Could a longer school day raise student performance?

Eleven years ago, a school in Massachusetts was on the verge of closure. It was failing to meet the annual progress targets expected of it by the district and state.

According to their Director of Instruction, they had some of the lowest performing test scores in the city and a declining enrolment of new students.

They knew something had to be done so, between the senior management team and established course leaders, they agreed on an expanded learning programme which would see the length of the school day extended.

I must not be rude about Michael Gove…

It would’ve been difficult to miss some mention of Education Secretary Michael Gove in the press recently – but you’d be forgiven if you dismissed it as another bit of quizzical leadership.

While it would be an understatement to describe Gove’s presence in Parliament and relationship with educators as tenuous, why are teaching professionals and union reps at odds with Gove and his latest GCSE ‘reform’ attempts?

While writing this article I keep referring to a self-applied challenge:

I must not be rude about Michael Gove,
I must not be rude about Michael Gove,
I must not be rude about Michael Gove…

iOS 7: New kids’ category ‘parents will love’

But will Apple’s new ‘curated selection’ features curb unauthorised in-app purchases?

With the launch of Microsoft’s XBOX One, Sony’s PS4 and Nintendo’s slew of new games titles this week, you could be forgiven for feeling a bit indifferent about tech news.

Yet while the gaming world went into overdrive, Apple announced some remarkable changes of their own.

At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2013 (WWDC) all eyes were on the release of its new operating system. While many were in awe of the dramatic design changes, Eddy Cue, Apple’s Service Boss explained a feature that ‘parents are going to love’: the upcoming addition of a new Kids category to the firms App Store.

While the presentation swiftly passed over this, and on to their more mainstream releases such as the new Apple iRadio, parents and children’s app developers were left wanting to hear more.

Never one to shy away from a challenge we took it upon ourselves to investigate further the key features and to bring you a round-up of what the new Kids’ category means for parents and educators.

‘Mobile learning is eating the world’

The title, taken from Benedict Evans’ proclaimed research presentation may sound somewhat sensationalist but the figures he cites give it substance.

Whether you’re directly involved in ICT integration within your school, college or district or just an information seeker, Benedict’s findings show the increasing impact mobile devices have had over the past few years and highlight the inevitability of the future of mobile devices, both in consumer markets and in the education sector.

The conclusion drawn from this body of research is not just that mobile learning and mobile browsing is on the rise but that in the coming years mobile devices will infiltrate all aspects of our lives.

Below, I’ve embedded Benedict’s presentation: as you’ll see the study is presented as a short slide show with the stats speaking for themselves.

Prepared for your exams? what to do before, during and after . . .

If you’ve got a big exam coming up it’s easy to panic and worry about it, particularly if it’s the night before.

Here are some easy tips to help you manage your nerves and get you prepared for the exam(s) ahead.

Detention: making the most of a negative situation

Detention – a dull but necessary form of punishment? Or an opportunity to restore relationships with pupils?

Should detention be a punishment?

Writing lines and colouring in squares on a sheet of graph paper may be unproductive and fail to deal with the root cause of a student’s behaviour. Does the student enjoy it? Does the student want to be in this position again?

For some schools, detention is about detaining a student, punishing them for undesirable behaviour – a part of a school’s sanction whereby a negative behaviour is met with a negative experience.

In a recent interview on Teachers TV, Geoff Barton, Head Teacher at King Edward VI School, remarks on his school’s policy, ‘Run on a Friday afternoon, for an hour between 3.45pm and 4.45pm, students sit individually at desks and face the front of the class in which a large clock ticks loudly. It is not a pleasant experience and as a result detentions have gained notoriety among the pupils.’

For Geoff Barton, if a student has been misbehaving or truanting then there should be a sanction that is not simply an opportunity to catch up on homework or coursework.

5 time-saving iOS writing apps

All of us at one point have been tasked with the challenging prospect of writing an essay: whether as part of a coursework project, dissertation or as a homework assignment. As you’ll know, writing ideas down, as they come to you in those moments of inspired thought, is what makes the difference between a good piece of work and something you’re proud and excited to hand in.

For many of us, brought up in the dark ages before the iPhone and the commercial use of tablets, writing on the go meant scribbling a few notes on a scrunched-up napkin or on the back of an envelope at best.

Today is very different − writers now have access to a host of options to help them capture those moments of creative thought: organising their writing, prioritising each key point succinctly and offering them an experience comparable to that of working from a desktop.

We thought we’d round up our favourite five apps that will help writers at any level add structure to their writing and support authors on the go.

Student viral videos – tips and ideas to get started

In our previous blogs we’ve discussed the rise in cloud computing and the upward trend in the integration of smart devices in the classroom. Schools throughout the UK are becoming hubs for innovation, which is helping to raise learner engagement and promote higher levels of learning. But where will this take us next?

Will flipped learning replace traditional lesson techniques?

One of the hottest topics in education at the moment has prompted educationalists throughout the UK to consider the application advantages of reversing the traditional lesson structure. Commonly termed ‘flipped learning’, it has quickly become a trending theme at networking events, conferences and throughout social journalism circles.




In this article we offer guidance and support to teachers who want to implement flipped learning into their classroom.

A teacher’s guide: helping students use Google Search effectively

In this article we consider the Google resources and lesson plans developed to help teachers and educators enhance their learners’ search skills.

Classroom tasks are becoming increasingly digitalised and, with greater access to the internet, teaching professionals are acknowledging the need for students to conduct greater levels of independent study and research. In the recent past, learners would head to their school or local library to refer to journals, newspapers and other literature. Nowadays, the first port of call for the majority will be Google and the somewhat infinite and instant access it offers to literary content.

This has significantly expanded students’ access to information from a wider range of sources, but conversely, it has also increased their access to misinformation and to material unrelated to an exam syllabus.

To tweet, or not to tweet?

Safer Internet Day considers our fascination with Twitter

 

Are you an avid tweeter? Do you spend an hour or two each day updating your social network statuses?

A recent study by the UK Safer Internet Centre found that over 95 per cent of 11−19-year-olds communicate online, through social networking sites like Twitter.

To coincide with this month’s Safer Internet Day this article will consider the issues surrounding Twitter and offer advice on how young people can avoid many of the associated problems and risks.

How can cloud computing improve educational performance?

Technology has continuously impacted on the way we teach young people. In the 1950s learning theorists concluded that repeated drills and the repetition of content-supported learning and more specifically recall. This led to the introduction of listening stations in the classroom where students were able to use headphones to listen to audio tapes and cassettes. This progressed to the integration of video tapes a year later and the trend has not slowed since.

Today, technology is advancing quicker than ever and, as it does, schools and learning institutions are starting to gain pace with new technologies − a very welcome change, if you ask us.

Does private tutoring disadvantage low-income students?

Last year almost a quarter of 11 to 16 year olds (23%) in England had some form of private tuition. Of these over half (53%) were being coached for a specific test or exam.

With the number of parents paying for private tuition on the rise, are wealthy families gaining an unfair advantage? Particularly when it comes to preparing their children for entrance exams to grammar schools?

I’m a teacher, should I write a blog?

For any individual whether you’re an educator, academic, professional or student  ̶  writing your own blog may have been something you’ve considered at one point or another. Regardless of your background or expertise there is one principal question to ask yourself before you start and that is; Why? why should I invest in creating and maintaining my own blog?

For many who have expertise in a certain subject or specialism, a blog can be a powerful platform to share and discuss topics, ideas or to offer an alternative standpoint on an area of interest. For others writing a blog can offer commercial or financial value, building an individual’s online profile or supporting the SEO strategy for a particular business or website.

As well as ensuring your reasons behind starting your blog are convincing and worthwhile, there are some other considerations that you should be aware before launching your own blog site.

3k exhibitors, 20k new products… it could only be the Consumer Electronics Show 2013!

It’s that time of the year again where over four days 3,000 exhibitors, many of which are tech leaders in their respected markets, descend upon the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to showcase this year’s most innovative and inventive tech products.

First held in New York City in 1967 the show has a long history of announcing some of the world’s most influential tech products such as the VCR (1970), CD player and camcorder (1981), DVD (1996, HDTV (1998) and the Microsoft XBOX in 2001.

Ever considered using your iPad in class?

Found yourself on the nice list this year? Finally got that iPad that you’ve wanted for a while now?

You don’t need us to describe the excitement − if you’re anything like me then you would’ve spent most of Christmas Day loading all of those games and goodies you’ve had your eye on.

After playing around with it for hours I began to consider the ways that the iPad could help me in my lessons.

I’m an English teacher at an academy school in London and although my students show great enthusiasm in my class, their attention does waiver. Unfortunately, the current batch of school iPad resources are restricted to the ICT suites, but what if they weren’t, how would I use the iPad for teaching and learning…?

How can social media be used in the classroom?

Social media can be a daunting prospect but it doesn’t have to be. In this article we offer a good-practice guide to managing your school Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts.

The use of new communicative technologies remains a topic of wide debate with both arguments for and against.

Festivities shouldn’t replace revision necessity

The countdown to Christmas has begun, advent calendars are half-open, online shoppers are in full swing and even the snow has made an early appearance.

Yet, with all the excitement, students can overlook the importance of revision.

December and January are always difficult periods with mock exams, resits and modular exams all falling within a short space of time. You don't need us reminding you but we know it can be difficult to keep learners focused over the festive season, especially once they're out of the classroom.

Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre is facing this challenge like schools up and down the country.

Are UK universities about to embark on a global online revolution?

In the USA, a global phenomenon in online learning is taking place and many education technologists are anticipating a similar wave in the UK, albeit a much slower one.

Moocs – massive online open courses – have become a national success in the USA, yet over here distance learning remains a niche concern, often seen as a side project for UK universities to cash in on international and postgraduate course fees.

The contrast between nations is stark: while UK universities have only begun to dip their toes in, venture capitalists and leading higher-education institutes in the States are investing millions into the development of ground-breaking new moocs. On offer are free online courses to mass numbers of students across the states and internationally.

Surface vs iPad – Can Microsoft offer schools more choice?

Apple had a big head start in the tablet market, but early this year Microsoft revealed its own strategy for taking on the iPad: the latest version of its Windows operating system, Windows 8, allows for a new breed of hybrid tablet PCs – part tablet computer, part laptop.

Inspired by Apple’s touch-based iOS system, Windows 8, which launched this autumn – is radically different from its predecessors. The system doesn’t even have Microsoft’s iconic ‘start’ menu. Instead, all applications are spread across a tiled dashboard, resembling road signs that can be navigated with a swipe of the finger on the display screen or with a keyboard and an in-built mouse pad. The tiles also provide a glimpse at the activity occurring in applications connected to the web, such as email.