Gallery, ILPs, Test, Messaging and Reporting are just a few of the enhanced features in the new and improved Studywiz 9.4.4.
Studywiz 9.4.4 enhancements focus on providing an even better online learning experience for users, by making Studywiz more flexible, dynamic and intuitive, and building on the core capabilities which distinguish Studywiz as a market leader for innovation.
Key Features in Studywiz 9.4.4 include: (more…)
It is always interesting to see how teachers and students unable to get to school have found ways to continue learning. There was an interesting story on the BBC Website about a teacher who used an Internet Cafe and Skype to continue his A Level revision lessons whilst stranded in Spain due to the ash crisis.
Here is a link to that story.
I couldn’t help thinking that with access to Studywiz, he could have done even more: work could have been set up and marked with feedback given, forums could have been set up to discuss revision topics when access to the Internet was available and tests could have been created and marked with the teacher being able to check the results. Add this to the ability to access Studywiz from a mobile device and you can see the true benefits of a Learning Platform for all situations that have students and teachers away from School.
A number of schools have been using Studywiz during this crisis. One school had over 100 students stuck in the Far East and Studywiz was being used to communicate and provide work for the students stranded.
As with the snow earlier in the year in the UK, this ash incident has highlighted how important it is to have a Learning Platform that allows access to learning from anywhere. At this time of year, when students are preparing for exams, finishing coursework and maybe going on Study Leave, Studywiz can provide another tool for revision. From setting up a Gallery of past papers that students can download to discussion forums on revision topics, Studywiz enables teachers to keep in contact and provide support for all those preparing for exams.
We have been focusing on improving children’s collaborative skills in class, so I decided to create an activity on Wizkid that could be done as homework, and included collaborative working.
put the children into history groups of mixed ability, and gave each group a significant Tudor person to research. Their project was to create a fact file for their person over three weeks. Each week the focus of the task was slightly different, and the children had to research the information individually, then compile their research in history lessons back in class.
I set up a separate subfolder for each group, which included their worksheet that they could save to their eLocker, download and work on at home as well as in school; a selection of websites from which they could begin their research; and a discussion board that they could use to ask each other for help and suggest additional web resources for others in the group to use.
The children responded very positively to the homework tasks, with many going above and beyond the recommended 40 minutes for the homework. Some even went onto the discussion boards of other groups to assist them, because they found the task so interesting and enjoyable!
Here are a few comments posted on the discussion boards at the end of the task:
“I really enjoyed doing the homework as a group
because we got to help each other.”
“I really enjoyed this homework mainly because it is different and because if you get stuck you can ask your friends. I hope we get more.”
“I think the discussion board was a good idea for group working because everyone can help people when they’re not in your house!”
This post has come courtesy of Lisa Rae.
Recently in training I have been using the web site www.magicwidgets.com for examples of how to embed code using the HTML icon in the text box of Studywiz. It is an easy way to make activities and information panels look a little bit special and a lot of teachers were very interested in using it.
On this web site, you can create customised scrolling banners, clocks, add text to images and create image cubes. Once you have finished creating your banner etc, you will see a code prepared for you that you simply copy, then open up the RTE box you want to put it in, click on HTML, paste in the code, click Update and then Save.
Click on the thumbnails below to see a couple of examples.
Parental engagement, whether it’s to meet UK government requirements or it’s simply something that a school knows they need to promote, is something that a lot of people are looking at right now.
Studywiz has always provided the tools to involve parents, through features such as free parent accounts and dynamic user groups.
Next week we are running a live webinar to give you the opportunity to find out more about our latest development supporting parental reporting - Studywiz Parent. (Date: 11th February, Time: 4pm)
More details, and a sign up form, can be found here on our website.
