Monthly Archives: May 2012

Indonesian School visits WebAnywhere

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I was delighted to host a visit today from two teachers at the Pondok Pesantren Darunnajah Islamic Boarding School in Indonesia, and show them around the WebAnywhere office.

They are in the UK visiting The Holy Family Catholic School in Keighley, where I am a governor, as part of a teaching exchange programme funded by the British Council.

It was fantastic to hear their thoughts on the British educational system, and learn more about the picture in Indonesia.  Their school boards 2200 pupils, and conducts lessons 6 days a week (with Friday the only day off), with the pupils bringing their own laptops into lessons.

As Webanywhere expands internationally it is great to speak to as many educators from around the world as possible to find out what their experience of ICT in education has been, and their thoughts on its future.

The Academies Show 2012

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Today saw the return of the Webanywhere team to the Olympia in London, promoting our range of online learning solutions at The Academies Show 2012.

We were up bright and early to set up our stand and prepare for the influx of teachers, bursars, governors and educational leaders, all gathered to pick up some invaluable information on the Academies programme.

I’ve spent a busy morning chatting with those at the sharp end, meeting with educators to discuss the issues surrounding Academies, and what Webanywhere can offer.

The show has put on a fantastic programme of lectures and seminars conducted by those implementing the national education agenda and those overseeing the Academies programme, providing some extremely useful guidance.

I haven’t had chance to catch as much of it as I would have liked to so far, as it has been all hands on deck at stand 54, with the Webanywhere team fielding enquiries and providing practical demonstrations of our range of learning software.

Webanywhere have established partnerships with many Academy schools, providing market leading learning platforms, social networking & e-portfolio systems and school websites. We‘ve helped new Academies to hit the ground running and realise the potential of online technology to enhance learning, improve efficiency, and strengthen links with parents. I’m sure today will see the start of several new partnerships.

If you’re coming down this afternoon, please stop by stand 54 and say hello.

The new IMLS framework for schools

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On 26th March 2012, the Department for Education announced the introduction of the new IMLS framework for schools. The Information Management and Learning Services Framework is designed to support educators in procuringmanagement information systems (MIS) and learning services (VLEs / learning platforms, etc).

Issues with ICT provision

Back in September 2010, a report from Becta found that schools weren’t getting good value for money from their MIS systems. A lack of competition and confusion over decision making in local authorities had led to a stagnant marketplace that put pressure on school budgets.

To counter the problem, the government set up the IMLS framework. As a trusted supplier of ICT solutions, I’m proud to announce Webanywhere are part of this new framework.

The IMLS framework solution

After consulting a wide range of stakeholders, including schools, local authorities and regional broadband consortiums, the Department for Education came up with the framework to deal with a set of common key issues.

Using the framework, schools can now go through choose from a group of pre-approved ICT suppliers to get the best deal for their school.Furthermore, to ensure there’s no problems in the future, the process is legally compliant and as simple as possible.

What this means for schools

Using the new ILMS framework, schools can now select from suppliers on 2 ‘lots’ on the framework. Lot 1 covers MIS and financial systems. Lot 2 covers learning platforms. When choosing from an ICT solution from either lot schools can:

  • Get a better deal by encouraging suppliers to compete against each other
  • Choose directly from the list of reliable suppliers with little need for negotiation
  • Reference a pricing matrix for easy benchmarking and budgeting
  • Promote interoperability – the sharing of data between different suppliers

The next step

Schools wanting to use the IMLS framework can get started soon. For now though, there’s plenty of help and advice via the Department for Education website. At Webanywhere, we all want to make purchasing ICT solutions as simple as possible, so we’ll also be keeping everyone up to date with the latest important information.

If you have any further questions about the framework, please contact us.