Ideal World of Mobile Learning

Hi All,

At SWOT we are always looking ahead to see how technology can help enhance the delivery of learning content for students of all ages. All too often, technology in the classroom, far from being a saviour, can be a disruptive force, making teachers jobs harder than they might otherwise be.
Decisions on how, when and where to best integrate ICT and the Internet in to the wider curriculum, can leave school staff with a growing headache.
Schools IT teams become equally bamboozled by the plethora of Devices, Applications and Content which they are asked to support.

Here we are talking a little about some of the problems using the Internet in the Classroom and what we at SWOT are doing to help.

Web based content can be hard to acquire, with both teachers and schools IT having to navigate LEA/ GfL or other filter system rules, requesting pages to be unblocked in the case of particular need. Sometimes, just getting to the page you want is a full day mission. This is far from ideal in a world where instant access to data is the normal.
It's not as simple as leaving the web open, this would be easy but, essentially extremely dangerous. Schools have a duty of care, especially where minors are concerned.
Schools and academic institutions are by nature, open and free places, where an amount of free roam is necessary in order to develop the learners abilities in research for example, and so this nature provides us a hurdle which we must cross when introducing the Internet and Web 2.0 learning.

Whenever we use the Internet to support classroom activities, we have the further concern of keeping students on task. Filter systems help with this of course and we have seen many classroom management applications that have been developed but, most of these solutions are reactionary, in that they provide historic data on user activity.  At SWOT we've been hunting for a better way.

We asked the question, "What if we had a system, that would allow individual teachers the chance to organise a set of sand-boxed URL web addresses which any student with a networked device could access?" This is to say, a teacher could decide, in advance of any lessons, what web pages where suitable for the students to access. By pre packing a set of URL's, students would only be able to see what teaching staff wanted them to see. It would simply not be possible for students to wonder off task or find their way on to unsuitable web content.
If we then said, how about we allow teachers to create lesson or course bundles, containing not only the helpful URL's but, educationally approved YouTube/ Video content, minus the scary comments we see on YouTube of course, PDF, Office Docs, Google Docs, and all manner of other file types, again sand-boxed in to an easy to access location. Well, at SWOTNET, we have found a way to make this a reality and its called " Lightspeed Systems - My Big Campus" and this forms a vital part of our "TaLENT - Teaching and Learning Education Network Template" read more here. MBC and Lightspeed are new to the UK, but, the company has already taken the US by storm and is growing here rapidly. SWOTNET are a leading UK partner!

Even if you don't provide your own Internet filtering via in house systems and you go through the grid or other LEA system, our platform has been approved for your use.
What's more, this means we can create Web Zones. A Web Zone is a controlled space that allows teachers to temporarily override a filter system. Lets say you have a 6th form class of art students and you are discussing the great Rembrandt, you may wish to access images that the central filter system would normally block. With our MBC system, which is approved by the Grid among others, schools can now permit designated teaching staff, or all teaching staff (or non) to temporarily grant access to certain users. Again this is highly controlled, and for management, a full audit trail is created ensuring every action is transparent.
The beauty of the MBC system is such that, we can extend these very same features to your students, with school owned devices off campus too.

The MBC platform has a heap of other really cool features and we will cover a few here.


It has a digital repository so teachers can access an ever increasing amount of content to help enhance lesson/ course bundles. If you are completing a course on the Human Body, or Trench Warfare, there is content ready, submitted by teachers using the MBC system around the world and its all conveniently categorised to make it really simple. You can locate content by topic and even age range suitability. See examples here
To make the process of using MBC easier, the system also has Edu Talk. This empowers teachers and educators to share experiences, collaborating with other users, ideas and methods, discussing what works best for example. This is a real positive. there are currently around 1 million teachers supporting each other via the Edu Talk portal in MBC its really wonderful to see this figure growing all the time and we see this as a vital tool to help meet CPD options.

The platform developers are listening to the academic community too and in fact, MBC could not have been developed without the input of real teachers, actively pushing new features and enhancements to the platform. it really is a platform designed for education, designed by educators.

So, what does MBC look like for students? Students get an experience which looks and feels like Facebook. All of the ways to share information, such as feed updates, chat, email are presented in a way which your students will likely be very familiar with. This is intentional of course and really helps productivity and user uptake.
MBC updates and messages are scanned for cyber bullying via a clever bot which automatically looks for problem messages and alerts staff to possible issues. The system can redact messages in real time, preventing the posting of offensive, obscene or bullying language from being posted. As with most stuff in MBC, lists of terms can be added to and customised by admin staff.
All of the work students require can be found in one location. Calendars, Forums. We could talk for a long time about the features of MBC but, to save your eyes and our keyboards, we will be a running a series of events over the coming months to live demo the systems. We can deliver 14 day trials at your schools, and even deploy the MBC via our e2e secure cloud.
Costs per pupil are low and annual. it really does represent value for money, enabling access to what is a real game changing platform for education.
The full offering includes: Filtering, Email Management, Anti Virus, MBC, Power Management, Access to 24/7 Support and Advanced Reporting. We can provide the system in component parts too and deliver this on premise or in the cloud as a hosted platform and as part of our TaLENT framework.
Do reach out to us for more info at the usual http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/

Happy studies
team SWOT

Conneaut School District Rolls Out Blended Learning and Cyber Schools with My Big Campus

Tips on protection for summer

Hi All,

This might seem an odd post coming from a company that supports teaching and learning via ICT but, our passion is for the wider welfare of our young and so from time to time, we post non IT related thoughts and concepts which include all matters of child/ young adult welfare.

We'd like to include just such a small post today, about how we might best protect our children in the summer sun. Since we came across the article via the wonderful Mother Jones website, we thought to share the link for our readers who may not have come across it and the site.

The article is good look at choices of sunscreens for the young and with summer approaching, its worth a read for parents and teachers, or indeed anyone looking after the young. Some enlightening facts about products we might be best to avoid and the ones we might feel safer using.

As much as we want our young learners to be enjoying our technology in the classroom, we hope they manage to get out and enjoy the freedom offered by a good run around the playground or park. Who knows, if your school is using our outdoor wireless, you can even be happy that lessons outside, don't result in a classroom of sunburn :-)

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/05/kids-sunscreen-avoid-environmental-working-group-guide

Happy reading and we hope you are all going to enjoy a happy, safe summer.

Team SWOT

SWOT Launches TaLENT

SWOTNET and its Partners Presents TaLENT - An Infrastructure Template for Teaching and Learning Using Personal Mobile Network Devices.

Educational establishments across all levels are looking to deliver teaching and learning to students via network connected, mobile devices. A lot of the focus has been around devices, applications, and content. With TaLENT, we are focused on infrastructure, the underlying equipment required to provide safe, secure access to appropriate content, simultaneously for all students, with high performance reliability and simplicity. 

SWOTNET and its Partners, (Siracom, Meru Networks, Bradford Networks and Lightspeed Systems) have assembled an end-to-end infrastructure solution based on best of breed products, which are interoperability tested. We call it TaLENT, our Teaching and Learning Education Network Template.

TaLENT is a cost effective template for connectivity, security and internet safety. It offers fast, simple, reliable access to appropriate education resources in a safe, secure environment. It covers the campus and extends to the home. Features include:

Mobile Device Management - Lightspeed Systems

Web Security - Lightspeed Systems

Network Access Control - Bradford Networks

Wireless Infrastructure - Meru Networks

TaLENT is an end-to-end solution that can be purchased as a whole, or as individual components to be integrated with other equipment. Our skilled staff can help you plan and make the best use of existing infrastructure as suits.

TaLENT supports every class of user (staff, students and guests, or yr7, yr8, yr9 students) and enables differentiation between them. 

TaLENT is device agnostic – supporting all of the popular education devices and operating systems.

TaLENT delivers wireless infrastructure which supports high densities of mobile, roaming users, running multimedia education and communication applications.

TaLENT provides secure access to the network, safe access to the internet, and access to appropriate content.

TaLENT offers end-to-end management and reporting, covering the infrastructure and extending

to Mobile Device Management.

TaLENT provides access to expertise to help with device decisions and information on topics such as parental contributions, device insurance, and grants. 

BEST OF BREED

TaLENT is based on best of breed solutions from Meru Networks, Bradford Networks and Lightspeed Systems, and can integrate with popular wired infrastructure and existing security systems.

It brings together manufacturers, resellers, consultants and related organisations to deliver all of the advice and expertise required to deliver a solution for teaching and learning using personal mobile network connected devices.

If you are an educator, interested to learn more about our TaLENT portfolio, please contact SWOTNET. http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/  Or email via this link sales@swotnet.co.uk

You may be please to hear, we will be running a series of events to demonstrate the TaLENT proposition, watch this space for more details.

Happy teaching

Team SWOTNET

More reference details can be found here:

http://www.swotnet.co.uk/

http://www.lightspeedsystems.com/

http://www.lightspeedsystems.com/resources/mobile-learning.aspx

http://www.bradfordnetworks.com/

http://www.merunetworks.com/industries/education.html

Safeguard your school's ICT Systems for the same price as a cup of coffee!

Most people are happy to spend money on a decent cup of coffee from one of the many high street coffee outlets that have found their way into our town centres and airports. So how would you feel if for the same cost per day, we could monitor and support your entire ICT infrastructure, 24 hours a day?

SWOT are pleased to announce a simple, effective and cheaper way to ensure your school's ICT systems are reliable and can be depended on, from less than £3.00 per day*

The service is run from our secure Network Operations Centre, where advanced monitoring tools keep track of all your critical systems. You can even call our Support Helpdesk should you have a problem.

We have attached a data sheet for your information, and would welcome the chance to discuss in person how this service can increase your confidence in your ICT facilities, improve your user experience, and reduce your ICT support costs. Either that, or you could just go and get a frothy cappuccino and keep your fingers crossed!

We look forward to hearing from you soon,

The SWOT team

*Excludes one off set up fee

*Excludes VAT

SWOT MONITOR

Safe, simple and secure ICT monitoring and management for schools

The challenge

Most schools find it a challenge  to  know how their ICT facilities are performing, with problems only becoming  apparent when there’s a critical failure of ICT services. This problem is made more difficult through the fact that most schools can’t afford or justify  having a highly skilled network engineer on staff to keep a watchful eye on the  school’s facilities. This normally results in ICT management responsibility falling  to the person in the school who knows the most about computers - usually one  of the teaching staff - who themselves already have a busy timetable. Add to this  the pressure on schools to reduce cost, improve efficiency and improve their  standards, and the problem only becomes greater.

Held back

Many schools suffer from poor and  unreliable network performance, which affects their ability to leverage the ICT  system to use engaging and exciting software to deliver elements of the  curriculum. ICT is more than a subject, and can be pivotal in improving  standards and behaviour when used to deliver a modern learning experience. With  these problems in mind, SWOTNet have designed an ICT health service that runs  round the clock, monitoring and checking the health of every key networking and  internet device, along with essential servers and systems that are on the  school network.

Many ICT problems only  becoming  apparent when there’s a critical  failure of network or internet service 

All equipment is tracked and monitored from our secure remote Network Operations Centre

Safe and secure

All equipment is tracked and monitored from our secure remote Network Operations Centre, and is configured to provide live updates on health and performance. From the Network Operations Centre, engineers are able to see ICT problems as they occur, and at times before they occur, alerting key staff and allowing remedial action to be taken to prevent a critical failure. The service also keeps a constant watch on your internet connection, and will notify you should a problem be identified. The monitoring service is backed by ISO 27001 Certification, ensuring all necessary steps are taken to maintain the integrity of your network and the critical data being held on it. SwotNet provides a proven and reliable solution to Schools, at a fraction of the cost of employing even part time ICT staff and gives your school the peace of mind that your increasingly complex ICT system is in safe hands, and experts are there to advise on the next steps to solve the problem.

Simple set-up

The service is simple to set up and requires almost no effort from the school, as our skilled engineers will deploy the system and test it to ensure its connected to the Network Operations Centre and the network is being actively monitored.

Health checks and reports

ICT Health reports are produced at a time interval to suit you, letting you to choose when you would like to receive them, allowing you to track and report system reliability and performance to the school staff, governing boards and inspectors.

Web based access

School staff can access the monitoring service portal from any computer, and see for themselves exactly how the network is performing.

For more information call our helpful team on +44 1869 600821 or email sales@swotnet.co.uk

SWOTNET @ YEL Learn to Earn

Hi All,


SWOTNET had a fantastic day with the Young Enterprise London, Learn to Earn team at Grieg City Academy today.


SWOT were asked by the energetic and persuasive Selina Patel to assist as a volunteer for the day and we joined Gosbert Chagula from YEL and Maureen Arhagba from the Grieg City Academy, alongside Irini Poyiatzi, Cllr Reece also taking on the volunteering duty.


The day was broken up in to small task based segments where the students are asked to consider their futures, outlining concepts such as "what is success, who they consider to be successful and why.
After talking with the students we then asked them all to outline what they thought they might do in order that they might be successful.
As you might imagine there were some brilliant ideas coming from the students about how they envision their futures, worryingly, although not surprisingly given modern life, many of the young students also equated success with money.
One of the brilliant aspects of the day was that the course allowed us to really explore the reasons so many students saw money as a mark of success. The course materials enabled us as volunteers to engage with the students and get them to really consider what they think it means to be successful .
We covered discussions on jobs and as a volunteer, SWOT spoke about how we got started in business and we explored some of the problems and challenges we faced.
Using the course materials we covered how taxation and living costs impact our lives and we got the students to work out what jobs they might like and then we got them to budget for life as a new employee in their chosen field. The experience was eye opening for many of the students as they began to realise how expensive life as an adult can be.


I have to say, as a business that exists because of schools, it was a great opportunity for SWOT to give something back and engage with the students who we found to be warm, fun and inspiring. SWOT will be keeping our eye out for some of the students who expressed an interest in IT.


Once again, many thanks to Young Enterprise London, to Selina Patel, Maureen Arhagba and most of all, the students of Year 9.


For more info on Learn to Earn see http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/london


SWOT

Some Network Fun

Hi Gang,

We thought we'd share a link with you which is a bit of fun but, its educational too.

Way back when the SWOT team were learning Networking 101, the Peter Packet series of games helped keep us smiling through the heavy text books. .

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/packetville/pr/games.html

Thanks to Cisco for making these neat little games, and enjoy

Team SWOT