Q&A with Margo Day, vice president of U.S. education, Microsoft and Dr. Agnes Slayman, Superintendent of Chester County School District, South Carolina
Our partnership with the White House's ConnectED initiative is based on our interest in bringing lower cost technology into the classroom, empowering students and teachers with the best learning environment, and providing schools with the tools being used by businesses around the world to prepare students for success in the future.
ConnectED, which aims to connect 99 percent of U.S. students over the next five years to the digital age through next-generation broadband and high-speed wireless in their schools and libraries reached its one-year anniversary on June 6th. I'm passionate about the program, because it can be used by K-12 public schools of all sizes across the nation, including schools in rural communities. South Carolina's Chester County School District, which is comprised of more than 5,526 students, is one rural school district that is using technology to ensure all of its students have access to the devices and tools they need to be successful in both the classroom and the community.
After learning about Chester County School District Superintendent Dr. Agnes Slayman's unique approach to using technology to help connect students and prepare them for the future, I was inspired and wanted to share her story so that other school districts might see a way forward when presented with the obstacles Chester County had to overcome. Below are some highlights from a conversation where Dr. Slayman shared how her school district has implemented technology to help teachers and students transition to a 21st Century classroom.
Margo Day: Why is it especially important in a rural area like yours for students to have access?
Dr. Agnes Slayman: For students growing up in beautiful Chester County, South Carolina, there are special opportunities that come from living in a tight-knit community - strong and lasting relationships develop outside the school day on ball fields, playgrounds and parks. Although we appreciate our county's small towns and rural setting, we do want our young people to have a global perspective so they can understand and identify with others beyond our daily boundaries. This exposure to world history, culture, views, and ideas is dependent on the use of technology to broaden our students' educational experiences. It guarantees that our graduates-whether they choose to be life-long residents of our county or not-are ready to compete in a 21st century global economy.
MD: What were your reasons and how were you able to create a partnership with the local broadband supplier?
AS: Our district school buses traverse more than 826,000 miles each school year-proof that many of our students do not live near our schools. With a district as large as ours, taking the Internet to our students was necessary to ensure they are able to use their tablets to complete assignments and research projects after school hours. Although our local telecommunication providers do offer home internet services county-wide, many families simply cannot afford the service. Realizing personal finances were creating an educational gap, I called on Truvista Communications (serves most of Chester County) and Comporium (serves one Chester County community) to create a first-of-its kind private business/public education partnership in South Carolina. These companies placed Wi-Fi hotspots in strategically-placed locations, such as parks, libraries, a private business, fire stations, etc., throughout the entire county. Now students, can visit these close-to-home hotspots and use their district-issued devices to safely connect to the Internet free of charge.
MD: How did you engage your students in the decision making process?
AS: As part of our district's communication plan, I created five Superintendent's Cabinets (Teacher, Support Staff, Administrator, Parent, and Student), which meet throughout the school year. Cabinet members are always briefed on important district news, such as our hiTEC 1:1 initiative, and then encouraged to ask questions and offer suggestions to strengthen ideas and programs. The Cabinets have been an excellent way to both disseminate information to our stakeholders and guide me and my senior staff in our daily decision making process. Student Cabinet members were given their tablets weeks before their peers so as to become familiar with the devices. These student leaders were instrumental in helping their classmates-from offering tips on operating the tablets to advocating the coolest apps to download-during the initial rollout of tablets. Since we rolled out the devices, we have continued to meet with all Cabinets to get feedback on hiTEC. Suggestions received during these round table discussions have strengthened our program and alerted us to issues that needed our immediate attention.
MD: What devices are you using and what's your rollout plan?
AS: Windows-based devices were selected based on our priorities of Microsoft Windows 8, a long battery life, and durability. Although the device was a key part of our 1:1 initiative, we understood that the device was merely an educational tool. What we had to rollout was a whole new approach to teaching; we needed our teachers, students, parents, and community members to embrace the use of technology in learning and applying vast amounts of instant information. We first entitled our initiative hiTEC, which means "Helping Integrate Technology, Education and Careers." After creating a fun and catchy logo, district leaders began to showcase and explain hiTEC advantages during the various Superintendent Cabinet meetings, at teacher faculty meetings, and during community meetings (such as Lion's Club, Rotary, church gatherings, etc.).
In September 2013, the district hosted a hiTEC celebration to launch the technology initiative and update county and state leaders, as well as local business owners, on the economic advantages of our innovative program. Three teachers and their students completed several lesson demonstrations on the devices using Windows 8. These demonstrations were excellent examples of just how hiTEC will prepare our graduates to be capable and productive employees in the new workforce. Through the media and district-distributed letters, parents and guardians of high school students were urged to attend a free hiTEC orientation sessions. These orientations gave parents/guardians and their students detailed information regarding the hiTEC program. This same information is now available on the district's website and is still promoted through district and school Facebook pages.
As we continue to move forward with hiTEC, our district will begin training high school students to be part of our district's Information Technology Department's school repair teams. These students, under the supervision of our own technicians, will learn to repair malfunctioning tablets and printers for their teachers and classmates, all while gaining valuable work experience that directly links their education with future employment.
MD: Do you believe that leadership plays an important role in a 1:1 rollout?
AS: As technology quickly changes today's classroom, we still have technology immigrants teaching technology natives. It is for this very reason that our district leaders are so important—they are needed to reassure teachers that technology changes are positive and that technology rich lesson plans lend students to critical thinking and mastery of content. Our leaders double as trainers who build teachers' tech skills and confidence. District leaders are also the face of the project for parents and community members, who may have questions about technology-integrated teaching and learning.
MD: What suggestions do you have for other school leaders working toward 1:1?
AS: A 1:1 initiative is much more than handing tablets to students. Creating a specific and concise vision and technology goals for the district is a great starting point. Talking with districts who have sustainable, successful programs can help in developing your own goals. Once these goals are set, it is important to complete a self-evaluation of the district's current technology situation. Questions include: what type of infrastructure do we have to support a 1:1, how will we finance the project, how tech-savvy are our teachers and students, etc. Combining the self-evaluation results with the district technology goals will give leaders a clearer road map to success.
MD: We know you value professional development for your teachers. Why do you think it's important to have all teachers engaged early on in the shift?
AS: We already have excellent teachers who are well-trained and caring professionals. They understand the need and importance of reaching all students and motiving them to succeed. However, in a 21st century classroom, the teacher is no longer the only access point to information. Rather, the teacher is a facilitator whose lesson plans direct students down individual learning paths. Technology professional development for our teachers is therefore designed to boost instructor confidence in using the latest technology to convey content, reinforce new skills, and engage students in learning. No matter how technologically advanced our society becomes, we believe that it is always the interpersonal relationships between a teacher and his/her students that ultimately lead students to academic success. Often times we see this interpersonal relationship and connecting between teachers and students amplified because students are more engaged.
MD : Have you provided training for your teachers?
AS: The transition from a traditional classroom to one that incorporates cutting-edge technology on a daily basis cannot happen in a single school year. Our district leaders understand that this switch will be at least a 3-5 year process. Our district has committed to continued training for teachers and administrators, including approximately 15 different training opportunities for teachers and weekly learning during "Tech Tuesdays" for all high school teachers.
MD: How are you using technology to engage students in learning?
AS: Thanks to the financial support of another community partnership, Springs Creative, this fall, students in Chester County will virtually meet weekly with classes in foreign countries, such as China, Malta, and Greece. The idea is for students and teachers on both sides of the camera to share curriculum and begin building real relationships, grooming our students to function in a workspace without walls. Imagine completing a 5th grade research paper on Chinese culture with first person references and resources - this includes face-to-face conversations between Chester County students and their Chinese counterparts without anyone stepping foot on an airplane.
Whether students work together in a classroom using OneNote or Office 365, or collaborate digitally with friends in other countries, they will be developing the exact skills companies will soon demand of their most valued employees. Our district is committed to excellence for all students, and we see technology use and training as an integral part of education.
By guest blogger, Yan Zhong, Skype Program Manager at Microsoft
This week marks the 87th annual Scripps Spelling Bee, and I get a bit nostalgic as I think back to my own memories of "Bee Week". I'm a former Bee contestant, having competed in the National Spelling Bee in 1998 and 1999 when I was in middle school. Now I'm a program manager on the Skype team at Microsoft, and I was thrilled to hear that Microsoft is sponsoring the event as the first-ever technology champion. Last night, during the opening ceremony of the Bee, the spellers got an extra special gift from Microsoft-each of the 281 participants was given a brand new Surface device and Office 365 to recognize the tremendous effort and dedication it took to advance to the National Spelling Bee.
Every year, I still watch the Bee on TV -- I'll definitely be tuning in to ESPN for the championship finals tomorrow evening! In addition to trying to spell along, I remember all of the excitement and anticipation of my experience up on stage. I learned valuable lessons about perseverance and thinking on my feet, but my most cherished memories are of meeting other spellers, some of whom I keep in touch with even today. We did our best to stay connected back then, but it was a few years before video calling and texting became common.
Since the Scripps Spelling Bee is now a truly global event with participants hailing from all over the world and technology has made great strides since I was at the Bee, today’s spellers have the advantage of the Skype app (which I help develop!) on their Surface devices, where they’ll be able to chat and video call for free—perfect for word study sessions and catching up. I’ve also helped arrange for every speller to receive a Skype gift card that can be used for calling and texting mobile phones. That way, everyone will be able to maintain the new friendships they’ve formed, no matter where their friends are located around the globe.
Here at Microsoft, we have developed classroom specific offerings because we know that learning technology works better when it's customized to meet the needs of teachers and students. One example is Skype in the classroom, a free online community that makes it easy for teachers around the world to go beyond the four walls of their classrooms to collaborate with other teachers, to invite guest speakers to share their experiences and to take their students on virtual field trips - without leaving their classrooms. Another service that creates the best possible environment for students is Bing in the Classroom, providing ad-free, safer, more private search in schools, daily lesson plans, and a rewards program to earn free Surface tablets for schools. Devices are another key part of success in the classroom, so we've worked with our partners to make low-cost devices available to schools around the country. At Microsoft, inspiring young people through technology is core to what we do, and our YouthSpark programs support teachers, parents and communities by empowering our leaders of tomorrow.
I wish every speller the very best of luck and encourage them-no matter what happens up on that stage-to take the time to enjoy their full Bee experience. Be sure to practice on the new Windows 8 spelling app, so you don't make the same mistakes I made; I'll never forget peritonitis (which knocked me out of the competition in 1998) and pergelisol (in 1999)!
When I talk about transformative learning, I often highlight the individuals who make it happen -- from the kindergarten teacher using Surface tablets and innovative Windows 8 apps to reinvigorate his classroom, to the visionary school leader who ensures her students are ready for their next step, whether that’s deeper learning, higher education or the workforce.
Ultimately, though, truly transformative change must be scalable, and whole schools must adapt to 21st century realities. When this happens, school leaders, teachers, students and the broader community are aligned, and everybody benefits.
Through Microsoft’s Innovative Schools World Tour, which officially kicked off last year, we’ve seen this kind of wholesale change in action. Starting with our visit to Kent, England’s Cornwallis Academy last January, we’ve seen schools around the globe that are not only transforming education, but also inspiring other schools to do the same.
Many of the World Tour schools are seeing extraordinary results, driven by technology and a thoughtful approach to change. At Julio Verne Bilingual School in Monte Vedat, Spain, Microsoft technology is embedded at every level, from systems management to infrastructure to the classroom, where students use Surface tablets, along with Kinect and Windows 8 laptops, to collaborate and master 21st century skills. Several of the school’s teachers are Microsoft Certified trainers, and five of the teachers have achieved Master Level in Microsoft IT Academy.
At St. Cyprian’s School in Cape Town, South Africa, students have their own online learning portal to access documents, teachers’ calendars and discussion forums. They use project-based learning and Microsoft devices and software to learn collaboration, real-world problem solving and how to use technology to create and communicate. The school has also established an Innovation Team, encouraging teachers to mentor their peers and scale up innovation.
And it’s especially encouraging when large schools, like Moscow High School #548 with over 2,000 students, are able to achieve broad-based change. At this school, also known as “Tsaritsyno,” a 1:1 approach gives students the opportunities and skills to control how and what they learn. Technology is working hand-in-hand with assessment and instruction, enabling a personalized curriculum for every student. And faced with community resistance stemming from Russia’s more traditional approach to education, Tsaritsyno has involved the wider community in its education process, through innovative partnerships with parents and technology-enabled distance learning for children with special needs.
What do these school have in common? A big-picture view of education transformation, and an understanding that technology can play a significant role in achieving better outcomes in all aspects of the schools’ operation – from classroom learning to teacher development and operations.
Today, about 250 educators from around the world will tour Twickenham Academy, a new Microsoft Mentor School just beginning to incorporate some of the technology and pedagogy we’ve seen work so well at other Mentor Schools. Twickenham Academy has recently distributed over 500 Microsoft Surface devices and will have access to an increased range of Apps designed to support learning in a variety of subject areas. The school is recognized as a mentor school because of their approach to enable young people to work more independently and to provide a personalized education.
No matter where a school is on its journey toward transformation, it takes a thoughtful plan and a committed community of school leaders, administrators, teachers, students and parents to effect meaningful change. As partners in learning, Microsoft supports schools in all of these efforts, and we’re encouraged by the holistic approach to transformation we’re witnessing in schools around the world.
- Anthony
Anthony Salcito, VP Worldwide Education for Microsoft
We’re in the midst of an exciting transformation in education, fueled by technology. Today, Pearson took us one step closer to achieving personalized digital learning for all students. Available for use by schools in the 2014-2015 school year, Pearson’s Common Core System of Courses, TestNav, and reading apps iLit and eText will be available on the Windows 8 platform.
We know every student is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all technology solution that inspires every student and yields success. That is why our collaboration with Pearson is so important. We combined our extensive technology expertise with Pearson’s deep experience as an education service provider to create new content that advances a digital education model to allow students to thrive in a personalized digital learning environment.
As part of this collaboration, these new applications for Windows 8 will be valuable in the classroom:
We’ve seen how these applications can be successful in the classroom today. Milissa Crum is a teacher at Highland Middle School in Anderson, Indiana. Using iLit, she gets real-time data about her students, which helps guide her daily teaching interactions. With iLit, her sixth graders are hands-on with their learning and more involved in the conversation, which can ultimately increase their performance.
With impact like this, fueled by technology, students today have the tools to shape our future at their fingertips. There is no greater time to be a student.
By Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft
We often hear from teachers just how difficult, time intensive, and expensive it can be to make online lessons, so our goal was to make it easy to create an online lesson or presentation with something teachers already know how to use - PowerPoint. We call these online, interactive presentations "mixes" and the tool created to build them is Office Mix. Just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week, we are announcing Office Mix.
Office Mix adds functionality to PowerPoint 2013 that allows you, as a teacher, to record audio or video of yourself presenting, write on your slides as you speak to them, insert quizzes, polls, online videos, and more. You can even do full screen capture and record anything directly from your PC. Once your presentation is ready, just click, "Upload," and voila, you've created an interactive, online lesson. You choose when and with whom to share it, and you automatically get near-instant analytics on metrics like how students did on quizzes and how much time they spent watching the lesson.
So what does Office Mix actually do?
Create. Engage. Evaluate.
We spent months talking with teachers about how they use technology and pedagogical approaches like blended learning. One thing was clear - teachers want technology that can help them reach students in new ways, but they don't want to lose focus on the classroom, and they certainly don't have a lot of free time to learn a brand new technology. And, they told us, they already use and love PowerPoint.
Office Mix was designed to enable teachers to take a PowerPoint document and mix it into an interactive, playable document that can be viewed on almost any device, anywhere with an internet connection.
Office Mix gives you the ability to capture the entire experience of delivering your PowerPoint lecture, complete with visual and audio aids, with the added bonus of interactive content. It appears as a new tab in PowerPoint with several features, like allowing you to record audio and video of yourself narrating your slides, or including what you write or draw (or anything from your PC screen) on the screen.
You can also insert and customize quizzes, video and interactive apps. Among the apps that are already included in Office Mix are exercises and lessons from the enormously popular Khan Academy and CK-12 Foundation. Your students will interact with the content you provide, and you see the feedback on how they did.
Once you have created your mix, your lesson is automatically loaded to the Office Mix website as a playable, interactive lesson, and it remains private unless you choose to share it. Because Office Mix is cloud-enabled, mixes can be viewed on almost any device with a modern browser.
When students can take lessons home with them, evaluating progress becomes a challenge, so Office Mix was built to provide near-instant analytics, making it easy for you to see if students have watched the lesson and how they did on any quizzes you included. These analytics are secure and private for you as the teacher.
Getting and Using Office Mix
Office Mix is part of our Student Advantage program that we announced last fall. This is great offer that institutions around the world are taking advantage of. The way it works is simple-any academic institution that licenses Office for staff and faculty can provide Office 365 ProPlus (which includes Office Mix) for students at no additional cost. Student Advantage makes it easy for qualifying institutions to provide students with the latest version of full Office at school and at home. Combined with Office 365 for Education plan A2, which is free for schools, Student Advantage gives students access to the same set of world-class productivity tools and services used by Fortune 500 companies all over the world.
We have already seen teachers doing amazing things using Office Mix, but we want to see what other uses creative teachers can dream up! One teacher, Stacey Roshan, who has already tested the preview said:
Why am I excited about Office Mix? The ease of creating and sharing interactive screencasts is exactly what teachers need! Not only can you record audio, video, and ink directly from PowerPoint, but you can also add in interactive elements, such as embedded quizzes, exercises, and web pages. Sharing lessons is as simple as hitting the save button was on a traditional PowerPoint. Students receive instant feedback on the embedded quiz content and teachers receive detailed analytics to get a sense of students' needs. If you already have Office 2013, then you already have everything you need to get started!
Try the Office Mix customer preview today at mix.office.com.
Office Mix requires Office 2013 SP1. We'll check to see if you have the right version during installation, and let you know if you need to take action. If you know you need Office 365, you can try it for free for 30 days.
If you want to read more about Office Mix, check out other blog posts from Microsoft Office, Microsoft Research, and NEXT at Microsoft.
Our mission is to make creating an online lesson as simple as creating a PowerPoint. Give Office Mix a try today, and let us know what you think! And, if you create a mix that you would like to share with the world, send us the link and we will consider posting to our examples gallery.
Guest post by Mary Perisic, senior marketing manager at Microsoft
Microsoft is excited to sponsor EdmodoCon 2014, Edmodo's virtual full-day conference focusing on teacher professional development! We're passionate about making a difference in education and we know equipping teachers with the tools for success is pivotal to transforming educational outcomes.
Join me on the new Microsoft Community on Edmodo where I look to continue the conversation beyond EdmodoCon.
For now, here are 5 resources to get you started:
Proficiency in Microsoft Office is the #3 most requested skill from employers according to IDC, and the Student Advantage program provides Office 365 Pro Plus for students at no additional cost, when your school licenses Office for staff and faculty. Offer details are here.
Maintaining classroom control when students have devices in their hands seems to be top of mind for many teachers, especially during online assessments. See how James Madison Middle School is addressing this issue and then take advantage of TestPolicy's FREE, no commitment subscription for the 2014 -2015 school year.
Student privacy is a top priority for us and Bing in the Classroom helps bring the transformative power of technology to schools with a classroom version of Bing's ad-free safer search, enabling schools to earn Surfaces for classrooms, and the offer of digital literacy lessons.
Looking for a few good educations apps? We've curated a list of 100 great education apps to get you started. Download the list and link directly from the app title in the pdf to the download in the Windows store.
And don't forget to download Edmodo for Windows, which was published last month. We had Jan Mills demo the unique split screen, charms integration and live tile capabilities at ISTE.
Please join us on the Microsoft Community on Edmodo -- I look forward to "seeing" you there!
By Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education
It's officially the season of giving, and Microsoft is giving in a big way to teachers and students around the globe. I'm pleased to announce that the popular Office 365 ProPlus Benefit is now available worldwide to all students and educators. This means that any eligible organization - anywhere in the world - can provide an Office 365 ProPlus subscription at no extra cost for all students, faculty and staff.
Today's announcement is the latest expansion of the Office 365 ProPlus benefit, an evolution of last year's popular "Student Advantage" program, which was created to address the very real needs of our fast-changing global economy. Office 365 ProPlus includes all of the familiar (and professional-grade) Office applications like Word, PowerPoint and OneNote. The program also includes Office Online and 1TB of storage on OneDrive for Business, enough to support all of the productivity - and creativity - 21st century learning can unleash, all in a safe and secure environment.
Office 365 is the productivity tool for the world of education, matching the anywhere, anytime learning environments of today. The program offers students and teachers throughout the world access to the same set of gold-standard productivity tools and services used by Fortune 500 companies everywhere. And Microsoft believes that by making Office more available where it's needed most (like we recently did in Thailand, where Office 365 is helping to create massive repositories of knowledge that can be accessed and shared by every student nationwide), we are furthering our mission to help everyone on the planet do more and achieve more. By helping students, faculty and staff throughout the world be more productive, we're helping them focus on what really matters: the business of learning.
That's the reason why Cognita Schools Asia, a leading international independent schools group operating in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam including their flagship school Stamford American International School has chosen Office 365 to enable its teachers and staff to collaborate and communicate more seamlessly in and across campuses to facilitate better learning outcomes for students through Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and Lync.
Brian Rogove, Chief Executive, Cognita Asia, said: "Cognita Asia has a clear vision of providing the highest level of quality in teaching and learning excellence for our students in Asia Pacific. Our schools are constantly innovating to enable our teachers, staff and students to stay ahead in a world where technology has radically changed the way we communicate. That's why we are excited to be now on Office 365 to enhance the way we teach, communicate and collaborate across our network of schools."
Extending the Office 365 ProPlus benefit to teachers and staff ensures that educators now have access to the latest version of Office across all their devices. It also means that teachers are using the same technology and features as their students, and allows them access to all their Office documents both at school and at home. With the program, educators can access full Office on up to five PCs or Macs and can unlock the editing capabilities of Office apps for iPad.
They can also take advantage of great Office apps and add-ins like Office Mix to record and publish class lectures. With tools like Lync, classrooms around the world can communicate and collaborate instantaneously. With OneNote, teachers can share lesson plans, class notes, photos, and ideas on any device, accessible from anywhere. And all of these tools meet Microsoft's rigorous standards for security and our unwavering commitment to protecting the privacy of young people. (Read here how we're demonstrating that commitment in South Korea.)
Microsoft is proud to reinvent tools that make the most of the moments that matter -- at home, at work and in school. We're even more proud that we can share this gift with resource-strapped schools in diverse communities around the world. For teachers, school leaders and students alike, Office 365 ProPlus expands the very potential of education. And perhaps more important, it provides a solid foundation in the skills that 21st century employers need, paving the way for an opportunity-filled future for today's young people.
Guest blog by Kelly Green
You dedicate your lives to helping children, in what is undoubtedly one of the most difficult and important professions a person can choose -- teacher. Thank you to every teacher worldwide!
As many of you begin a new academic year, I want to introduce you to a fantastic free app from Microsoft called OneNote that supports collaboration, planning, organization, and saving time. Every teacher endeavors to save time in a very hectic job. The OneNote app is part of Office, Office Online, and recently released, OneNote for Mac just may be the ticket you have been looking for to save time.
With Microsoft OneNote, you can create digital notebooks that support academic standards and education outcomes across disciplines, collaborate with colleagues on special projects, and organize lessons, units of study and resources all in one location. Teachers can access their student's OneNote notebooks to grade assignments using digital inking or share feedback on essays using the record voice feature. Students may use OneNote across content areas and grade levels, and use OneNote to compile and organize unstructured information, research, and content. OneNote supports research, collaboration, information management, communication, note taking, journaling, reflective writing, and academic requirements.
OneNote is an idea processor, a notebook, an information organizer - some even call it an "add-on pack for your brain". Many people find OneNote indispensable after they start using it, and we hope you do too!
OneNote can help if you need to:
OneNote will complement your activities in Microsoft Office Outlook®, Word, and other programs in the Microsoft Office program through several integration features. As an example you can send important email messages straight to OneNote and place them within the project or section you are working on.
You can quickly capture meeting notes, brainstorming notes, ideas and thoughts, audio from discussions, video from interviews, diagrams, and other pieces of information using the keyboard, pen or recording capabilities in OneNote.
You can also gather clippings from the Web, e-mail, miscellaneous materials for projects, customers, and classes, files, pictures, and other purposes using convenient integration with your Web browser and the Office system.
With OneNote, all this information stays in one place. It is easy to organize it, or pile it together (if that's your preference), and then search and find it again - search is so powerful in the product you can even search words found in pictures and audio or video recordings! Since OneNote uses the familiar concept of notebooks divided into sections with pages, you can get going right away.
Having all this information at your fingertips will keep you always prepared: for the next meeting, for writing a final document or e-mail message, for doing a task, for talking to a customer, for going on a trip, and other events. You can flag items in your notebooks as Important or To Do and then quickly gather summaries of information you have flagged this way. OneNote is fully customizable so you can adapt it to your work style.
You can also work with your whole group- in a shared notebook that everybody can edit at the same time and view even while not connected to the network. OneNote seamlessly merges the changes each time anyone updates the notebook. A shared notebook is a great way to see what information the team has gathered, what files and notes are available as sources, even what action items remain for the team to work on.
Like all Office products, you can access the most often used tools through the Ribbons at the top. The Home Tab is mainly where you work with text. In OneNote, you can click anywhere on a page and start typing.
Within OneNote, is the Translation feature. Simply highlight text, select translate and the language to translate into and Voila! The right column is replaced with the translation.
The last tool on this ribbon I want to show you is the Password tool. This is great when you are building a notebook that your students access to get content. Maybe you are working on building a lesson, but you don't want your students to see it yet. You can create the section and then password protect it until you are ready for them to see it. Important reminder! Remember your password as there is no recovery tool!
To help teachers get started using OneNote today, we've created the OneNote Toolkit for Teachers . In this toolkit, you'll find information on
Getting started using OneNote
Creating Lesson Plans using OneNote
Inserting Existing Teaching Materials into your OneNote Notebook
Creating Shared Notebooks
And much more!
For teacher trainers, we've created four resources to support your delivery of an in person professional learning experience.
Trainer's Guide - this guide is used by the trainer providing step-by-step instructions on how to deliver The Ultimate Collaboration Tool: An Introduction to OneNote teacher academy. The guide includes topics covering basic features and functions of OneNote, using OneNote as a personal organizational tool, using OneNote in the classroom, and Using Notebooks for Student and Teacher Collaboration.
Trainer's PowerPoint Deck - this deck supports the trainer as they guide teachers through the training.
Agenda - the agenda provides a description and details of the professional learning offering, as well as a listing of the sessions covered in the training. All four resources may be downloaded here.
Participant's Handout -- see below for download - this handout, created as a OneNote notebook, used by participants for following along during the session and note-taking is a great takeaway reference that includes tips, tricks and shortcuts for using OneNote.
You can find these training resources on Microsoft's Trainer Portal under Product Training, www.mseducatortrainer.com.
Look for more articles on the benefits of these resources to support teaching and learning and please provide comments on the value of these resources to support teaching and learning.
Kelly Green is a senior manager supporting the US education team at Microsoft. She is responsible for the development of the US Innovative Teachers programing. Programs include the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE), MIE train the trainer, MIE master trainer, and the MIE Fellowship. Kelly has nearly 30 years of experience in education as a teacher in Kentucky, special assistant at the US Department of Education and director of policy and state partnerships for the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF). Ms. Green holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kentucky and a Master's degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
As the 1981 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, it’s an honor to now lead the nation's largest and longest-running educational program. The program has experienced incredible growth since its inception in 1925. In fact, the number of participants has increased from just nine in 1925 to an estimated 11 million today.
And for the first time in our history, we’re partnering with the world’s largest software company. Microsoft has joined with us to help integrate technology and expand the learning resources available for students and schools today as the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee Technology Champion.
Microsoft is an organization much like the Bee, an organization with a long history of supporting educators and educational programming.
By joining forces with Microsoft, we’re able to further support digital literacy in education, expand the impact of education and accelerate the growth potential for every student, educator and school.
As part of this collaboration, there will be innovative tools from Microsoft that will help promote learning, including:
A free Windows 8 spelling app for teachers and students available in the next few weeks on the Microsoft in Education download page.
For schools enrolled in Bing for Schools ad-free, safer, more private search, there will be special spelling-related surprises for certain queries.
Starting today, Microsoft’s student-friendly, ad-free Bing for Schools search engine offers a free, weekly Spelling Bee lesson plan. The lesson plans will also be available on Microsoft’s Partners in Learning page.
Starting tomorrow, Bing for Schools daily Word of the Day will be available on the Bee’s Facebook page.
I’m excited to see these new technology tools come to life. They will help create lifelong learners who look back at the Bee experience with the same fondness and passion that I do.
The 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee will take place on May 27, 28 and 29 in the Washington, D.C. area. The Championship Finals will be broadcast live on ESPN on Thursday, May 29 from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
(Like a Candle in the Wind)Goodbye Windows XPThough I always knew you more than allYou had the interface to run so wellWhile those before you crawledThey just tried and didn’t workYou required a 233MHz brainME just had to get killedSo you could save the day
And it seems to me you lived your lifeLike a tower in the windAlways knowing where to Bing toWhen the search came inI was there when you were betaBut I was just a kidYour OS lasted so long but nowYour support has hit the skids.
ME was so toughBut your rolling hills saved the dayMicrosoft created a superstarYou were such a great upgradeEven when you diedSo many still kept youAll the tech papers had to sayWas just wait for Service Pack 2
I hope you enjoyed that rendition of “Candle in the Wind”, the only thing that would have made it more fun is if you would have heard me sing my rendition of it. Who knows? I may open up SongSmith and post a recording soon. I’ll make a deal with you, let your views, shares and tweets do the talking and if we break any records for this site then I promise to sing it for everyone. No fancy sunglasses though.
As I write this, support for Windows XP ends in 19 days. If you want a countdown clock you can track it here. Counting down might be a bit ominous for those of you out there still using XP so I wanted to provide a few details about how this might impact your school or district. In doing so, we will also see how it might already be having some unwanted effects on productivity.
What is end of support?Essentially, this means that no more security updates or technical support will be provided. Many of you may be saying, “OK, so what does that mean to my school/district?” If you are thinking of this in terms of security (you should be), it means that attackers could identify vulnerabilities that may currently exist in XP and then be able to exploit these issues knowing they will not be patched. We have to consider the importance of the integrity of student data, teacher records, and district level information (payroll, accounting, etc). If you do not upgrade to Windows 8.1 or at the least to Windows 7, hackers do not have to start on day one of the end of support, they could already be planning to attack systems that they know are going to be vulnerable. This reason alone should want to make you want to upgrade but there are several other reasons.
Compliance: More than likely, your district has to deal with HIPPA Compliance when it comes to student and teacher health records and information. By leaving this door open, you may find that it violates compliance rules.
Lack of Support from other vendors: Once the EOL for XP occurs, more than likely so will support end for vendor’s products that are running on XP. This includes hardware as well as software.
Windows 8.1 is great! Ok, that might not be a tangible reason but if you are still thinking about security (you should be), it has been said that Windows XP is 21 times more likely to be infected by malware than the modern Windows 8.1.
Microsoft Office 2013 and IE 11 won’t run in XP: If you are wanting your students and teachers to learn and use the most current productivity software along with a modern browser, you can’t do it with XP. In this case you are breaching the area of handcuffing your students when it comes to college and career readiness.
Windows XP was released in October 2001. It was a more stable version of Windows with a redesigned graphic user interface and an overall experience that was both user-friendly and efficient. It was so good and so widely accepted that it took 6 years for another version of Windows to be released. However, that was 2001 and back then world-wide internet usage was estimated at around 470 million people, today we are tipping the scales at over 2.7 billion people! If you would like some additional information there are many Windows 8 resources on the PIL Network and Microsoft Technet even provides a series of resources called the Springboard Series to help understand what’s new, application compatibility, XP to 8 migration guides, and much more.
Key resources:
Windows XP End of Support
Why Windows Devices are the Best for Education
Getting Started: Migrating from Windows XP in Education
So remember to comment, like, share, tweet, pin, email, and carrier pigeon this post and I promise sing my version of the song and post it here. More importantly though, don’t wait for the clock to run out and make the switch to Windows 8.1.
Today, I’m excited to announce the launch Office 356 for education. It’s here, it’s powerful, and it’s free for schools! Prestigious universities like Cornell University, Dartmouth College and Gonzaga University, and top K-12 school districts in Fresno, San Diego, and Nashville are moving to Office 365 for education. Tennessee’s Department of Education is even setting up the service for all 137 districts and 1,677 schools across the state to opt-in to.
Now educators can use the best productivity tools they know to better engage students in learning. And teachers and students can author, collaborate and share in real-time with instant messaging, voice over IP, email, calendaring, and video across multiple devices (including non-Windows operating systems). This is something that Google and other providers cannot offer. Office 365 for education is a cloud-based suite that includes Microsoft Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online.
Enterprise capabilities at no cost. The fact that we are offering education customers -- for free -- a service that commercial customers pay for reinforces our commitment to schools, teachers and kids. The service levels are the same --education customer accounts will be managed side by side in the same datacenters with the same protections as customers from industries like banking and manufacturing. They will get the same uptime performance, redundancy and reliability enjoyed by all commercial customers. Schools and parents alike will have peace of mind knowing students’ content and personal data are protected and won’t be scanned for advertising purposes, thanks to a rich set of privacy, security and protection capabilities that adhere to federal laws.
Kurt Madden, the CIO of Fresno Unified School District, said it best when he noted that his district "wanted a platform that was more secure, that wasn't used for advertising. We wanted a cloud that is our own, and not Google's. Office 365 is the perfect solution."
“After extensive research, we chose Office 365 for education because it allows us to leverage the benefits of cloud-based services while readily meeting our security and accessibility requirements for email and calendar support. The shift to the cloud allows us to focus more directly on our core missions related to education, research and outreach,” said Ted Dodds, chief information officer, Cornell University.
No more pain or inconsistency. For years we have heard so many customers complain about how Google Docs would convert and drop Microsoft Word and Excel formatting. Students and teachers suffered through this because they wanted real-time collaboration on a free platform. Now, with Office Web Apps, documents can be shared online without losing formatting, saving tons of time. Read more here.
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools is moving its 80,000 students off Google Apps and onto Office 365, as well as its 10,000 teachers and staff. “It’s important we have a consistent toolset across the district so people can work together effectively. With Office 365, everything from the features and functions in the applications to the consistency of the toolbars despite where or how they’re accessed helps improve both teacher and student productivity,” said John Williams, executive director of Nashville’s Technology and Information Services. “This consistency, combined with the collaboration capabilities of Office 365, will be essential in supporting the blended learning environment we’re striving for across our district.”
Prepare students for the workforce. We all know the importance of 21st century skills. Office 365 enables anytime, anywhere learning experiences and real-time collaboration, teaching students critical software skills necessary for future job success. With Microsoft Office noted as the leading productivity software used by businesses worldwide. Just do a job search to see how many jobs require writing skills using Word, analytical skills using Excel, and presentation skills using PowerPoint. Learning these skills early can provide a leg up.
Schools have already started to roll out Office 365, and I’m excited to share that the following schools are also moving to Office 365 for education.
• Dartmouth College. The move to Office 365 will help provide secure and reliable communications for more than 10,000 students, faculty and staff on campus and across departments. After the conversion is complete, collaboration on learning and research projects across campus will be easier with everyone using the same tools, and students will also benefit from using the same technology they will be required to use in the business world.
• Cornell University. Cornell will begin onboarding 7,000 faculty and staff to Office 365 in fall 2012, taking advantage of the cloud-based email and calendar support. In the future, the university plans to roll out SharePoint Online and Office Web Apps and give students the option to use Office 365.
• Fresno Unified School District. Utilizing Exchange Online, the district’s email will operate in the cloud for the district’s 74,000 students and 12,000 faculty and staff. Protected by Microsoft’s built-in antivirus and anti-spam filters, Fresno Unified School District expects to save $50,000 to $100,000 per year in costs. Nearly one-third of students currently utilize Microsoft Office and SharePoint to create documents and presentations and collaborate on class projects, which is expected to increase three-fold with the move to Office 365 when students will be able to access school portals at home.
• Gonzaga University. Using SharePoint Online and Lync Online will allow Gonzaga to maintain its leadership in the online learning space and provide its distant learning population (which composes nearly 20 percent of its total students) with seamless access to an online resources portal and anytime collaboration tools. Office 365 will support 8,000 students and 1,200 faculty and staff.
• Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. Eighty thousand students will switch from Google to the Microsoft solution while 9,500 faculty and staff will move to the cloud from on-premises solutions, saving the district $400,000 annually in IT services costs.
• Tennessee Department of Education. Office 365 will allow the department to offer a single platform to its 136 districts and 1,677 schools across the state, increasing opportunities for collaboration and tapping into an enormous amount of teacher potential both outside and inside the classroom that was not there before.
Office 365 for education is available today! Go to www.office365.com/education to sign up!
As a teacher, have you ever found yourself lying awake at night worrying that your students weren’t being adequately prepared for their future careers? The world outside the school walls has changed at a rapid pacewhile much of how we do business in schools has not changed. A new report published by the IDC (International Data Corporation) confirms what many teachers fear – simply consuming information and learning traditional skills is not enough to prepare our students for their future.
Think about the last time you were asked to summarize a Shakespearean play, had to explain the Pythagorean Theorem, or write a formal letter in longhand. I am as guilty as the next teacher of struggling to let goof our teacher-centric liberal arts education, and move towards a more student-centered pragmatic approach to teaching and learning. Teaching practices that used to be considered vital to maintaining a civil society, are out of touch with what our students need to be successful in today’s world.
Students need to learn to be critical thinkers of information. That means they are expected to analyze or synthesize information already out there, critically evaluate what they are learning, and create new knowledge using the skills they develop. They need to be self-motivated, self-directed and quick to respond to others needs. They need real-world instruction that is relevant to today’s issues.
The way employees are expected to communicate in the 21st Century requires a skill set not yet fully embraced by schools. Face-to-face communication now competes with virtual communication through email and social media. Students need practice working with a team to collaborate in a way that forces them to make substantive decisions together (not just divvying up the work). This takes practice and training. Students will also be expected to collaborate and communicate in an increasingly diverse society. Few schools allow students to interact with each other through social media outlets, so the only experience students have is through personal interactions outside of their “professional” work day. Can you imagine if the previous generation’s only experience with virtual communication was from phone conversations they had with their friends? We need to prepare our students to interact in both the physical and virtual world.
Microsoft’s Office 365 provides options that allow for students to interact with each other and with their teachers. Students and teachers can have free access to email through Outlook, web conferencing with Lync, collaboration through SharePoint, and messaging through Yammer – all within the control of the district. Office 365 is a way for students to practice their communication skills in a professional manner in a safe environment. School districts can archive everything to provide the additional security needed as students learn to use these new skills appropriately.
So how as educators can we prepare our students for their future professions?
According the IDC report, most high-growth, high-wage jobs require a combination of these 21st Century skills in addition to occupation-specific skills. I could write several pages of examples on how thiscan be done, but the most effective strategy is to incorporate problem-based learning into the curriculum. This allows students the opportunity to grapple with a relevant issue, analyze multiple resources, and evaluate what course of action should be taken. Add on the collaborative component, and students can create solutions not found in the back of the textbook. Allowing students to seek their own solutions to problems also ignites their entrepreneurial spirit.
For example, in my Civics class, I challenged ninth graders to create a mobile app that fulfilled a societal need that was not currently available. As a team, they researched current apps out there, chose a topicthat was of interest to them, created a marketing video in Movie Maker (based on their research of marketing videos from the Kick Starter site), and created a wireframe (digital sketch) in PowerPoint of how their app would look. Students who wanted to take the project to the next level were encouraged to try their hand at programming and build it using Microsoft’s TouchDevelop Mobile App Maker. Several students wanted to continue working on the project even though the school year (and grade) was done.
Another example is a lesson on forest management found on the Partners in Learning Network using tools from Microsoft Office. Being proficient in Microsoft Office is the second most important skill to have in the workplace (see graphic). In this lesson, students used OneNote to collaboratively research and refine their plan on how best to use forested land. They were then asked to write up a proposal in Word, and present their plan using PowerPoint. Since groups took on the role of competing interests for the land, issues of sustainability, environmental stewardship, and economic growth were the focus of this project. Although the emphasis of the learning was not on the technology, the need to know how to use Microsoft Office was a key component to the overall project.
Allow your students to own their learning. Understand that these“soft” skills are not an add-on to what you already do, they are necessary skills to prepare your students for their future. Don’t be afraid to let go ofwhat you have always done. This is new territory not just for teachers, but for students as well. Incorporating a student-centered, problem-based classroom takes time for everyone to adjust. Stick with it, and the payoff will be worth it.
Kim WestMicrosoft Fellow and Master Trainer
To find other great Lessons using Microsoft Office and many free tools for teachers that address 21st Century Skills and problem-based learning, visit the Partners in Learning Network/Learning Activities.
For more information read Skills Requirements for Tomorrow’s Best Jobs from IDC (International Data Corporation).
This is a pretty common question I get with my education customers. The answer is there is not one tool that can calculate everything for your Office 365 bandwidth but there is an Exchange calculator, Lync calculator and some guidance for SharePoint bandwidth.
Exchange bandwidth calculator
This calculator is pretty extensive as it accounts for mail usage profiles, etc:
It also allows you to calculate bandwidth needed for each site depending on what client type Mac, Outlook 2010, OWA, etc.
You can visit my other post for a bit of a deeper dive into using this bandwidth calculator here.
Grab the Exchange bandwidth calculator here.
Lync 2010 and 2013 bandwidth calculator
This is a pretty awesome bandwidth calculator where you can provide site by site calculations for Lync bandwidth required.
You can specify locations, users, type of users, concurrency, etc.
Lync calculator also has nice graphics showing bandwidth requirements per location, etc.
Grab the Lync bandwidth calculator here.
SharePoint bandwidth
I haven’t found a calculator on this for SharePoint 2013 but I did find a reference matrix from SharePoint 2010 which should be enough for a baseline estimate for SharePoint Online – I did read that SharePoint 2013 bandwidth can be up to 40% more efficient than the results below so take that into account in your estimations:
:
Here is an Office 365 WAN test result on SharePoint 2013 that has great information but not customer guidance unfortunately. See here.
There are other older SharePoint calculations available for reference here.
You can also view your available network bandwidth by running the Office 365 bandwidth test tool which is available here.
June 26, 2014 | Cameron Evans, Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Education, Microsoft
It’s that time of year again. This coming weekend, I will be joining my Microsoft Education colleagues at the annual International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Atlanta to learn about and share how technology can help students, teachers, and administrators be successful within the classroom and beyond. This is a focus of ours throughout the year as part of our global company-wide Microsoft YouthSpark initiative so I’m always looking forward to learning more and sharing with educators about the many resources we have available to help empower their students.
One particular topic we will be focusing on at ISTE is how we as an industry – along with some of the top educators around the world – can help to truly innovate and transform the learning experience for students in this new digital environment. I see successful districts and teachers moving toward a more interactive, immersive, and personalized learning experience and it’s clear that this is the future of education.
My colleagues and I are looking forward to advancing this conversation and showcasing solutions to help schools succeed in this digital transition. From devices and apps, to productivity and connectivity tools, we’ll be demonstrating how technology from Microsoft and our partners can improve and transform education, and more precisely, learning.
We have some great thought leaders offering sessions for ISTE attendees:
Spotlight Sessions
Sunday, June 29 —Robert Baker, director of technology, Cincinnati Country Day School, will be presenting “ You really can have it all! ” In this session, he will be sharing how Windows 8 tablets with touch, ink and laptop functionality remove all constraints for educators, and allow IT departments to manage, support, upgrade and scale efficiently.
Monday, June 30 —I will be leading an interactive lecture, “ The Great Pyramids of Math, Minecraft, and MakerBots ,” which will focus on how the new Math-Science standards can be applied using open-world gaming, 3D prototyping, and problem-solving using Windows devices. This session will bring to life the interesting and new ways we can use technology and gaming to redefine project-based learning activities, especially in tougher subjects like mathematics.
Monday, June 30 —Shanen Boettcher, general manager, Startup Business Group at Microsoft, and Stacey Roshan, a teacher from Bullis School, will be presenting a session, “ Make online lessons FAST with tools you know .” The session will feature examples of how Office Mix can be used as a fast and easy way to create and share interactive online lessons using PowerPoint. Developed in cooperation with Microsoft Research and based on direct input from educators, Office Mix is a prime example of how Microsoft is responding to teachers’ desire for technology that doesn’t require time-consuming training to master.
Hands-On Learning
Throughout the event, we will have a Microsoft Experience Center (MEC) in GWCC B401, offering educators a hands-on introduction to the Microsoft productivity and mobility platform.
Learn about OneNote, a digital note-taking tool that can be used on any device, anywhere.
Experience new Windows 8.1 applications for planning, teaching, and testing.
Check out the new Surface Pro 3, the tablet that can replace your laptop.
Free Stuff!
Because we know that not all teachers have the latest versions of OneNote and PowerPoint available to them, Microsoft is offering teachers attending ISTE a one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 for free. If you’re a teacher interested in experiencing the benefits of Microsoft’s cloud productivity suite, be sure to bring the required papers and stop by our booth to take advantage of the Office 365 Giveaway.
These are just a few highlights of our activities for ISTE. For more information, please stop by our booth #914, or check out a blog post about all of our upcoming sessions.
Also be sure to stay tuned to this blog and follow @Microsoft_Edu, @EDUCTO, #MSFTEDU, and #ISTE2014 as we will have more updates from ISTE throughout the week.
Today marks the start of the Microsoft in Education Global Forum in Barcelona, a gathering of over 1000 of the most innovative and committed educators, school leaders and government officials from nearly 100 countries. This annual event is a chance for education’s best and brightest to learn from their peers, share classroom triumphs and challenges, and collaborate to help transform education for the 21st century. It’s also an opportunity for Microsoft to reinforce our longstanding commitment to building a better future for our young people as part of our global YouthSpark initiative.
At Microsoft, we believe that technology can empower educators and students to meet and exceed their goals. We are all witnessing – and are key players in – a historic shift in education. As governments and educators worldwide seek to understand which tools and approaches will ultimately benefit students and society as a whole, many claim to have the answers. But as new technologies and new realities shift the foundations of traditional education, it can be tough for education decision makers to know where – or how – to take the next step.
Against this backdrop, school leaders are looking for solutions that can help hedge against inevitable and constant change and prepare young people for a dramatically different workforce. For their part, teachers want technology tools that not only engage students, but that prepare them for their next steps. Teachers also need tools to help them manage their classrooms, along with the growing demands of their jobs. And, for everyone, the safety and security of these solutions must be reliable and uncompromising.
With a range of affordable devices to suit every age group, running on the anywhere, anytime power of Windows 8, Microsoft offers proven solutions to the shortcomings, privacy concerns and manageability worries that plague so many other education technology implementations. The power of 1:1 computing is unleashed with the cloud-enabled productivity of Office 365, Skype and OneDrive. Classroom technology is easily managed with Windows Intune, freeing up more time for teachers to focus on teaching. Bing search is integrated and ad-free, designed specifically for education. And for the most vulnerable among us – our children -- privacy and security are guaranteed. No other education technology offering comes close.
We’ve been dedicated to creating meaningful change in education for more than three decades, with $750 million invested in teacher training and professional development in just the last 15 years to ensure that sustainable change is a reality throughout the world. Microsoft's legacy of focusing on teachers, students and school leaders is without equal, and we create products for the world of education with their needs in mind. No other company offers this broad portfolio of familiar, robust and secure software and services created specifically for education. And, our commitment doesn’t stop there. Microsoft’s focus on education is amplified by the company’s global YouthSpark initiative, to create opportunities for youth in education, employment and entrepreneurship. In the first year alone, YouthSpark has created opportunities for more than 103 million young people in over 100 countries around the world.
The Expert Educators and Mentor School leaders who are joining us in Barcelona this week are working to build a new world of education – one that respects the right of every child to a quality education and provides each of those students with the best opportunity to succeed in school and in life. And, as we have for more than 30 years, Microsoft is standing beside them.
Today, Microsoft’s top leaders from around the globe are joining me to pledge their support for the teachers, school leaders and students who are shaping the future. We do not take our commitment lightly. We will continue to dedicate our considerable resources to transforming education today, and to creating a future where every child is prepared to lead the next generation of global citizens. And I’m thrilled to be able to share this commitment with the innovators and change-makers who will join us in making this happen. I also want to recognize our sponsors for the Microsoft in Education Global Forum, especially those at the
Platinum and Gold levels: Pearson, Promethean, Dell, Intel, Acer, and School Improvement Network. Your generosity and commitment to education has made this event possible.
Follow the Global Forum anywhere, anytime! Even if you’re not able to join us in Barcelona, you can keep up with the Global Forum through our new Facebook app, on our Twitter feed (#MicrosoftGF), or on our YouTube channel. Watch insightful keynotes and video interviews, experience the competitions and get inspired by the best of worldwide education! Let me know your thoughts at @AnthonySalcito.
When it comes to preparing for – and making the most of – innovative classroom technology, Microsoft believes that technology can help improve teaching and learning, and ultimately create opportunity and raise living standards for people around the world.
This kind of transformative change does not happen overnight. We are committed to listening to what educators, administrators and students say is working, and what's not. It's our mission to make change plausible; to clarify which learning environments and methods are in fact delivering on the promise of transformative learning.
One such method is 1:1 learning. Since the first 1:1 programs began more than 20 years ago, tens of thousands of schools across the globe have piloted or fully deployed 1:1 programs in their schools and school districts. Whether it's about sparking curiosity, collaborating with peers and expert educators, interacting with rich content or opening doors to engaging learning experiences, 1:1 technology-empowered learning environments can help transform today’s learners into tomorrow’s leaders. Of course, realizing this vision requires teachers, administrators and students to realign, rethink, and reinvent educational practices.
As part of our program at BETT 2014, we held an important event entitled: Anytime Anywhere Learning for All. This program covered how to effectively execute 1:1 programs, the best strategies for building relationships with IT decision makers, and included discussions and panels about the value and economic impact of 1:1 programs.
Studies on transformative learning environments have shown that successful 1:1 programs focus on learning, and not devices; they address student engagement, active pedagogy, and the business of learning. From Australia to Greece to Canada, Cyprus to the US, we have heard from teachers, students, parents and administrators who sing the praises of 1:1 learning.
Why? For today’s curious, self-directed, and social learners, 1:1 programs can give them a more meaningful voice in their education, and a strategy and environment that supports deeper learning. For educators, a 1:1 program can free them from being "content providers" and instead let them serve as mentors, learning strategists, advisors, coaches, and researchers exploring new, innovative teaching practices. By shifting from teacher- to student–directed learning, classrooms can begin to develop a contemporary curriculum strategy.
This week at BETT 2014, Microsoft is focusing on sharing meaningful ways to integrate technology into classrooms. To help teachers, trainers, and school leaders take full advantage of 1:1 learning opportunity, Microsoft supports teachers, trainers and school leaders:
• Design and Deployment workshop: Developed in partnership with the Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation, this workshop addresses the critical steps required for effective deployment of a 1:1 program. It provides school leadership with a framework which encourages dialog and clear expectations about what a 1:1 initiative will mean for students, teachers and the whole school community, and addresses strategic, pedagogical, technical and tactical implications for school heads, IT directors, curriculum heads and their teams.
• Train the trainer workshop: Building Educator Capacity: Designed for organizations and individuals that provide teacher training using Microsoft devices and products. Facilitated by Imagine Education, it focuses on how to utilize the Microsoft professional development resources, share best practices and explore new tools and apps to support teachers. Join the upcoming webcast series to find out more. Register here.
We believe that technology can expand the impact of education and accelerate the growth potential of every student. We also believe in the power of the educator and school leader and the impact they can have on their students both now and into the future. To that end, in March 2014 we are bringing together over 700 of the world’s most innovative educators, school leaders and education leaders from 75 countries for the 10th annual Microsoft in Education Global Forum taking place in Barcelona, Spain. The Forum is designed to give educators and school leaders an opportunity for professional development, team building, collaboration and sharing of best practices.
When it comes to creating meaningful change in education, there is no silver bullet. With the right educators, plan and tools in place today, students will be fully engaged in learning, and prepared to meet the changing demands of the job market, readying them to lead in the 21st century economy.
Anthony Salcito, Vice President Worldwide Education
Back-to-school time used to mean an abrupt - and sometimes difficult - shift from the freedom and fresh air of summertime to long days in the classroom. For today's students, learning takes place not only in the classroom, but also at home, outside, in libraries, and any place with an Internet connection. Effective learning technology needs to be as smart, flexible and hardworking as today's students and teachers.
For one UK school, anywhere, anytime learning plays a critical role in transforming their approach to 21st century learning, resulting in more engaged students and better student outcomes. Broadclyst Primary School, a Microsoft Showcase School, adopted a range of Windows 8 devices - from PCs to laptops to Surface tablets - all running Windows 8 with Office 365. According to Broadclyst head teacher Jonathan Bishop, "With Office 365, anytime, anywhere learning is becoming a real reality for all children." Watch more on how Broadclyst is using anytime anywhere learning to engage students in and out of the classroom:
Bishop sees the benefits of anywhere, anytime learning - and the flexibility and power of Windows 8 devices - in action every day.
"[Students] might be working on a project at their desks, but then they want to go and conduct some market research…they will take their device with them [to other parts of the school] or outdoors into the forest school or the allotment. We've got a ruggedized Windows 8 device so it's waterproof and drop-proof, and having the array of different devices that meet the needs of the task makes it really powerful."
- Jonathan Bishop, Head Teacher at Broadclyst Primary School, UK
Teachers at the school appreciate the easy transition to Windows 8, and the seamlessness of a single operating system across multiple devices. As teacher Matt Pitt explains, "[Students] can actually use the same operating system across a range of devices, which means we're teaching one skillset instead of several." He adds, "[This] means that children can get on with the task of learning without having to worry about whether they can use equipment correctly because the operating system for Surface, for a desktop, for a laptop -- it's all the same."
For Twickenham Academy in London, another Microsoft Showcase School, Windows 8 Surface devices have empowered anywhere, anytime learning and then some.
Twickenham Assistant Principal Dwayne Philip says the initial goal was simple: "How do we give students a set of learning experiences that would prepare them for the world after school to lead successful lives and to become life-long learners?"
School leaders and teachers at Twickenham knew they needed portable devices to bridge the at-home digital divide and to accommodate different styles of teaching and learning. They also recognized that Office 365 would provide a learning platform that would translate beyond school and into the world of work. "In terms of making the choice, I think the critical thing for us was coming back to our values," Philip adds. "One of our core values was that we educate for life. And we had to think, well, life beyond school walls."
Find more information about how your school can empower students and educators with anytime, anywhere learning
Competition for today’s best jobs is tough, and we can only assume it will be even tougher in the future. That’s why it is so critical students across the U.S. gain the essential skills that propel them to the top of all hiring managers’ top candidates. A recent study from IDC that analyzed 14.6 million job postings found that written and oral communication and Microsoft Office are the top two most in-demand skills for high growth/high wage jobs.
Microsoft Office is available for PCs and tablets across mostl platforms, the problem for many students though is access; cost or broadband restraints. Our new Student Advantage benefit can solve both barriers and provide students with the tools needed to gain those most important skills. If your school licenses Microsoft Office for faculty and staff, students get Office at no additional cost.
Student Advantage elevates Microsoft Office 365 Education plan A2 which already provides web-based services to schools for email, calendaring, web conferencing, online document editing, storage and sharing for free. With Student Advantage students will have access to the full Office suite used by Fortune 500 companies and small businesses around the world online and offline. The enterprise-quality applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and more give students the tools to be productive and create a more immersive and personalized learning experience. When combined with the free online document storage and collaboration services available in Office 365 Education, students can more securely access their school work from almost any internet connected device without concerns that their files and communications are getting scanned for advertising purposes.
Student Advantage addresses the very real needs of our fast-changing global economy. A recent study (Infographic).pdf by IDC highlighted the growing number of “hard skills” – required in job postings.
The Right Solution for Students
In today’s hyper-connected world, students use a variety of devices, a laptop, tablet, or cell phone every day to communicate and do real work. That is why it is so important students have a unified solution that would provide the same reliable and robust experience across numerous platforms.
Since December 1, 2013, when Student Advantage became available, more than 4 million U.S. students now have access to the full version of Office at no additional cost to their school. Today's students are tomorrow’s leaders. We are committed to ensuring our students are set up for success in the future which is why we are committed to creating a world where any learner has access to the most powerful technology tools to achieve their goals. We’re making it easy for schools to get access to Student Advantage and provide training to help educators effectively leverage the tools at their fingertips.
Get Student Advantage for your School
If your school provides Office 365 ProPlus or Office Professional Plus to your faculty and staff using either an Enrollment for Education Solutions or an Open Value Subscription for Education Solutions licensing agreement, you now qualify for this new benefit for students. If you do not have one of these enrollments, you can still learn more about qualifying for the benefit by contacting your Microsoft account team or your Authorized Education Reseller today.
Additional Resources:
Today marks the first in a series of Windows 8 Wednesday posts, weekly updates focused on how Windows 8 is making a difference in education – for both educators and students. I hope you will check back often and follow me on this journey.
Just a few days ago, I had the privilege of helping to lead an open and collaborative dialogue with students at the Student Voice Live event, in conjunction with Dell and the Student Voice organization. The event was streamed live from New York, with satellite summits and breakout discussions in schools from Shanghai to Malawi to Ukraine to Ecuador, and in many places in between. Much of this invaluable dialogue was enabled – and made even more collaborative -- by Windows 8 devices and apps, which supported the fast and furious social media sharing that took place during the day-long event.
At the event’s tech lounge students tried out many of the newest Dell machines running Windows 8. I watched for a while and noticed that what appealed to one student was not the same for the next. We are excited that Windows 8 can run on so many different form factors – whether it is touch, pen, PC or desktop – there are unique personalities of each student and teacher and we believe no one device is the right answer for a school. We believe unique learning styles and teachers’ and schools’ unique teaching objectives should be considered carefully before a device purchase is written and signed. Choice is key to matching the unique needs of the world’s 1.4 billion students and 65.2 million educators. We are excited to partner with Dell to offer a range of devices in different price points and form factors.
This was Dell’s seventh Social Think Tank to focus on education (I’ve participated in the past), but their first ever Think Tank held in conjunction with Student Voice and the largest yet. The session I moderated centered on Education and Entrepreneurship. Spending a few hours with a group of incredibly talented and driven students was, of course, a joy. But what they had to say – and the conversation they started with other students around the world – was humbling.
We explored the connection between entrepreneurship and education, using discussion and real-life examples to determine how to further promote a relationship between these two ideas -- how to better incorporate them, and ultimately, how to change education through the use of them. We explored questions like, “Is entrepreneurship a field of study or a culture that needs to be developed?” and “How can educators, policymakers, community members, foundations, and corporations work together to instill the entrepreneurial spirit within the educational experience?”
The worldwide conversation that ensued was fascinating, and it struck me that, just a few short years ago, it couldn’t have happened. The power of technology and social media – both elements critical to bringing entrepreneurship and education together – also gave a voice to students whose futures are inextricably tied to these tools. We at Microsoft believe that when it comes to education, technology has to serve the journeys of these digital natives as they prepare for the workforce, and as they try to reach their potential. Windows 8 is an extension of that mission, putting it in action, supporting the students who will help lead the changes required to make education relevant for this century. I look forward to sharing more on Windows 8 in this space each Wednesday, where we’ll explore the many ways Windows 8 is enabling students and their teachers to collaborate, learn and transform education.
A cool feature I want to add to this blog is to highlight a different app each week, so, without further ado….Here is my video on the app of the week from Corinth
Windows 8 App of the WeekTeaching subjects like technology and science can be challenging. Concepts can often be abstract and difficult to explain, and traditional visuals barely scratch the surface. That’s where Corinth comes in, offering deep and immersive visual models of everything from plants to engines to the human body. The latest Windows 8 application in the Corinth Micro series is Corinth Micro Engines, available now at the Windows Store. According to Corinth CEO Ondrej Homola (see an extended interview with him today on Daily Edventures), “We believe that visual and interactive story-telling is the future of education in sciences, technologies and abstract topics. We’re thrilled to share this idea with innovative educators and companies who are engaged with making education better.”
In continuation with my previous post on Creating a SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Project, you will now learn how to create a Shared Data Source within that project. In this post I compare and contrast Shared and Embedded Data Sources and demonstrate how to create a Share Data Source.
A Data Source is a data connection that includes the type of data source that you are connecting to, the connection information (Server Name, Database Name), and the credential type (Windows or SQL Authentication for example). For more information on Data Sources got to:
In this posting I will explain how to create a Share Data Source. When we get to the point when we create an actual SSRS Report I will explain and demonstrate how to create an Embedded Data Source.
When developing SSRS projects you have two choices when creating Data Sources, Shared or Embedded. The primary difference between the two is that the Shared source can be used by all reports in the project, while the Embedded source can only be used by the report in which it is created. Therefore, if a change occurs that affects an Embedded source (change to server name, database name, logon credentials, etc…) someone will be required to update the configurations within each report. So if you create 50 reports that include the same Embedded source, you would need to open each report and update the affected data source. On the other hand, if the same reports used a Shared source, the change would only need to be made in one place. This will become clearer once you actually create both types of sources. In addition to the aforementioned, the Shared sources are publishable and are required for Share Datasets, which will be discussed later in this series.
Download: Creating Share Data Source
In the next post, SSRS 101 – Creating a Shared Dataset, I will explain and demonstrate how to create a shared dataset.
Talk to you soon,
Patrick LeBlanc, Microsoft, Technical Solutions Professional SQL Server and Business Intelligence
Founder www.sqllunch.com
There are some moments that make us proud – really proud – of the work that Microsoft does to help students throughout the world realize their full potential. The Partners in Learning Global Forum is an outstanding event Where Microsoft recognizes and celebrates the achievements of the world's most innovative educators and school leaders for leveraging technology in the classroom and preparing millions of students for life in the 21st century.
Last December, the Partners in Learning Global Forum 2012 took place in Prague, Czech Republic, and brought together over 600 educators, civic and education leaders, and influencers to discuss global education issues, share learnings and best practices, and celebrate the innovation of great teachers from 80 different countries. Then, we celebrated a milestone in the Partners in Learning (PiL) program by announcing a renewal of the program for an additional five years with a $250 million investment.
Check out the photos and the videos – the engagement, the excitement, the absolute joy and pride on the faces of our participants speak to the powerful experience that each had this week.
The Partners in Learning Global Forum 2014 will bring together participants from the Microsoft Expert Educators Program, the Microsoft Mentor Schools Program, Higher Education faculty members and Education Leaders for an energetic, interactive and collaborative conference. This high profile event is attended by more than 800 attendees from 80 countries, along with government officials, policy makers and partners.
Today, I am proud to announce that the next Global Forum will take place in Barcelona, Spain on March 11 to 14, 2014. SAVE THE DATE!
It will offer practioners’ in education share with one another, compete at a worldwide level, learn from education experts, and affect change in their own schools and communities, providing real impact for better learning outcomes. It is by invitation only.
The 2014 Global Forum agenda includes:• Unparalleled networking opportunities with other educators from around the globe• Awards and recognition for the year’s most innovative educators• Celebration of the Microsoft Innovative Schools program• Engaging professional development activities• Keynotes from industry experts• Cutting edge technology demonstrations• Teachmeets, interactive working sessions and panel discussions around “hot topics” to inspire education innovation and help build capacity among educators and school leaders• Teacher Education Initiative workshop for pre-service teachers and their faculty• Education Leaders track for policymakers (ICT and curriculum directors) understand the positive effects that enhanced teaching and school management can have on learning outcomes
APPLY NOW AND WIN A TRIP TO BARCELONA!
Whether you would like to become a Microsoft Expert Educator or Mentor School Leader, or you know someone in your school or community who fits the description, it’s simple to apply for the program. Applications will be accepted through September 30, 2013.
Just go to http://www.pil-network.com/Forums or share this news with an amazing educator and school leaders you know – giving them an opportunity to win an all-expense paid trip to the next Global Forum and connect with peers around the world.
Join us in Barcelona and get ready for the experience of a lifetime!
Lauren WoodmanGeneral ManagerMicrosoft Worldwide Education Programs
So far, it's been an exciting time here in London at the BETT show 2014. From the keynote speech from Sir Ranulph Finnes, to the skills workshops and speakers, this year's show is packed full of content for learning and education professionals. One of the biggest themes at this year's show is devices, and for good reason. With the pace of innovation in terms of how technology is being used within the classroom, particularly around tablet devices and mobile computing, choosing the right solution for a school, classroom or project is more complex than ever. At Microsoft, we know this decision must start with a plan.
To be sure, devices are the biggest technology investment in the classroom. That means choosing devices that meet learning objectives and help prepare students for their next step, whether that is higher education or the workforce. Productivity -- or lack thereof -- can mean the difference between the success and failure of any technology solution. Students need to consume content, analyze it and create documents with their findings, all while staying on task and away from distractions. And importantly, classroom computing must be secure, putting student safety and wellbeing first. It’s a tall order, but the right device is built to meet all of those needs and more.
• In an effort to support and inform administrators facing these challenges, Microsoft partnered with IDC Government Insights on a study to learn more about schools' technology investments. The results of the study, published in a white paper entitled "Demonstrating the Value of PCs in the Education Industry", looked at 11 schools and focused specifically on PCs — desktops, laptops, and "hybrid" tablet PCs (such as the Surface, which functions as a notebook system when the keyboard is connected, and as a tablet when the screen is detached). The study also looked at media tablets, defined as devices primarily designed and marketed to access a wide range of digital content and services, including media and communications). The results support our belief that what matters most is a device that is full featured enough to allow students to consume information, collaborate with their peers and teachers and create great content. Here's what the study found: • The schools favored PCs over media tablets primarily for their ability to generate content — especially in the higher grades.
• Although PC devices cost more than media tablets, the costs of the additional technology required for tablets to meet the needs of education — including management and security software, maintenance and warranty packages, and additional bandwidth — close the gap considerably.
• The principle cost advantage of a PC is that it is optimized for organizations rather than individuals, and as such is easier to deploy and manage, resulting in annual maintenance costs that are 26 percent lower than those of media tablets.
• The schools in this study felt that the PC's usability and fit with their educational goals more than outweighed the initial cost advantage of media tablet devices.
As with any major purchase, maintenance of devices and technology solutions can represent significant and unexpected costs down the road, making guaranteed reliability and easy-to-access support critical. Upgrades and replacements can be another surprise cost over time, placing quality and durability at a premium above novelty and “cool factor.” And taking risks with safety and security is not an option, so any technology solution should, first and foremost, protect students. The full study is attached below.
Microsoft helps school leaders meet the evolving needs of education by offering cost-effective devices and technologies that help secure and manage the business of education. Microsoft devices, whether they are tablets, laptops or desktop PCs, are designed to meet every need and to integrate with existing classroom technology. And to protect this critical investment, Microsoft devices are easy-to-implement workhorses with guaranteed reliability.
This week at BETT, we will be featuring a wide range of devices – from PCs to tablets to all-in-ones -- and we’ll be demonstrating how these can collectively help enhance methods of learning, and engage, motivate, and excite students and faculty. We know that technology can fundamentally change the way students learn, teachers instruct, and the education community communicates, and we are proud to play a role in helping students, teachers and administrators get the most out of today's technology to produce the leaders of tomorrow.
-Anthony
Education providers around the world are implored to modernize, reform, and rethink the nature of primary and secondary schooling so the education experience is more relevant for learners and better aligned to community needs. Sparking the natural curiosity of young people and enabling them to be successful in college, career, and community often involves changing an entire education system, rather piecemeal initiatives. Transforming education is challenging, and there is often a discrepancy between policy-making and true change in the student learning experience.
The challenge for education in the 21st century is to create an approach that is agile, adaptable and in tune with the lives of young people outside of the classroom and their future employability. Effective change requires a more holistic approach to completely transform the learning experience of the learners. To empower education change agents, we propose a holistic education transformation framework to guide leaders.
The Microsoft in Education Transformation Framework is a guide for educators and leaders engaged in holistic education transformation. The critical conversations needed for effective transformation of education systems are the focus of this series. Each expert author presents a global perspective on the topic through the current thinking and evidence from research and practice, as well as showcase examples. Specifically, the papers document the contributions of anytime anywhere approaches to K-12 learning and explore the potential of new technology for transforming learning outcomes for students and their communities.
Start by reading the Microsoft in Education Transformation Framework Overview.
Download the Transformation Framework Papers available to download as PDF files:
Guest blog post by Helen Gooch, Microsoft Fellow and Master Trainer
OneNote Class Notebook Creator is a new app enhancement for Microsoft OneNote based on feedback teachers shared with Microsoft about how to make OneNote even better for student achievement.
OneNote has been around since Office 2003 and yet, as we work with educators around the world we are constantly surprised that this unbelievably, amazing tool is still the best kept secret going. When educators begin using OneNote; they have no idea how they ever managed before and constantly find new ways to incorporate it into their professional practice. If you are new to OneNote see what you have been missing! Check out the informative Microsoft EduCast video hosted by Kim West, a Microsoft Innovative Educator, to help you get started with OneNote. And, read how teachers save time organizing lessons and grading assignments with OneNote to get more best practices on using OneNote, which is available for to download for free.
OneNote is great! However, what teachers have asked loudly and repeatedly for is the ability to easily roll up multiple student notebooks, great for lessons, grading, and collaboration, into a single class OneNote notebook for the teacher.
What this new tool is:
The OneNote Class Notebook Creator is an app for Office 365 and SharePoint Online that helps you set up OneNote in your class on all the devices most used by students and teachers (complete list of devices/platforms linked on OneNote.com). This tool will allow a teacher to create a class notebook, which incorporates three types of sub-notebooks:
What you'll need to get started:
This is just an introduction or awareness for all educators, the next blog posting will contain complete instructions on getting started with your OneNote Class Notebook and tips to get you up and running including adding students, content and best practice suggestions. Be on the lookout for this fantastic new tool for you and more importantly, your students. Get a message to your Office 365 administrator that you really need them to add this functionality!
To see OneNote Classroom Notebook Creator in action, watch Sonja Delafosse, a Microsoft Expert Educator and Master Trainer, demonstrate this tool in this new video:
Educators, we asked and Microsoft listened!
More information: