News: Teachers in the South West lead in embracing technology in the classroom. Nearly 35% of teachers in the UK are using technology including laptops, tablets and interactive whiteboards in every lesson for teaching purposes. Virgin Media Business published the ‘Generation Tech’ research conducted by YouGov, which revealed that 29% of the schools also allowed students to use their own smartphones or tablets during a lesson for learning purposes. Around 35% of the teachers believed that using technology and the internet in the classroom helps unlocks creativity amongst pupils, and 25% think that the technology can also improve the exam results by at least one grade. Nearly 14% of teachers think that video-conferencing should be an option for parent’s evening. The research has been published ahead of Virgin’s annual #Disruptors event to be held on 2ed October, which will be hosted by Sir Richard Branson. This year the company is focusing on examining education and models of learning. Virgin Media Business managing director Peter Kelly said: "Generation Tech reveals how technology and digital learning is proving an ever-more important part of our education system. "Not only does tech support teachers and improves their ability to teach, but it also unlocks pupils’ creativity and ultimately improves grades." Virgin media is not the only tech giant that is trying to push technology to improve the quality of education. Similar initiative has been taken up by BT which has Education cloud service, which connects to school’s existing MIS, and gives students access to Microsoft 365 for Education or Google Apps for Education accounts. BBC has also introduced minicomputer that is designed to make learning the basics of computing and programming more interesting for children. It was scheduled to be delivered to one million schoolchildren between the ages of 11 -12 years by October, but the delivery has been delayed due to technical issues.
According to research from Virgin Media Business ahead of its annual #Disruptors event, which was held the This year , around 35% of teachers believe that using technology in the classroom helps students become smarter learners, unlocking creativity. 14% of teachers also believed that technology helps produce better exam results, and that around 35% of teachers would like video conferencing to be an option for parent's evening, to make it more accessible. Managing Director of Virgin Media Business , Richard Branson , explained that technology not only supports teachers and "improves their ability to teach, but it also unlocks pupils' creativity and ultimately improves grades."