We used to be that external trainer. Before we moved our content online, we’d led over 2000 training days, introducing Evidence-Informed Teaching methods to educators all over the world. We knew our stuff and, because we were good, we were in demand and able to charge a lot of money. So we are very aware of the advantages of live training, and we are not saying you should not buy in externals. You’ll have your reasons for wanting to use externals, and there isn’t always a ​“fit” between what we offer and what our prospective customers want. Our job is to help you make an informed decision. So here are some of the limitations of live training as we see it. See if what we say rings any bells. 

1. Scale and logistics. The logistics and associated costs involved in setting up and getting educators to workshops can be significant. Particularly if your educators are spread across counties or countries even. So here’s a few questions for you. How much do you spend on staffing to set up and organise, run and evidence live training? How much time does it take? Do the educators who need to attend always turn up? HOW2s enable you to deliver at scale and reduce logistical costs massively. 

2. Sustainability. If someone new arrives what do you do? Lay on the training again? With HOW2s, if someone leaves you simply flick a switch and reallocate the account. How much do you spend onboarding new educators? 

3. Standardisation. Organisations recognise the need for and usefulness of a common understanding of what effective teaching looks like. HOW2 type visual guides to facilitate this. 

5. Immediacy. Training days are infrequent. Workshops less so but there is still a wait time. Same with access to a coach. Not so HOW2s. 

6. Relevance and range of topics. We worked very hard with the senior leaders to bespoke the training. But with audiences of 3 – 500+ its impossible to personalise the training. Not so with HOW2s. Educators can access and start learning new techniques in seconds. The video below shows you how this is so and lasts less than a minute. 

7. Cognitive Load. How much do educators remember from training days and workshops? Really. Nuff said. And how do you evidence impact? 

8. Transfer. How do you currently measure impact or gauge the transfer to the classroom? How much time do you spend tracking this? How effective is this process? Really. With HOW2s you leaders have an instant, at-a-glance, view of what’s going on and busy teachers can set up, capture, share and evidence the transfer of learning in seconds. 

Time for another video. 

Put the kettle on — the video below is twelve minutes long. Some of our organisations use this to introduce the app to their educators. It’ll give you a clear indication of what our HOW2 baby can do. 

The video below sets out how you can use HOW2s to support all your professional learning activities. Including twilights or whole staff training, coaching, mentoring, supported experiments etc.

Tea made? Good. Here’s the question we’d like you to consider as you watch this video. 

If you haven’t time to watch the video ask yourself another question and take a look at the image below. 

So there you have it. Remember we’re not saying ​“don’t do live training”. We are suggesting you don’t need to pay for someone to bring in new ideas. With 150 techniques on the app, the ideas you are looking for are most probably already there. And we regularly update the app’s content. And it’s all in-house. 

With the money you save, you’ll be able to buy a lot of lunches!