What we do
lookred™ solutions are an education consultancy and software developer whose founder Chris Poole was until recently responsible for Microsoft’s engagement with the BSF programme.
lookred™’s expertise comes from our work in BSF and education reform projects around the world as well as Chris’ earlier experience as a Deputy Headteacher in the ‘90’s in a very innovative comprehensive school which became ‘Microsoft’s School of the 21st Century’.
We believe the market needs some fresh thinking and certainly more innovation through ICT – along with some imagination! Drawing on an enviable depth of experience in the UK and abroad lookred™ are able to help you develop challenging and informed visions, engage with key stakeholders to give them confidence and then crucially turn that into a set of specifications and requirements that is capable of delivery. If you know you need something different from ICT but don’t know what then lookred™ are the people to help as they bring the benefit from working at Microsoft to have been able to scan a horizon that few have access to.
An initial product set will be available before the end of 2009 and delivered initially through Proof of Concept (POC) projects in schools and local authorities in the UK.
Read about: The Proof of Concept BETT 2010
The Proof of Concept
The Proof of Concept being shown at BETT will use compelling interfaces that run across all lookred™ products and allow you to imagine:
A young person, on any device connected to the web, investigating types of volcanic activity, being able to walk around Mt St Helens on Virtual Earth to see for themselves the effect on the local environment. The learner can also collaborate online with other students or experts in volcanic activity, learning from their insights.
lookred™ Proof of Concept screenshotThe system will build a picture of preferred learning styles and "behaviour" to make resources, tools and information available when the learner needs it in order to progress or remediate gaps in their understanding. lookred™ software is "smart" enough to suggest new pathways to extend interests as well as resources that will embed understanding in order for the learner to make progress.
The learner, on any device, having a view of their academic capabilities and lifestyle goals mapped against possible training and job possibilities. Learners could change their preferences, perhaps work with regular hours and career progression, and the job and training types will change with that input.
A tutor responsible for the personal development of a group of young people having a picture of the whole child, like those in the picture, through "smart" information drawn from multiple data sources. The tutor is able to see, without needing to be an expert ICT user, how indivuduals and groups are performing against all the key performace indicators. This means the tutor, with parental views, is quickly able to plan appropriate "interventions" for groups or individuals to improve their performance. A proactive, rather than a reactive, response if, for example, attendance and achievement are shown to be headed in the wrong direction!
At both local authority and school levels, and again mapping onto multiple data sources, decsion makers having a view of information that allows to drill down into the "health" of their organisation and model "what if" scenarios.
BETT 2010
At BETT 2010 from January 13-16 http://www.bettshow.com lookred™ solutions will be heavily involved in the PfS area through presence in a compelling and immersive learning space and a daily seminar in the PfS theatre.
Lend Lease Learning Space
Lend Lease Learning Space
Lend Lease, Impleo and lookred™ solutions have come together to create the Lend Lease Learning Space. This space provides a stimulating context for discussion about how this type of environment could support new and compelling ways of learning in the future.
The demand for change in education systems around the world is growing and fresh thinking is needed to seize the full opportunities of BSF and PCP. The Lend Lease Learning Space will illustrate some of the possibilities an immersive ICT environment can provide.
The innovative use of lookred™’s "smart" software coupled with Impleo’s Audio Visual solutions provide the tools to facilitate compelling and personalised learning experiences.
lookred™ Solutions Seminar "Smart Data. Smart Learning"
We live in a world where it is possible to wrap the information, tools and resources around the needs and characteristics of an individual. At the moment educations lags far behind the way the full potential of technology is being exploited in other sectors and walks of life. Crucially the "school experience" is increasingly being challenged by the preferences and experiences young people have in the rest of their lives.
In this seminar Chris Poole, the founder of lookred™ solutions, will show the Proof of Concept his company has developed with a very progressive Academy and a local authority.
Chris is working with the Council of Chief State School Officers in the US and the session will close with an invitation to join a Global Innovation Forum being established for those who have an appetite for step change.