A Little About

Using Technology Better

Using Technology Better is a Microsoft Training Partner, Apple Learning Specialist,
Google Cloud Partner and Google for Education Partner that specialises in working
with corporate, government and education clients. We provide training services
across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

12k

Happy
Organisations

27k

Training Sessions
Delivered

125k

Humans
Kept Sane

Time

Saved…More Than
We Can Count

0

Boring IT
Classes

Time

Saved…More Than
We Can Count

0

Boring IT
Classes

Here's Our Journey So Far

2008

Michael J Reading (affectionally known as MJ around the team) started experimenting with an intrinsic motivation model. 

He was feeling frustrated with the lack of intrinsic motivation in students so he decided to do something about it. 

He had success and started showing others what was working.

2010

Mike started Teacher Training International and ran live webinars that spoke to the success he was seeing in student motivation. 

He loved helping others solve such pain points in their classrooms and the exciting changes it would bring to their students’ experience. 

2011

Mike attended Google and discovered Google Drive and Docs. He saw how Google could be used to complement the work he was doing on motivation … and FINALLY saw how the technology could be applied, not just how it functioned.

August: Company was rebranded from Leadwell Pty Ltd to Teachers Training International

2012

Rebranded to Google Apps for Education.

Mike began training teachers full-time in classroom management, student engagement, and technology use.

Full day courses on motivation and technology were delivering amazing results; teachers didn’t want to quit their jobs and student engagement levels were on the rise.

2013

Rebranded to Using Technology Better.

Due to the increasing demand for technology training, Mike shifted his focus to delivering tech training full-time.

2014

Microsoft Partnership is Forged.
Although the Microsoft product was in the early stages of development, Mike could see its potential and was genuinely impressed with the team at Microsoft who asked lots of questions and were keen to make improvements.

Because ninety per cent of Mike’s work was with Google at this stage, it was somewhat controversial to be branching out to train with Microsoft tools. However, Mike held firm to his belief in finding the best tool for the job at hand and not blindly following one platform.

2015

Mike was travelling frequently from Australia to New Zealand for his work with Google and after falling in love with Queenstown on a work trip, he floated the idea with his wife, Beth. 

They were up for a new challenge and so they decided to take the leap of faith and moved to New Zealand permanently.  

2016

Using Technology Better expanded from being a one-man band to a team when Mike brought on technology trainers Sam, Adrian and Mark.

Initially, a difficult transition for schools to make who had become accustomed to working with Mike, it wasn’t long before teachers and schools came to  appreciate the wealth of knowledge and unbridled enthusiasm the new team members had to offer.

2018

The training team expands again with new trainers Donna, Lara and Tim.

2019

Using Technology Better is now becoming a real business by diversifying into technology training and bringing on additional team members Glen (Technology Trainer), Adam (General Manager) and Julia (Marketing Manager).

2020

Using Technology Better’s partnership with Apple begins and two new technology trainers, Paul and Joe join the team.

2021

The New Zealand team continues to grow with the addition of new technology trainers, Kelly, Richard and Nicole, along with Bex (PLD Relationship Specialist), Phil (Sales Manager) and Majka (Marketing Coordinator).

2022

With Using Technology Better in hot demand the team continues to grow with the addition of technology trainers Rachel and Jim.

2023

  • Olya joined us as our first Malaysia based trainer
  • Lara Joined the Finance Team
  • Global Team was formed to support UTB’s growth into new countries and industries

Meet Our Team

Adrian Francis

Trainer Development Lead

Creative Spreadsheet Ninja

Grace Rebueno

Global Head of Finance

Finance Queen

Joseph Muir

Technical Trainer

Automation & Security Aficionado

Julia Anderson

Global Head of Execution & Marketing

Artist of Making Things Better

Mike Reading

Commander-in-Chief

Founder & Visionary

Paul Hamilton

Technology Trainer

Apple Vertical Lead

Here's What Our Happy Clients Are Saying

It really gets you thinking about ‘why’ you do what you do. Great to have time out from the classroom to experiment and have time to think and discuss different ideas.

Abbey Howard

Highlands Intermediate

Thank you Mike! I really found the 4 week course on ‘How to Motivate, Manage & Engage Your Students’ really interesting and great food for thought on how to improve my class routines and student engagement.

Kiki Tsoli

Banks Town Senior College

Mike, awesome course, fantastic resources and a real wake-up for someone who considers himself technically astute but not necessarily updated!

Shaun Hardy

Technological Teacher

I have been teaching for four years, and this was the best Professional Development course I have completed…even the students said
to me “you should do these things more often.”

Ailie Granger

Griffith High School

No fat, no rambling, just clean, concise explanations where needed. James was awesome.

Ethan Clews

Whangaparaoa College

I just wanted to say an extra big thank you for providing such a great service. Online, at night and in the comfort of home – with my two young children asleep in the other room – pretty awesome actually.

Leda McFadzean

Highlands Intermediate

How well do you use the
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tools in your workplace?

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tools working for you.

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Take the quiz to find out. 

Privacy Policy

Using Technology Better Privacy Commitment

Introduction

We hold the privacy of your personal information in the highest regard.

Using Technology Better regards customer privacy as an important part of our relationship with our customers. The following privacy policy applies to all Using Technology Better users, and conforms to Internet privacy standards.

This policy will be continuously assessed against new technologies, business practices and our customers’ needs.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact the support team on our Contact Us Page.

Collection of Information

In order to use the Using Technology Better website, we may require information from you in order to provide the best service possible.

All correspondence may also be collected and stored, particularly in regard to sales, support and accounts, including Email.

Any information collected by Using Technology Better is collected via correspondence from you or your company. This may be via the telephone, Email, mail, fax or directly through our website.

Visitors and customers of japan.usingtechnologybetter.com will have their information shared back to DAIWABO INFORMATION SYSTEM CO., LTD. and DIS Service & Solution Co., Ltd.

Use of Collection Information

Any details collected from Using Technology Better customers is required in order to provide you with our

products and/or services, and a high level of customer service.

Correspondence is recorded in order to provide service references, and to assist in our staff development.

Web Site Use Information

Similar to other commercial Web sites, our Web sites utilize a standard technology called “cookies” (see explanation below, “What Are Cookies?”) and web server log files to collect information about how our Web site is used.

Information gathered through cookies and Web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our Web site, and the Web sites visited just before and just after our Web site.

Storage of Collected Information

The security of your personal information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) on our website, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).

When Credit Card details are collected, we simply pass them on in order to be processed as required. We never permanently store complete Credit Card details.

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it.

If you have any questions about security on our Website, you can email us at <ContactEmail>.

Access to Collected Information

If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate it by emailing us at <ContactEmail>.

Orders

If you purchase a product or service from us, we may request certain personally identifiable information from you.

You may be required to provide contact information such as:

Name

Email

Postal address

Your school or organisation

Financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date, name on card, card billing address).

We use this information for billing purposes and to fill your orders. If we have trouble processing an order, we will use this information to contact you.

Communications

Using Technology Better uses personally identifiable information for essential communications, such as

Emails

Accounts information

Critical service details.

We may also use this information for other purposes, including some promotional Emails.

If at any time a customer wishes not to receive such correspondence, they can request to be removed from any mailing lists by contacting support.

You will be notified when your personal information is collected by any third party that is not our agent/service provider, so you can make an informed choice as to whether or not to share your information with that party.

Third Parties

Using Technology Better may at its discretion use other third parties to provide essential services on our site or for our business processes.

We may share your details as necessary for the third party to provide that service.

These third parties are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any other purpose.

Using Technology Better does not share any information with third parties for any unknown or unrelated uses.

What Are Cookies?

A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a Web site, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies.

Each Web site can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a Web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.

Browsers are usually set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you may alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies.

If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our site will not function as effectively when viewed by the users.

A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive or pass on computer viruses.

How Do We Use Information We Collect from Cookies?

As you visit and browse our Web site, the site uses cookies to differentiate you from other users. In some cases, we also use cookies to prevent you from having to log in more than is necessary for security.

Cookies, in conjunction with our Web server’s log files, allow us to calculate the aggregate number of people visiting our Web site and which parts of the site are most popular. This helps us gather feedback to constantly improve our Web site and better serve our clients.

Cookies do not allow us to gather any personal information about you and we do not intentionally store any personal information that your browser provided to us in your cookies.

Legal

We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Website.

Links

Links on the Using Technology Better site to external entities are not covered within this policy. The terms and conditions set out in this privacy statement only cover the domain name of usingtechnologybetter.com

Changes to Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it periodically. If we make material changes to this policy, we will not use the personal information you have submitted to us under this Privacy Policy in a manner that is materially inconsistent with this Privacy Policy, without your prior consent

Delivery Policy

Most goods are digitally delivered instantly via email.  Our services may be delivered either via an online medium or live in person.

For our online delivery see below.  For services delivered live onsite, please refer to our speaker agreement form which is emailed to you on confirmation of booking.

Refund Policy

We do not offer refunds or returns unless we cannot supply goods or services or the goods or services are not delivered as promised.

Australian law is the governing body for all work, goods and services supplied by Using Technology Better.

Marketing Release

Using Technology Better (UTB) may film, record, and photograph me (the results of which are the “Recordings”). UTB may also incorporate into any production(s) any separate content (e.g., quotes, testimonials, biographical information, profiles, photos, videos, sound recordings, artwork, etc.) I provide to UTB or approve in writing (“Materials”).

1.License

I grant to UTB an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to, in its sole discretion, (i) edit, translate, and modify the Recordings and the Materials, (ii) attribute the Recordings and Materials to me by my name, age, and city and state of residence, (iii) incorporate the Recordings and the Materials into content to promote UTB, its programs, or products (“Content”), and (iv) publicly use, distribute, reproduce, create derivative works from, and perform/display the Content, and any excerpts thereof, in any language.

2. No Compensation.

I grant this permission without any financial or other obligation of any nature.

 

For any issues or concerns please contact us