• We send a heartfelt “THANK YOU!” to all the teachers around the world for the incredible work you continue to do, finding new ways to engage and inspire students despite continuing challenges and uncertainty.
• During remote and hybrid learning, teachers have innovated by integrating technology and learning to engage students. 82 percent of educators agree that this past year accelerated the pace at which technology has driven innovation in teaching and learning. 
• As schools reimagine learning, several key elements are being brought together to form a holistic approach to learning: student centricity, skills focus, social learning, safety and security, and scalability. There are several technologies that are critical to support learning, including collaborative online environments, analytics and feedback tools, and inclusive, immersive experiences that support deep understanding of complex concepts. 
• To further support teachers and students on this journey, today we’re announcing new apps and features including Reading Progress, which is designed to personalize learning and boost student success.
• From new features like Group Assignments and third-party app integrations in Microsoft Teams, to a more seamless connection with learning management systems (LMS), we are announcing 30+ additional enhancements that empower educators and support students in their classroom experience.

Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day, and I’d like to start by expressing my personal thanks and gratitude for everything teachers do. Despite the challenges of the past year, you continue to show compassion, resilience, and unwavering commitment to each student and their individual learning journey.

For the past year, teachers have leveraged technology in innovative ways to keep students engaged. Technology went from being a temporary lifeline to facilitate connection in remote and hybrid learning, to a fully integrated part of many virtual and in-person classrooms. According to a recent YouGov survey commissioned by Microsoft, 71 percent of K-12 educators say technology has helped them improve their instruction and expanded their teaching capacity. 

To continue to support teachers and students, today we’re introducing new tools and updates designed to support the five key areas that help teachers create a holistic learning environment and move education forward: student centricity, skills focus, social learning, safety and security, and scalability. 

Enabling student-centered learning with Reading Progress

In remote and hybrid learning, studies show that reading skills have declined for some students. In order to reverse learning loss, educators are seeking ways to evaluate where their students are, and help them advance at their own pace. We are introducing a new, free tool to support learners in reading. 

Introducing Reading Progress

Whether readers are learning a new language or educators are trying to improve students’ general reading comprehension, Reading Progress enables students to practice their skills in a secure, student-centric environment.

With Reading Progress, educators can:

• Save time by creating reading fluency assignments for either the entire class or for individual students to complete independently. Teachers can also review assignments quickly and accurately with built-in auto-detect features for the English language (with adjustable pronunciation sensitivity) that analyze results. The tool also allows teachers to jump to any part of the recording to review detected words and passages.
• Visualize reading progress thanks to integration with the Education Insights dashboard. Educators can see a holistic view of students’ progress with trends and data, from accuracy rate and correct words per minute, to mispronunciations and omissions for individual students or the entire class. Insights provides actionable feedback educators can use to guide class progress, and identifies areas for one-on-one attention. Educators can also share data and examples with school-approved literacy coaches, speech pathologists, tutors, and parents.
• Engage students in independent practice on their own time. Using both audio and video, students can work at their own pace, record as many times as they’d like, and make progress without pressure. The built-in Immersive Reader also helps provide accessibility and clarity.

Reading Progress is built on the solid scientific foundation of oral repeated reading and close monitoring by the educator. It allows educators to provide personal attention to each student while at the same time dealing with a whole classroom full of students.

Tim Rasinski, Professor of Literacy Education at Kent State University

Available ahead of the next school year, Reading Progress is free for all students and teachers using Microsoft Teams for Education, and is compliant with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). 

Announcing new tools for student engagement in the classroom

We’re enhancing Teams and other tools to help educators unlock digital experiences that complement and enrich in-person learning. These new, free offerings will be available ahead of the next school year and were inspired by insights from education experts, system leaders, educators, and students alike.

• Group Assignments: Educators will be able to organize their students into assignment groups so they can work together to create, collaborate, and submit the same work, allowing students to experience the power of teamwork firsthand. 
• Use your favorite apps in Assignments: Teachers know that some apps really create that “a-ha” moment, engaging students, and inspiring deeper learning. Educators will now be able to issue assignments from a variety of third-party apps directly in Teams, saving time and increasing student creativity.
• Calendar integrations: New calendar integrations allow students to see when their classes are and when assignments are due in their Teams and Outlook calendars. This way, students can see all the important information—where they need to be and what they should do to keep learning—in one place.
• LMS updates: To help save time for educators and create a more seamless experience, Microsoft is working with leading learning management system (LMS) providers such as Instructure and Blackboard to deepen and improve integrations between the LMS and Teams, Teams meetings, and OneDrive. Additionally, our LMS partners are working with Microsoft to bring their own unique capabilities into Teams.

Making learning more engaging and fun

Educators know that immersive experiences deepen learning, and they’re always seeking different ways to keep students actively engaged. 

Our recent YouGov study revealed that 80 percent of educators believe resources that have a gaming component increase student engagement and deepen understanding of various subjects. To provide more opportunities for students to play and learn inside and outside the classroom, we’ve added some new features to Minecraft: Education Edition.

• Enrich the Minecraft: Education Edition experience with Teams and Flipgrid: Based on input from educators, we’ve added the ability for Minecraft: Education Edition to integrate seamlessly with Teams. Within a Minecraft world or lesson, educators can now embed a Flipgrid topic, Forms quiz, or assessment tool using new resource links. Students in a Minecraft lesson can open a Flipgrid Topic, record and share their creation, and invite others to join a world they’ve created—with just a few clicks. 
• Minecraft: Education Edition for Camps and Clubs: We’re also introducing Minecraft for Camps and Clubs, which allows learners to use Minecraft: Education Edition outside the classroom. Beginning this summer, camps, clubs, homeschool organizations, and nonprofits can purchase licenses for Minecraft: Education Edition to support critical thinking, collaboration, and game-based learning for all ages. This summer, Microsoft Stores will host several amazing camps and training sessions using Minecraft: Education Edition.

Supporting student well-being 

Emotional well-being is key to student success, and research shows that approaches to support student well-being are in high demand, but low supply.ⁱ After the disruptions of the last year, it’s even more important that educators understand the complexities students face, their emotional state, and their motivations in order to help them navigate challenges.ⁱⁱ 

In our recent YouGov survey, we found that 81 percent of educators feel it is very important to check in regularly with students to find out how they are feeling. 

Technology can play an important role in helping teachers connect with and better understand their students, as well as facilitate students’ development of social-emotional skills. These new tools are designed to do just that. 

Reflect, a free app in Microsoft Teams, provides a way for educators to create regular check-ins with individual students or classes to let students share how they are feeling. It helps students identify and label their emotions, and can build students’ emotional vocabulary and improve their ability to recognize and understand how their emotions may impact their learning. In addition, it can help teachers better identify the needs of individual students.

Embedded tools in OneNote and Teams, such as praise badges and sticker packs, can also help students and educators feel more connected and foster growth of effective relationships. We’ve heard from educators that Flipgrid has been invaluable over the past year, helping build students’ confidence and helping educators facilitate valuable learning conversations in and beyond the classroom.

Enabling secure classrooms

With more learning taking place outside the physical classroom, the increase in digital traffic and connected devices presents new challenges: from malicious attacks, to uninvited guests in the digital classroom. And as students return in-person, physical safety is also essential. 

To support students’ safety in both digital and physical spaces, we’re introducing Supervised Chat in Teams. Available later this May, this feature will allow designated educators to initiate chats with students while preventing students from starting new chats unless an appropriate educator is present. Supervisors are not allowed to leave chats and other participants are not allowed to remove them—meaning students can engage in secure discussions, enabled and monitored appropriately by school staff.

Teachers’ insights and ideas are driving positive changes in education

When schools moved online last year, teachers made—and continue to make—superhuman efforts to help all students stay engaged in learning. They identified and filled gaps, found ways to connect with everyone in their classes, worked together to address challenges, and developed strategies to transform education for a new era.

In our YouGov survey, more than eight in 10 educators told us that the past year has shown that learning is not bound by a specific time and place, and 82 percent said technology has accelerated the pace of innovation in teaching and learning. 

Actually, it’s teachers who have proven that learning can happen anywhere, and teachers who led the acceleration of innovation in education, supported by technology. Once again, THANK YOU to teachers everywhere. You have made an incredible difference in students’ lives by keeping them going throughout all the change and uncertainty, connecting with them, and inspiring them to be creative, confident, and optimistic whether they’re learning in a physical classroom, at home, or somewhere else.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day…and THANK YOU! 

ⁱEmotion and Cognition in the Age of AI,” The Economist Intelligence Unit

ⁱⁱ“Learning Forward” Teacher/Student Survey. YouGov, December 2020

The post Teachers: Thank you for inspiring students in their learning appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Educators have long recognized that social-emotional skills are fundamental for academic achievement, creativity, citizenship, and workforce readiness. Research conducted by McKinsey & Company, “The Class of 2030 and life-ready learning,” found that students will be better prepared for future challenges if they have strong social-emotional skills. “Emotion and Cognition in the Age of AI,” a study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, likewise highlighted the importance of emotional well-being for student success, and showed that approaches to support it are in high demand but low supply. A majority of teachers (64 percent) wanted to support student well-being through social-emotional learning (SEL), but they felt they lacked resources and time to do so.

Now, after a year of disruption and change, a new survey from YouGov shows that teachers consider social-emotional learning an even higher priority than ever before. 

As education is being reimagined for the future, education institutions are bringing several key elements together into a holistic approach, the “5S framework,” that:

• prioritizes student centricity
• focuses on critical skills
• promotes social learning
• provides a safe and secure environment
• is scalable and can reach hundreds, thousands, and millions of students

To help students navigate the challenges of remote and hybrid learning, teachers report that they need information about what complexities students face, their emotional state, and what motivates them.

Education technology can help teachers connect with and better understand their students, as well as facilitate students’ development of social-emotional skills. 

Communication tools such as Flipgrid and Microsoft Teams are social by design, secure, and provide creative and fun ways for students to express themselves. Features in Teams such as Praise badges give teachers and students more ways to recognize and celebrate one another, Education Insights helps teachers and educators understand and respond to student needs, and Reflect in Teams helps students to identify and label their emotions.

Reflect can build students’ emotional vocabulary and improve their ability to recognize and understand how their emotions may impact their learning. In addition, it can help teachers better identify the needs of individual students.

Starting in April, educators will be able to easily post Reflects and see classroom responses over time through Education Insights.

In addition to Microsoft Teams, there are other best practices, Microsoft partner solutions, and strategies to support social-emotional learning. You can visit the Microsoft Education social and emotional learning page, where you’ll find the SEL Learning Path as well as ideas for using products like Flipgrid and Minecraft Education Edition in remote, hybrid, or in-person learning environments. Flipgrid fosters creative discussion and helps students express themselves through video in an engaging social environment. Using Minecraft Education Edition, students identify their strengths, learn to negotiate with others, and develop leadership skills. Mindful Knight, a freely available Minecraft Education Edition world, teaches specific mindfulness strategies in an immersive setting.

We’re excited to have Andreas Schleicher, Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills for the OECD, opening the second day of the event by sharing some of the latest research on social-emotional learning. And after his presentation, you’ll have the opportunity to further your professional development with tracks led by Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts and Microsoft Showcase School leaders. The student engagement and well-being track explores topics including creating virtual field trips with Flipgrid, keeping kids secure online, and how you can support SEL with Microsoft tools. Learn more and register to be a part of it!

And because parents, guardians, and families are a critical part of students’ learning journey, teachers can direct them to the parent, family, and guardian’s guide for a deeper understanding of the importance of SEL.

The future is unpredictable. Social-emotional skills help us better navigate complexity, ambiguity and change, and minimize the negative effects of disruption. The changes of the past year have highlighted the importance of personal connection, accelerated the integration of technology in the classroom, and amplified the role of teachers. It’s encouraging to see the dedication to moving learning forward to a future where all students have the opportunity, support, and tools to be creative, confident, and optimistic learners, realizing their full potential. Thank you for your commitment to learners everywhere and for being part of the Microsoft Education community!

The post Navigating disruption: Spotlight on social-emotional learning appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Schools and systems had to respond to the crisis quickly, transition to the new school year, and are reimagining education for the future—all with a focus on student-centered learning, critical skills, social learning, safety and security, and scalability to bring pedagogy and technology together.

Today more than ever, powerful devices, collaborative environments, analytical tools, and immersive experiences are critical, and we’re excited to announce new devices and features for collaboration and social-emotional learning.

New for the next school year: Keeping students engaged with affordable, connected, and secure Windows 10 devices

One of the key lessons of the past year has been that learning can happen anywhere. Affordable, easy-to-use devices are critical to empowering all students on their learning journey.

In a recent survey, 61% of teachers selected “Better devices” and/or “Better internet access” as a primary way to improve remote learning for students. @MicrosoftEdu – Click To Tweet

At BettFest, we’re unveiling an expanded portfolio of new Windows 10 devices for the upcoming school year, many with LTE connectivity. These are the most affordable LTE connected partner devices in the portfolio yet, with the ability to power engaging, collaborative learning experiences anytime and anywhere.

The devices are*:

• Acer TravelMate Spin B3, starting at $329
• Acer TravelMate B3, starting at $239
• Asus ExpertBook BR1100, starting at $279
• JP-IK Leap Connect T304, starting at $229
• JP-IK Leap T304, starting at $185

*LTE capability available at additional cost, in addition to data plan purchase. Device availability may vary by market.

To stay connected and engaged in remote and hybrid learning environments, students need a device with all-day battery life, an HD camera, and a high-quality mic, as well as the speed, power, and storage to keep up with their inquisitive minds. One of the most unique models in our portfolio is the new Dell Latitude 3120 2-in-1, which puts the power of learning in students’ hands with the latest Intel Celeron processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.

To learn more about the full portfolio of Windows 10 devices, take a look at the device catalog.

Adding interface options and improving learning outcomes with the updated Microsoft Pen

Students have become used to keyboards and touchscreens, but for tasks like working out a math problem, jotting notes, or drawing a diagram, a pen can be the best tool. In fact, research shows that student performance improved as much as 36 percent¹ when using a pen interface, compared to using only a keyboard.

We’re excited to announce an updated Microsoft Classroom Pen. The Microsoft Classroom Pen 2 has a longer enclosure and the same great experiences you are used to, at the more affordable price of $19.99 US MSRP. Now, more students can have the option to type, touch, or write—whichever works best for them and for their specific learning situation.

Prioritizing student well-being and inclusive learning environments

Today, more than 200 million students, faculty, institutional leaders, and teachers are actively using Microsoft Education products—with Microsoft Teams for Education as the hub—to engage students in remote and hybrid learning.

Recently, we completed a survey with YouGov² that asked more than 1,500 students and 1,500 teachers in the US, the UK, and India to share their perspectives about remote and hybrid learning. Teachers said that the most important information they need to support students during remote learning is to understand what complexities they face in their lives, their emotional state, and what motivates them.

With Reflect, an app that is available now directly in Microsoft Teams, educators can deepen the critical student/teacher relationship and help develop social emotional skills by checking in with individual students and inviting them to share how they are feeling in general or about specific topics, such as learning from home, an assignment, current events, or a change within their community. Starting this spring, Reflect will be updated to have its own app in Teams, and will integrate with Education Insights.

Last year proved that everything can change without warning. In education, the importance of personal connection was highlighted, the integration of technology was accelerated, and the role of teachers was amplified. It’s encouraging to see the dedication to moving learning forward, toward a future where all students have the opportunity, the support, and the tools to be creative, confident, and optimistic learners, realizing their full potential.

As always, we love hearing from you and value your feedback. To join the conversation, follow us on Twitter at @MicrosoftEDU. And register for BettFest, a free, three-day virtual event packed full of inspiring keynotes, professional development, and solution discovery with education leaders and industry experts.

Thank you for being on this journey with us!

^{1. Oviatt, Sharon. “Pen? Keyboard? Voice? Touch? Computer interfaces and their impact on learning.” Microsoft Education: Pages 6–7. https://microsoft.com/en-us/education/msdownloads/Microsoft-Oviatt-Paper.pdf}

2. “Learning Forward” Teacher/Student survey commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by YouGov, December 2020 among 1500 teachers and 1500 students in the US, UK, and India.

The post BettFest 2021: Engaging every learner, anytime and anywhere appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

83 percent of higher-ed faculty members believe courses will be conducted mostly online this term, and 62 percent say they will be online for the coming academic year. @TheEIU aka.ms/EIU – Click To Tweet

In an effort to better understand the impacts of the current dynamics on higher education institutions, staff, faculty, and students, Microsoft Education partnered with the EIU on a new paper: “Bridging the Digital Divide to Engage Students in Higher Education.” The EIU conducted surveys and interviews with faculty and students in the US, UK, Australia, and Germany, as well as with global higher education experts.

Insights indicate that rather than being a short-term solution, remote and hybrid learning are likely to be a future operating model for many higher education institutions alongside on-campus programs. Though more than 80 percent of faculty members surveyed said that less than half of their institution’s courses were online prior to the pandemic, one-third of them report that their institution will permanently add online options for all or most courses moving forward. The expanded availability of virtual learning will require increased investments in technology and additional training for faculty, but these investments, along with more flexible learning programs, could make higher education more accessible and equitable, with learning supported by technology that addresses the needs of diverse learners and flexible programs with schedules that work for students with other obligations. The increased opportunity for remote attendance will serve to broaden institutions’ geographic reach as well, drawing students to the most innovative programs rather than simply the one closest to home.

There is a difference in perspective between faculty and students on preparedness for remote learning. While 85 percent of faculty members surveyed reported that they felt prepared to meet student needs effectively with the resources they had available, more than 60 percent of students shared that they did not feel mentally or academically prepared for the academic year of fall 2020. And almost half of students claim the pandemic has worsened their ability to remain focused and engaged.

Education experts say that the pandemic has caused students to be stressed, anxious, financially challenged, and socially isolated. According to a study carried out by Hope College in July 2020, 60 percent of the 38,000 students surveyed reported experiencing basic needs insecurity.

Douglas Harris, non-resident Senior Fellow, Brown Center on Education Policy said, “The current situation is pushing faculty to realize that at the very least, students are not going to be able to learn in their class if they’re suffering in other ways.”

John Hattie, Professor and Director of Melbourne Education Research Institute, pointed to the sense of isolation and lack of social connection that students are feeling: “One of the biggest factors that influences student engagement and performance is their sense of belonging in their higher education experience. This is what has suffered the most as a result of COVID-19. They no longer have the same sense of belonging that they used to have.”

To foster a greater sense of connection, experts recommend that instructors go beyond simply delivering lectures online, and instead create more opportunities for active learning and engagement. Innovative schools like St. Edward’s University already use virtual anatomy, virtual internships, virtual counselling, and virtual student teaching, says Dr. Rebecca Frost Davis, Associate Vice President of St. Edward’s University. One teacher even set up a virtual crime scene using 3D cameras, allowing students to go places they couldn’t normally go. “The students who had done the simulation first did better because they weren’t distracted by things when they were learning,” says Dr. Davis.

“The key to making active learning work online is to leverage groups and technology to make students accountable and give them ‘skin in the game’ to do the work.” —Michael Horn, Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation… Click To Tweet 

Collaboration tools like Education Insights in Microsoft Teams can help instructors identify students’ needs and adapt their material for maximum impact. Dr. David Kellerman of the University of New South Wales says, “Insights for classroom Teams… has helped me connect with struggling students on a personal level, and to understand the broader trends in my classroom. Every teacher, professor or instructor on Teams has something to learn from Insights.”

Additionally, social activities such as orientations, graduations, and other traditions can be presented virtually to create more opportunities for socialization and connection. Resources such as this e-book and virtual graduation toolkit have ideas and tips for bringing events online. Beyond webcams and chat rooms, there are other creative ways to reimagine in-person gatherings, including building virtual versions of campuses in Minecraft to host in-game meetups and ceremonies.

Today’s higher education students are primarily Generation Z, a generation that is comfortable with technology and who expect it to be a part of their learning experiences—93 percent believe that remote learning will benefit their education. But they are also very clear about what they are looking for: they want their institutions to put their needs first by providing physical and virtual security, and they want to learn skills that will help them succeed in work and in life. “There is a push for higher education in the United States particularly to show greater value and a return on investment. As a result, students are looking for the best value in terms of what they are getting from their higher education and what they will be able to do in the workforce,” says Dr. Stella L. Smith, Associate Director, MACH III Center, Prairie View A&M University.

As higher education leaders work with instructional designers and professors to reimagine courses and fine-tune pedagogy, students and faculty agree that the pandemic is transforming higher education. With cooperation and creativity, this accelerated evolution can enhance student experiences through integration of emerging technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, and create new revenue opportunities for colleges and universities as they develop innovative options for students to pursue lifelong learning with flexible course schedules or micro-masters from different higher education institutions.

For a summary of key takeaways from the report, see the “Strengthening student engagement through hybrid education” infographic, and for full details, read the paper.

The post The acceleration of hybrid learning for higher-ed students and faculty appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Kindness comes in many different forms, including patience, forgiveness, and through simple acts that lead to positive connections.

This year, teachers, students, and parents have done an incredible job adapting to remote and hybrid learning. They’ve brought positivity to every interaction, made online learning engaging, found ways to stay connected, and shared acts of kindness throughout rapidly changing situations.

World Kindness Day is November 13, and it’s the perfect time to reflect on and appreciate the positive power of kindness—and recognize the heroes who model it all year round!

As part of our celebration, we are highlighting tips and lessons from teachers, educators, and parents, including you, on what you’ve learned about kindness during remote and hybrid learning. To make this easy and engaging, we’re using Flipgrid to record and display your responses. You can visit the World Kindness Day Flipgrid topic to see them all and add your own! There are already some great messages posted, and we’ve put some of our favorites so far on a one-minute Kindness Sizzle Reel.

Here are some more quick and easy-to-use ways to spread kindness and promote well-being:

Here are some more quick and easy-to-use ways to spread kindness and promote well-being:

New praise badges in Microsoft Teams and sticker packs in OneNote and Whiteboard

Praise badges were released not long ago, and we’re already hearing some great stories of how teachers and students have been using them to build up one another.

Cindy Ramirez, a teacher from the US, was excited to share that her students are celebrating their classmates with praise badges; Patrick O’Callaghan from Ireland said his students really like when he recognizes their hard work with a badge; and students in Sacha van Straten’s class in England surprised him with a badge to thank him for a great lesson.

Donald Gillespie, a teacher in Scotland said, “The pupils really appreciate receiving them and we find they really motivate not just the recipient but others who see the praise being given out.”

Reflect Messaging in Teams

More than ever, it’s important for teachers to understand how students are feeling. It can be hard to gauge well-being during distance learning, but with tools like Reflect Messaging in Teams, educators can create a quick and engaging check-in to get insights on the well-being of their students and classes.

These tools can have a tangible impact on students’ social and emotional health. My eleven-year-old son Max’s school used Microsoft Forms to create a Mood Meter check-in that students use to identify their emotions, and he says it makes him feel better just to be asked how he’s feeling. He also thought it was helpful to take the time to reflect on and better understand his emotions, and that it helped him learn how to navigate them.

As a recent article about social-emotional learning in TechRepublic shared, “At any age, the key to dealing with complexity, ambiguity, and change is emotion. Checking in to ask what emotions someone is experiencing is one of the simplest and kindest things you can do.”

Kindness Cards

Kindness Cards are available in many different languages, and each card has ideas, reminders, or inspiration teachers can use to model kind behaviors. Teachers can keep them handy to share with students or a colleague!

As educators, teachers, and students continue to model empathy and spread kindness around their classrooms and around the world, we’re working to support their incredible work with easy-to-use and personalized resources that amplify their voices. For more information, as well as support and guidance on the best tools to use for social and emotional learning, take a look at the social and emotional learning resource page.

As Brian H. Smith, Ph.D, a member of the Born This Way Foundation’s Research Advisory Board says, “When kindness is a norm, a strong value we hold, it can help guide how we approach the rest of the world.”

I sincerely hope that every small and large act expands the reach of positivity, and brings people of all ages together.

Remember: one kind word (or Praise badge) can change someone’s entire day. Wishing everyone around the globe a Happy World Kindness Day!

The post What is real kindness? Ask a teacher! appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

To support teachers, faculty, schools, universities, and education systems, today we are announcing expanded capabilities of the Education Insights app in Microsoft Teams, with new features available in preview now.* New views showcase student engagement data to help school and university leaders better understand how remote learning approaches and pedagogy are performing. With insights spanning entire institutions, districts, and systems, leaders can more easily discover trends, identify opportunities for improvement, and adapt and personalize their teaching and learning strategies.

The new view is designed to help education leaders:

• Ensure equity and continuity of teaching in remote settings, and identify students at risk by tracking their engagement over time
• Identify trends in engagement and interaction across schools and grade levels
• Discover and celebrate best practices in remote instruction and provide leaders with school- and system-level insights
• Comply with regulations for digital engagement reporting with one-click data export

Critically, Education Insights ensures security and protection of students’ sensitive information. Each report is only available to approved staff members who are given permissions by the IT admin. The information collected and shown meets more than 90 regulatory and industry standards, including GDPR and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). For more technical information, visit the Insights support page.

Shine a spotlight on class activity and student learning

Identify at-risk students with the Student Digital Activity Report

Identify trends in engagement and interaction with leader view

The data from the whitepaper “Disruptions and Opportunities: Lessons from Hybrid Learning” revealed that educators who use Microsoft Teams report high levels of confidence in their ability to assess remote learning outcomes. The functionality in the Education Insights app supports and expands effective assessment with access to information that is helpful for both educators and leaders.

Cody Grindle, VP of Information Systems at IDEA Public Schools, said:

“The new Insights dashboard for leaders gives us actionable information on student engagement and virtual learning across our network. The near real-time activity metrics and report export features provide effective tools not only for attendance and daily/weekly trends, but also to provide student- level data for research across other academic indicators.”

Remote and hybrid learning is challenging for all, but with Insights in Microsoft Teams for Education, leaders, faculty, and teachers can stay up to date with how students and classes are progressing, and take action to ensure the best learning outcomes. If you’re already using Microsoft Teams for Education, the new features are available to preview in the Insights app for free, so install the app.* If you’re not yet using Teams, click here to get started. For more information and resources, visit our hybrid learning resource page.

*Note: The Education Insights app is available now, and the new features are available to preview for anyone who currently has an A1, A3, or A5 faculty M365 license. 

The post New Education Insights improve student engagement in hybrid learning appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

In “Education Reimagined: the Future of Learning,” the experts from New Pedagogies for Deep Learning suggest that there are three phases that learning institutions are navigating to move education systems to a successful and sustainable hybrid model: Disruption, Transition, and Reimagining.

By now, many schools and universities have worked their way through the initial disruption and have been adapting to online learning for several months. As the next school year begins, there is new data showing some best practices for supporting smooth transitions for students and teachers.

Today, we’re pleased to share a new whitepaper, “Disruptions and Opportunities: Lessons from the spring of 2020,” commissioned by Microsoft in collaboration with Manchester Street Research. The report surveyed 400 K-12 educators and 381 IT professionals in the United States to understand their perspectives about the transition experience, the technology used for remote learning, the quality of student engagement, the assessment of learning outcomes, and more. This research focused on K-12 teachers, IT professionals, and the added challenges of keeping younger students engaged in learning online. Some key insights from the study are:

Microsoft Teams encourages student engagement and facilitates learning assessment

One of the most challenging aspects for teachers when moving online was how their relationships with students changed when meeting only on screens. For remote learning to be effective and sustainable, technologies that encourage meaningful engagement and interaction, with features that help teachers evaluate student progress, are critical. The study found that Microsoft Teams users were 29% more likely than those who didn’t use Teams to describe most of their students as highly engaged. Also, Teams users were on average 23% more likely than those who didn’t use Teams to say they feel confident in their ability to assess learning outcomes while teaching remotely.

Microsoft Teams provides a collaboration lifeline for teachers

Teachers who developed a community of support among colleagues reported that this support was critical for them in developing confidence in remote teaching and learning, trying new things, discovering best practices, and solving problems. Educators in the survey who used Microsoft technology, especially those who used Teams, were 42% more likely to collaborate with their peers than those who used Google Classroom.

A clear strategy integrating technology & pedagogy is critical in hybrid learning 

Expecting teachers to select from a multitude of technologies burdens them with the added responsibility of learning and assessing different technology platforms. When leaders provide clarity and direction by selecting a single set of online learning technologies, rooted in the key pedagogical approaches, teachers can get up to speed faster and have more time to focus on teaching. The data shows that for remote learning, too many options can actually cause negative outcomes. One of the study respondents, K-12 teacher Yolanda M., noted that when it came to her students, “I have noticed the difficulty for a lot of the kids is all the different platforms that the teachers have in relaying information to them. That has been really difficult for students and for parents.”

Looking back at the last school year, it’s clear that transitioning to remote learning at scale was a monumental task. And it’s been most successful when pedagogy and technology are adapted to work together to encourage collaboration, engagement, and quality learning outcomes.

It’s inspiring to see the efforts of so many dedicated education leaders, teachers, and IT professionals as they define a new era of learning: one that’s open-walled, student-centered, and unlimited by time or space. As the next academic year gets underway, it’s clear that we’re still in a transitional period and that schools and education systems are still determining the best path forward. While there are still challenges to address, we can see that when pedagogy is coupled with scalable technology for online and hybrid learning, it can help drive enhanced learning outcomes, increase well-being, and create a more fulfilling experience for teachers and students.

For a deeper dive into the findings, visit Microsoft Education’s hybrid learning page and download the complete whitepaper.

The post Disruptions and opportunities: Navigating hybrid education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

With Microsoft Teams as a central hub for teaching and learning, we are excited to unveil a set of new features designed to make remote learning more engaging, inclusive, and ultimately, more human. We’ve shared a detailed post that lists and describes all the new features, but I wanted to highlight a few that I think will be most helpful for educators, students, and families.

While the ability for teachers and students to see each other and interact is a critical part of remote learning, today’s announcements move beyond simply seeing everyone. They introduce new views designed to optimize interactions and make conversations more natural.

Together Mode places all participants in a shared background such as a college lecture hall, and creates a more attentive and connected online class experience. Its unique look and feel encourages engagement and makes it easier to focus on body language and nonverbal cues. It also reduces distractions in the environment and helps return focus to the individuals who are speaking, which is particularly important in the classroom setting. Dynamic View uses AI to optimize the virtual classroom space and prioritizes shared content and video to make managing the view more fluid, flexible, and intelligent. There are also controls to let students personalize the view to suit their own preferences or needs. Microsoft Whiteboard, which increases opportunities for collaboration during classes, is being updated for Education as well. Features include sticky notes, pen and ink, and drag-and-drop capability.

Another new feature that will enhance the remote learning experience is Chat Bubbles. Chatting during a class can be a lively way to engage students and encourage idea sharing, but it can also cause distraction. With Chat Bubbles, there’s no need to open a separate chat window; messages will float up from the bottom of the screen for all participants and make the chat more central to the conversation.

Speaking of engagement, with Live Reactions, anyone in a Teams class can select an emoji and share it with the group. This is a great way to get instant feedback from students, and helps instructors gauge emotional well-being, track comprehension, and encourage participation. Reflect Messaging gives educators another way to help connect with their students socially and emotionally, by creating check-in questions and polls. This can be especially valuable in remote or hybrid learning environments, where social cues are harder to detect.

Teams already supports learners of all abilities with live captions and transcripts, and now we’re adding Speaker Attribution, which will add speakers’ names to captions. When a class is over, students can download and save a full transcript of the sessions, with clear indication of who said what. And to accommodate classes that fill the largest lecture halls on campus, we’ve increased the maximum number of attendees in a class. Teams will support 1,000 participants in a single meeting with full ability to interact with audio, video, and chat.

While we don’t know exactly what the coming school year will bring, it’s clear that teachers and students will continue to use technology to enable remote and hybrid learning approaches. Our goal is that these new Teams features will foster stronger human interaction, collaboration, and student engagement.

These are only some of our new features, so visit the Teams Product News blog for all the details and availability.

The post New Teams features add creative ways to engage students appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Many signals point to the continued use of digital tools for remote and hybrid learning into the fall and beyond. We asked nearly 500 members of the Microsoft Education community, representing teachers and institutional leaders from around the world, to share what they’ve learned while teaching remotely. We found 61 percent said they expect to begin the next school year in a hybrid learning environment—a mix of remote and in-person learning—and 87 percent said they expect to use technology more than before once in-classroom teaching resumes. 

Read on for insights from educators, parents, and institutional leaders on what we’ve learned together from the transition to remote learning this year, how they’re preparing for the fall, and the new ways we’re supporting their remote and hybrid learning needs.

For educators, traditional lesson plans do not always translate digitally—and in many cases, teachers are finding they can’t recreate the school day with just live sessions. According to our community of educators, over half said “keeping students engaged digitally” and “student participation” are the top challenges they faced during remote learning. 

New remote learning formats require new thinking to create compelling, engaging, and inclusive content. To ensure strong student engagement across different activities and maintain secure digital classrooms, educators are turning to a central hub of digital tools for remote learning. In fact, more than 150 million students, faculty, institutional leaders, and teachers have been actively using Microsoft Education products—with Teams for Education as that hub—to engage students in remote learning. 

As students, faculty, educators, institutional leaders, and families prepare for remote and hybrid learning in the fall, we want to support them in the best way possible, so today we are announcing several new Teams experiences:

• For educators, seeing all their students’ faces at the same time makes a big difference in student engagement, as well as social and emotional connection. That’s why, coming to preview this month with general availability in the fall, we are expanding the Teams grid view to 7×7, which will accommodate up to 49 participants at once on a single screen. In the fall, educators will be able to create virtual Breakout Rooms so students can meet and collaborate in small groups.

• Educators also need more options to ensure every student can participate and that every voice is heard. In Teams for Education, students can Raise Their Hands during class meetings. Educators can also see Attendance Reports and view Class Insights, an intelligent data analytics breakdown showing how students engage with the class, including assignments turned in, activity metrics and grades, with a new trends view coming in time for fall.

• For educators, maintaining student security and control over the classroom experience is critical. This summer, we are adding new meeting options in Teams that prevent students from starting meetings unattended, let educators determine who can present in a meeting, and give educators the ability to create a Meeting Lobby to ensure only assigned students can join a meeting—adding to Microsoft’s approach to privacy and security, which supports more than 90 regulatory and industry standards, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for the security of students and children.

Within digital classrooms and lecture halls, remote teaching has undergone significant transformation in a matter of months. Soon after school buildings and campuses closed, educators realized they needed more than video conferencing capabilities to help shape their students’ learning outcomes. Now, online teaching has evolved from trying to recreate the school day to a more flexible system involving recorded and live sessions, homework help hours, and self-directed assignments.

“Most of our teachers hadn’t ever created a video or opened Teams before COVID-19, and within a couple weeks’ time, they’ve learned how to use Teams to teach lessons, meet with small groups for support and connection, give and grade assignments, and check in with students one-on-one,” said Kelly Aramaki, Executive Director of schools at Bellevue School District in Washington state. “Math teachers are using OneNote to have students show their work and document their thinking while teachers give live feedback. Teachers are using the Forms quiz feature at the end of their lessons as ‘exit tickets’ to check student understanding.”

In addition to the classroom, we know school is more than homework, assignments, and quizzes. It’s about the connection that happens in hallways and cafeterias that allow for social-emotional learning—a critical process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills necessary for success in school, work, and beyond.

Schools are also a place to foster creativity. Walk into an elementary school classroom and you’ll see student art projects on the wall. Attending a school play or choir concert lets you experience student talent and joy for learning and self-expression. Unfortunately, in today’s environment we don’t get to experience these moments in person. But with tools like Flipgrid, students can express themselves, bringing their own voice and creativity to life. Flipgrid is a free social learning app connecting educators and students via video, and since March, on average, more than 25,000 new educators from more than 180 countries have signed up each day.

Additionally, in their quest to keep students engaged in remote learning, teachers are also pivoting to game-based learning to help maintain attention spans, create a sense of community, and empower students to express their creativity. The New York City Department of Education and its teachers launched a districtwide program this month for any student enrolled in a K-12 school, challenging them to use Minecraft: Education Edition to design a public space in their neighborhood or community and share through a virtual tour on Flipgrid.

With Flipgrid and Minecraft: Education Edition’s ability to light up students’ creativity, and the new features in Teams aimed at helping teachers keep students engaged in a safe environment, we hope that with whatever form of learning takes place in the fall, teachers will feel prepared.

Parents and caregivers have found themselves part of the new teaching team, helping students navigate schedules and new systems, ensuring lessons are accessible and distractions are minimized—all while balancing their own responsibilities.

As parents and caregivers, we now find ourselves providing extra support to students transitioning to remote learning—in addition to our own day-to-day responsibilities and work. Something that just a few months ago none of us could have anticipated.

Students learn at various speeds and learning styles, which can be particularly challenging in a remote learning situation. To enable parents to support students of all reading levels or those who have difficulty reading or writing due to dyslexia or dysgraphia, we’ve built in Learning Tools like Immersive Reader into our educational experiences, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Edge, Teams, OneNote, Flipgrid, and Minecraft: Education Edition. Today, Immersive Reader is empowering more than 23 million people with dyslexia and learning disabilities every month. Most recently, we’ve announced Immersive Reader is integrated into our Microsoft Edge browser, allowing students to choose how they want to read online and helping caregivers remove distractions.

Finally, in this new environment, people are sharing working, living, and learning in spaces at home. Being able to participate in classroom video calls while keeping their home space private is important for many students. New Teams custom background options for students and educators are now available. Now, in addition to using background blur and pre-selected background images, students and teachers can customize their own images and as a result, personalize their own learning space. 

Looking ahead, the role parents and caregivers play as part of the education team will become even more critical. By providing parents with more flexible access to their children’s virtual classrooms—such as the access parents have to class OneNote documents and weekly Teams for Education digest mails—we are committed to helping parents navigate new educational approaches.

For institutional leaders, one of their biggest challenges in the shift to remote learning was ensuring staff readiness and building educators’ confidence for remote teaching. 

Since the pandemic hit, we’ve witnessed entire countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and entire counties in the United States, like Broward County in Florida, shift to remote learning within a matter of weeks. For example, within 14 days, the UAE moved all its 650,000 students to Teams for the first time. Broward County, with 271,517 students, made a similar shift to Teams within two weeks.

A switch this rapid involves incredible coordination with parents, teachers, and students. Leaders like Dr. Sylvia J. Diaz, Assistant Superintendent of Innovation and School Choice at Miami-Dade County Public Schools, are tasked with providing solutions and training to staff with varying experiences and comfort levels around using technology in and outside the classroom.

“As so many teachers in our country have come to learn, the transition from brick and mortar to remote instruction is complex. It requires content, tools, and support for teachers and students,” Diaz said. “It requires lots of communication and new ways of communicating with students and families. And even when you have all of the things you need, putting them together in a way that allows you to deliver meaningful instruction and robust learning opportunities is challenging.”

Institutional leaders have also told us going online was about more than remote instruction—it was about implementing a solution that would keep departments running smoothly and evolve with the changing needs of students and staff.

“I am incredibly proud of the way my colleagues at Durham University have stepped up to the challenges of putting our education online, working from home, and making key decisions remotely,” said Stuart Corbridge, Vice Chancellor and Warden of Durham University in the United Kingdom. “The rollout of Microsoft Teams across the university has very significantly enabled these changes—indeed, without Teams, we wouldn’t have made such progress in just a few weeks.”

Even with all the incredible work we’ve seen so far, administrators and institutional leaders have acknowledged they are navigating unchartered territory and there is more to be done to ensure all students are able to participate. Just last month we hosted a Virtual Transformation Summit, which gathered 200 Ministers of Education from across the globe to discuss equity, the role of education in society, and future teaching models.

Many ministers who participated in the conversation noted that creating accessible education for all must be a key priority. Accessibility has always been core to our approach, and this includes new experiences like Microsoft Translator for Education, which empowers educators to engage with students and their family members in their native languages and provide reading and literacy support via text and audio.

At the summit, school leaders also cited public-private partnerships as critical to the future success of educational institutions. We work with a number of global non-governmental and non-profit organizations like UNESCO and UNICEF to harness our technical expertise to support communities around the world with the highest need.

Finally, summit attendees also called out the important role of technology in supporting hybrid teaching models that are responsive and part of a quality educational system. Now, more than ever, educators and school leaders need secure digital tools that help them connect and collaborate with faculty, students, and families. The new features in Teams, as well as the interoperability we’ve unlocked with Teams and the most widely used Learning Management Systems, are just a few ways we’re working with educational leaders to meet their needs. Teams for Education now includes integrations with Kahoot, Prezi, GO1, Nearpod, Piazza, Gaggle, Moodle, and others. And we are continuing to add partner integrations making it easier for schools and universities to use Teams.

It is through sharing best practices and continued conversation that together we can improve the educational experience for all. Educators, administrators, and institutional leaders can now share their stories and tips or ask questions on the Remote Learning Community.

With more than 6,000 members, educators from around the world are providing professional development resources and coaching to complement what they receive from their individual administrators and districts. We’ve also made our Microsoft Store Learning Experts available to support educators and families with new resources and workshops.

As schools and universities continue to evolve at a rapid pace, we expect there will be more to learn—together—and want to serve as a place for conversation, connection, and help, as administrators and institutional leaders prepare for whatever the next year brings.

Looking ahead, teaching and learning is changing for the long term. 

As we reflect on the past few months and the inspiring efforts by educators, families, faculty, and institutional leaders to stay connected and support students, the integral role of education in our society is undeniable. The connection between students and teachers is at the heart of quality education—and that connection and engagement must persist, regardless of our physical settings. A new education paradigm is here with the potential for fluid, student-centered learning, unlimited by time or space.

We are incredibly inspired by educators and families navigating remote learning and planning for what is to come. We recognize and celebrate you all as heroes, and we are committed to learning from your accomplishments and creating technology to meet your needs. Visit our remote learning site to see how we can help.

The post What educators have learned from remote learning prepares them for the new school year appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

The knowledge, skill, versatility, passion for their profession, and commitment to their students that teachers exhibit is always visible. But the incredible effort that educators around the world have made in recent months to quickly adapt to remote learning is worthy of special recognition. So, as we kick off Teacher Appreciation Week, I’d like to express my heartfelt admiration and gratitude for all that teachers everywhere are doing to face the unique challenges that this year has brought.

The current need to be physically distant highlights the importance of staying connected virtually, and teachers are finding innovative ways to continue meeting the social, emotional, and academic needs of students while linked only through screens. And we’re seeing teachers succeed despite the difficulties. Across the world, educators are creating opportunities for students to share their feelings, encouraging empathy, and even finding creative ways to bring milestones like graduation online.

To best prepare the Class of 2030, we need to better understand who the Staff of 2030 will be and the education environment they will shape. New insights from @TheEIU @MicrosoftEdu #microsofteduClick To Tweet

With education systems around the world changing at a very fast pace, it is critical to better understand the insights and perspectives of teachers to see what the profession might look like by 2030. So, for our latest work, “The Staff of 2030 and Future-Ready Teaching,” we leveraged interviews and survey results from our previous whitepapers, “The Class of 2030 and Life-Ready Learning” and “Emotion and Cognition in the Age of AI,” and partnered with The Economist Intelligence Unit to gain insight into the ideas that the next generation of educators hold about their chosen profession.

Staff of 2030:

Future-ready teaching

Read the whitepaper

We specifically sought the input of a group whose voice too often goes unheard: pre-service and early-career teachers. Over 1,000 teachers from 10 different countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, Poland, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States) were surveyed. Among the group, 52 percent were student teachers, and 48 percent were in their first two years in the classroom.Staff of 2030:

Interestingly, there are now up to five generations in the workforce at the same time, creating an entirely new generational dynamic. The two youngest generations, Millennials and Generation Z, will compose nearly 70 percent of the workforce over the course of the next decade while the previous three generations are still in the workplace. The youngest generation—Generation Z—currently sits in the classroom as K-12 students, in higher education institutions training to be teachers, and in the staff room. And since Generation Z is the largest generation ever, they will soon be in the staff room in large numbers.

This new generation of teachers is, like previous generations, drawn to the profession for the same reasons as previous generations; the enjoyment of working with children and young people (54 percent), making an impact on future…Click To Tweet

And due to increased global mobility and immigration, ethnic, cultural, and economic diversity in the classroom is increasing. The survey revealed that though 92 percent of the next generation of teachers say that classrooms are getting more diverse, only 38 percent feel that they were adequately trained for teaching in a multicultural classroom. And while 60 percent of early-career and pre-service teachers expect to increase the use of technology to help students develop future-ready skills, only 38 percent feel that their training equipped them to use digital technology for instruction. These factors contribute to feelings of stress and burnout, and only 26 percent say their training equipped them to manage such feelings.

One of the most compelling findings of the study is what teachers say they need most to feel supported in their profession. Competitive salaries and professional respect are important, but what they most request is an environment where administrative distractions are minimized, and collaborative professional development is encouraged. Deep collaboration between teachers, such as through mentorships and peer-to-peer information sharing networks, is one of the best ways to help teachers learn from one another and evolve their practice, but very few teachers report engaging in it. Only 9 percent of teachers say they provide observation-based feedback to colleagues, and only 21 percent engage in collaborative professional learning or mentorship meetings at least once a month.

Lifelong learning programs, including peer-to peer information sharing networks, can help teachers evolve their practice and develop mastery. #microsofteduClick To Tweet

The events of the past months have accelerated the rate of change in education, as schools around the world continue to develop their ability to deliver quality instruction remotely and in hybrid live and virtual models. And as we look toward the future, it’s never been more important to increase the training, development, and well-being of teachers with expanded opportunities for peer collaboration and information sharing. It’s also critical to ensure that they have solutions to the real-world challenges of increasing diversity in the classroom and have the training and tools to leverage technology in remote and hybrid settings. With stronger support in these areas, educators will have more time to spend doing what they’re most passionate about: helping students achieve more.

To see more of the data and details uncovered by the new study, “The Staff of 2030 and Future-Ready Teaching,” request the full whitepaper, watch the video, and download the infographic. And for tips to make the most of tech in the classroom, see our popular “You Can in :90” series of videos. We’ll also be sharing some stories about teachers who really inspire us during this Teacher Appreciation week, so make sure you look for them on our blog starting tomorrow.

And, if you’re a teacher who is looking for ways to connect to a thriving community of passionate educators who are constantly learning, growing, and working together to change students’ lives and build a better world, take a look at the courses available on our Microsoft Educator Center. There, you’ll find many engaging and informative learning paths, especially our new addition, “Leading Schools of 2030.” I also encourage you to consider applying to join our Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert program. MIE Experts share their learning with colleagues and other educators through local training programs in their own school systems, presentations at conferences, blogs, social channels, and more.

Once again, a very special thank you to teachers everywhere. Your tireless dedication and enduring passion is an inspiration to us all.

Join us in honoring amazing educators all over the world by using these templates to highlight a teacher that inspires you.

The post The Staff of 2030: The importance of teaching, learning, and leading during a time of change appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Humans love to celebrate. We learn at an early age that every milestone is a good reason to gather, share our excitement with friends and family, feel pride in our accomplishments, and enjoy the warmth of connection. And the reason for celebration can be defined in many different ways. It can mark something as simple as the passing of time (like a birthday), or something a person spends years working toward, like a high school or college graduation. Celebrating and marking milestones is more important than ever when times are difficult. What better opportunity to highlight the positive, and come together to support one another than when other parts of life are uncertain? But how do you celebrate when people need to stay physically distant to be safe?

Around the world, millions of people are struggling with this question—especially education administrators, students, and their loved ones. At this time of year, there are thousands of ceremonies and traditions for all levels of education that typically bring large groups together. They range from pre-school song-and-dance presentations, to the “Pomp and Circumstance” and cap tossing of university graduations. Every one of them provides a sense of closure for one chapter of life, and the opening to another, and means a great deal to students, families, and educators.

The current situation has made it unwise for groups to gather in the usual way, so educational institutions are working to find alternative ways to mark their commencements. This is an incredibly difficult decision to make.

Teams live event availability expanded to support MORE digital graduations!

There is no “one size fits all” solution to properly recognize the achievements of every student and honor the traditions of each school and group while following recommended social distancing policies. But as schools around the world are demonstrating, there are many creative and innovative ways to make the most of this graduation season. Online solutions range from PowerPoint presentations prepared by faculty/administrators with input and content from students, to hybrid live, recorded, and livestreamed ceremonies. For example, Ritusemeikan Primary school in Japan held an in-person commencement with their students and faculty, but livestreamed it to families via Teams, to limit the number of people at the gathering.

Increase engagement with Flipgrid

Click for ideas and examples

Students at the University of Pennsylvania and several other colleges and universities have collaborated to recreate their campuses in Minecraft. Many of them are organizing virtual versions of traditions and ceremonies practiced at their schools that will be held and viewed in the Minecraft world. And one of the most moving examples is by Newcastle University Medical School, where the graduating class individually recorded themselves reciting the Hippocratic Oath and posted it to Flipgrid to express their commitment to their new position as medical doctors. Administrators also recorded congratulatory speeches, and the school produced a short video commemorating the event that’s available for all to view.

Though every tradition and ceremony is different, with the right tools and a little creativity, there are ways to celebrate safely and make positive memories for all.

Digital events can even follow the traditional graduation flow with an academic procession, a welcome address, presentation of awards, speeches, and more.

To support institutions moving forward with digital graduations and celebrations, we’ve put together a toolkit of resources that will be updated regularly. To see the most up-to-date content, check back to this page often:

Graduations and celebrations come in many forms. You can hold a digital celebration for a team at the end of their season, host a goodbye party to mark a student’s transition from elementary school to middle school, or host a traditional online graduation to mark the completion of high school or college. 

• Celebrate with photos and videos: Use Flipgrid, PowerPoint, or Microsoft Sway for a simple online celebration.
• Create a pre-recorded digital graduation: A pre-recorded event may be ideal if you are not considering a live event or if you’ll have attendees in multiple time zones.
• Host a digital graduation with Microsoft Teams live events: If a live event is preferred, consider incorporating both live and pre-recorded content including speeches by faculty and students, graduate slideshows, and even musical or other artistic performances.

And starting in early May 2020, we’ve made the applications needed more broadly available than ever. Users with the Microsoft Office 365 A1 faculty license, which is free for educational institutions, will have the ability to host and broadcast Teams live events for a limited time. That means users with A1 faculty licenses can host a virtual graduation, alumni summit, or any live event for up to 20,000 attendees, at no extra cost. Starting in early May 2020, live events will be automatically enabled for users with an A1 faculty license and automatically disabled on July 1.

Challenging times can bring out the best in the human spirit and inspire innovation and creativity. We’d love to hear your ideas and see your solutions!

Our sincere congratulations to everyone celebrating achievements and moving toward their next milestone.

The post Celebrating 2020 Graduates appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

For example, entire countries like the United Arab Emirates have engaged in distance learning, and today more than 350,000 students log in to Microsoft Teams each day to engage in lessons. In Hong Kong, teachers are using a variety of methods to ensure learning never stops, including live lessons, Bingo vocabulary games in OneNote and posting homework assignments within Teams.

In India, teachers are getting creative with document sharing and virtual whiteboards in Teams to keep students engaged. As Rashima V Varma, the head of The Ardee School in New Friends Colony in New Delhi explained: “When you are teaching in a classroom, you can look at your students and get a sense of whether they are engaged or not. In online classes, teachers cannot control the environment—students can log off from the class. Teachers needed to completely reimagine their classes. They have to build in a lot of interactive elements to ensure that the students are engaged in the teaching learning process.”

Institutions like the University of Bologna, a 932-year-old university in Italy that just moved all of its 80,000 students to a remote learning environment on Teams, are undergoing massive transformations in incredibly short time spans.

And then, there are great stories of change and adaptability happening here in the U.S. Schools and districts like the New York City Department of Education (1.1M students) to O’Dea High School right here in Seattle, are using tools like Teams to drive student engagement and connection.

We are relying on technology to support and enable inclusive learning more than ever, and students, parents and teachers want confidence that their interactions are private and secure. Last week, my colleague Jared Spataro summarized our approach to privacy and security in Microsoft Teams. Whether through privacy and security controls, protecting identity and data, and ensuring we meet regulatory and industry standards, our first and foremost priority is helping educators maintain a safe and inclusive classroom. Because in the end, this technology is all about supporting people.

It is important to realize what is happening at the human level—and the perseverance and creativity we are seeing as teachers, students and caregivers tackle new situations unlike anything they’ve ever seen.

In Japan, an elementary school graduation happened entirely in Minecraft, where each student and each teacher attended as avatars. Within Flipgrid, we are seeing teachers and students use short videos to connect across all subjects from science, to talent shows, to taking the Hippocratic oath. These touchpoints go beyond learning and return to our basic need for human connection and the fundamental relationship of teacher and student.

Moving to distance learning is more than going online, and maintaining human connections is more important than ever. One day, when we look back on these difficult times, our greatest achievement will have been in how we supported each other. We are so grateful to the talented educators who are working so hard to ensure that their students can thrive. Thank you to all of you. We are looking forward to continuing on this journey together. For more information on remote learning and resources please visit: http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/education/remote-learning

^[1] Institutions can include individual schools, universities, districts, states/regions and countries.

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