Technology Training for Schools

Many educators are closing their laptop frustrated and losing sleep over how to effectively use technology in the classroom.

Having a tailored PD program for your whole school means
your staff will feel confident in their lesson plans and will love using tech to enhance student learning, and you’ll sleep well at night knowing you have provided PD that staff have
enjoyed and appreciated!

Training Options for Schools

A Whole School Approach

Schools that want to improve their results by leveraging the power of
technology and setting-up their staff and students on the same systems.

Let’s be honest. Organising PD for your team can
be pretty difficult. You can never please everyone
and the training is usually dead boring.
We get it, the success of this training all rides on
you and you don’t want to look like a fool or be
“that person” who arranged mind-numbing PD.

The pressure is real! It’s on you (the Principal, the
Assistant Principal, the e-Learning lead) to deliver
new and innovative curricula despite shrinking
budgets and a shortage of relief teachers. Harsh
but real right?

And it’s true, you want to develop your staff but
struggle to find PD that:

You’re not alone.
We have seen the same challenges time and time again in the hundreds of schools we have worked with.

We’re educators at heart, so professional
development and training for education is
something we’re passionate about. More than
that, our trainers understand the process of
delivering fun, useful training that gets your team
from where they are now to where they want
to be.

Imagine a training program that’s all inclusive,
your entire school community is upskilled, and all
the heavy lifting is done for you. Would you be
keen for that?

The truth is: a solution does exist. It’s called the
School Transformation Program and you can
access it here.

Leadership & Aspiring Leaders

Introducing our Certified Leader Program! A 12-month coaching program for
educators looking to advance their careers, open more opportunities and level
up their skill set by becoming a UTB Certified Leader.

This program positions you to lead and support change in your school. While others are just talking about school improvement and transformation, we are busy getting the job done.

Teachers

Reducing stress levels by managing your workload
effectively so you can have more time for the
things that matter, and you love – all while feeling
comfortable with tech in the classroom – is
something all teachers can relate to.

With big expectations on teachers to use the
technology effectively in lessons, the pressure is
greater than ever. Our training programs are
designed to empower you to maximise the
benefits of tech in the classroom – so you can
engage students in meaningful lessons that
deliver great outcomes.

More than anything, we want to save you time!
That’s why we make it a priority to understand your
unique context and explain how to apply your tech
knowledge to your personal teaching routines – all
so you can create resources quickly that support
your students so you can spend more time doing
the things you love.

Support & Admin Staff

Almost all professional learning and development
skips over your support and front office staff. We don’t.
We close the skills gap between classroom teachers,
students and support staff. We provide training that
gives them the fundamental skills they need to collaborate and communicate effectively with the entire school community.

We train them in how they can use accessibility tools
to support students with diverse learning needs.
Your support staff will finish these sessions feeling
much more confident in the technology.

Want to close the gap in your school?

Students

You might have heard the term digital native? And
you’ve probably heard a teacher say, “I’m not too
concerned if I don’t know something because my
students will teach me anyway”. Maybe you have
even said that.

The reality is that there is no such thing as a digital
native (the research backs this up), and just
because a student can swipe around on an iPad or
find their way around the basics of a Google Doc
doesn’t mean they know how to use technology in
authentic and meaningful ways. The ways that
develop creativity and improve learning outcomes.

Don’t believe us? Give them one of our skills
checklists and see how they rank.

At Using Technology Better, we have worked with
hundreds of schools to develop teacher AND
student skills alongside each other. This typically
happens through a student skills bootcamp, or
through in class modelling with teachers.

Find out how you can support your students and lift
learning outcomes across your school.

IT Training & Audits

You’ve likely heard how common cyber-attacks are.
No doubt cyber security is top of mind for schools. And
if it isn’t, it sure as heck should be. There is no room for
ignorance or naivety when it comes to the security of
your school’s data.

We have helped hundreds of schools ensure their
students’ and staff thrive in a safe and secure learning
environment by having the best systems and
procedures in place.

Want this kind of confidence in your IT systems?

The UTB Way

STEP 1

We Listen

We ask the right questions and
listen to your challenges.

STEP 2

We Customise

We customise a training program
to help your team succeed.

STEP 3

We Deliver

We empower your team to get the most from your technology.

Schedule a call with our team today

We're Trusted By Smart Companies Like:

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

What achieves this success?

(Aside from our good-looking, clever customers?)
01

Our Consultative
Approach

We take an owner’s mindset which
means we’ll do what is best for
your context and people.

02

Our Delivery
Style

We have a strict no geek speak, no
snoozefest presentations and
certainly no training for the sake of
training policy; aka we can read a
room and adapt.

03

Our Focus On
The Human Side

Less about the tools and more about how your team are using them.

Ready to get the most out of your software licensing?
Schedule a call with our team today

Our Passionate Approach Helps You Get To Grips With Technology - Regardless of Your Current Skill Level.

Looking for tool specific
training? Check out our Online
Live Courses for You

You can book in at a time that works for you and attend the training from wherever you are in the world.

Design your own PLD

“Regionally-allocated PLD helps your school, kura, Kāhui Ako and cluster to identify, plan and make progress in professional learning and development for your kaiako and teachers.

Through a process of planning, doing and reviewing, regionally-allocated PLD builds the capability of your school, kura, Kāhui Ako and cluster to support its ākonga and learners.”

Using Technology Better is a PLD Provider and our team of expert accredited facilitators can support your staff to meet their goals and transform teaching and learning in your school! And all of it funded by the Ministry of Education!

We tailor everything we do to meet the needs of every single individual on your team. Our unique, blended approach to PLD offers the chance for all staff to grow, whether they are nervous or already flying!

Here are some ways we’ve worked with schools….

A Blended PLD Approach

Adaptive, tailored, and ongoing education that extends beyond the classroom.

One of the things we love to do here at UTB is constantly challenge ourselves and question the status quo. We’ve recently been thinking about the ways we deliver PLD – and one thing COVID has taught us all is that online learning has a place.

We work with you to decide the best balance of online and face to face learning to meet the needs of your staff. Our ‘Learn on Demand’ platform offers 40+ courses, all self paced and designed by our expert team of trainers. 

We can also offer virtual, on demand, training that means you don’t need to wait for the next visit from our trainers, you can just reach out and we’ll set up a time for a quick training session for one or more of your team.

School A

School B

School A have decided to enrol their lead teachers in our Certified Leader programme and use the rest of the training face to face. At this stage they believe their teachers need digital fluency support before they jump into online learning.

For this school they have decided to enrol some of their staff in the Certified Leader programme, and their whole staff in our Learn on Demand platform. This still leaves them with plenty of face to face time to support their staff and keep things moving.

Find out more about our blended learning model here. 

What schools have said about
working with us…

I’m ready! How do I get this funding to access PLD with UTB?

 Your team identifies your PLD needs in relation to the priorities. 

  • You draft (we help you with this) an application then submit into the system before the closing date. 
  • If your application is successful you will be given x number of hours to allocate to your chosen facilitators. 
  • Your facilitators work with you to decide how best to use these hours to maximise outcomes for your staff and students. 

Flick us an email at pld@usingtechnologybetter.com and we can get you started on the application journey! We have tools and resources to make this process simple and meaningful.

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