Children and adults: highway, or byway

We are calling Studywiz in Southampton ‘eCity’, and held an information event last night at the school I started my teaching career in, Sholing Junior School (a very successful school, I might add). My thanks to the Head Teacher, Marc Parnell, for the use of their facilities. I was keen to keep my input to a minimum, and use the event as a showcase of the excellent progress that has already been made by Southampton schools.

I was also keen that, if possible, the schools represented would bring children along to both present, and demonstrate to adults what they could do. Well, what an effect that had. The usual quiet listening occurred, and I gazed across the room at the assembled tired teachers, hoping they wouldn’t become glazed. That didn’t happen, and the input from all the adults (including Hilary from Etech, who brought her usual gravitas and credibility to the situation) was excellent - enthusiastic, concise and clear, keeping everyone present informed and, importantly at this time of year, awake!

However, once the children were able to contribute, the room began to buzz, and the examples of what kids could do ellicited applause, and there was a great response to live chat between the children present, and those back at their own school. Subsequently, the kids then mingled with the adults, and showed them what they have done, what they love about Studywiz, and answered questions. They will always amaze me, and I’m chuffed the event went so well.

There was also proof that the practice in one school, to use children to train adults and other children, is going extremely well, as I have advised all along. If you’re reading this, and are implementing your Studywiz deployment, remember that children are the key to a smooth rollout. They were born in an age of web based technology, and are guaranteed to speed your journey.

Word of Mouth, and Implementing Studywiz

In Southampton, we are now deep into the second phase of our implementation, and the feedback from teachers attending training has been great - with them all really eager to get going with their classes, and start using Studywiz. We’re planning to hold an information event at a Southampton school, on the 1st December for those schools who are yet to show interest, where I want to involve teachers from across the city and, more importantly, children, so that we can show people how the thing works with real examples of great practice (and shock some adults, at how kids can pick up ICT skills faster than them!)

What I’ve become very aware of, especially in a unitary authority such as ours, is that word gets about. Last week, we had a small surge of schools who expressed their interest for the first time, even though they’ve not previously been in contact, or attended our launch events. It’s clear that teachers have been talking, and that the practical experiences of those who’ve been trained are being shared across Southampton. I’ve also heard that there is talk about the content that we purchased to be hosted on our deployment, and that it is creating a buzz as well.

In marketing, there is the ‘Viral’ approach to promoting a product, or an idea, and I can see how this works. In our case, we are providing something much better than a product or a brand - a set of tools that can really make an effective difference to Learning, and that is why the word has spread so quickly.