Our partnership with Google is growing, and we’re continuously improving our technology to support great teaching. Don’t just hear it from us, read what teachers who use itslearning had to say at BETT 2019.
IT’S been an exciting start to 2019 for itslearning.
We’ve just spent 3 very fulfilling days in London at BETT 2019 (Jan 22-25), the world’s biggest education technology event. We had team members flying in from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, France, and the US to join colleagues from the UK.
This year, itslearning was a Google partner at booth C230, solidifying our already strong relationship with Google’s education arm, Google for Education.
We have been steadily building ties with Google since announcing our partnership in August 2018 with a common vision of creating the world’s best learning management system (LMS) integration with G Suite. Google has endorsed this integration – saying that itslearning has the market’s strongest G Suite-LMS Integration. We have been very excited to work with Google and will continue working closely with them.
We also hosted our very own Innovation Summit sessions at the nearby Sunborn Yacht. Having so many people in our team from across Europe at the event was a boost for us as this meant we could speak to many of our global potential customers at BETT in their own language and explain to them how itslearning supports educators from around the world.
We had strong interest from potential customers at the booth, recording 608 visitors. Good attendance also at our Innovation Summit which was aimed at our primary customers, educators.
I had the honor of sharing the stage with Google for Education’s Jonathan Rochelle, to explain how our partnership makes it easier for teachers to do what they do best – teach and inspire their students.
I am proud to share the stage with @jrochelle from @GoogleForEdu. We’ve been talking about how #Google and #itslearning have teamed up to make it easier for teachers to do what they do best – teach and inspire their students. #itsSummit19 #BETT2019 #LMS #education pic.twitter.com/BwnNi18vzk
— Arne Bergby (@ArneBergby) 24 January 2019
Steven Threadgold, our Head of Product Management started Day 2 at BETT with a well-attended itslearning roadmap presentation. Cloud integrations, both Google and Microsoft were a big part of the presentation. The crowd was also interested in the workflow improvements to make itslearning easier to use.
He also drew a huge crowd the next day for his presentation on the itslearning Microsoft Office 365 & Teams Integration, which is well underway. G Suite may be a game changer in the US but Microsoft remains hugely popular in Europe, with Office and Teams considered vital tools in many school districts. The attendees were keen to hear more about the itslearning Office 365 Integration which should be ready in Spring 2019.
This year, our goal is to engage more teachers.
And, who best to tell them why itslearning should be their Learning Management System choice than other educators?
This is why, itslearning was very privileged to have the support of educators from the US, Denmark, Germany and South Africa at BETT. It was great to have their insights on why their schools and districts have chosen the itslearning platform and to hear from teachers like Krystal Weiss what a great tool itslearning is for teachers and students.
“When our teachers heard about the integration between itslearning and G Suite, there was cheering. For real. Audible cheering because the benefits were immediately clear. Still, we decided to measure the improvement. For each assignment created, teachers save 2.5 minutes on average. For each assignment submitted, students save 3 minutes on average. Given the volume of assignments created and answered over a year, this is HUGE. In education, every second matters. itslearning gets that.”
Krystal Weiss, EdTech Facilitator, Spring Branch Independent School District, Houston, Texas
“Pedagogy before devices, or you just bought paperweights” – @weisskEDU dropping some knowledge from her experience using @GoogleForEdu integrated with @itslearning LMS – more teaching time saving and administrative value…#Bett2019 #gsuiteEDU pic.twitter.com/vmH2Cs5Fwm
— Jonathan Rochelle (@jrochelle) 24 January 2019
Here’s what Stacey Brewer, the founder of our newest customer SPARK Schools in South Africa, had to say when asked why her network of 15 schools chose to switch from Google Classroom to our full-strength LMS, which has all the Google apps that teachers know and love.
“Quality and affordability are not mutually exclusive when it comes to excellent education. SPARK’s vision is for South Africa to lead global education and we believe that by partnering with itslearning and Google, we will be able to achieve the vision and mission of ensuring access to high quality education for all South Africans.”
Camilla Løkkegaard, from TEC in Denmark, explained how itslearning advanced reporting and teacher-shared content had helped improve education quality and efficiency at her technical institution of higher learning. Our BarCamp was also a huge hit. It was an unscripted interactive session where attendees could ask our experts questions and share their experiences, compare ideas and learn from one another.
Nico Wirtz, a teacher at the John Lennon Gymnasium in Berlin, is clearly a big fan of learning through collaboration. He brought along two of his students to show how itslearning helps learners benefit from bouncing ideas of one another. By way of peer reviewing and providing constructive feedback, students are encouraged to share skills and help each other revise their texts step by step. They learn to cooperate and collaborate to create work they can be proud of.
This is what we want to achieve at itslearning – to continue to improve education through technology.
It’s been our core belief since we were founded in 1999.
In April, itslearning will turn 20. But we will not be slowing down.
We’re expanding into China and tapping top talents to join us on our mission to make learning more meaningful and fun.
We are not just another software company.
We are your education partner.
I look forward to building on this in 2019 and making itslearning the LMS of choice for teachers everywhere.
Arne Bergby, CEO, itslearning
