BESA CORNER
In our regular feature highlighting the work of members of the UK education suppliers’ trade body BESA, Education Today this month hears from HEATHER ABELA, Communications Creative at Learning by Questions; and JI LI, Managing Director at Plum Innovations.
“Everything I ever learned was from the movies”
By HEATHER ABELA, Communications Creative, Learning by Questions
…as the enigmatic Audrey Hepburn once said. I’m not entirely sure how she would have fared in the Key Stage 2 phonics test with that approach, but let’s explore the idea. After all, films are all about heroes facing overwhelming challenges
and emerging triumphant – if that doesn’t sound like a teacher, I don’t know what does. The structure of a great movie is based on our hero’s desire for something bright and shiny that’s beyond their grasp. For teachers that desire is obvious: reduced unnecessary workload! So, what can we learn from the mountains of celluloid about
working smarter not harder? If that sounds a little cliched I apologise, but this is the world of movies and who better to come up with a phrase that sticks?
• “YER A WIZARD HARRY” Wouldn’t it be magic if you could just conjure up brilliant curriculum- aligned content for your class? With Learning by Questions (LbQ), that’s possible. Replace a swoosh of your wand with a click of your mouse and you have over 200 free Maths Mastery question sets, created by teachers for teachers.
• “HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU KID” Classroom management soaks up your time, just keeping everyone on task and challenged. You need to have eyes in the back of your head. Time and time again, we hear from teachers who say that one way to tame (and get maximum learning from) those disruptive pupils is to hand them a tablet and challenge them.
• “NOBODY PUTS BABY IN THE CORNER” How about those wallflowers who never raise their hand? Studies show that by working in privacy, without the fear of ridicule from their peers, pupils tend to have another go at questions they didn’t get right first time. Immediate, helpful feedback to every answer encourages them to self-correct. At LbQ, we believe that to grow great minds, we need to grow self-confidence too.
• “I’M GONNA MAKE HIM AN OFFER HE CAN’T REFUSE” How does less marking sound? Or in our case, no marking! Over half the teachers we work with have got more of their evenings back and yet still felt their lessons were more effective and their pupils making greater progress. Sounds too good to be true, but it’s not.
• “IF YOU BUILD IT, HE WILL COME” LbQ gives you immediate insight into your pupil’s performance. Knowing where the gaps in learning are and creating lessons to bridge those gaps are the building blocks of effective and impactful lessons.
There might not be an Oscar in it for you, but here at Learning by
Questions we know that teachers put on heroic performances every day. By creating great content, through an engaging medium, with
feedback for students and teachers alike, we like to think of ourselves as the hero’s sidekick. Our superpower is content and platform combined with pedagogy, which makes us truly unique.
uIf you’re a hero without a sidekick why don’t you try LbQ for free by going to
www.lbq.org – to infinity and beyond!
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www.education-today.co.uk
When is the due date for the next IT service
revolution? By JI LI, Managing Director at Plum Innovations
IT support service in schools emerged in the last decade of the 20th century, when so called multi-media computers, with Intel 386 processors and 500MB hard drives, equipped every classroom and ICT suite. In the late 1990s,
there were possibly no more than 70 computers in most primary schools, and a technician usually visited schools once a week or every other week, depending on the size of the school. In 2018, computers, tablets and other IT devices are everywhere in schools. Yet, the level of technical support has remained pretty much the same as 20 years ago. Is it because technology just works? Or because the quantity of digital devices has no impact on the level of technical support? One thing is sure though, when the number of classrooms increases or when buildings are extended, the level of cleaning service goes up accordingly. So why doesn’t IT support service? Is it that technology works all the time? Are there not times when
our teachers feel frustrated, perhaps that their interactive whiteboard stops working right before a lesson observation, or a programme does not load up as planned with a class full of children? Probably quite a few times, and the technician was likely not due to be onsite for another four days. Digital devices are employed to reduce workload and increase
productivity. When they do not work, do they add more stress and workload to our teachers? The quantity of digital devices in schools has hiked like Telsa’s stock price. Don’t schools want to have more quality technical support so that teachers can progress in their professional field with solid and working EdTech products? Of course, schools would like to receive sufficient level of
support. At the same time, they would also be very hesitant about the available budget to double or triple the support scale. So, the problem arises: have service providers tried hard enough to revolutionise the technical support model that has not changed in nearly 30 years? Do they care about education enough to change their mindset and provide a service that can fit in today’s economic climate and technological advancement? At Plum Innovations, we do not want to view IT support simply in
the context of maintenance. We have the ambition to revolutionise the school technical support model to ensure our schools are able to receive a full scale of technical support as well as affordability. We work tirelessly towards helping reinforce the positive impact of EdTech on pupils’ learning outcomes and reducing school staff workload.
For more information, visit: u
http://plum.london uTwitter: @pluminnovaz @lijiukcn
April 2018
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