NetSupport Radio

Myles Pilling comments on the uptake in assistive technology in schools

Myles Pilling chats to Russell Prue about assistive technology for schools. He reveals that his organisation is producing three films for schools, featuring pupils talking about what assistive tech means to them.

He signposts that Nasen, Microlink and the DfE have come together to offer schools free assistive technology online training until August 2023, and encourages them to access it. He says it's an exciting time that is really moving things forward for students who use assistive technology.

bataonline.org

@BATAOnline

@mylespilling

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NetSupport Radio is honoured to chat to children's author, Michael Rosen!

Russell Prue chats to none other than children's author, Michael Rosen! Michael talks about his upcoming book and presentation at Bett 2023, which will feature his book 'Write to feel right' (all about writing for wellbeing) and reading some of his poems.

He discusses what the education system can do to improve the state of writing for young people – stopping the narrow focus on labelling the grammatical elements and trying to fit them all in and instead expose students to many styles of writing to inspire creativity.

On reading, he comments that reading was invented for pleasure (not simply for the purpose of exams) and that it is important to allow young people to choose books they are interested in.

michaelrosen.co.uk

@MichaelRosenYes

Emma Hawker talks about matching volunteer governors to schools

Governors for Schools is an education charity that matches volunteers to the schools that are right for them. Emma Hawker talks about how they listen carefully to both sides to ensure that the best match is found and that it works for everyone.

governorsforschools.org.uk

@SchoolGovNet

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NetSupport Radio puts on a great show for the final day of Bett 2023!

In a broadcast packed with top guests for the final NetSupport Radio broadcast from Bett 2023, host Russell Prue kicked off with NetSupport's CEO, Al Kingsley, talking about the team's experience over the duration of the event.

The absolute highlight of this day's interviews was a segment featuring none than children's author, Michael Rosen!

Next up were guests including, Jane Basnett, Director of Digital Learning, Nick Causton from STEAM Co, Jeremy Waters from Elastik Learning and  Beverly Clarke who stopped by to talk about her Chip and Ava technology-themed children's books.
 
Russell also chatted with Maria Wojciechowska-Caneda about her creative photography project, Ian Phillips from Inspire Edu, Emma Hawker from Governors for Schools – and had a catch-up with old friends Dr Dave Whiley and Myles Piling.

Finally, we heard from students from Lanchester EP Primary School, Jonathan Bhowmick the founder of Action Mats and Mark Solomons, CEO of Wellbee.

Nicole Ponsford, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Global Equality Collective, joined us on this edition of Insights. The latest addition to the GEC app, a student module, was the subject of Nicole's discussion with Al Kingsley, Group CEO at NetSupport, and Kat Cauchi, Community Engagement Lead at NetSupport.
 

The GEC has gathered a sizable amount of data from their extensive research on youth, which has been incorporated into their new student module.
 
Ponsford, Kingsley, and Cauchi explore the significance of utilising data responsibly in schools with the goal of assisting young people in understanding not only what happens to their data once they add it into a survey system, as is frequently the case in schools, but what actions are subsequently taken.

In this case, the app's data is used to give leaders actionable insights to improve equality, diversity, and intersectionality. The GEC team's goal is to better acknowledge and ground our differences through intersectionality awareness.

 
Nicole's Twitter handle is @NicolePonsford (https://twitter.com/@NicolePonsford)

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There are many different ways to learn and learning through quizzing is where Tassomai specialises. Murray Morrison from Tassomai talks to Russell Prue about how schools can use the solutions to build core subject knowledge, boost students' confidence and reduce exam stress.

As a former teacher himself, Murray drew on his experience to make the solution work for other educators, ensuring they do not have to keep repeating the facts that they need students to learn and instead get the solution to help out with the heavy lifting.

www.tassomai.com

@Tassomai

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Kanak Gupta is Group Director of Seth M.R. Jaipuria Group of Schools in India which is responsible for educating over 50,000 students from a diverse range of backgrounds. One of speakers at Bett, he explained to Russell that his talk was about digitisation in schools can move education forward, especially if everyone from different countries shares their experiences. 

He also talked about how education should be more than simply testing if students are to succeed in the future. He explained, "We need to understand that empathy is the key. We need to understand that creating experiences is the key. We need to understand that more than just examination. It's, you know, the overall 21st century skills that we talk about."

www.jaipuriaschools.ac.in

@KANAK0409

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Jenna tells Russell about the panel discussion she had been involved in in the Bett Leaders theatre, talking about the amount and variety data being collected from children in schools and how that could impact them in the future.

She also talked about Common Sense Education's resources and how they help schools and students with digital citizenship – including elements such as being a force for good online, having strong online relationships, using social media for lobbying, setting passwords and understanding the impact of your digital footprint.

commonsense.org

@talktojenna

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Al Kingsley grabs his chance to do an interview on NetSupport Radio and welcomes Olly Lewis (Head of Digital in his MAT) to the hotseat! The two discuss a panel discussion they had just been in talking about governance and digital transformation and reflected on what Kanak Gupta had said in the session about how, amongst the strategic education planning, it's important not to lose sight of the pedagogy educational value. 

Olly also talked about the new awards programme that he is involved with – the Global EdTech Awards – and how it aims to celebrate all the good work going on in edtech and education, while reducing bias in the judging process.

ollylewislearning.com

@OLewis_coaching

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