Teacher of Computing and IT and owner of website KnowitallNinja, Dan Richardson shares his experience and knowledge from working for Pearson to helping student success rates.
At The Henley College, we believe it is essential for students to get knowledge from experts in their field and Dan Richardson, teacher of Computing and IT certainly is evidence of that, as he is the owner of website www.knowitallninja.com.
Having also written official text books for Pearson in BTEC IT, Dan says:
“I created KnowitallNinja for my students and ran it initially for one year in order to test the market but am now in my third year! My objective is to help the students revise and prepare for BTEC Level 2 and 3 Information Technology. There are two units that are externally assessed and as there are limited resources, I made material for the ‘Cyber Security Unit’ which has been hugely popular. It’s not only quite niche and technical, there’s also a massive demand in the growth of jobs. Students are really enthusiastic about it, in fact, one of my students last year started his cybersecurity apprenticeship and is doing really well.
I have full control over the site, which for quality purposes I feel is essential. Other resources are inconsistent in quality and not always meeting criteria which is needed to maximise grades.
The growth of gamification in education is exponential which is evident as the courses are extremely popular and growth has doubled year on year which is fantastic. Students at The Henley College really enjoy the site and are inspired by the opportunities. They can see the difference between the grade potential and have access to videos, quizzes, presentations, text content and an achievement leaderboard – all of which help to encourage motivation and measure progress.”
Jack Higgins, a former student from Maidenhead who has completed a BTEC Level 3 in IT, said:
“KnowitallNinja is a great starting point for further research. It allows you to expand your basic knowledge and stretches you to perform to the best of your ability. I think it is going to be really useful in helping me progress at University to study cybersecurity”
