Today it was announced that the mobile phone companies are going to make thousands of government-funded lessons, produced by Oak National Academy, available free of charge until schools re-open.
You might think that we, as a company that sells our online learning service into schools, would be up in arms about this.
Not so!
We can see that the £millions of public money spent creating resources that are then made available ENTIRELY free to consumers is great for our business going forwards.
Why?
Well, Oak National Academy now sets the standard for ‘free’ online education.
This pandemic will end (eventually!), and when it does, Ofsted will immediately start inspecting schools on their readiness to deal with another one.
They will judge each school’s readiness for high-quality online learning and in the cold light of day, these free resources will be found to lack impact on learning.
That’s when schools will look around for services that offer high-quality learning wherever learners are – in school or at home.
Companies like ours, who’ve spent years developing online teaching and learning services underpinned by powerful pedagogies will be able to answer the call. I look forward to those conversations.
In the meantime, if you’re a school leader who understands that free is not best (and has got a spare moment in the midst of this craziness) give us a call and ask how YouTeachMe is hands-down better for your learners, families, staff team, governors, MAT and for you.