Blueprint for School Recovery white paper.

 

 

Education 2021: Road Ahead

Blueprint for School Recovery white paper.

Recording of webinar, 02/12/20.

 

We are delighted to announce that our CEO, Mehool Sanghrajka, is featured in this month’s K12 Digest. You can read his full article here.

Why pilot the LP+365 FREE App?

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Back in 1965 Gordon Moore, who was a co-founder of Intel, noted that the number of transistors per square inch on a circuit board had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue. As I look back on my (more than!) three decades of mixing new technology into the recipe for great learning I can see the impact of Moore’s Law right away. For example when my eldest daughter Juliette left her primary school at 11 I noted down every item of computer technology in that school. Ten years later as she emerged from undergraduate life (to become a teacher, of course) I could see that by then the tiny phone in her pocket outperformed her entire primary school’s technology provision from a decade earlier. A whole school network disappearing into a pupil pocket every decade. Wow. Moore’s Law predicted more power, and it delivered.

But the other side of that coin is that as the years progress you might alternatively enjoy the same power, but for a lot less money. The smart phone in your pocket could be replaced each year by one dramatically more powerful, or it might instead be purchased new for a lot less money as it is superseded by new models. Cheaper and cheaper, and cheaper yet.

Moore’s Law’s more bangs for less bucks bonus has been a constant throughout my teaching life. When we first connected children together with electronic mail and teletext (Prestel and Telecom Gold, to be precise) in the 1980s, the gateway that allowed their electronic mail writing to appear on the clunky but colourful Prestel screens cost us about £100,000 to set up (and in the 1980s £100,000 was a huge amount of money). Today’s users take for granted the effortless integration of text and media, the tiny scale of their devices, the ubiquitous connectivity of their lives, the free wifi in McDonalds and on trains. The other day someone asked me why they should try out our LP+365 free app, with its personalised dashboards, easy to use assignments tool, instant access to Word, Class Notebook, PowerPoint, with its professional development articles and lesson plans. I guess the right answer, as Chairman of Learning Possibilities would be to point to the pilot’s Free provisioning for a whole class of 35 users (2 x staff and 33 x students), but instead I wanted just to shout out “BECAUSE IT IS AN AMAZING AMOUNT OF POWER FOR FREE AND NOT VERY LONG AGO IT WOULD HAVE COST A FLIPPIN FORTUNE!!” Sometimes, having a sense of history leaves me a bit overexcited!

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This October Rohin Mistry, our Service Delivery Manager is celebrating his 10 year work anniversary at Learning Possibilities.

I was lucky enough to catch Rohin for a quick interview, to take a quick look back at his successful career within the company.

10 years! That’s quite an accomplishment. So where did it all begin?
Rohin: “I started working at Learning Possibilities while I was still at University. It came about as my Placement Officer at the time was interested and impressed with the work that the Company were doing, and felt it fit in well with my degree. As a result of the placement and with help from my Placement Officer, in my final year, I actually decided to base my dissertation on virtual learning environments.”

On graduating university with a degree in Business Information Systems, what made you decide to come back to Learning Possibilities?
Rohin: “At the time I remember that my tutor wanted me to continue on to do an MPhil , but I ended up coming back to Learning Possibilities to start my career…little did I know I would still be here ten years on! I felt that Learning Possibilities, a company set to transform education with technology was something I wanted to be a part of.”

Do you remember your first role within the company?
“Back when I started, I first worked at the Warehouse, and then became an Engineer/Technician. Overtime I eventually became part of the 1st line support team on the Support Desk, and then my role subsequently progressed into Support Desk Supervisor, Support Desk Manager and finally Service Delivery Manager, which is where I am today.”

With all that progression, and that it’s now your 10 year work anniversary with LP+, how do you feel looking back on your achievements?
“I feel proud of my achievements, and am also very appreciative that I’ve had the opportunity to work with such great colleagues. I am really enjoying my current role as no two days are the same, so it certainly keeps you on your feet! I get to work with big international contracts, which means I’m working with clients from around the world on a regular basis. I try not to look back too much, but one of the best moments for me personally, was the launch of LP+4, something we had all worked so hard for. After so much commitment towards the creation of the product it’s very rewarding to see the platform support the goals of the Company, by helping to transform education worldwide.”

I asked Rohin why he tries not to look back too much, and he simply answers..
“because the only way is forward”. A superb work ethic, if I do say so myself.

throwbackthursday_education-investor-award-2015

“Keep moving forward”…is a phrase that isn’t new to me, and I don’t think it will be to you either. There is a big focus on us all as individuals to keep progressing, both personally and professionally, and where I can understand the concept behind this phrase, I somewhat disagree with it.

Yes, it is imperative to strive and to work towards your goals, achievements and future – but isn’t it nice every now and then, to also take a look back?

Around this time last year, Learning Possibilities were shortlisted as finalists for the very prestigious Education Investor Awards for Technological Infrastructure. Much to our delight as a company, we were presented with the award on November 13th, 2014 during a celebration of the innovation and excellence among businesses involved in the education sector.

For those of you who aren’t quite familiar with the Education Investor Awards, each year an expert panel of judges look for organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to the sector during the academic year.

Learning Possibilities, in my opinion, is made up of a committed, hardworking and passionate workforce, who continuously work together to produce ground-breaking solutions to support, aid, and to transform education globally. On looking back, I remember this proud moment quite clearly, how thrilled we were (and still are) as individuals and together as a company, to have had our work recognised in such a prominent manner.

It’s recently been announced, (yes, you might have guessed it) that we’ve been shortlisted as finalists for the same award again this year. There are currently lots of exciting things going on at Learning Possibilities, and we are all SO happy to be shortlisted again for the Technological Infrastructure Education Investor award for the second year running,. With this said, we do have to wait until November to hear the results. So for now, I shall ask you to wish us luck in the meantime, and I’ll close this blog with another popular phrase…”watch this space”!

the-renewal-of-hwb-the-all-wales-national-learning-platform

It’s recently been confirmed, that the Welsh Government have extended the contract for Hwb+, for another three years. Hwb+ is the all Wales Learning Platform, powered by Learning Possibilities, which has been rolled out to all state schools in Wales by the Welsh Government.

As part of a Digital Wales campaign being carried out by the government in Wales, Hwb+, already embedded into the daily routine at a number of schools is proving to be an effective piece of software that can support and transform teaching and learning, benefitting schools in more ways than you would perhaps expect.

I personally have been lucky enough to see first-hand some of the positive ways in which Hwb+ has been embedded into schools across the nation, and it’s fantastic to see the way in which embedding the learning platform can motivate, encourage and enable learners like never before.

Commenting on the positive impact that Hwb+ has in classrooms nationwide, Julie James, Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology at the Welsh Government said:

“Digital Technology is a really important enabler. We understand that our Welsh school children need to understand Digital Technology, and they need to be what we call digitally literate.”

With the growing success of the Hwb+ project, I for one am very excited to see what progress is made on Hwb+ as we continue to see collaborative projects, growth of digital competency in schools and an encouraged interest in learning take place over the course of the next academic year.

Take a look at the short video by Microsoft on Digital Wales.