Scholaris

As technology continues to evolve at breakneck speeds we are excited to announce that in the coming months Scholaris will be rolling out a series of apps for your mobile and tablets, giving you and your users the opportunity to use Scholaris from a device of your choice.

Scholaris will be available on iPads, iPhones and Android devices. You will be able to access the Student Information Centre and attendance from these state of the art apps.

The apps will allow staff, students and parents new ways of engaging with Scholaris.

We are very excited about taking Scholaris into the new age of apps and providing a whole new array of device choices for you and users of the software.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be in touch with more information on our new features. Furthermore I’d welcome any feedback or comments you have; simply reply to this email.

As a sneak preview here’s what the new School Information Centre looks like on an iPad:

Scholaris International

Those anticipating the arrival of Raspberry Pi, the credit card sized computer that costs just £16, won’t have to wait any longer. Eager schoolchildren are scheduled to take delivery direct from the project co-ordinator, Dr Eben Upton, of the Cambridge based Raspberry Pi Foundation on 20th April 2012.

The Guardian editorial on 31^st March 2012 identified a significant opportunity for the UK government to move technology education beyond the practicalities of using software to function in a digital world. In rewriting the schools syllabus and redefining the teaching of information technology, there is the possibility to shift the emphasis to understanding systems and treating software as something that needs to be properly understood by looking at the code under the bonnet.

The bigger picture is that although the UK economy is exploiting the internet more than any other industrialised nation, it is trailing behind the US and Japan as well as China, Korea and Brazil in terms of education and achievement and committing resources to digital skills.

However the new syllabus is yet to be defined, and on its own, is unlikely to be the silver bullet to help the UK catch-up. The same is true for policy. This means there is as yet no centralised framework that determines the future of information technology teaching; and it is also true for defining technology tools, methodologies and platforms for teaching.

It is one thing to define ‘what’ to teach as part of the technology syllabus, but an entirely different one to define ‘how’ technology is deployed to facilitate teaching in general. Or is it?

The two are clearly different but they do not exist in isolation, because the approach to teaching with technology says so much about teaching technology. The ‘what’ of syllabus must be joined up with policy’s ‘how’.

In today’s league table results driven educational environment, who can blame schools for acting autonomously and implementing what they believe may be quick fixes that have worked in other schools. Fundamentally, if the best approach to teaching with technology was as simple as putting an iPod in the hands of every pupil and an iPad in those of every teacher, then surely there would be no problem. But this approach reinforces the narrow view of students just being software users, creating a generation of digital consumers.

To really push a ‘what’s under the bonnet’ approach to technology, students need to see the best education oriented systems in the classroom; we are not talking about the slickest device with the coolest gimmick, or the latest app with the best graphics. It is about offering an integrated toolbox, a learning portal, which delivers an excellent user experience and real value for students, teachers, administrators and parents alike.

Some students may never develop an interest in computer code; however exposure to integrated best of breed technology, such as Scholaris’ learning portal, can only serve to stimulate others.

Discover more by clicking here to read Scholaris learning portal white papers.

Follow this link to ‘Teaching technology: we need a digital revolution in the classroom’, The Guardian’s editorial article from 31^st March 2012.

Scenario: A failing school in Bolton, a disadvantaged multi-cultural area of Lancashire; Essa Academy created to replace old school; results needed fast

The Essa Academy was opened in 2009, replacing its predecessor that Ofsted had identified as failing. The old school somehow managed to combine underinvestment in staff and resources with crippling overspend. Hallmarked with underachievement, expectations were low and there was a lack of confidence in children’s’ ability to succeed. Embedded over decades, it is difficult not to take the view that this is an underlying factor in the social problems of the area.

Taking 900 students from disadvantaged communities across the town Essa needed a radical approach to enable the Academy to address the community’s longstanding problems.

Now an Academy Director with commercial experience at Galaxo pharmaceuticals before teaching, Abdul Chohan realised that technology competence is an important life skill for the 21^st century.

Coming at the problem from the perspective of students and today’s culture of social networks and blogs – essentially recognising the expectations of generation Facebook – led to a bold gamble: put an iPod touch in the hands of every student and an iPad in those of every teacher.

The results are absolutely stunning: students achieving 5 or more GCSEs at A* to C grades have risen from 55% to 99.5% in two years. This seems to have been achieved through extensive use of email to contact teachers, and apps that enable document management, access to online revision and reference resources, and digital books and libraries.

Apple’s devices are consumer objects of desire and not particularly cost-effective. Any number of lower cost hardware platforms provides the same functionality, so some of this uplift in results may just be due to the fad for Apple products.

If we examine it closely, end user hardware devices just provide access to tools and resources.

From the perspective of joined up teaching and learning that wraps in security and control, tools and resources need to be integrated to create a structured framework. 

Scholaris learning portals integrate the teaching, learning and administrative facets to deliver socialised learning for the Facebook generation while enabling teachers to spend more time teaching and helping to involve parents. When it comes to acquiring 21^st century life skills, a handful of apps cannot provide the integration and holistic approach to teaching and learning of Scholaris learning portal.

Click this link for tutorial walkthoughs of Scholaris learning portals.

Click this link to see the article published in The Independent on 20th March 2012.