Any new technology initiative in school will look to serve and develop a key area of improvement such as driving learning and teaching, improving operational efficiency, enhancing the curriculum, and providing equity and accessibility. While this list isn’t exhaustive, as context plays a key role for us all in schools, the first area to ensure success with technology is likely how will it integrate with your current systems and how will you onboard colleagues?
The integration of any new piece of educational technology will often come with its own set of challenges from teacher training and development to technical infrastructure and support requirements through to cost budgeting constraints.
Amity International School Abu Dhabi’s recent experience highlights why onboarding and integrating with now>press>play was an absolute breeze!
5 reasons onboarding with now>press>play was a breeze
1. User-Friendly Platform
One of the standout features of now>press>play has been its intuitive and user-friendly platform accessible via their app. From the initial setup to daily usage, the platform is designed with educators in mind. The interface is clean, straightforward, and easy to navigate ensuring that teachers, and ultimately students, can get the most out of the immersive experiences and the follow-on resources without getting bogged down by complicated technology.
2. Comprehensive Training and Support
A second key factor in our seamless onboarding experience was the comprehensive training and support provided by the now>press>play team. While the support team is readily available to address any questions or concerns, making the transition as smooth as possible, the platform is so easy to use we have not needed to draw down on this technical support.
now>press>play offers detailed training sessions tailored to our specific needs, ensuring that all staff members are confident and competent in using the equipment; from all staff sessions to learn about the platform to year group leader sessions, we received insightful and supporting training.
Another key factor in the success of integrating now>press>play at Amity has been the curriculum sequencing and mapping. The support team has taken our curriculum and mapped their experiences to our curriculum for us, this bought our teachers and leaders time to immediately explore the recommended experiences for each year group and interrogate the follow-on resources; enabling our teachers to focus on talking about teaching and learning.
3. Engaging and Relevant Content
The content from now>press>play is both engaging and relevant to our (British) curriculum but what is as important as the experiences themselves are the follow-on resources. These allow teachers and students to further explore the themes and learning, whether it is ancient civilizations or a PSHE focus, thanks to the 500+ editable resources!
From glossaries, reading comprehension, writing opportunities, discussion prompts, grammar and punctuation, storyboards and so much more. The adaptability and editability of their relevant and well-structured resources have been a firm favourite for us and further emphasised the positive experiences of our onboarding and embedding processes.
4. Positive Student Feedback
One of the most encouraging aspects of the onboarding process has been the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our students and staff. Students are genuinely excited about the immersive Experiences, which has continued to boost their engagement and enthusiasm for learning as highlighted in our previous case study. This positive reception has made it easier for teachers to incorporate now>press>play into their lessons, knowing that it resonates well with students and gives them a new and exciting way of learning.
"Using the headphones was really different and exciting"
"I felt like I was learning in a different place"
5. Seamless Integration with Existing Systems
Finally, now>press>play seamlessly integrates with our existing educational technology systems. This compatibility meant that we did not have to overhaul any of our current infrastructure, saving us time and resources. The ease of integration ensured that we could quickly adopt now>press>play and the students immediately benefitted from the immersive experiences. All a teacher needs are the app downloaded on their iPad, the antennae and the trusty now>press>play headphones and you are ready; it really is a brilliant “plug and play” solution!
In conclusion, our onboarding experience with now>press>play has been exceptionally smooth, and we highly recommend the solution for the reasons outlined above. For any schools in the region wishing to see now>press>play in action and the benefits this brings to learning and teaching please do reach out to us at Amity.
