institute and author of “Happiness at Work – Maximising Your Psychological Capital for Success”, noted, “Whilst broad correlations between Happiness at Work and productivity have been recognized for some time, this detailed method of analysing the components of Happiness at Work offers organizations actionable insights to formulate practical plans to improve their productivity. “The sector and country results offer organisations a contextual starting point; those in the Education sector can ascertain how they measure up when compared to their sector and country averages, and tailor their productivity initiatives accordingly. The Education sector can take encouragement from scoring highly, particularly as they come under increased pressure to meet performance related targets.”
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www.iopener.com
The FUZE has been lit! R
ecent changes to the National Curriculum will see computing become an essential part of the syllabus in both Primary and Secondary Education. With the changes to include teaching computer programming, coding, and creation and retrieval of digital data more emphasis is being placed on understanding the principles of programming and knowledge of how technology works.
With that in mind, UK supplier Binary Distribution Ltd has announced the release of the FUZE powered by Raspberry Pi, and the FUZE for Maximite.
The FUZE is an innovative new product aimed at teaching computer programming. It brings programming and even electronics straight to the child, providing the perfect platform to explore, investigate and progress at their own pace.
From writing and testing simple programs in Key Stage 1, to using two or more programming languages and understanding advanced programming logic and structures in Key Stage 3, the FUZE is perfect for teaching programming across all Key stage levels. The Raspberry Pi is a vulnerable unit with all its electronic circuitry exposed – anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of electronics will appreciate how susceptible silicon is to static electricity. In the classroom, therefore, the possibility of static damage,
October 2013
spillages and or any kind of physical stress or impact is very high and as such the need to provide a secure housing is clear. The FUZE for Raspberry Pi provides an ideal workstation to house your Pi and retains all connectivity via the easily accessible back panel. The unit can be supplied complete with a UK keyboard, mouse, pass-through electronic interface and solder-less breadboard for electronic projects.
Jack Lang, Chair, Raspberry Pi Foundation said “The Raspberry Pi Foundation is pleased to support the FUZE in their development of rugged classroom units for teaching electronics and computer science. The units will help students learn, experiment and explore the vital discipline of computer science and in the process learn computational thinking.” The FUZE Maximite Edition is the perfect tool to teach programming. It is a fully functional BASIC language computer that provides instant results and requires no complex setting up or environments. Project cards provide simple to follow instructions that quickly develop a foundation knowledge of the BASIC programming language whilst ensuring that learning is child initiated. The stimulating and rewarding electronic projects present limitless learning opportunities and cater for all abilities.
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www.fuze.co.uk www.education-today.co.uk 11
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