Huge surge in the number of UK schools seeking digital paper and AI solutions
By Daniel Emmerson, Academic Affairs Lead at Goodnotes
Over the course of the last twelve months, we have seen huge adoption rates of Goodnotes in the K-12 sector. At the start of the last academic year in the UK for example, 14 schools had registered for using Goodnotes throughout their school. At the time of writing, there are over 300. Our article investigates what has caused this 2,000% increase, while also exploring ways that schools are using digital paper and AI to save time, save money and stay ahead of the curve. In light of this engagement, we are launching a new initiative in August 2024 to address such an increase in demand.
Goodnotes: Grounded in education
Goodnotes is the digital paper of choice for over 24 million monthly active users. Although the app is used by industry professionals spanning architecture, law and project management, the biggest segmentation of regular Goodnotes note-takers are in education. Indeed, when Goodnotes was designed, created and first made publicly available, it was due entirely to the efforts of a lone university student, Steven Chan.
Steven built Goodnotes while in his third year of university. His intention was for the app to do everything that he could do in a regular notebook, but in a digital format. This all happened when the first iPad was released in 2010, and since then, the size of the company, the scale of operations and indeed the overall outreach has grown as quickly as the technology has continued to evolve.
Goodnotes is now a company of 220+ employees, with representation from 32 nationalities. The company has offices in both Hong Kong and London, and the spark that Steven ignited all those years ago means that Goodnotes really is the app of choice for millions of students around the world. Although use of the app for teachers in schools is not a new phenomenon, the rate of increase in use in schools has been staggering over the course of the last twelve months. These are the four main reasons for that change:
1. Goodnotes teachers are saving huge amounts of time
Technology needs to serve a purpose in schools. In order for a new application or programme to be adopted by teachers, they absolutely need to see the benefit that it will have on their students and on their experience at school. Unless this fundamental principle is in place, adoption rates will remain low. The amount of classroom time that teachers have available to really focus on their passion and teach the subject that they love is being reduced year on year with the amount of non-subject specific tasks they are responsible for. One of the primary reasons that Goodnotes has become so popular is because it is proven to save teacher’s time over the course of the academic year.
Thanks to research conducted by UK schools that have been using Goodnotes for a long period of time, most notably Saint John the Baptist School in Surrey and Falkner House School in London, both of which have been using Goodnotes for more than ten years, it has been possible to track how much time is saved in doing things manually.
Each of these production tasks are eliminated when using Goodnotes on the iPad because all of them can be done in one place and in no more than a few taps of the screen:
● Photocopying
● Sticking
● Cutting
● Stapling
● Distribution of lesson materials and exercise books
● Collection of lesson materials and exercise books
● Replacing missing notebooks and textbooks
● Replacing work if a student is ill
● Distributing and replacing missing stationary
● Marking individual exercise books
This means that schools are saving up to 5 hours of classroom time every half term, per core subject teacher, just through using Goodnotes on the iPad. That’s 30 hours every academic year for every English, Science and Maths teacher across the school.
To make the transition to this solution even easier, Mobile Device Management providers such as Jamf have increased their presence across the sector. This means that they are able to offer even more support and that schools are fully confident and well positioned to focus on the things that matter most to them.
“Choosing to go paperless and to opt for 1:1 iPad programmes can be quite daunting for schools. With Jamf, institutions can seamlessly deploy Goodnotes to staff and student devices, ensuring streamlined access to essential learning tools. Jamf Teacher empowers educators to control app availability and device functionality, guaranteeing that technology remains a focused and effective tool in the classroom. Goodnotes is a fantastic option for any schools looking to take advantage of AI and digital note taking and we are here to help with that process” — Mat Pullen, Jamf
This is of course verified by the thousands of schools that are using Goodnotes across the rest of the world.
2. Goodnotes on the iPad is cost-effective for schools
Over the past few months, we have been working with Apple Resellers to understand how Goodnotes on the iPad can be the most affordable option for schools. The standard assumption is that because iPads are seen to be the best in the industry when it comes to a 1:1 solution, schools only look at off-the-shelf prices, which are out of reach for many.
The reality is that there are lots of options to make Goodnotes on the iPad more cost-effective than ever before, and schools are realising this at an increasing rate. Once schools have found a partner that they are able to build a trustworthy relationship with, and they have chosen a way to manage their devices appropriately, the cost of making this happen is considerably cheaper than what most heads of a digital department would think.
When we asked Apple Authorised Education Specialist, MCC Digital, to elaborate on this, they told us that “education leaders have many things to consider when they’re making technology decisions, such as current systems, processes and budget. Looking at the full equation allows them to make a smart investment for students, teachers, IT and the entire school community. Because Apple devices are durable, with reliable software and ongoing updates, they have high residual value. This allows schools especially; to leverage that residual value up-front in their lease, this leads to lower overall costs and improved lifecycle management. With school budgets tighter than ever, this leasing option provides a more affordable and sustainable route to an equitable learning environment for all learners” — Alex Langton, MCC Digital
3. Goodnotes provides practical use of AI for Teaching and Learning
Since Generative Artificial Intelligence tools (AI) became more mainstream throughout 2023, schools have been grappling with ways that they might be able to:
- Make the most of this technology so that their students and their faculty are not left behind
- Find ways to do this that are safe and compliant
- Ensure that any solutions they deploy provide practical and implementable solutions to existing problems at school
In August 2023, Goodnotes became the first of its kind to integrate AI and digital note-taking with spell check and word complete. Not only would the app recognise the note-taker’s handwriting and underline any spelling mistakes that were made, but it would also recreate that word, correctly spelled, in the user’s very own handwriting style. In addition, the app also provided a line-by-line maths checker that would determine and highlight where a user might have made a mistake in their formula.
In August 2024, Goodnotes will launch Goodnotes Classroom. This separate app will allow teachers to take advantage of AI in a way that builds on so many of the existing benefits mentioned above. Goodnotes Classroom will allow teachers to swipe across their iPad and see what their students are working on in real time, one by one or as a group. AI handwriting recognition will ensure that teachers can save even more time on marking and providing feedback, while students can maximise their time in the classroom on developing and demonstrating subject specific knowledge.
4. Goodnotes allows educators to ensure the power of handwriting and free expression remain central to learning
Note-taking has a rich and powerful tradition that goes back thousands of years. There is a reason that it has stayed with us over such a long period of time and is unlikely to leave us, even while technological advancement makes things like typing and audio recording that much more accessible. Note-taking allows for that extension of thought and production of content that is tangible, impactful and creative.
Mount Kelly School in the South West of England has even written to parents promoting devices that allow digital ink, justifying their request with the following: “Research shows that handwriting activates more brain regions associated with memory formation and helps build schema (memory networks) within the brain; putting notes into your own language also has huge benefits for recall.”
With Goodnotes, note-taking combined with AI ensures that this practice remains at the forefront, while schools are also preparing their students for tech-driven solutions and workflows that are likely to dominate the workplace of the future.
Best Practice
Finding the right tech solution for a school is not an easy process. There are so many possibilities out there and it is critical to find the right solution that aligns with strategic vision, purpose and intent. Goodnotes is unique in that it holds teachers, senior leaders and former heads of school in its ranks. These individuals understand the trials and tribulations of both traditional and more modern approaches to teaching and learning across K-12 education.
Goodnotes is continuing to build relationships with schools, to learn from them and to understand more about how they can best support. As a company rooted in education, Goodnotes wants to enable its schools to prepare their students for the future of life, learning and work, while at the same time enabling their teachers to feel confident in utilising the technology that is certain to steer this sector in the coming years and decades.
To stay informed about how we are providing research, running events and supporting schools, please email education@goodnotes.com for more details.
