Welcome to the Blippit Blog

11th December 201812th December 2018

Flakefleet Primary School dared to dream of being the Christmas No. 1 – Headteacher Interview

This December has been a big one at Flakefleet Primary School where, hot on the heals of winning the UK Happiest School Award, the seed of a dream was sewn in an assembly. That seed has now become a full-on raging express train of a mission to do the seemingly impossible: To be No. 1 this Christmas 2018 with their single ‘Light Up’ with all proceeds going to Alzheimer’s UK.

As part of our School in the Fast Lane Podcast, we wanted to share the power of what can happen when a community gets heart and soul engaged in a common goal using social media, particularly Facebook, as a platform.

John Bidder (Blippit Social founder whose services support Flakefleet) interviewed Dave McPartlin (Headteacher) in early December 2018 about the part played by social media in this school community-wide mission that also raises money for Alzheimer’s.

Listen to the podcast & subscribe for notifications of new episodes on all platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts & Anchor

Along the way Flakefleet has managed to gain local and national celebrity endorsements from far a wide generating press, tweets, videos and photos. Who couldn’t support a cause like Azheimer’s?

Pre-order ‘Light Up’ for 59p today!
Official Release Date 14th Dec 2018
Google Play: https://bit.ly/2RhcSkU
iTunes: https://apple.co/2AChJ99
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2PyAIHf

This is incredible, and so heart-warming – @Flaketweet Primary School have recorded a charity single with all proceeds going to @alzheimerssoc, and they’re trying to get to Christmas No. 1!

Hear the song here: https://t.co/SPtWslRHxI
— fearne cotton (@Fearnecotton) December 5, 2018

Silver fox Philip Schofield doing his bit for Alzheimer’s and the #daretodream Chrismas No. 1

https://www.facebook.com/flakefleet/videos/1955317947894612/

Sir Chris Hoy gets behind the dare to dream mission!

Bobby Ball joins the #daretodreamcampaign
Over the moon to have the full support and backing of the one and only Bobby Ball and his lovely wife! They are two of the nicest people I have ever met and thrilled to have them on board!
Posted by Flakefleet Primary School for Christmas No.1 on Sunday, 2 December 2018

LEGEND Bobby Ball gets behind the dare to dream mission!

Press coverage on Flakefleet’s bid for No. 1 in 2018

Watch the ‘Light Up’ video

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS IN THIS ARTICLE ARE COPYRIGHT FLAKEFLEET PRIMARY SCHOOL 2018 AND ARE USED WITH PERMISSION.

23rd November 201812th December 2018

What has fake news got to do with your school?

Schools, much like any other organisation these days, can’t exist in a bubble when it comes to reputation management and engaging with parents.

Ofcom’s 2018 study of where teenagers go to get their news is very insightful and just as interesting is where the adults (parents) go.

What are the implications? Here are our initial thoughts.

Watch on Youtube

Related:

20th October 201812th December 2018

Now live! App Maker Coding & Other New Features

The Blippit App Maker has just become an even more flexible, creative tool for curious minds!

With a renewed focus on coding using HTML we’ve done our utmost to retain the App Maker’s simplicity, keeping the drag and drop principle to make light work of complex tasks, while boosting more advanced features.

The Headlines

Every widget now has it’s own unique Widget Code so that you can now link to anything from within a Writer widget
Linking can be now done using text and images
Writer widget has a new colour-coded Source view for coding
Images are now managed for each app project in a gallery that collates all images uploaded across all widgets for ease of use
Images can now be uploaded directly into a Writer widget
Widgets can now be hidden from view in an app so that they can be worked on & included when ready or hidden to help users follow a set navigation path

Here are some new videos to support you if you’re looking to take advantage of the new features.

5th April 201813th December 2018

School in the fast lane – a new podcast series

In this new series we’ve called ‘School in the fast lane’, Blippit Social’s John Bidder talks about the reality for schools of being in the fast lane & having the mindset/tools to engage with parents through social media.

'You’ve not met our parents!’

Listen to someone who has worked with hundreds of schools on the issue of parents colouring SLT vision for using social media as a tool for engagement https://t.co/tqeQy7ucwe pic.twitter.com/IN1vtaPTH4

— Blippit Social (@schoolfacebook) September 18, 2018

Subscribe to ‘School in the fast lane’ today using any of these popular podcast platforms for free.

Here’s Chapter 1

14th March 201831st July 2018

STEM App Maker Projects in the Emirates 2018

The new United Arab Emirates Design & Technology Curriculum is well under way with STEM themed app making projects and fabulous learning happening in schools such as this leading girls’ school.

The attention to detail in these apps is very noticeable, as is the thought that has gone into the preparation for the learning, supported and emphasised in the new MoE created teacher & student handbooks.

Here are some images of the girls’ activity and work from the classroom where students are seen presenting to peers the key features, content and design considerations. It’s good to also see the creative use of Google Forms in a number of the apps – you can see this in a screenshot of one of the apps lower down this article.

Considering that the UAE only began using Blippit in mid-January 2018 we’re impressed with the rate of progress. Congratulations to everyone involved.

28th February 2018

Is social media disconnecting us from society?

One of the major criticisms of social media is that it’s disconnecting us, as individuals, from society and from real physical interactions.

But if a key element of ‘tribe’ is communication and connectivity then the digital world arguably holds unlimited bounds for tribes.

If the internet has heralded the death of distance, what do these new kind of tribes look like? And do we relate to each other in different ways now that so much of our lives are lived online?

[panel style=”panel-info”]
[panel-header]
Tribe: Listen to the broadcast (30 mins)

[/panel-header]
[panel-content]

[/panel-content]
[/panel]
In this episode of The Digital Human (BBC Radio 4.), Aleks Krotoski asks if rather than separating us, the digital world is helping us revive old tribal connections. It’s a fascinating way to look at schools and their parental communities for many reasons so do have a listen.

23rd January 201831st July 2018

Blippit goes live for the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education

The curriculum for schools in the United Arab Emirates is changing rapidly in response to the UAE Vision 2021. Critically the UAE wants to be among the best countries in the world by 2021 and for us its been a pleasure to work colleagues at the Ministry of Education to make Blippit part of the new Design & Technology curriculum. The pace has been remarkable.

[rule style=”rule-thin” ]”…the UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda emphasises the development of a first-rate education system, which will require a complete transformation of the current education system and teaching methods. The National Agenda aims for all schools, universities and students to be equipped with Smart systems and devices as a basis for all teaching methods, projects and research.” Read: First-Rate Education System. [rule style=”rule-thin” ]

Personalised Blippit

The MoE has an Office 365 integrated sign in for their schools to use with Blippit to make life easier. Uniquely, theirs is a bespoke Blippit App Maker cloud that’s only accessible to schools in the UAE to bring performance enhancements and meet their data requirements.

Resources

A new publication has been created thanks to teachers in the UAE supported by colleagues from the Ministry of Education. Teachers are now using this publication thanks to their in-country training in 2018.

As the schools in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Northern Emirates get to grips with the App Maker and begin their learning, we looking forward to seeing how they progress with their new digital skills, explorations of app making, coding and creativity.

19th July 201716th November 2017

How do reluctant writers respond to writing in the Blippit App Maker?

For years we’ve kept the app writer as a completely open ended tool so that people aren’t immediately channeled in to predictable and boring pathways like trying to create a restaurant app.

The result is has been that teachers are able to, for example, focus on their own curriculum subject areas like vikings to extend, consolidate and publish the children’s learning to the whole world with a literacy focus.

A few weeks ago one teacher we worked with (year 4 & 5) told us about a reluctant writer of hers and the impact that writing in Blippit’s App Maker had on him. You can listen to her here…

Here’s a quick view of the apps once they were published to our App Store on Planet Blippit.

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC 3.0 BY

The Blippit Blog

Posts

Now live! App Maker Coding & Other New Features

The Blippit App Maker has just become an even more flexible, creative tool for curious minds!

With a renewed focus on coding using HTML we’ve done our utmost to retain the App Maker’s simplicity, keeping the drag and drop principle to make light work of complex tasks, while boosting more advanced features.

The Headlines

STEM App Maker Projects in the Emirates 2018

How do reluctant writers respond to writing in the Blippit App Maker?

Schools, much like any other organisation these days, can’t exist in a bubble when it comes to reputation management and engaging with parents.

Watch on Youtube

To help with Children in need we’ve created 3 Pudsey Bear Facebook profile Frames. Here’s what they look like & if you want to jazz up your Facebook profile temporarily just follow the links

Augmented Reality Children in Need Glasses

The Blippit App Maker has just become an even more flexible, creative tool for curious minds!

With a renewed focus on coding using HTML we’ve done our utmost to retain the App Maker’s simplicity, keeping the drag and drop principle to make light work of complex tasks, while boosting more advanced features.

The Headlines