EdTech Update Autumn 2022

eduthing.co.uk

Autumn 2022 Edition

IN THIS EDI T I ON : ALL THE LAT E ST U P DAT E S INCLUD ING R A I SI N G T HE PROFIL E OF C OM P U T I N G , ONL INE SAF E T Y A N D SUSTAINAB I LI T Y !

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EDTECH UPDATE – AUTUMN 22 Following the great feedback we had from our previous publication in the Spring term of last year, we have decided that moving forwards we will provide a termly EdTech update to support all staff working with children in their use of technology in the classroom, celebrate some of he great things happening across the network of schools we support and to continue to keep you up to date with the opportunities that you have access to.

September brought eduthing’s 4th birthday and an opportunity to reflect on our successes as the largest managed support provider in Surrey.

We are so pleased to continue operating a quality service across all IT areas for the schools that we work alongside and have some exciting developments which will be revealed as we move through the year.

We can’t wait to share these with all of our customers!

To celebrate our 4th Birthday, we are raffling 4 Chromebooks to lucky readers of our EdTech Update! Simply scan the QR code, fill out the form and we will be in touch with the 4 lucky winners before the end of the Autumn Term – good luck!

21ST CENTURY LEARNING: THE 4CS It is estimated that over 82% of job adverts now specify a requirement for digital skills.

But being a 21st century learner is about more than just having some basic digital literacy. Being a 21st century learner is about developing skills across 4 key areas – the 4Cs of 21st Century learning: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication & Collaboration. Why are these important skills for our young children?

CRITICAL THINKING Critical thinking is arguably one of the most important skills for pupils to develop from a young age. But why? Thanks to the rising use of the internet and associated ‘fake news’, being able to critically think, judge and verify information accessed on the internet is now an invaluable life skill.

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CREATIVITY Creativity is not necessarily about every pupil having the digital skills to become a published author, or graphic designer.

Instead, creativity aspects allow pupils to view things from a variety of perspectives, embrace inner strengths and learn about how they can express themselves in creative, healthy, ways. And most importantly, pupils feel empowered to motivate others with their creations, sharing to inspire others.

That’s not to say every single creative endeavour will be a ringing success. Students will fail at some point, and some of their ideas simply won’t work. The point of creativity is to encourage students to think differently than convention demands.

They don’t have to do things the way they’ve always been done.

Instead, they can figure out a better way. Students don’t have to embrace their creativity alone, either. In fact, creativity works best when combined with collaboration.

COLLABORATION Collaboration is important because whether students realize it or not, they’ll probably work with other people for the rest of their lives.

Virtually every job requires someone to work with another person at some point, even if it’s for something as simple as what to get for lunch. Practicing collaboration and teamwork helps students understand how to address a problem, pitch solutions, and decide the best course of action.

It’s also helpful for them to learn that other people don’t always have the same ideas that they do. In fact, as students practice collaboration more and more, they’ll learn that they have almost none of the same ideas that others do.

COMMUNI CATION In the age of text-based communications — SMS, emails, social media, etc. — it’s never been more important for students to learn how to convey their thoughts in a way that others can understand them.

That’s because text-based communications lack tone, which is critical to understanding the context of someone’s words. Still, even in situations where vocal tone is available, students need to learn how to communicate effectively.

That includes minimizing tangents, speaking directly to an idea, and checking other participants to make sure they’re engaged.

Reading an audience — even if it’s just two other people in a group discussion — lets students determine whether they should keep expanding on an idea or wrap up their point.

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RAISING THE COMPUTING PROFIL E: LEADING AN ENRICHMENT WEEK The introduction of the National Centre of Computing and their resources for primary computing have allowed for pupils to have access to a far more ambitious and engaging curriculum progression where Computing can be contextualised and brought to life through many of the units. To aid in the profile raising of Computing as a subject, popularity is growing in running Computing enrichment weeks, giving pupils additional access, exposure and enjoyment around the opportunities that Computing can open.

Hear about how Claygate Primary School in Esher, Surrey ran their Computing Enrichment Week last year.

CLAYGATE PRIMARY SCHOOL

At Claygate Primary, we endeavour to inspire the children with a variety of computer science in order to capture their creativity whilst developing skills. The children explored this deeper during Computer Science Week at our ‘Computer Science Fair’, where they had many different activities to innovate and excite them.

During the week, the children explored and developed many key computing skills including: creating algorithms, tinkering, debugging and collaboration to name a few, whilst participating in a range of different computing activities.

The children had a great week getting involved with lots of fun and inspiring computer science; being able to explore a range of technology. Some of their favourites were: exploring how to use and program loops whilst making music, learning about circuit boards to play a banana piano, creating and debugging algorithms to race Lego WeDo cars and navigate a Bee-Bot around a maze, and exploring the computer science behind green screen. There were also opportunities for the children to hone their computing skills on familiar software like Scratch Coding as well.

Students from across the whole school came along and got stuck in during their lunch time slot; Y1&2 sharing, Y3&4 and Y5&6. It was also lovely to see the older children helping the younger children throughout the week as well.

Overall, the children had an enjoyable time and many were asking when they could do it again!

Mike Godfrey, Computing Subject Leader Claygate Primary School, Surrey Want to use some of our loan equipment for your own Computing enrichment week?

Contact us on hello@eduthing.co.uk 03

Pupils learning about Green Screening

Giving concise programming to work around a maze

Using bananas and Makey Makeys to play a piano!

Combining programming with real-world creations, including sensors and motors, to move and control Lego WeDo kits!

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KAI’S CLAN: WHERE THE PHYSICAL AND THE VIRTUAL WORLDS MERGE TO BECOME AN INTERACTIVE LEARNING PLAYGROUND!

Kai’s Education has been nurturing an interest in coding in children with their educational products and resources in classrooms since 2011.

CEO Bruce Jackson understands the importance of computer science in education and increasing diversity in STEM fields around the world.

“Our first robot, Kai’s Clan (7 – 15yrs) was created as an all-in-one STEAM toolbox for teachers that allows them to teach coding and be creative in the design of robot avatars and storytelling. Kai’s Clan brings kids from around the world together and allows them to solve challenges in exciting new ways.”

KAI’S TOP 5 1. Collaborative Multiplayer Coding: Students program their robots over the cloud together 2. Coding with a purpose: Solve real world problems 3. Create robot avatars with Minecraft: Inspire creativity and design 3D environments with Minecraft or TinkerCAD 4. 65+ cross-curricular lesson plans and resources for teachers 5. Augmented Reality & VR: See your code come to life!

THE ONLY ALL-IN-ONE STEAM TOOLBOX! S: Scientific testing through the use of sensors, data collection and data visualisation T: Technologies using augmented and virtual reality, AI on a collaborative coding platform E: Engineering, the intersection between science and technology, bridging coding and robots to science to deliver real world solutions A: Arts, designing their own robot avatars with TinkerCAD and Minecraft and ability to re-create their own terrain environments M: Maths in using co-ordinates, including graphing in Excel or Google Sheets and coding logic and variable blocks Contact us to find out about using our Kai’s Clan Classroom Kit or purchasing a kit for your own school!

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GOING FURTHE R WITH GOOGLE WORKSPACE Back in our EdTech Update: Bett Breakdown edition, we mentioned some exciting updates coming to Google and Google Workspace for Education. Some of the major introductions are now live, including Practice Sets Beta & Google Classroom Addons featured below, in the Google Workspace Teaching and Learning addon. Both an absolute must for schools looking to extend their use of Google Workspace and Google Classroom in their day-to-day teaching and learning!

PRACTICE SETS (BETA) This is one of the most exciting developments coming, the ability to easily transform teaching content into interactive assignments and use the autograding tool to cut down on manual grading time. Practice sets also help teachers figure out which concepts need more instruction time and who could use extra support, giving them quick performance insights to shape future lesson plans.

CLASSROOM ADDONS Integrate content and learning materials from a range of 3rd party providers through the introduction of Classroom Addons.

Remove the need to manage external accounts, usernames and passwords and integrate material from providers like Kahoot!, Formative, Edpuzzle, Genially, Adobe, Google Arts & Culture, Pear Deck and WeVideo straight into Google Classroom!

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FLEXIN’ WITH CHROMEOS During the pandemic, nearly 1.9 million devices were given out to schools across the UK. 1.4 million of these were Windows devices which schools have since reported are not suitable or not fit for purpose and so are sat gathering dust on shelves or in cupboards.

If this sounds familiar to you, or you have Windows devices that are taking 20 minutes to start up and login, then fear not as Google have the perfect solution for you. ChromeOS Flex has been released to give a new lease of life into aging Windows devices by turning them into a device powered by ChromeOS, the same as a Chromebook, a far less resource intensive operating system.

At a time when schools need to be ever more considerate of sustainability, what a perfect way to not add to the junk pile and get technology otherwise lying around back into the hands of pupils or teachers as if brand new! What’s more, ChromeOS Flex devices are 21% more energy efficient on average than other devices!

Fast, modern work experience from anywhere

Fast, deployment and easy management

Proactive security

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Make the most of your existing hardware

REVIEWING ONLINE SAFETY – THE O NLINE SAFETY MARK We know that Online Safety is an ever changing and developing area for schools to tackle. Often, approaching Online Safety can seem such a trial.

But through working as a team and forming and Online Safety Group within your setting The Online Safety Mark is an accredited award for schools from the South West Grid for Learning. SWGfL have developed a self-assessment tool, covering many different areas of Online Safety from curriculum through to leadership, from engagement through to filtering and monitoring.

Through using the free self-assessment tool, online safety leads and school leaders have access to: + Information that can influence the production or review of online safety policies and develop good practice. + A process for identifying strengths and areas for development. + Opportunities for commitment and involvement from the whole school. + A continuum for schools to discuss how they might move from a basic level of provision for online safety to practice that is aspirational and innovative.

It also allows for the opportunity to benchmark schools’ current approach to Online Safety, against national data from other schools also using the tool, and work towards becoming an Online Safety Mark accredited school.

If you are interested in learning more about the Online Safety Mark, or would like support in generating your initial baseline assessment for the school, let us know and we would be more than happy to support!

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SAVE TH E DAT E : SAF E R I N T E R N E T DAY 2 02 3 !

THEME FOR THE DAY: TOGETHER FOR A BETTER INTERNET Over the years, Safer Internet Day has become a landmark event in the online safety calendar. Starting as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project in 2004 and taken up by the Insafe network as one of its earliest actions in 2005, Safer Internet Day has grown beyond its traditional geographic zone and is now celebrated in approximately 200 countries and territories worldwide.

From cyberbullying to social networking to digital identity, each year Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues and current concerns.

As a teacher or educator, there are various ways in which you can get involved in Safer Internet Day. Firstly, the most important way is to raise awareness – talk to your colleagues to plan whole-school actions, and provide a real focus with a day, week or even a month of safer and better internet activities. If you’re looking for resources to support you in this, check out the SID resource gallery.

Here, you’ll find a range of resources from assembly and lesson plans, to printable games to use in the classroom, in a variety of languages and for a variety of age groups. You may also wish to make contact with your local Safer Internet Centre or Safer Internet Day Committee to find out about specific actions in your country.

They may also be able to assist with more targeted resources.

If your school has a social media account, you can support SID by tweeting and posting about your actions, and sharing our posts too.

You can find suggested posts, visuals and covers in our social media plans. For full information, please visit www.saferinternetday.org

A great time to book annual online safety training for staff, parents & carers but be quick as this slots within this highly popular week have limited availability!

Email training@eduthing.co.uk for full information!

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TACKLING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE ONLINE WITH THE NCA & CEOP There is no doubt that continuing to keep children safe online within the ever-changing digital world is one of the largest challenges that schools and their communities face in the 21st century.

Delivered by a certified ambassador, training sessions developed by the National Crime Agency and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command are available for parents & carers as well as professionals across the following areas:

PARENTS & CARERS + Parents & Carers: Primary + Parents & Carers: Secondary

PROFESSIONALS + Introduction to Online Child Sexual Abuse + Children and Young People Online

PROFESSIONALS – THEMATIC + Live Streaming + Nude Image Sharing + The Dark Web + Challenging Victim Blaming Attitudes

Whilst these sessions are aimed specifically at tackling Online Child Sexual Abuse, we are also able to offer Online Safety training sessions for parents & carers, professionals and governors which covers awareness, risks and support more broadly as requested.

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PROGRAMMING GAMIFICATION WITH RODOCODO Parents often worry about their children spending too much time gaming - but did you know gamification can actually help your students learn more effectively?

I originally created Rodocodo as a fun way to teach my children problem-solving skills using everything I’d learnt from my career as a game developer and designer, writes Chi Dire, creator of Rodocodo.

The great thing about gamification is that most children love playing games and so are more likely to persevere when they get stuck. There’s a hidden bonus too: it builds your confidence in being able to figure things out which creates a virtuous cycle.

Gamification increases student engagement by providing incentives to complete the course and encourages mastery. For example, in Rodocodo, children are motivated to collect all the coins. However, you can only do this if you understand and apply the concepts.

All of this embeds the learning without them realising and they achieve a deep understanding of the concepts as a result.

Feedback from teachers that use Rodocodo confirms this. It’s heartwarming to hear children pestering their teacher for when they can do Rodocodo next.

Children learn all the important concepts such as Sequencing, Selection, Loops, Variables, and Functions without realising that they’re learning.

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BRINGING CAD TO LIFE – 3D PRINTING ( IN PART NE RSHIP WIT H C RE AT E E DUCAT IO N) Formed in 2014, The CREATE Education Project aims to support teachers and educators to bring 3D printing and additive manufacturing technologies to young people. We work exclusively with education organisations from Primary right through to Universities and other alternative education programmes.

WHAT IS 3D PRINTING? 3D printing is a process where a digital model created using computer-aided design software (CAD) is turned into a physical three-dimensional object by adding material a layer at a time.

There are many methods of melting or softening the material to produce the layers. Whilst the technology has been around for 30 years it’s only in the last 5 years, and the rise of desktop 3D printers, that people have become aware of its game changing potential across all industries.

HOW DOES 3D PRINTING WORK? It all starts with making a virtual design of the object you want to create. This virtual design is made in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) file using a 3D modelling program (for the creation of a totally new object) or with the use of a 3D scanner (to copy an existing object). A 3D scanner makes a 3D digital copy of an object. There are also lots of online file repositories where you can download existing 3D files that will help get you started.

The 3D printing process turns an object into many, tiny little slices, then builds it from the bottom-up, slice by slice. The layers then build up to form a solid object.

CREATE Education have a fantastic free offering for all schools and colleges across the UK, meaning every school can make pupils’ 3D creations a reality! + Resources for 3D CAD + Webinars for Teachers + 3D Printer Loans 13

CYBER SECURITY: H OW SECURE IS YOUR SCHOOL? We continue to see increased cyber attacks across the education sector. Technologies and systems can only protect networks so far and the strongest defence against phishing attacks is staff awareness and alertness.

We are proactively supporting schools to mitigate these risks by providing:

CYBER SECURITY TRAINING Alertness and awareness are essential features for all staff working within schools. With phishing emails being the root of many cyber-attacks, knowing what to look for to check legitimacy is becoming an increasingly more challenging digital skill, but one that has a limitless value. Do staff know how to spot a BitM attack? Can they identify a truly secure password amongst others? Are staff aware of the different ways schools can be attacked? Our cyber security training is designed for all members of staff who have school email or network access and covers all of the above and more.

SIMULATED ATTACKS Using our in-house system, eduPhish, we can simulate attacks for all staff within schools. Such simulated attacks offer a safe way for school leaders to assess their own levels of vulnerability throughout their staffing team. Results, such as who has opened, who has clicked and who has submitted their personal data and lessons learnt from these attacks are built into the cyber security training for school staff.

“Thank you for the recent training

CYBER INCIDENT RESPONSE PLAN As part of our work to support in all eventualities, we have recently written our own cyber incident response plan. This plan, specific for school leaders, goes through the steps and actions for schools should the inevitable happen and the school fall victim to a successful attack as well as a bespoke section on continuing teaching and learning for schools, as the attack is mitigated.

session which was really engaging, partly because it was so focused and not trying to cover too many aspects. The simulated phishing exercise really brought home just how easy it is to be taken in – especially if the name of a colleague and an organisation we work with all the time is used to create the bogus source email address. The tips on creating strong passwords were helpful too – again we have all heard this before but the specific examples were really useful and we all need reminding how important it is to do all this even though it can be EXTREMELY frustrating when we then can’t readily access our own accounts!!”

School Business Manager, Secondary School, Farnham

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TECHNOLOGY LOANS eduthing have a range of technology available for use by schools on a fully managed service’. Training is available for schools on the Enhance or Embed packages and will be tailored where possible to the individual school curriculum and age range that you intend to use the technology with.

BLUEBOTS (6X BLUEBOTS WITH 1X DOCKING/CHARGING SET) Suitable for pupils in EYFS and KS1, BlueBots are programmable floor robots, the perfect place to start for teaching control, whilst giving you as the teacher the ability to wirelessly control it with your tablet. BlueBots can interact with other Bee-Bots and Blue-Bots, record audio to play back to confirm when commands are entered and play audio when Blue-Bot follows commands.

MICROBITS (20X KITS) Create. Learn. Code. The BBC micro:bit is a pocket-sized computer that introduces you to how software and hardware work together. It has an LED light display, buttons, sensors and many input/output features that, when programmed, let it interact with you and your world. The new micro:bit with sound adds a built-in microphone and speaker, as well as an extra touch input button and a power button. This is suitable for pupils in KS2.

VR KIT (15X HEADSETS) Suitable for all ages, VR&AR kits allow students to explore virtual field trips, science experiments, historical landmarks and augmented objects from the safety of the classroom. A complete solution in a box bringing the latest technology and best experiences right into the hands and minds of the user.

GREENSCREENING (An app will need to be purchased for the school’s iPads however will remain for use by the school after the greenscreen hire)

Green screens are used in films to make it look like the actors are driving across the desert, and it’s used on TV to make it look like your local news announcer is standing in front of an animated weather map. It is easy and fun to use green screens in your classroom media creations and is a great technology to bring learning to life across your curriculum.

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TEACHING AND LEARNING TRAINING We know that access to continuing professional development for staff is essential for staying up to date.

We have an extensive - and growing - range of training opportunities for schools to choose from. Training sessions range from 1 to 2 hours dependent on the content and depth of content coverage within the session.

Training sessions are focused across 3 main areas: Computing, cross-curricular use of educational technology and Online Safety. Some examples of these sessions are included below:

GAINING WITH GOOGLE (INTERMEDIATE)

ECTS – INTRODUCTION TO TEACHING COMPUTING (KS1/KS2)

Building on the ‘Get Going with Google’ training session, in this ‘Gaining with Google’ session the Google Workspace for Education apps will be explored in greater detail with some more complex features from Google Workspace as well as other Google Workspace apps such as Sites, Maps, Earth, Drawings and Jamboard.

Within this training course aimed at teachers within Key Stages 1 and 2, we will cover the curriculum for Computing and the 3 strands – computer science, information technology and digital literacy. We will review resources, tools, software, and hardware that are available to use in the teaching of Computing across years 1-6 and look at practical implementation examples that can be taken away and used in your own practice and ensure that you are confident in your delivery of the primary computing curriculum within your school.

ONLINE SAFETY – STAFF Keeping Children Safe in Education (2022) has more of a focus than ever before on Online Safety reflecting the need for staff that work in schools to be vigilant to the online threats facing young people and for schools to have suitable systems and infrastructures in place to safeguard pupils online. From This is all underpinned by the focus on online safety within the curriculum coverage in Computing and PSHE. This training will refresh staff’s knowledge of online safety, teaching resources and develop effective strategies for effective handling of online safety related issues.

Sessions are hosted either remotely through Teams or in-person in our training centre at our HQ. Full information on these sessions, exclusively for eduthing supported schools, and how to book on them can be found in our training brochure at https://www.eduthing.co.uk/training

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SUSTAINABILITY We are all focused on sustainability, with the discussions on climate change combined with the focus on the price of energy, then two agendas merge. The focus on being as sustainable as possible also allows us to focus on reducing energy use.

Moving to a Cloud based MIS for example could save up to £5k a year for a primary school and up to £12k a year for a secondary school, with those costs being multiplied by the number of schools in a Multi Academy Trust. There are also other benefits including secure remote access without needing a complex onsite remote desktop solution.

When you apply this to an IT solution there some obvious areas where simple solutions can make a difference. At eduthing we are rolling out a very simple approach using timers that ensure a trolley of user devices only charge for enough time so replenish their batteries and then turning off the power supply.

This avoids the devices using power even when they are not charging thus reducing the overall power being used and increasing the sustainability of your IT solution by also reducing your carbon footprint.

If we combine the approaches above with a wellmanaged device strategy then the overall cost of an IT solution can be as low as possible whilst focusing on the impact in the classroom. The key message is to be as informed as possible about the impact of your IT solution and work with your IT partner to look at how the overall impact can be minimised whilst focusing on the greatest impact. At eduthing we also include our CPD packages as part of any service that we implement – we believe that focusing on outcomes and impact in the classroom is the critical issue whilst linking that to the best possible sustainable solution.

By using these simple approaches to power management for mobile devices whilst also ensuring that any desktop systems are automatically turned off using simple approaches that your Managed Service partner can implement, you can reduce your power usage significantly. At eduthing we include an audit of your power usage.

Other areas you can look at across your school or MAT are how far you are using Cloud solutions and how many of your software systems leverage Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. The more SaaS solutions you can use the fewer onsite servers you need. This is turn will reduce the onsite backup and recovery solutions you need to run in case of a server failure.

These changes can significantly reduce power use and therefore reduce your carbon footprint, helping to deliver a solution that is as sustainable as possible.

For more sustainability ideas visit www.eduthing.co.uk/greenideas

Cloud based SaaS solutions help fix your costs making them predictable. The cost for a SaaS solution includes the power costs and are usually fixed for at least a year or longer depending on the contract in place. SaaS solutions also take care of data backup and disaster recovery as part of the solution.

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For more information please contact us on the details below 0203 750 9796 hello@eduthing.co.uk eduthing.co.uk 5 Walton Lodge, Bridge Street, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 1BT

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