What if we had that?..

A question I had to ask myself at the ADESSA exhibition that took place in Worcester today. Put simply, it was about businesses trying to sell their products and services aimed at the education sector to schools in the disctrict.

I prepared a couple of product highlights your school may, or may not, benefit from. Judge for yourself...

Mimio interactive white board comes bundled with educational software for R7999. It basically has two modes, the first being when the data projector is needed, the other is with no projector, where it can capture anything you write on the board and then store it on your laptop for future reference.
The main argument in favour of using this product and not simply the data projector is, you get the kids directly involved to interact with the teaching material on the spot in a class environment.
However, a less cool, but equally practical method to get the learner involved in the same way would be by buying a digital drawing pad starting with only R300 for entry level models, and simply use it in conjunction with the digital projector. Instead of buying the splendid Mimio, you can save R7500. Even though you forfeit the bundled software, I got an impression it is mainly aimed at primary schools.

Smsweb is another bulk sms solution that you can use to keep in touch with parents. It is not free, but it can become an invaluable tool in conjunction with a sponsorship from a local business. Say, if Ashton Canning can commit to sponsor this programme at only R150 per month, and if the parents paid a fee of R25 per year, it could not only become the standard way of communicating with a group of parents at once, but also an indispensable emergency channel.

The best example of how useful it can be, apart from the possibility of using it for mass mailing the monthly letters to the parents, which alone would save the school all the ink and paper, is to have a look what happened when the school bus broke down and came late last Friday and on Monday earlier this week. The parents must have been worried when their children never arrived home anywhere around the usual time. The delay was nearly 2 hours in both cases. Having a bulk sms service like the one described above would have set all the parents at ease with only one notification at a click of a button.

A deeper cost analysis is needed, whereafter one may seriously consider a bulk sms service as a substitute for traditional ways of communication with parents. The communication is two way, immediate and effective, because everybody has got a cellphone, even if it's a "brick".
YK