South Wirral High School is joining 80 million students and teachers around the world and ‘Going Google’. For the last 10 years students and staff have benefitted from the use of Moodle, our school Virtual Learning Environment. Moodle has been used by teachers effectively to set e-learning projects and provide a platform for revision for a number of years. Our use of technology to support learning has always been a strength.
Recently we have adopted a new IT strategy to better reflect the changes in technology. This aim of “Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device” further underpins our belief that learning isn’t confined to the walls of a classroom. Over the last academic year students have trialled the use of new technologies including Google Classroom and the Google for Education platform of online tools. These new platforms allow greater use of technology across any web enabled device and doesn’t require students to have access to specific software or device. The Google Platform is provided free of charge to schools across the world, with over 80 million students and teachers taking advantage of these resources.
With this in mind and the confidence of knowing the Google platform meets the needs of students and staff we will be retiring our use of Moodle at the end of this academic year.
Students will now benefit from the continued use of Google Classroom for e-learning. Google Classroom provides a digital space for learning inside and outside of school. Students will benefit from automated reminders for deadlines via their school emails and a modern, easy to access method of home learning.
We asked some students what they thought of Google Classroom, here is what they had to say:
“I like that I can download the app onto my phone and I don’t have to log in everytime and I can ask everyone in the class and the teacher for help whenever I want.”
“I like how simple and easy it is to use”
“I find it really useful to be reminded of homework and revision that needs completing”
The adoption of Google Classroom as our e-learning platform also further compliments our Sixth Form offer, where sixth form students have access to 1:1 Chromebooks during their studies at our college. We feel this change in our e-learning tools will be greatly beneficial to our students and allows them 24/7 access to a suite of productivity tools and materials to help support learning.
News and event information that used to be posted onto the Moodle front page will be posted onto our website (www.southwirral.wirral.sch.uk) news section and our social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter. As always our half termly digest newsletter will be available on all of these platforms and via EduLink One.