User Group Management and Targeting Comes To Kite

Posted on May 3, 2012 by nick.myers

Group Management In Kite ImageA new release to the Kite Learning Platform brings with it two new highly anticipated features – Academic Targets and Group Management.

The Kite Learning Platform is designed to give our users the best experience possible when they are using our VLE. Our ethos has always been to work closely with schools to shape the product around the needs of the teaching community. We’ve been actively listening to what our users want and we are pleased to announce the introduction of Academic Targets and Group Management tools to the latest release of Kite.

Management isn’t just hard work, it’s time consuming too; but it doesn’t have to be. With Kite, we’ve come up with a solution that lets users simply and easily create, edit and delete groups. Our UI experts and developers have created a Group Management System, that lets you organise members into groups (or sub-groups) and find exactly what you need with integrated search tools for members and groups. All of this, along with details about groups and members, is displayed in a beautiful design.

With academic targets being a key part of a students learning process, we were keen to develop a new feature that gives teachers, students and parents the ability to manage academic targets. Setting these targets could help students to close the gap between what they have achieved and what they want to achieve in the future.

Our Academic Targets Tool lets a user change target descriptions, progress, due dates and types. It will let users submit comments and evidence and choose whether to set group wide targets, or ones focused on an individual member. With the ability for staff, students and parents to leave comments on a target, this new feature brings everyone together in the pursuit of achieving academic excellence.

The new release will also see the introduction of the first stage of our notifications system, which will be extended across other areas of Kite in the coming months.

If you would like to learn more about our next-generation Learning Platform and how it can help teaching and learning in your school, please feel free to give our Kite team a call today on 0845 257 0224. You can keep up-to-date on the development of our VLE on our Kite Blog.

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Make Learning Fun With ‘e4education Quizzes’

Posted on May 3, 2012 by nick.myers

Put your spelling and maths skills to the test with our latest creation – e4education Quizzes!

We are pleased to announce e4education Quizzes, an all-new product aimed at creating a fun and easy way to create maths and spelling quizzes for pupils.

Launching in the Summer Term, e4education Quizzes will initially come with a set of 10 beautiful themes, to make your quizzes look bright and vibrant.

e4education Quizzes will be integrated into our new Primary VLE and thanks to our intuitive tools, teachers will be able to create and edit quizzes in minutes.

Over the coming months we hope to utilise the Primary VLE to capture quiz results and make them available to teachers, allowing them offer students help and guidance based on the outcome of quizzes.

We’re really excited about this wonderful new feature and we hope you are too. Looking ahead, we think there is plenty of potential to extend the quizzes beyond just spelling and maths. We’d love to hear any ideas you might have as to how we could enhance it.

And what about those Primary Schools who aren’t taking advantage of our fantastic Primary VLE, I hear you cry? Well, there will be the option to purchase the e4education Quizzes add-on for a small fee.

You can sample some of the quizzes below and if you’d like to learn more about our Primary VLE or e4education Quizzes, please feel free to get in touch with our Primary Care team today on 0845 257 0224.


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And that’s the way cookies crumble…

Posted on May 3, 2012 by nick.myers

The deadline to comply with a new Privacy and Communications directive from the EU, regarding the use of cookies on websites, is fast approaching. So, what do the changes mean and what are we doing to help?

As of 25th May 2012 the UK will be enforcing an amendment to the “Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations”. The amendment covers the use of cookies and similar technologies for storing and accessing information on a user’s equipment, such as their computer or mobile phone.

To ensure that all of our clients websites comply with the new legislation, we are currently in the process of contacting all of those we believe to be affected and outlining several courses of action that could be taken.

A cookie is a small file saved to a user’s device when they access certain websites. These cookies can then be read when a user navigates around the website and each subsequent time they visit the site, depending on the type of cookie being used. Cookies can be useful as they can allow a website to store information about a user, such as whether they are logged in to a website or to keep track of the number of visitors.

Previously, if a website owner wanted to use cookies, or similar technologies for storing information, you had to tell visitors how you use the cookies and how they could opt-out should they object to their usage. The new legislation however, requires website owners to provide clear and comprehensive information about the purpose of storing and accessing that information and require their explicit permission to do so.

If you have any questions about the changes then please feel free to get in touch, however please note that we are not able to provide legal advice.

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Introducing Filio – Produce Professional Development Portfolios With Ease

Posted on May 3, 2012 by nick.myers

At e4education our customers really matter to us, so we are always happy to make them aware of useful new products and services which we don’t actually provide ourselves. If your school is looking for a way to manage teaching standards and professional development, then a new product called ‘filio’ recently developed by 4 Colour Learning, a company run by people we have worked with for many years may be the thing for you.

All schools are considering what recent changes to the OFSTED inspection framework will mean for them.  A key change is the decision to make the overall inspection judgement dependent on the standard of teaching. Schools will need to show they have a system for managing and supporting performance to improve teaching and to drive up and maintain standards. OFSTED has confirmed that inspectors will be looking for clear evidence of robust processes in this area.

Paper based professional development portfolios and manuals mean expensive printing and photocopying, lost papers and reports and can make it difficult for teachers and line managers to keep up to date. Filio is efficient, easy to use and keeps all the information in one, secure place.

A cloud based system, filio enables teachers to organise and share information; upload examples of activity, including video and pictures and create a personal portfolio of professional development and performance mapping evidence against the new 2012 Teacher Standards. Filio also provides Individual teachers with a personal library facility whilst a central resource bank and calendar can contain all the information they need about professional development provided by the school.

Individual and organisational dashboards show a live overview of activity and progress against objectives and standards. School leaders and Governors can access information quickly and easily increasing responsiveness to staff development needs; pinpointing areas for improvement, highlighting good practice and focussing resources.

We think filio represents a fresh, new approach and can provide your staff with best possible tools to manage their professional development and career progression. With features included to enable collaborative coaching and mentoring the system is supportive of both individual teachers and whole school development. John Baumber, CEO of The Learning Schools Trust, is using filio in three schools – “We are finding filio an invaluable aid in the management of our CPD programmes. Its operability allows us to personalise programmes and provide employees with a structured confidential and paperless way to manage their targets and professional development”

Filio is suitable for both primary and secondary schools and can be particularly useful for schools that play any part in the training of new teachers.

Annual licences priced at £975 for a secondary school and £475 for a primary school represents good value for money. There are pricing options for groups of schools and ITT providers too.

To learn more about Filio visit http://www.filio.co.uk

If you are attending the NCSL Seizing Success 2012 Annual Conference on June 13th-15th then drop by and see filio in action on stand 46.

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e4education Passes ISO9001 Quality Inspection

Posted on May 3, 2012 by nick.myers

ISO 9001 Logoe4education recently completed an annual ISO9001 quality audit inspection and are pleased to report another positive year.

ISO9001 is the internationally recognised standard for the quality management of businesses.

With the focus over recent months on improved customer satisfaction and a full internal process review, our work to deliver quality products and services continues to strengthen.

At e4education, we are always keen to receive feedback from our clients; if you have any suggestions regarding ways that we may improve our service, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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