Smith’s School of English opened for business in 1996. Back in those days our English teaching curriculum, classroom schedules were written on paper and faxed out daily. Smith’s English teacher training manuals and staff training manuals were also printed on paper and stored within plastic files. Communications between our head office and our franchised schools of English were all 100% analogue. And finally, since 1996 Smith’s school of English has been exclusively a classroom teaching environment.
Step by step Smith’s School of English with the help of English conversation students, English teachers, contract programming support staff, and head office staff Smith’s School has been steadily “going digital”. Today, apart from our human telephonic services, Smith’s School of English has transformed to be fully digital.
Our School of English teaching curriculum and training manuals are today digital. Our digital online scheduling system has improved every year since we began developing it in 2001. Today, our scheduling system is one of the most sophisticated in the English teaching business in Japan. And motivated by the Corona outbreak we have also begun developing our online Teaching System.
What made me suddenly focus on this subject? It’s simple, I’m sitting in our Fukushima head office with our entire staff awaiting the moving company to pack our gear and move us to our new Hyogo headquarters. And right in front of me are two FAX machines marked with red stickers indicating they are trash.
As I sit looking at the two fax machines I feel a great sense of pride in knowing together with our students, staff, teachers and contractors, I helped at every step of this long journey Smith’s School of English has travelled to stand where we are today. I must admit feeling a little sad saying goodbye to these two fax machines as they represent the last remnants of “Analogue Smith’s”. We now fully embrace the digital world.
Mark Smith
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