Rotherham's pioneering Praise Pod scheme has moved on to the national stage after being featured at one of the world's biggest events on using technology in learning.
Praise Pod was one of the featured schemes at the Handheld Learning 2008 conference at the Barbican in London.
The event is attended by some of the biggest names in technology and education, including Apple, Nintendo, the Department for Children, Schools and families and Becta, the government agency leading the national drive for the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning.
The project has now been running in some of Rotherham schools since 2007 using a Big brother style diary room to record positive work done by pupils. Since its initial pilot scheme in two Rotherham primary schools, Praise Pod has moved into more schools and other places such as children's centres and adult learning events.
Richard Crook, from Rotherham PCT and the STEPS programme who runs the Praise Pod project, said: "These are exciting times; new technologies allow us to share moments so easily and keep these safe on handheld devices like ipods and mobile phones. More people these days have photos of their family on a digital format than as prints. Praise Pod lets parents keep lovely video clips of their children's achievements safe and secure on their phones. Amongst other developments, we are looking at building links between schools in Rotherham and mainland Europe to help develop international languages. Watch this space. . . "
The conference brochure describes Praise Pod as "taking positive behaviour management to a new level".
It added: "The central message is that the more time we spend noticing good things and enquiring about how these positive actions affected others, the less time we will spend mulling over failings. It uses ICT as a tool for positive communication and connects people from different backgrounds and builds bridges."
Since July schools involved with Praise Pod participating have also been able to upload video clips direct to ITV local's web pages, giving their work a wider audience.
