News

This section will contain news articles about developments within Shift Learning and in the education and learning sector in general.

Stop Press: Shift's very own Jack Wilson about to hit your screens

We were very lucky to get to have a sneak preview of the new Samsung winter olympics advert which stars Jack.

Are textbook authors going to embrace the ipad?

Major textbook publishers have struck deals with third party iphone/ipod touch developers to adapt their textbooks for the electronic page. This could be the clearest indication yet that the industry is ready to embrace digital devices and that Apple's ipad could be at the forefront of this transformation.

So far McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, Pearson and Kaplan have signed deals with ScrollMotion Inc to build new applications for assessment, revision and teaching around their content.

Rik Kranenburg from McGraw-Hill's higher education unit said: “People have been talking about the impact of technology on education for 25 years. It feels like it is really going to happen in 2010,”

Will 2010 be the year of the ebook?

Click the link below to read the full article.

http://mashable.com/2010/02/03/textbook-publishers-embrace-ipad/

Student protest at AQA unit 4 biology exam

Nearly 10,000 students have joined a facebook group to protest over Mondays unit 4 biology exam, almost half of the 20,000 due to sit the exam. Many are complaining that the exam contained "unfair" questions that failed to relate to the course syllabus. AQA have said that the paper (sat for the first time this year) did properly reflect the assessment objectives.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jan/26/unfair-a-level-biology-exam-protest

“Removing the friction between wanting, buying and having”

The Publishers Association discussion on ebook strategies for 2010 threw up some interesting points for discussion, not least that publishers need to be considering usability of their ecommerce channels to be effective in the fight against piracy. While it may take a long time for standards and robust ebook strategies and business models to emerge from this changing market, it is clear that offering a better level of service than free sites by making it easy to find and buy content is something that all publishers can look to achieve now.

Many delegates from all publishing sectors appear keen to reduce the dominance currently held by Amazon in online book sales. One of the key components of Amazons online success in the past has been the gold standard experience it offers its users. See the book, like the book, one click and you’ve got the book. As Mark Carden so eloquently put it “removing the friction between wanting, buying and having” is vital. We think that site usability needs to continue to be an essential part of all publishers’ digital business strategies.

@shiftlearning #paevents

Conservatives launch their draft manifesto for schools

The Conservative Party have now launched their draft manifesto for schools.

Much of the manifesto is dedicated to their much reported plans to raise the prestige of the teaching profession. This involves replacing the Graduate Teacher Programme with a new, fast-track route into teaching for high-flying young professionals to be known as Teach Now.

Click here to link to the details given on the Conservative Party website (opens in new window).

Click here to read coverage of the story in The Independent (opens in a new window).

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