TSL Education announces over one million monthly downloads and over 12 million resources shared on the TES Connect online community since its launch in August 2008. The TES Connect site has achieved a 500 per cent growth in resource downloads and continues to change the lives of teachers and their pupils with millions of resources being shared every month through online collaboration.
The resource section of www.tes.co.uk is home to a vast library of teaching materials all created and uploaded by teachers from the TES community. With separate subject channels for every type of teacher from nursery through to post-16, there are all kinds of classroom materials including lesson plans,videos, PowerPoint presentations, games, puzzles, quizzes, worksheets and tutorials.
This incredible performance has seen resource visitor numbers grow at an annual rate of 540% since the launch, exceeding the most ambitious targets. This sets a new benchmark for user generated content and online collaborative tools within the education community.
The launch has enabled TES Connect to become the world’s largest online professional network in any vertical market with over 700,000 registered users and more than 1.3 million monthly visitors .
Edward Griffith, Head of TES Connect comments: “All teachers have a passion for sharing knowledge, not just with their pupils but increasingly amongst themselves too. We are on the verge of a revolution in education; by giving teachers the tools to do this I genuinely believe teachers will achieve even more remarkable results. We now have the technology to help teachers teach and make their lives easier which ultimately has an important impact on the quality of our children’s education."
TES Connect celebrates the skills, energy and creativity of teachers; it helps promote best practices, stimulates creation and sharing of the most creative teaching resources, and helps the whole teaching community share their best ideas, no matter what their discipline or where they teach.
At its heart, TES Connect draws its inspiration from other content networks like Flickr, professional networks like LinkedIn and the best of B2B editorial; it’s a revolution for teachers, and for the way they teach. Never before has a suite of social networking technology and resource sharing tools been tailored and deployed to a profession with such success. Many of the site’s functions: profiles, friend lists, private messaging, content sharing, social tools are tried and tested elsewhere but, within TES Connect, each and every one of the has been adapted for education.
TES Connect offers a revolution for pupils too. With its continued growth and success, many more will be taught the most interesting lessons, created by the very best teachers – regardless of where they live or go to school.
Supporting Information
Like many great ideas, TES Connect was born through listening to users: the TES team observed teachers sharing classroom resources in the site’s forums in 2006. A prototype Resource Bank was launched soon after and, following a further 18 months of research, a completely redesigned TES Connect launched in August 2008. TES Connect builds on the prototype’s success by deploying a suite of social networking and content sharing tools to the teaching community and thereby meeting a strong, proven need among teachers for better collaborative tools.
End user statements
“Using the Resource Bank has invigorated me both professionally and personally.” Deputy/Assistant headteacher, Primary School
“Just browsing through the Resource Bank provides me with inspiration.” Teacher, Independent Preparatory School
“Using TES means we will be able to teach more effectively and have the tools necessary to do what we love.” NQT/Trainee teacher, Primary School
“By using the TES Resource Bank I save so much time thinking of ideas – it helps make my classroom a fun and vibrant place to be.” Trainee Teacher/NQT, Primary School
About TES Connect
Used by thousands of schools and colleges, with over 700,000 registered users, TES Connect is the central focus for the UK teaching community to share their ideas, thoughts and views outside the staffroom. TES Connect is a social network that allows teachers to network, share resources and search for jobs. It is the world’s largest social network for a single profession and allows teachers to connect with other professionals to find and share their best classroom resources and advice. Split into five user-friendly sections including jobs, community, resources and My TES, the site gives teachers access to tools that have the potential to transform lesson planning and the quality of lessons taught.
Further details on the site:
Community: The world’s largest online social network for teachers where they can share their professional profile with peers, discuss a range of issues on the forums, and see what their professional colleagues have been making good use of in the classroom
Resources: The TES Connect Resources section is home to a vast library of teaching resources all created and uploaded by other teachers in the TES community for everyone to share. With separate subject channels for every type of teacher, there are all kinds of classroom materials including lesson plans, videos, PowerPoints, games, puzzles, worksheets and tutorials. With over 29,000 resources already on the site, hundreds are uploaded by the community every week.
Jobs: www.tes.co.uk is the number one site for the best teaching jobs across the country. With over 700,000 registered users, it is the UK’s leading online recruitment resource for schools and colleges looking to find new quality teaching and support staff. Now a key part of TES Connect, visitors to the jobs section can browse by position, subject, workplace and by location and build customised job alerts so when that perfect new job vacancy appears it is sent to them.
The Paper: all the print articles from the Times Educational Supplement appear on the site the day they are published.
My TES: A personalised page where teachers can save the content that is relevant to them. Users also receive updates from the community as well as bookmarks and links to top content on the site
About TSL Education
TSL Education Ltd is the UK’s leading educational publisher and recruitment service. Its portfolio of titles includes education websites www.tes.co.uk and www.timeshighereducation.co.uk, print publications The Times Educational Supplement, FE Focus and Times Higher Education, and education exhibitions and events. TSL’s recruitment service, TES Prime, is a dedicated leadership service for the education sector, working with primary, secondary and independent school governors seeking a new leader for their school.
TSL Education recently launched TES HireWire, a groundbreaking, free online service for schools that supports the entire recruitment process from placing an advert to making a successful appointment - www.teshirewire.com
www.tes.co.uk is the home TES Connect, the UK’s leading educational website. The number one site for education jobs, TES Connect is now also the world’s largest professional network for teachers to share ideas and the best classroom resources.