Silicon Valley comes to the UK 2013 @SVC2UK

Sherry Coutu Chair of Silicon Valley Comes to the UK

Sherry speaking at the Houses of Parliament

Sherry Coutu has pulled off another excellent year for Silicon Valley Comes to the UK. I was lucky enough to attend the Houses of Parliament and listen to thought leaders from around the globe on what they see as the future of education.

There were some great speakers including Diane Tavenner (Summit Schools), John Katzman (Noodle Education), Mike Keller (Stanford Library), Ben Nelson (Minerva Project), Louise Rogers (Times Educational Supplement), Eben Upton (Raspberry Pi) and Conrad Wolfram (Mathematica).

I found Diane of Summit Schools particularly interesting. Summit Schools in California are re-imagining the classroom.

Here are just a few of the things they are doing:

  • Classrooms without walls
  • Whiteboards on the back of chairs
  • Weekly 1 to 1 student mentoring which are student led
  • 8 weeks of study away from school in the community and in business
  • Teachers are conducting high value coaching in classrooms and students are watching videos at home (the flipped classroom approach)
  • Student’s have individualised learning plans

Sean Gilligan EdTech Entrepreneur

Mathematica explained the importance of teaching Maths through coding. Conrad explained that coding is to Maths what composing is to English.

Webanywhere are running some computer coding workshops for free in collaboration with Bradford University. You can visit our Codeanywhere site to learn more.

In addition, you can learn more about Silicon Valley Comes to the UK at the SVC2UK website.

Create your Character Competition

Judging our Create your Character competition

I Judging our Create your Character competition

It’s not X Factor nor is it Strictly Come Dancing but judging our Create your Character competition is a great honour to undertake. Children from up and down the country have spent many hours inside and outside of school creating their own inspirational characters. Imaginations have run wild and the best characters will be included as avatars in our Learnanywhere learning platform. It’s great to see kids using Learnanywhere but it’s even better getting pupils to contribute back to the product itself. Good luck to one and all who have entered the competition and may the best characters win!

Webanywhere turns 10!

Webanywhere are celebrating our 10th birthday. We’ve come a long way from the company founded in my back bedroom a decade ago, and we couldn’t have done it without our     customers, both old and new.

I’d like to share a video to express my thanks for joining us on this journey. We really do      appreciate our customers, and as ever are keen to hear about your experiences with our products (I even give out my email address in the video, if you would like to write to me       directly!)

Look out for upcoming announcements as we celebrate this landmark in our history (and for pictures from our staff party this Friday!). Here’s to the next 10 years – to new jobs,            continuing innovation and to new horizons in the blooming educational technology market!

Webanywhere cake

There are only two things in life that you can invest…

Here’s the next extract from my talk at the Holy Family School Enterprise Day – this time focusing on something I am extremely passionate about – entrepreneurship.

I cover the need to focus on what you enjoy and are best at, finding a problem which is under-served and solving it – and the truth in the Tortoise and the Hare fable!

 

 

The Webanywhere story

Here is a snippet from my recent talk at the Holy Family School Enterprise Day. A visit to my old school is always inspiring, and a great chance share entrepreneurial tips with the business owners of tomorrow.

In this extract I share my experience as a late blooming Primary school pupil, discovering the infinite possibilities presented by the computer, and working my way from the bottom to the top of class with good old fashioned hard work!

I also cover how I got started in web design and online technology, and the story behind the founding of Webanywhere – and how it has grown from my bedroom to an international business. It is my hope that I can pass on what I have learned on this journey to the next generation, for whom entrepreneurial acumen is more essential than ever.

 

 

Inspiring the next generation of Entrepreneurs

As an ex-pupil of Holy Family School in Keighley, I was delighted to be invited back to speak at their Enterprise Day today.

A group of Year 9 pupils were given an “Apprentice” style challenge to identify a business opportunity within the school and come up with a proposal to address it.

HFS Enterprise Day Photo July 2013 (2)

I was really impressed with the creativity and business acumen displayed by the 18 teams involved, and their confidence in presenting their ideas to a panel of their teachers.

Once the staff had scored each group out of 10 (Strictly Come Dancing style), a clear winner emerged – team “8 Minds” with their proposal for a swipe-card payment system to replace cash throughout school.

I’m sure that among those students there will be a few future business leaders, project managers and entrepreneurs –  who might one day give me a run for my money!

I was joined by one of our media team on the day to film the occasion, so I’ll share the finished videos with you soon.