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Primary Exhibition - first feedback from teachers

I traveled up to Manchester today to the Early Years and & Primary Education Exhibition Manchester 2006. I was there to get feedback from teachers on Alpha versions that we have of the Sums software for mobile phones.

This software has been built using content ideas from Sums Online, which is already being used in 700 UK schools. The Sums Online software covers 80 different aspects of the Key Stage 1 & 2 curriculum and we have adapted 4 of these games for the mobile phone to test usability and interest with children.

Whilst gathering feedback from the teachers we also had a questionnaire, which turned up some interesting results. The results of this survey can be seen on our site.

The feedback on the software gave us a few points that need to be refined, but most of these we already knew as it was the Alpha version. Overall the feedback was that teachers would recommend the software, once it was shown to have a positive impact on children’s learning.

It positive to have a general acceptance from the teachers of the ideas. There were a few teachers who felt that children should not be encouraged to use phones anymore than they already do. The teachers who were resistant to the idea, did also say that they themselves should review their attitude to new technology as they couldn’t see students putting the phones down and in that case it was better to have educational programmes being used.