microsoft: exciting learning ebook

Exciting Learning: Using Technology to Improve Education

The Microsoft Brand Guidelines for Education | 27

the microsoft visual identity

education

education

Using Technology to Improve Education

2 Contents

FORWARD ............................................................................................................................ 3

AIMS ........................................................................................................................................ 4

CHAPTERS ............................................................................................................................ 5

Chapter 1: Why use Technology in Schools ....................................................................................... 5

Chapter 2: Pedagogical Approach ......................................................................................................... 9

Chapter 3: ICT for Productivity and Efficiency .................................................................................. 16

Chapter 4: Creating Digital Content ..................................................................................................... 19

Chapter 5: Overcoming the Challenges and Getting Started ..................................................... 23

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 26

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. 27

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 28

Contents















education

I’ve always liked playing with computers. The year before I started my first teaching job as a geography teacher I spent the summer building revision websites in HTML and Flash. Imagine my surprise when I went into my new classroom and it didn’t have a computer!

It didn’t take me long to start to accumulate ICT equipment from other parts of the school – I quickly realised that we were actually well resourced but the equipment was not well used. I raided cupboards, brought things in from home and applied for grants. I did this because I realised that young people in my care were highly engaged and captivated by the technology I was using. It was enhancing my performance as a teacher and getting children excited and re-energised about learning.

During my first few years teaching the students in the class I used to always talk about the technology and how much they enjoyed learning about geography. But over time the buzz created by the ICT started to subside, at first I was surprised, but then I realised something that has stuck with me until this day. The technology was still very important to the children, yet in my classroom it had become invisible – it was truly supporting me as a teacher and the young peoples needs as learners.

As I moved into school management and then to a national advisory role I have re-told this story hundreds of times. It is not about the technology – it is about good learning and teaching. Our challenge is to think about what makes a good lesson and then think about how you can augment and enhance the experience with technology.

That is what makes learning exciting – and that is what this eBook is about!

Ollie Bray www.olliebray.com

Forward

3 Forward




www.olliebray.com

education

Aims

4 Aims



The aims of this eBook are to:

• Enhance the understanding of the benefits of ICT and technology across the curriculum including literacy, numeracy, technology, personal, social and health education.

• Provide practical information on how technology can be used to increase student motivation and enhance learning.

• Give teachers the confidence to use technology in class as a learning and teaching methodology that reaches across all subject areas and age groups.

• Reinforce the importance and place of ICT skills for productivity and the 21st century skills agenda.

• Encourage teachers to consider using games design and other technologies with students to help children become creators rather than consumers of content.

• Improve advice on how teachers and school leaders might tackle some of the common challenges encountered when trying to develop the use of technology in schools.

• Most importantly – to share some of the tips, tricks and tools that I have found useful over the years which should help you not make quite as many mistakes as I’ve made during my time as a teacher, school leader and national adviser!


education

Chapter 1 – Why use Technology in Schools

“Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.”

Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft® Corporation




When I think about technology and life, I find it hard to think of examples where technology has not revolutionised or had a profound impact on what we do, how productive we are and even how we behave.

Some examples include:

• Shopping online rather than visiting physical retail spaces

• Carrying out online transactions rather than writing cheques

• Children playing on the Xbox when it is too dark to play outside

• Catching up with friends on Social Networking sites when meeting up physically is geographically impossible

How technology has changed things...

Shopping:

Finance:

Play:

Socialising:

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. There is still a place for going to the shops or the bank, playing outside and meeting people for a coffee. It’s just that sometimes technology helps us make the actual purpose of why we do these things easier.

Of course, there is one area of society where, in my opinion, we are yet to consistently see truly revolutionary transformation as a result of technology.

This is sometimes illustrated well by the example first told by Dr Seymour Papert in the early 1990’s and has been re-told in various forms ever since.

“A mid-nineteenth-century surgeon is magically transported though time to a modern operating theatre. Once there, he finds himself completely at loss to know what to do or how to help. In contrast, a mid-nineteenth-century teacher is transported through the years to a modern classroom. Once there, he picks up seamlessly where his modern peer left off”.

As Facer (2011) explains, ’The implication of the narrative is clear; unlike medicine, the education community has failed to appropriate the technology advances of the contemporary world’.

education6 Why use Technology in Schools





“ Sometimes technology helps us make the actual purpose of why we do these things easier.”


education



The key here of course is not to flood a classroom with technology, as we know that, alone, this normally has very little impact on learning and teaching. What we need to do is modernise the classroom in the same way that we have modernised the operating theatre and other aspects of society over time. We need to make investments in technology for the right reasons and because there is a need. Rather than investments in technology because we think that it is the right thing to do.

So, after keeping children safe, what is the number one thing that we are trying to do in our classrooms, schools and education systems? Surely, we are trying to improve learning, because improving learning will deliver better outcomes and provide better life chances for children.

Put simply, it’s the difference between ‘Technology for Learning’ and ‘Technology in Learning’. The learning must come first and the technology should be invisibly supporting what we do.

Essential SkillsI don’t really like the term 21st Century Skills as pretty much all of the world’s primary school children and a rapidly growing proportion of the worlds secondary school children have only ever lived in the 21st Century. The term sometimes makes me wonder what we have been doing for the last few years!

When we talk about 21st Century Skills what we really mean is essential skills for life, work and play in modern society.

However, definitions aside, the United States Partnership for Education and 21st Century Skills provides a useful model for thinking about modern schooling and to help us consider if we are actually meeting the needs of our young people within our own education systems.

The graphic below represents the modern skills and knowledge that students need to be successful in the modern world (as represented by the arches of the rainbow) and the support systems that we need to put in place to turn the model to reality (as represented by the pools at the bottom).

While the graphic represents each element distinctly, for descriptive purposes all of the components should be considered as fully interconnected rather than in individual silos. This is particularly true for Information, Media and Technology Skills that make up an important component of the model.

For example, in the modern world it would be naive to consider life skills and career skills without the roll of technology. Technology has also greatly enhanced the way that we communicate and collaborate, which in turn can help improve our own critical thinking skills, but also how we work creatively on projects with others.

Technology also has a role within the underlying support structures of modern curriculum design. For example, many people now recognise the importance of online and digital professional development and professional learning networks. They see the importance of technology to help both formative and summative assessment and finally they understand that technology (in particular connectivity) needs to be built into the fabric of any learning environment. They also acknowledge that mobile and Internet technologies can aid anytime, anywhere learning which should also be an entitlement within the modern world.


7 Why use Technology in Schools

Standards & Assessments

Curriculum & Instruction

Professional Development

Learning Environments

Learning & Innovation Skills – 4 C’s

Critical Thinking ● Communication Collaboration ● Creativity

Core Subjects – 3 R’s & 21st Century Themes Information,

Media & Technology Skills

Life & Career Skills

21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems

“ Technology has greatly

enhanced the way we communicate.”

Integrating Technology in Learning and TeachingAs educators and school leaders our challenge is a simple one. How do we integrate technology into learning and teaching and how do we make sure that all members of the school community from the policy makers to the classroom teachers understand that technology is important. In fact, as we have already discussed, it has the potential to be transformational.

To help us do this it might be useful to think about how technology is often perceived and sometimes retrofitted into schools. At the core of the problem is how ICT is often mistaken for computing and vice-versa.

In the UK and many other countries during the first part of the 21st Century there was quite rightly a real focus on ICT. This was partly to equip young people with the ICT skills that they would require when moving beyond school to the workplace. Many of the courses that were taught in schools focused around office based administrative and productivity skills.

In doing this schools fulfilled their statutory requirement to teach ICT to young people but this was often at the detriment of children learning real computing or programming skills. The result was a whole decade of children who were unable to code, build and create things digitally at a time where many countries are also trying to move from a traditional manufacturing age to a digital manufacturing age. The extent of this problem for the UK is well documented in the Next Gen Review researched and written by Ian Livingston and Alex Hope. (I’ll come back to this review in Chapter 4).

The Conflict...

The political response to this emerging problem in many countries (including the UK) has been very interesting. Almost overnight schools have been instructed to teach ‘real’ computing again.

While no one can really argue that the problem needed to be addressed the sudden switch of priority from ICT to computing also brings with it a number of challenges. Most importantly, children still need ICT skills, particularly around productivity and also many within our teaching workforce do no have the professional skills to teach children to code. Indeed, ICT and computing have become so blurred during the last decade that many computing teachers come from an administrative or business background rather than a technical or computer engineering one.

But there is also a third area of ICT in education which is arguably the most important and is also the area that has gone really unnoticed and unsupported politically for many years.

It is the use of ICT to support learning and teaching in all areas of the curriculum and not just the domain of the computer lab. It is the use of ICT to make learning real, relevant and exciting for young people. It is

the use of ICT as a methodology and a pedagogical approach to raising standards. It is technology in learning and is the thing that holds the real key to classroom transformational change.

ICT in Schools?

I believe that young people need skills in ICT productivity (including Internet Safety and Responsible Use) and that we should also be giving more young people skills in computing (including programming skills). Finally, I strongly believe that we need to make sure that teachers are using technology appropriately and not just as an ‘add-on’. Technology needs to be used to enhance all areas of the curriculum.

We are going to tackle each of these areas in turn – but we are going to start with and spend the most time on the most important one, pedagogy.


8 Why use Technology in Schools



education


ICTCOMPUTING

Productivity Creation Pedagogy

education

Chapter 2 – Pedagogical Approach




“Good teachers always use good tools.”Derek Robertson, Education Scotland

If we truly want technology to have a transformational impact on the children and young people in our schools then we need to focus on more than what is going on in the computer lab and consider how technology can be used to support both the core and informal curriculum.

Before schools or school systems rush into any technology integration programme it is important to step back and think about what the education research has shown us about classroom practice and behaviour that can have a real impact on learning. Over the years there are two key pieces of recurring evidence that have been academically verified by different researchers from all over the world.

The first is the importance of teacher to student relationships and the second is the importance of formative assessment and giving feedback to learners. As I’ve mentioned there are a number of reports that confirm this and if you are interested then the work of New Zealand academic Dr John Hattie and his synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement in the book titled Visible Learning (2008) is worth further investigation. Similarly the work of Professor Dylan Williams from the UK on formative approaches to assessment is also worth checking out.

With this is mind during any technology integration it is worth thinking about how can technology be used to build and improve teacher to student relationships, and how can technology be used to support formative assessment and feedback on learning.

The next question that we need to consider is what does good learning look like? This is a complicated question but in short I think good learning in schools is made up of a combination of two things. Good pedagogy combined with interesting and / or engaging content and / or activities.

Learning...I also think that there is a difference between interest and engagement.

An educator who is teaching a child who has a natural interest in a subject or who sees the point of it (e.g. it might help them get a job) is likely to find it easier to help that child learn compared to a child who has no apparent interest in the subject matter and does not see the point.

Unfortunately not all topics are interesting and not all children see the point of all tasks. That’s where content, tasks and activities need to be engaging in order to create powerful learning environments. Most children find technology engaging and that is one of the reasons it is so valuable in the classroom.

Our challenge therefore is to think about the key components of good lesson design and student engagement. Then we need to consider how these components could be enhanced or re-invented through the appropriate use of technology.

There are lots of different learning models out there but if we want to keep students engaged we have to get back to basics. I think these five points are helpful to keep us focused and not over complicate things.

For learning to be successful it needs to be:

• Culturally relevant

• Include real-time Interaction

• Provide different learning pathways

• Showcase learning achievements through authentic audience

• Accessible to all

Lets tackle each of these points in turn because this is what is at the heart of exciting learning!

education10 Pedagogical Approach



Chapter 2 – Pedagogical Approach Using Technology to Improve Education

1. Cultural RelevanceAll good teachers know that if young people can see the relevance in what they are learning to their own lives and their own place in the world then they are more likely to be interested and motivated to learn. In short, they have to see the point!

Technology is hugely culturally relevant to young people at the moment and this means that using technology tools appropriately can be incredibly motivating and engaging. This is one of the reasons why computer games based learning needs to be part of the toolbox of the modern educator.

In particular, using commercially available computer games (such as the ones available for the Xbox 360®) in education is a great example of this where the game can used as a stimulus for learning and then aspects of the game are linked thematically to different parts of the curriculum. The example below shows how this might work using Kinect™ Sports.

For more information on Computer Games in Education check out the Microsoft® UK eBook on Playful Learning: Computer Games in Education, http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/ playful-learning-computer-games-in-education. If you are interested in the idea of using games for thematic learning (or contextual hubs) you might also like the Microsoft UK resources on using Kinect Adventures in the Classroom, http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/kinect-adventures-in-the-classroom and using Kinect Sports in the Classroom, http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/ kinect-sports-in-the-classroom.

Of course it is not just computer games. The trick is to ask young people about the technology that they are using at home, find out what it does and think about how it could be used to enhance learning. For example how can social networking and mobile phone be used in schools?

Question: How can you use technology to make learning more culturally relevant to your learners?

2. Real-Time Interaction and DataOver the years I have done hundreds of lesson observations and in recent times it has frustrated me more and more that lots of classroom teachers use contrived or out of date data with young people.

This information might come from an out-of-date textbook or might just be made up by a teacher. The point is young people just don’t see the point as it has not got direct relevance to them or their lives. It is no wonder we have so many disengaged children in our schools.

The Internet now offers amazing opportunities to search for real and relevant data, examples, and case studies that can motivate and captivate the imagination of children.

These things might get you thinking…

education




11 Pedagogical Approach

“ Computer games based learning needs to be part of the toolbox of the modern educator.”

http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/playful-learning-computer-games-in-education


http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/kinect-adventures-in-the-classroom


http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/kinect-sports-in-the-classroom


Bing™ Start PageEveryday the Bing start page is illustrated with a new stunning image from around the world. As well as being beautiful and worthy of a discussion in its own right hidden within the image are ‘hot-spots’ which form question to ask your students. The answers can be discovered via Bing Search. The daily picture is also normally directly relevant to something that is going on in the world. The Bing Start Page can be used in lots of ways but it is perhaps most useful as a lesson starter or plenary activity and to make students more aware of global events.

Bing SearchOf course Bing isn’t just pretty pictures it is also a powerful search engine with the capabilities to unite your students with rich and meaningful information. As many of the readers of this eBook will be aware Bing has the capacity to search the web for; search terms, images, video, news and location (via Bing Maps). But it also has some other interesting tools that support real-time interaction and exciting learning.

This includes Social Search (www.bing.com/social) including a nice feature that lets you search for #-tags and then Bing geo-locates them on a Map for you. This is a really handy tool to gather public opinion about an event or issue (e.g. the Olympics or a natural disaster).

Another nice feature of Bing is the ability to search for video by source (this includes news channels such as the BBC) and then filter your Bing video search by ‘most recent’. This is a great way to beam real-time news media footage into your classroom.

Web Based Video Conference (Lync and Skype™)Another great tools that we have to bring real-time interaction into the classroom are web video conferencing tools. There is no doubt about it that there is something about a real-time conversation or presentation from an expert that captures the imagination of children and gains command of children’s interest and respect.

There are a number of tools to help us do this. Lync online is a web based video conference solution that is free to schools as part of the Office 365 for education. It allows you connect with others by video and IM as well as share your computer screen and a virtual whiteboard.

Another alternative is Skype which offers a similar service. One of the reasons why Skype is so interesting for educators is due to their Skype in the Classroom Project (education.skype.com).

The Skype in the Classroom project is a directory filled with teachers who want to connect with other teachers using Skype. You can search by keyword, or you can filter teachers by language, ages taught and what you’re looking for (e.g. classroom exchange, inspiration, subjects). Remember its not just international links. Skype in the Classroom is great to connect classrooms within counties as well (e.g. Rural and urban schools) it’s also great to connect classrooms within schools (e.g. beaming back a school production from the drama studio to another part of the building).

Question: How can you use technology to include more real-time interaction in your classroom?

education





www.bing.com/social

http://education.skype.com

3. Learning PathwaysProviding young people with different learning pathways to get to an intended outcome is an important component of exciting learning. Let me explain how this might work.

Everywhere I go in the world there are always a group of teachers who tell me that they are struggling to get children interested in writing. There are three quick ways to improve this.

• The first, is to stop setting writing tasks as a punishment exercise or sanctions (what sort of message does this send to young people?).

• The second, is while children are learning the skill of writing give them lots of choice about what they write about – no one likes writing about boring stuff, but most people enjoy writing about a passion, hobby or interest.

• Finally, focus on improving the process of writing (planning, sentence construction, story, quality of the narrative, etc.) rather than simply improving handwriting.

The process of writing a piece of work is actually fairly simple. We write down some ideas, do some planning and a bit of research. Eventually we have enough ideas to produce a first draft and then a number of re-drafts. At some point we will get some feedback on our work from the teacher or from other learners.

Finally, we will produce our final piece. Even when you have an interesting topic it is difficult for some learners to stay motivated through this process.

The Production Process

But one way is to provide motivation based on output.

Instead of producing a written piece the children produce a movie, or an audio podcast, or a newspaper report, or a professional poster, or a hand written piece. Ideally they will choose themselves and the element of learner choice will also provide additional motivation. You see, the writing process made up of ideas, research, planning, drafting,

re-drafting and review are exactly the same for all of these outputs (video, audio, poster etc.) but the difference in choice of production of the final piece might just be enough to capture the imagination of even our most reluctant learners.

Technology gives us some wonderful tools to help present different types of writing and text.

For example:

• Create a Blog using SharePoint Blogs for Microsoft® Office 365;

• Record audio in Microsoft OneNote®;

• Compose a song using Microsoft Songsmith;

• Direct movie using Windows® Movie Maker Live; or • Design a professional poster using Microsoft

PowerPoint® or Microsoft Publisher

For more information about how to use these tools for learning and teaching check out the Microsoft Partners in Learning Network. You can also get links to all of the above services from the Microsoft Learning Suite.

Question: How can you use technology to provide different pathways for students’ work and motivate learners though choice?

education





Idea

Research

Write something

down

Write something

downProduce final text

Plan

Redraft

Collaboration

4. Showcase learning achievements through authentic audience

There is something about finishing a piece of work and someone saying, ‘well done’, or seeing one of your paintings in a public gallery, or one of your posts / observations getting lots of ‘likes’ on Facebook. As human beings we get a real sense of pride from getting an audience for our work and an even greater sense of achievement if exposure to that audience leads to positive praise.

This is why making sure that we give appropriate and authentic audience to children’s work is an important aspect of exciting learning. The World Wide Web has the potential to become the World Wide Wall Display (a term coined by the Scottish educator John Johnson). The challenge is how can we use technology to extend the reach of students’ work.

One-way might be through the use of SharePoint Online to create class or school websites where students’ work can be showcased. Individual students might also use SharePoint Blogs to record and reflect on their learning or to create more formal ePortfolios. Remember SharePoint online is a free resource for schools and education institutes as part of Office 365 for education. You might also choose to create a Blog using Windows® Live Writer.

Movie Maker and Photo Gallery can also be used to upload and edit videos and photos. These types of media can be shared to popular social networking spaces and embedded within your blogs or school websites. Work created in Microsoft® Office can also be shared and published online using Office Web Apps (online versions of Microsoft Word, Excel®, PowerPoint® and OneNote®). You can also share just about any other file type on Skydrive (7GB of free cloud storage for everyone!).

I was touched recently by a school headteacher who told me that they had received an email from a parent saying how much he liked seeing his daughters animation work online. The parent was in the armed forces and currently serving a three month tour of duty in a war zone. His comment to the headteacher was, ‘I feel more in touch now with my daughter’s education, despite being thousands of miles away’.

Never before have there been so many easy, powerful and accessible ways to share students’ work.

Question: How can you use technology to share with a web based audience and provide authentic feedback to students’ work?

education





5. Accessible to allWhen we talk about accessibility we really mean a variety of things. Firstly, learning should be differentiated to cater for a variety of different learning needs. When we talk about differentiation we don’t mean ‘easy’. There is nothing wrong with learning being challenging and hard, both of these things push student achievement in the long run. Differentiation like any learning task also needs to be personalised to individual needs.

Secondly, we need to make sure that we deal with the accessibility issues that are sometimes complicated by technology for children (and adults) who have additional support needs. For web based technologies this should include providing screen reader support for people who can’t see the screen and ensuring that people who don’t use a computer mouse can access all functionality via a keyboard. Technology companies (such as Microsoft®) have a statutory duty in many countries to make their products accessible. For more information on accessibility explore www.microsoft.com/enable.

The third strand of accessibility is access. If you don’t have access to a good education then learning is not accessible. Access to education includes access to education professionals, access to education content and access to education opportunities. In the third millennium as well as physical access it must also include digital access. This is why we must be working towards systems where children have access to one-to-one ubiquitous learning via Internet enabled devices. A challenge is making the systems sustainable but that is starting to now be achieved in some parts of the world though the consumerisation of ICT where the education system invests in the network infrastructure and bandwidth and young people can connect to it using their own devices.

Of course if we really are committed to making learning accessible then it is going to rely heavily on adults being able to work with each other. This includes teachers working with teachers (to differentiate work and develop practice), technologies working with educators (to make sure software and hardware are fit for purpose) and of course corporate IT departments working with

school leaders to open up networks and access to infrastructure. Let’s hope that adults are able to work together to make learning truly accessible for all.

Question: How can you use technology to improve accessibility for learning?

The principles of exciting learning (relevance, real-time, audience, pathways and accessibility) explored in this chapter need to be at the heart of what we do as educators. Let’s move now to look at how we can make some of the work we do in a computer lab more exciting.

education





” If you don’t have access to a good education then learning is not accessible.”

www.microsoft.com/enable

education

Chapter 3 – ICT for Productivity and Efficiency




“I have always preferred inspiration to information.”Man Ray, Artist

I recently asked a group of young people if they could think of a career where technology didn’t play a role and they struggled to come up with a response.

The fact of the matter is when young people move from school to college, or from school to university, or from school to the workplace an understanding of how technology works, how to use it appropriately and how to use it to make you more efficient is very important.

This business productivity and efficiency agenda has been the focus of many education systems for the past decade. Although it is not the most important ICT agenda (see chapter 2) it is important nevertheless. It is important that young people leave schools with skills and an understanding of how to use business productivity software (like Microsoft® Office) appropriately.

The problem is learning how to make documents look nice, creating colourful graphs, delivering visually pleasing presentations and building rich databases doesn’t always excite young people! They can’t always see the point and the end benefit to them. Why should they? They have grown up in a world where there are more digital distractions than ever before.

So here we have a set of skills that are important for young people to learn (from a business and economic sense) but a conflict from an Internet and relevance sense. The principles of exciting learning covered in Chapter 2 of this eBook are obviously helpful

here (relevance, real-time, audience, pathways and accessibility), but during the rest of this chapter I’ll suggest three activities where you can apply and reinforce some of these principles.

As you might expect I’ll use Microsoft Office as my chosen productivity suite.

Gamification – Ribbon HeroI mentioned gamification briefly in chapter two of this eBook. It’s the process of applying what we know works well in the gaming word to other tasks and activities. If you’re interested in Games Based Learning check out the Microsoft UK eBook on Playful Learning: Using Computer Games in the Classroom, http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/playful-learning-computer-games-in-education.

Online tutorials to learn how software works can be a little dry and occasionally tedious. But to help you get the most out of Office 2007 and 2010, Microsoft Office Labs have ‘gamified’ traditional tutorials to make them more engaging, real and relevant for new users of Office. The game is called ‘Ribbon Hero’ (www.ribbonhero.com), which is a free plug in for Office 2007 and 2010 and is now in its second generation.

Like all good games you play a character and Ribbon Hero resurrects ‘Clippy’ the office assistant that you might remember from Office 1997.

In game mode Clippy moves from place to place on a world tour and you have the choice of playing a variety of tutorials on the way. Each games is worth a certain amount of points and you have an opportunity to see how many points are available before you select the tutorial to play.

If you select a tutorial to play the gameplay takes place inside Office. Again, just like in all good games help is built into Ribbon Hero so there is no need to consult a large instruction manual. The amount of help you ask for may have an impact on the points that you score for each level. If you want to progress to play the harder more complicated tutorials you have to ‘unlock’ achievements first.

education17 ICT for Productivity and Efficiency



Chapter 3 – ICT for Productivity and Efficiency Using Technology to Improve Education




www.ribbonhero.com

Again like all great games Ribbon Hero gives you feedback as you progress through the levels. You can also share your achievements and scores with friends on popular social networking sites such as Facebook. Finally, freeplay mode allows you to play the tutorials in any order to help you improve and practice your skills on specific Office applications and tasks.

If you teach Ribbon Hero it certainly is worth checking out and is a guaranteed way to make some of your lessons and home learning tasks more exciting.

Ubiquitous Access – Office 365 for EducationAnother reason that young people do not always see the relevance of learning about business productivity software is because it seems to them that it is confined to the domain of the computer laboratory at school.

One way to help young people become more familiar with the software and at the same time help them understand how tools and services can be applied to different aspect of their life is for the software to become more ubiquitous.

Office Web Apps are web based versions of the popular Microsoft® Office Suite that allow you to view, access, edit, and share your Word, Excel®, PowerPoint® and OneNote® documents online from almost anywhere. You can use Office Web Apps even if you don’t have the full version of Office installed on your computer. You can also access Office Web Apps from your Internet enabled mobile phone.

Office Web Apps are an important component of Microsoft Office 365 for education which is free for schools and education institutes. By harnessing the power of Office 365 and Office Web Apps it is possible to start to get messages across to young people that business productivity software is relevant in all walks of life and not just the context of the computer lab. Office Web Apps are free!

Certification – IT AcademyOk, we all know that certification and examinations aren’t necessarily learning’s end goal but they are important and we also know that most employers like certification as they can provide proof of competence.

One way to get learners more motivated about business productivity software is to set clear and tangible targets and to make sure that students understand that they are working towards something. As well as improving their skill level and preparing for the workplace that ‘something’ might also be professional recognition.

The Microsoft IT Academy provides students with the future ready technology skills they need to be successful in college and a career. It’s not just office skills as well. The IT Academy provides logical progression and certification for a variety of technology related career paths including Technology Associate, Digital Literacy, Office Professional, IT professional and Software Developer.

Of course it’s not just business productivity software that we teach in computer labs. In the next chapter we will tackle some of the challenges and opportunities associated with teaching young people computer programming.

education



Chapter 3 – ICT for Productivity and Efficiency Using Technology to Improve Education

18 ICT for Productivity and Efficiency

education

Chapter 4 – Creating Digital Content



“Children need to be given digital building blocks to inspire them to build digital content.”

Ian Livingstone, Life president, Eidos


20 Creating Digital Content education

Chapter 4 – Creating Digital Content

As I mentioned in chapter one many education systems are starting to realise that economic prosperity often comes from building things. In the past this was often large things like ships, cars and trains but in recent years people are finally staring to realise that economies need diversity and that there is now a growing market for building things ‘digitally’.

The challenge in the UK (and many other countries) is that for the last decade we have created a generation of content consumers rather than nurtured and developed a generation of content creators. Quite simply, if countries really want to embrace and capitalise on the digital economy then they need people who are digitally literate and who can build things digitally. To achieve this our education system has to become the training ground for our future digital entrepreneurs.

For evidence of how much of an issue this may be you only have to look at the UK visual effects industry. Visual effects is the fastest growing component of the UK’s film industry and the video games industry is the largest entertainment industry in the world, with global software revenues exceeding $50bn (£32bn) per annum. Unfortunately, in a growing market, the UK is slipping down the global games development league table and the UK’s visual effects industry is reported to turn down millions of pounds in business each year.

Ian Livingston, author of the UK Government’s NetGen Report, states that, ‘A very big part of the problem, common to both industries, lies in their skills gaps and shortages. We simply cannot hire enough computer scientists and this seems madness at a time of such high youth unemployment’.

It is because of these factors that there is renewed interest in the teaching of computer science and specifically computer programming in schools. This is something that has quickly gained the support of politicians, university computer lecturers and industry specialists. However, many naively thought it might also capture the imagination of young people – the reality is this is actually easier said than done.

Why would young people be interested in computer programming? Just like any subject on the curriculum in schools you will only get the majority of learners interested if it is taught in an interesting way. The principles of exciting learning covered in Chapter 2 of this eBook are again helpful here (relevance, real-time, audience, pathways and accessibility). But there is one way that I am absolutely convinced is a great way to get most young people interested in programming and that is to use the context of computer games design.

Games design in a cross curricular contextBefore I talk more about some of the games design tools that are available to schools it is worth mentioning that the production of a video game makes a powerful cross-curricular project. Projects like this can help break down the subject silos that exist in many secondary schools and develop the 21st century skills of collaboration, communication and teamwork.

The production of any blockbuster computer game needs market researchers, storywriters, graphic artists, character designers, programmers, marketers, communication teams and even people to design and make the packaging. Then you need to work out how much you will sell the game for and how you will distribute and possibly translate it into different languages.

There is no reason why a holistic computer games design project cannot be successfully linked to almost every subject on the curriculum. The project will also provide a real and relevant stimulus for students.

Now, let’s look at some of the tools that are available for teachers.




” You will only get the majority of learners interested if it’s taught in an interesting way.”

Microsoft® KoduKodu is an exciting, easy to use and free games design and programming software. You can use it to create elaborate 3D landscapes and build complicated immersive games while remaining in control of the characters, lighting and camera angles.

Kodu is available for the PC and for the Xbox. The PC version of the game allows you to use the keyboard to programme the characters and landscape. You can also plug an Xbox controller into the PC version of the game which is very popular with young people.

The most recent version of Kodu (version 1.2.38) adds a new story telling feature (ideal for supporting literacy) and also a new web-based support community.

Kodu programming involves selecting visual tiles for a condition (WHEN) and an action (DO). It is very simple and intuitive to use. It is a great way to get young people interested in developing a passion for programming and making things.

What does Kodu help you teach?

• Kodu introduces the logic and problem solving of programming without complex syntax. It demonstrates that programming is a creative medium.

• Kodu is object-orientated and introduces conditions and sequence.

• Kodu is a great tool for narrative creation

and storytelling – providing an interesting environment to create stories.

• Kodu allows you to change the in-world variables making it easy to introduce scientific and mathematical concepts.

• Kodu builds real world, 21st century skills by challenging users to analyse a problem deeply and structure their solution.

How to get started with Kodu?Kodu (version 1.2.38) can be downloaded for free from www.kodugamelab.com. There are also a number of Kodu tutorials on the same site.

Kodu in the Classroom is a set of resources that have been developed for education to help you introduce Kodu as either a one off experience or as a sequence of lessons.

The UK Kodu in the classroom series are available to download from the Microsoft Partners in Learning (PiL) Network.

education21 Creating Digital Content



Chapter 4 – Creating Digital Content Using Technology to Improve Education

www.kodugamelab.com

education

Microsoft® XNA Game StudioMicrosoft XNA Game Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) that includes tools and code development libraries that programmers can use to create computer games for Microsoft Windows®, Xbox 360® and Windows® Phone 7.

Unlike Kodu to get started with XNA Game Studio, you’ll need to have a basic working knowledge of C# and object-oriented programming (OOP). XNA is ideal for older students who want to develop for real platforms.

The XNA Development centre can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa937791 from here you can download code, watch tutorials and upload your projects for a wider audience.

Kinect™ SDKOne recent development from Microsoft that has huge potential for schools and education is the release of the Kinect Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows.

A number of educators have already started to collaborate globally on projects to help bring Kinect for Windows technology to the classroom environment. For example, Ray Chambers a computing teacher from Lodge Park Technology College in Northampton has developed and shared the code for a Kinect Quiz and a Kinect eBook – both of which have huge classroom potential.

More information about the Kinect for Windows SDK can be found at http://kinectforwindows.org.

Code AcademyAs well as the tutorial videos associated with Kodu and XNA mentioned elsewhere in this chapter another great resource to help bridge the gap between these two resources is Code Academy.

Code Academy (www.codecademy.com) contains a set of free tutorials that will help put you on the path to building great websites, games, and apps. There are a number of different pathways to choose from including mastering the basics of JavaScript, HTML and CSS.

Microsoft DreamsparkDreamSpark (www.dreamspark.com) is a Microsoft programme that provides students with software design and development tools at no cost (including Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition). The programme is now available in more than 80 countries and is offered within secondary, further and higher education. To register, students must visit the DreamSpark website and verify their identity.

It is estimated that up to 35 million students will be able to access these software titles free of charge through this programme. Have you told your students about it yet?

So as you can see there are a wide variety of tools and resources available to get young people excited about programming. One of our key roles as educators is to link students to these resources and give the permission to explore, use and build.



Chapter 4 – Creating Digital Content Using Technology to Improve Education

22 Creating Digital Content

“ Educators have already started to help bring

Kinect for Windows to the classroom.”

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa937791

http://kinectforwindows.org

www.codecademy.com

www.dreamspark.com

education

Chapter 5 – Overcoming the Challenges and Getting Started

“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognise a problem before it becomes an emergency.”

Arnold H Glasow




In this final chapter of Exciting Learning: Using Technology to Improve Education we will examine some of the challenges that you may encounter when trying to integrate some of the ideas and concepts that we have mentioned in this book. To help you tackle these challenges we have provided some answers to frequently asked questions.

Why the focus on technology?Maybe you need to read the key messages again? This book is focused on learning but I do believe that technology has got the potential to make learning exciting. This is partly because of the principles that are outlined in chapter two (which are some principals of good learning and teaching) and how we think technology can enhance these principals.

As teachers, there are obviously other things that we can do to help make learning exciting for young people. For example motivating children through the use of the outdoors – of course it’s good to be able to reflect on these experiences as well and a few digital photographs will help you do that!

What about professional development?In the modern age teachers should be engaging in what is termed Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and the key word here is ‘continuous’. As well as keeping up with changes to the curriculum, teachers also need to keep up-to-date with changes in learning theory (e.g. how the brain works) as well as changes in technology.

The good news is that in the modern era technology is not actually that complicated and many of the ideas and processes that we have described in this book do not require technical wizardry! The reality is the teacher is only required to drive the pedagogy and to assess the learning. If you do get stuck with a particular tool or service ask your school ICT technicians for a hand (you probably have up to 30 of them sat in front of you most days!).

If you do want to be a school that embraces technology in the classroom then the main thing that is required is a collective change of mindset. This is best done through support and swapping ideas. We have given you plenty of ideas to get you started in this short guide and now it is up to you adapt them for your own local need.

Don’t forget that Microsoft® Partners in Learning Network (www.pil-network.com) offers global connections, discussion forums and digital tutorials populated by some of the most innovative and enthusiastic teachers in the world.

Will the children will misuse technologyChildren have always misused technology. That’s why the number 5318008 was so popular when calculators were first introduced to schools and why you still get graffiti on school desk. The important thing here is trust, establishing rules, good classroom management and if necessary sanctions.

Any misuse of technology in the classroom needs to be seen as a learning opportunity where the responsible use of technology is emphasised.

education24 Overcoming the Challenges and Getting Started

Chapter 5 – Overcoming the Challenges and Getting Started




” There are other things we can do to help make learning exciting for young people.”

http://www.pil-network.com/

Will the computers be powerful enough to create digital content?They should be. But if not you need to take this into consideration when procuring your next set of PCs. Young people expect a media rich experience these days where they can manipulate images, edit video and design games.

Are the Microsoft® IT Academy qualifications worth it?That is completely up to you to decide. Structured learning with assessment at the end of it is one way to get some students motivated. We also know that the qualifications are recognised by industry. Have a good look at the online materials and decide if any of the qualifications are relevant for your local needs. If they are – why not give them a try?

Do all kids need to be able to code?No. But, try to think of teaching computer programming languages in the same way that we might help children learn a modern foreign language. All children should have the opportunity try lots of different types of programming language as part of their broad general education. Some children will want to go on and learn a programming language in more depth as they get older – they should have an entitlement to do this.

Remember, there are lots of online materials to support the teaching of computer science and the young people who are really keen to learn more uncommon or niche programming languages will be the ones who are more than capable of teaching themselves from the digital resources available.

How do I get staff motivated to make learning more exciting with technology?Strong leadership is important here and you need to start with little steps and encourage staff to take risks in the classroom. One way to get started is partly by leading by example and partly asking for volunteers. Why don’t you see if there is anyone in your school who might be willing to do one of the following things to help get things moving.

• Use the Kinect™ Adventures in the Classroom

Resource to create a culturally relevant unit of work.

• Sign up to Skype™ in the Classroom and connect with another teacher to develop some real time interaction around a global citizenship project.

• Use the Bing start page every day for a week as a lesson starter.

• Give your students a choice of pathways to publish a piece or writing – a film, audio recording, poster or blog post.

• Publish your students’ work online and give them real audience and recognition.

• Unlock the power of technology by signing up for Office 365 for education for your class or school.

• Have a conversation with your corporate IT team about learners being able to connect their own devices to the school network to help make learning more accessible.

education25 Overcoming the Challenges and Getting Started



Chapter 5 – Overcoming the Challenges and Getting Started Using Technology to Improve Education

Conclusion

The main aim of this short eBook was really to remind people of some of the key principles of good learning and teaching. In many ways it is as much a ‘back-to-basics’ guide as it is a ‘call to arms’ for using technology in the classroom.

Although education policy often switches between the importance of teaching children to use ICT and the importance of giving children computing skills. We must remember that there is absolutely a place for both.

The most important message that this book tries to get across to educators is the importance of using technology as a pedagogical process across the curriculum, in all subject areas. It also reinforces how technology can be used to create models of anytime, anywhere learning – which should be considered an entitlement in the modern era.

Surrounding all of these themes must be the notion of responsible technology use and as adults it is our job to help young people use technology safely. Over the next ten years we need to nurture all young people to become digitally skilled and also digitally inquisitive to both find and solve the problems of the 21st century. This journey has to start at school.

education26 Conclusion




Children should be excited about learning and it is our job as educators to make sure that they are!

A huge thank you to the following people who have influenced my practice and thinking on these issues over the years. In no particular order…

• Anthony Salcito , Vice President of education for Microsoft® Corp’s Worldwide Public Sector organisation

• Andrew Brown, Education Scotland

• Derek Robertson, Education Scotland

• Gillian Penny, Gavinburn Primary School, West Dunbartonshire

• Professor Stephen Heppell, Bournmouth University

• Professor Keri Facer, Manchester Metropolitan University

• Professor Mick Walters, University of Wolverhampton

• Dr Jane McGonigal, Author and Creative Director for Social Chocolate

• Also a huge thank you to Stuart Ball and Tim Bush at Microsoft UK for encouraging me to turn my blog rambling to eBook ramblings.

Note: The above acknowledgements does in no way indicate that the fore mentioned people have acknowledge or endorsed the contents of the eBook.

Acknowledgements

27 Acknowledgements



education


References

1 Papert, S (1993) The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer, Basic Books

2 Facer, K (2011) Learning Futures: Education, Technology and Social Change, Routledge



3 Partnership for Education and 21st Century Skills – http://www.p21.org



4 Next Gen’ Review – http://www.nesta.org.uk/events/assets/features/next_gen



5 Dr John Hattie (Visible Learning Presentation) – http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/media-speeches/guestlectures/pdfs/tgls-hattie.pdf



6 Professor Dylan Williams – http://www.dylanwiliam.net



7 Playful Learning eBook – http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/playful-learning-computer-games-in-education



8 Kinect Adventures in the Classroom – http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/kinect-adventures-in-the-classroom



9 Kinect Sports in the Classroom – http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/kinect-sports-in-the-classroom



10 Bing Start Page – www.bing.com



11 Bing Social Search – http://www.bing.com/social



12 Lync Online – www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/lync-online.aspx



13 Office 365 for Education – www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/education/school-services.aspx



14 Skype in the Classroom – http://education.skype.com



15 Partners in Learning Network – www.pil-network.com



16 Microsoft Learning Suite – http://bit.ly/mspillearningsuite



17 John Johnson’s World Wide Wall Display – http://johnjohnston.info/blog/?p=about-john



18 Windows Live Writer – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-live/essentials-other-programs



19 Microsoft Consumerisation of ICT – www.microsoft.com/consumerization



20 Playful Learning eBook – http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/playful-learning-computer-games-in-education



21 Microsoft Office Web Apps – http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/web-apps



22 Microsoft IT Academy – http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/itacademy/default.aspx



23 BBC Report on lack of computer science in schools – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15926871



24 Kodu Game Lab – www.kodugamelab.com



25 Pil Network – Kodu in the Classroom Resources – http://goo.gl/scn21



26 Kinect Quiz – http://raychambers.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/kinect-quiz-for-beta-2



27 Kinect eBook – http://raychambers.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/kinect-e-book



28 Code Academy – http://www.codecademy.com



29 Microsoft DreamSpark – www.dreamspark.com



30 Calculator spelling – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator_spelling#English



31 Kinect Adventures in the Classroom – http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/kinect-adventures-in-the-classroom



32 Skype in the Classroom – http://education.skype.com



33 Office 365 for Education – http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/education/school-services.aspx



education


(Click arrow to go to link)

http://www.p21.org

http://www.nesta.org.uk/events/assets/features/next_gen

http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/media-speeches/guestlectures/pdfs/tgls-hattie.pdf

http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/media-speeches/guestlectures/pdfs/tgls-hattie.pdf

http://www.dylanwiliam.net







www.bing.com

http://www.bing.com/social

www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/lync-online.aspx

www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/education/school-services.aspx

www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/education/school-services.aspx


http://www.pil-network.com/

http://bit.ly/mspillearningsuite

http://johnjohnston.info/blog/?p=about-john

http://johnjohnston.info/blog/?p=about-john

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-live/essentials-other-programs

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-live/essentials-other-programs

www.microsoft.com/consumerization



http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/web-apps

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/itacademy/default.aspx

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15926871

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15926871

www.kodugamelab.com

http://goo.gl/scn21

http://raychambers.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/kinect-quiz-for-beta-2

http://raychambers.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/kinect-e-book

http://www.codecademy.com

www.dreamspark.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator_spelling#English




http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/education/school-services.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/education/school-services.aspx