We are witnessing a huge sea change in the way education is being offered in our schools now. Devices are cheaper than ever, and it is now an option to provide a machine to every student in a school. Whether it is through BYOD, or the whole-scale purchase of technology for the classroom, 1:1 is becoming a reality in all of our schools.

Lincolnshire-based mobile tracking experts Ubitrac have been working with schools across the UK to develop Locuro, a mobile phone tracking application which enables authorised parents to follow school trips in which their children are involved. The phone, carried by a teacher or helper, provides a continuous online route with photos, videos and audio blogs automatically uploaded from the phone, to be viewed both live and historically.

Conversor, leaders in assistive technology, have released a series of updates for their SEN-friendly Notetalker solutions which will help teachers as well as pupils. Notetalker App, combined with a Universal microphone and cable kit for any smartphone or tablet, uses a simple user interface which allows the recording of classes. These developments have been made with CPD and working on identified weaknesses, such as after an Ofsted inspection. The range of Notetalker products is priced from £4.99 to £119.98.

Duolingo is one of the most popular language learning app out there, It is completely free and is part of an ambitious project to translate the web. It’s certainly is a great app, but it is also highly underutilised. In this article, we will go over a few useful tips teachers can use to help their students learn and practice Spanish using Duolingo.

Hope School, located in Belle Vale, Liverpool, has been working with Welsh company eeZeeTrip to enable bigger, better and more organised school trips than ever before. This was in order to combat the issues experienced when staff wanted to take pupils beyond the school walls, and instead use the situation to their complete advantage. The Outstanding-rated Hope School provides for boys with emotional, social and behavioural difficulties, so ensuring a secure school trip system was of paramount importance.

What’s better than the Amazon Prime Sale and Black Friday? Twitter! When I first joined Twitter I didn’t realise its full potential. I followed a few sporting heroes and a couple of celebs but did not realise the use it had, especially as educators. It wasn’t until I offered to edit the Numeracy Shed for Rob Smith that I started to follow other educators and take part in educational chats. As my following and followers rose, the benefits and potential for learning using Twitter grew. In fact I’d say it has been one of the single most influential things in my teaching in the last 18 months, and continues to give me fantastic ideas and resources. It has opened up avenues for me that otherwise would not have been possible.

Tablets have become very popular in schools over the past few years mostly due to their multi-functionality, such as the ability to have a camera and the internet on the same device, among many other things. Apps have also played a big part in their popularity and there have been a lot of apps that help lessons be more engaging. As well as using iPads to make the classroom more interactive, they have also been used to help SEN students. One area that I have been focussing on in particular is how tablet technology can help students who are visually-impaired.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Samsung Electronics UK and joined forces to develop and launch a new app which is set to inspire a whole new generation with Shakespeare’s work. RE:Shakespeare aims to transform the way pupils experience the work of Britain’s most prolific playwright, in and out of the classroom.

What is excellence and how do we achieve it? How can we take the secretarial out of excellence? You may have heard of Ron Berger and Austin’s Butterflies, showing the stages a boy goes through to create an excellent drawing of a butterfly. It’s an uplifting clip, reminding us how we need to teach our students the drafting process in the pursuit of excellence.

Innovate My School agony aunt and TechnoTeaching co-author Nicole Ponsford takes a look at the challenges facing teachers today.