To help streamline your search for new and effective tools, we’ve rounded up some of the latest updates and experiences from Microsoft Education that will help you enhance your students’ reading skills, collaborate and communicate with your class, and create more content and curriculum for your lessons. We’re also highlighting live and on-demand events you can join with your students, and webinars and professional development opportunities to help you stay ahead. Let’s dive in and see what’s new in Microsoft Education.  

1. Reading Coach is now available in any browser 

Microsoft Reading Coach provides personalized, engaging, consistent, and independent reading fluency practice by allowing learners to create unique AI-generated stories by choosing characters and settings from a curated collection of options. Reading Coach was already providing learners with personalized reading practice, instant feedback about pronunciation and fluency, while also giving insights back to educators. Now it’s available for free as a public preview web app and a Windows application to use in the classroom or at home with a Microsoft account.  

Get started with Reading Coach online, in any browser or download the Windows app. Learn more about Reading Coach and check out the guides on our Learning Accelerators page.

2. Microsoft Copilot expansions for education audiences

In December we were thrilled to announce several Microsoft Copilot expansions for education audiences. Copilot with commercial data protection is now available to all faculty and higher education students who are 18+, including users of our free offers. And on January 1, 2024, education faculty and staff became eligible to purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365. We also shared additional updates including eligibility for Office 365 A3 and A5 faculty customers and removed the 300-seat purchase minimum to empower organizations of all sizes. 

Visit copilot.microsoft.com and explore what you can do with Copilot, your AI assistant for education.  

3. Loop availability for education customers

Microsoft Loop is a flexible, AI-powered collaboration app that can help you think, plan, and create together. We’re excited to share that Loop will be included in Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 plans, including Student Use Benefit in early March 2024. Customers with Office 365 A1 can continue creating workspaces and pages through June 30, 2024, and will be able to access them afterwards.  

Try Loop today and watch Microsoft Loop – think, plan and create together like never before to learn more. 

4. New AI literacy training for educators and students 

As more exciting AI features are developed, we’ll continue to support building AI literacy in parallel. We’ve launched the AI for Educators Learning Path on Microsoft Learn, made up of three modules to help educators learn about and benefit from AI. It begins with empowering educators to explore the potential of AI, continues into how to enhance teaching and learning with Copilot, and finishes with our newest addition: Equip and support learners with AI tools from Microsoft.  

Educators can then leverage the AI Classroom Toolkit to help teach and support students in using generative AI safely. It’s a creative resource that blends narrative stories with instructional information to create immersive and effective learning experiences for educators and their students.  

Check out the AI for Educators Learning Path on Microsoft Learn and explore the AI Classroom Toolkit to help teach and support students in using generative AI safely. 

5. New features in Microsoft Teams for Education 

You can now check-in with students using Reflect in Microsoft Teams for Education as they complete their assignment. When you enable Reflect Check-in on an assignment, students will be prompted to share how they feel when they submit their work. Then, you can review your students’ responses in the Assignments Grading experience, to monitor the progress of an individual student and the overall mood of the class about the assignment. 

Another new feature that’s available now is reusing your modules between Class Teams. You can reuse content such as Assignments, Files, and Links from one class to another with Classwork. This is useful if you want to teach the same class again, have multiple versions of a class, or share curriculum with another educator.   

Check out What’s New in Microsoft EDU – Bett 2024 Edition to learn more about all the new updates in Microsoft Teams for Education.  

6. New experiences and lessons from Minecraft Education 

Minecraft Education and BBC Earth have launched a new wondrous world inspired by the latest landmark series from BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, Planet Earth III. With the Planet Earth III DLC, students will step into extraordinary realms of the natural world to experience the struggles and triumphs of survival while playing as a series of incredible creatures, including the great white shark, the Arctic wolf, the musk ox, and more. Explore the Planet Earth III DLC to learn about each animal and gain their perspective on survival! 

In another new experience, CyberSafe: Good Game—the latest addition to Minecraft’s CyberSafe collection—players help a group of gaming teammates create a code of conduct, practice digital citizenship, and ensure everyone feels welcome. This game-based learning experience is designed to teach students the tools and skills that put players in control. Players tackle exciting challenges, foster kindness and teamwork, and turn the online world into an inclusive playground for all. Play CyberSafe: Good Game and bring lessons in cybersecurity and online safety into your classroom.  

7. Minecraft and ISTE Level Up Learning digital events 

Dive deeper into the benefits of teaching with Minecraft with Level Up Learning, a digital event series from Minecraft Education and ISTE. Through a series of webinars spotlighting school systems around the world, educators and leaders can join a transformational journey into the integration of game-based learning and its impact on student outcomes.   

Register for free for all of the Level Up Learning events:  

• Computer Science and AI on February 29, 2024  
• Student Voice, Agency, and Authentic Learning Experiences on April 2, 2024  
• Connection, Leadership & Team-based Experiences through Esports on April 30, 2024  
• STEM Literacy for all students on May 28, 2024   

8. Join Flip live events or watch on-demand 

In February in the United States, educators come together to commemorate and pay tribute to the narratives of Black and African American individuals, honoring the significance of their experiences. Celebrate Black History Month during this time and throughout the year by watching the on-demand Flip event Learning from the Past, Shaping the Future: Discovering Black History through Digital Innovation with your class.  

Then, in March, Women’s History Month is celebrated in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. To mark the occasion, join with your class on March 13, 2024, as Flip celebrates innovative women working in the field of AI with the live event AI Conversations: Women Leaders Share Their Stories. Participate in the event to explore the questions: What does it take to succeed in AI? How can you make a difference with AI in your future? Register for the Flip live event today!  

Whether you want to enhance your students’ reading skills, discover new ways to collaborate and communicate, or expand your content and curriculum, Microsoft Education has new features and experiences for you to explore. Happy teaching! 

The post Stay ahead with 8 new updates from Microsoft Education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

It’s important for us to know where each of our students are in their lifecycle journeys and engage with them where they are in their preferred channels. To do that proactively and at scale, we needed technologies that are flexible and can grow with the university.

College students have to navigate an array of requirements throughout their academic career. From course registration all the way to ordering a hood and gown, successful completion of a 2- or 4-year degree depends on more than just going to class and studying: Students must adhere to financial aid deadlines, administrative holds, or other unfamiliar processes to walk across the stage at the end of their journey.

Higher education institutions are increasingly relying on digital messaging to ensure students accomplish necessary tasks while enrolled, but not always in effective ways. According to the Education Advisory Board (EAB), communication departments send a barrage of messages the moment an application is received and continue until after the student matriculates. This often creates “white noise” due to the large number of messages sent to students. Students often report that their college’s messages: 

• Occur too frequently. 
• Contain duplicative or inconsistent information. 
• Follow a generic format with actions that are easy to ignore. 
• Use communication channels that aren’t often checked. 

The result? Students skip or disregard critical updates that can cause them to fall behind or derail their academic progress. This is especially problematic for first-generation students. 

Administrators at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to provide personalized, timely communication throughout their students’ academic experience. With additional help from Microsoft’s AI-powered Copilot for Dynamics 365 in Customer Insights, officials were able to avoid the white noise that characterizes communication from so many other institutions and deliver just-in-time information. 

Transforming student engagement through unified communications and AI-powered personalization 

The CSUSM mission, according to President Ellen J. Neufeldt, is about “ensuring success, meeting people where they are, and transforming the path forward” for nearly 16,000 students in the greater San Diego region. As the first-choice university for first-generation students and a leader in enrollment growth, CSUSM strives to increase engagement with every touch point by communicating with students through consistent, clear messaging at every point in students’ studies. Their communication strategy—bolstered by Customer Insights and Copilot—is one of the main reasons why CSUSM meets its diverse student needs well before an applicant sets foot on campus. 

Dynamics 365 is a suite of products that connects departments, processes, and data across an entire school system. Used by businesses worldwide, Dynamics 365 includes tools like Customer Insights that help administrators create personalized journeys and marketing campaigns that target stakeholders like students and families. It also includes Copilot for Dynamics 365 an AI assistant that helps provide content ideas, reduce time spent drafting digital messaging, and simplify data exploration. 

Adopting Customer Insights and Copilot helped CSUSM establish much-needed connections between the university and its student body. Administrators were able to: 

• Eliminate data silos across different systems by using Dynamics 365 to centralize relevant information that would have otherwise been separate. 
• Personalize all communication to students using “journeys” in Customer Insights that reacted to student interactions and message preferences (frequency, channel). 
• Track how students engage with messages like event registration and follow-up messages. 
• Develop a consistent tone and voice for outbound messages from the university and key leaders like President Neufeldt. 

Copilot also provided support to CSUSM staff who did not have deep backgrounds in technology. Instead of having to train people, members of the marketing and communications teams used natural language prompts to target the right audiences without needing to understand the underlying data structure, consequently improving the process of communicating with students. Copilot also simplified content creation by automatically drafting messages with consistent tone and structure. 

Dynamics 365 doesn’t replace the good work of our dedicated faculty and our staff; instead it complements their efforts by giving them tools to help engage and support our students right where they are.

Dr. Ellen Neufeldt, President, California State University San Marcos

By taking advantage of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Copilot, CSUSM streamlined communication processes, standardized data, and personalized how they messaged their students—ultimately enhancing engagement and their students’ academic experience. 

AI in education brings opportunity to life

At Microsoft, we are committed to making sure AI systems are developed responsibly and that equitable opportunities are created for all students. Join us for Reimagine Education on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, to hear the CSUSM story and explore insights from global education innovators who will share next practices on education equity, security, and workforce readiness in the era of AI. Select the time that works best for you and save it to your calendar—either 9:00 AM PT (UTC-8)  or  6:00 PM PT (UTC-8). Together we can reimagine education. 

The post Streamline messaging with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

During the event, hear stories from innovative schools around the world. Also hear from Microsoft leaders, including President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, and Vice President, Education Paige Johnson, on how we can work together to empower every learner to achieve more.  

Select a time on March 6 and save Reimagine Education to your calendar now! No registration required.  

AI in education brings opportunity to life 

AI is transforming the world of education. Generative AI tools are having an incredible impact on the way we learn, work, and play. At Microsoft, we are committed to making sure AI systems are developed responsibly and that equitable opportunities are created for all students, in the classroom and beyond. Join us to explore insights from global education innovators who will share next practices on education equity, security, and workforce readiness in the era of AI.  

Students, educators, and leaders from schools and universities around the globe are leveraging Microsoft AI solutions to enhance learning outcomes, boost efficiency, and make education organizations more secure, accessible, and inclusive. Hear from leaders at Fulton County Schools (Georgia, U.S.), Oregon State University, Department for Education South Australia, and many other educational institutions, sharing how they’ve embraced AI solutions and laid foundations for ongoing innovation in education. You will also hear a fascinating conversation with Paige Johnson, VP of Education at Microsoft, and Chris Reykdal, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Washington. He will share how his agency is leading an initiative to implement AI across K12 schools in Washington State.

Join us to discover how to: 

• Create more equitable and efficient learning environments with Microsoft AI solutions.  
• Build on a secure foundation and improve security operations with industry-leading AI solutions and automated workflows. 
• Prepare students for the ever-evolving future of work. 
• Leverage the latest education technology announcements from Microsoft.  

The event is open to everyone, no registration required. Save the date to your calendar and join us Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 9:00 AM PT (UTC-8) or 6:00 PM PT (UTC-8).   

aka.ms/ReimagineEducation

I’m excited to have you join me to learn how you can use the latest Microsoft AI tools to create more equitable, safe, and efficient learning environments while helping to prepare students for the ever-evolving future of work.  

Paige Johnson, Vice President, Education at Microsoft

Together we can reimagine education.  

The post Reimagine Education: A digital event on March 6, 2024 appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

This year we were thrilled to be joined by Jaime Teevan, Chief Scientist & Technical Fellow at Microsoft, to talk about her research on AI in the workplace and discuss her recommendations for the best ways to leverage AI technologies.  

And that was the perfect kickoff for Bett 2024, because AI—perhaps unsurprisingly—was the talk of the show.  

Strike a pose 

Right from the get-go, visitors to the Microsoft stand on the show floor were captivated by Microsoft Designer and the power to use AI to build their own avatars.   

For those not able to attend in person, visit aka.ms/SeeYourselfinAI to try out the prompt for yourself!  

Keynote to success

At this year’s Bett there were SO many ways to be inspired by Microsoft! Engaging product demos? Check. Expert-led sessions? Also check. The latest on AI in our Microsoft Learn Live Classroom? You got it!  

As I mentioned earlier, kicking things off for Microsoft was Jaime Teevan, with her Thrive with AI: Lead like a scientist keynote. She provided her expert perspective around AI and the fundamental shifts it will bring to learning.  

Citing the LinkedIn Future of Work Report, Jaime shared that—though more than half of a teacher’s job involves specialized skills that need to be performed by humans—nearly half of teacher skills support tasks where AI could enable greater productivity (such as lesson planning and curriculum development). What everyone wants to know is: can AI really help with these challenges? Will it transform work and how?  

Early research with Microsoft Copilot says yes, with 72% of initial users agreeing that Microsoft Copilot helped them spend less mental effort on mundane or repetitive tasks, 68% saying it improved the quality of their work, and 77% saying they don’t want to give it up! I want you all to imagine, what could you do with that time back? How might this allow for more focus on what matters most, like spending time with your students?

Jaime cited an important new study—Math Education with Large Language Models: Peril or Promise?—that revealed the learning benefits of LLMs (Large Language Models).  

In one of the first randomized experiments on LLMs and education, Microsoft Research and Harsh Kumar from the University of Toronto found that LLM-based explanations positively impacted learning relative to seeing only correct answers. This is largely due to the intention they built this experiment around and the design choices they made, to have LLMs serve as a coach, to act as tutors that don’t just provide answers, but are specifically pre-prompted with customized instructions. And what is so exciting about all of this is that we already have incredible tools today that will only be further enhanced by generative AI.

Achieving more with Microsoft Education 

Some other exciting Microsoft Education announcements at Bett included:   

• Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection will be available to all faculty and higher education students ages 18 and above when signed into their school accounts starting later this week. There are so many ways educators can use Copilot to save time and energy! 
• Reading Coach is now powered by generative AI to fuel student agency and motivation with dynamically created stories that adapt to their reading level and individual challenges. It’s also available as a standalone app, providing personalized reading fluency practice for free as a Windows application and a web app to use in the classroom or at home with a Microsoft account. 
• Microsoft Teams for Education updates include things such as the ability to use generative AI to create rubrics and instructions in Assignments. The educator always has the choice and can generate different options, and—after the content is created—can always make further edits and updates to the content. 
• You can also use generative AI to create modules in Classwork. Now educators can get assistance creating a course outline and drafting modules and descriptions based on the subject, student grade level, and class learning objectives. 
• Microsoft Loop—a flexible, AI-powered collaboration app that can help you think, plan, and create together—is now available for Education customers.  

Buddy up to PowerBuddy™

PowerSchool—the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America—announced the launch of PowerSchool PowerBuddy™, powered by the Azure OpenAI Service. With PowerBuddy, students receive on-demand assistance and tailored pathways. Teachers can generate lesson plans and personalize homework at scale. Parents can inquire about their child’s academic performance. And administrators can democratize information for decision-making.  

“PowerBuddy helps each child cultivate a genuine passion for learning, driven by the intentional design of safe, supportive, inspiring, and tailored experiences using AI,” said Shivani Stumpf, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at PowerSchool. PowerBuddy is being piloted now and will be available for the 2024-2025 school year. Watch the video PowerSchool PowerBuddy™, An AI Assistant for Everyone in Education to learn more.  

Kahoot! had its own AI-related announcement: the PDF-to-kahoot generator! This tool leverages the Azure OpenAI Service to transform static PDFs into high-quality interactive kahoots, injecting excitement into each student’s learning experience and helping them to foster a deeper understanding of the curriculum-aligned material. The collaborative nature of Kahoot! also adds an element of friendly competition to the learning process!  

Jornea Armant, Head of Community Engagement for Microsoft Flip, was also on hand to discuss what assessment means in this era of generative AI, focusing on the power of Flip—a no-cost video assessment tool—and Microsoft Copilot, as tools for adapting assessment practices for future-ready classrooms.  

Re-imagine the possibilities!

To build upon all this Bett excitement, be sure to join us for Reimagine Education on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, to learn more about how AI is transforming the world of education. Select the time that works best for you and save it to your calendar—either 9:00 AM PT (UTC-8) or 6:00 PM PT (UTC-8)—and join us for insights from global education innovators who will share best practices on education equity, security, and workforce readiness in the era of AI. At Microsoft, we are committed to making sure AI systems are developed responsibly and that equitable opportunities are created for all students, in the classroom and beyond! 

The post The best Bett yet appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

With new advancements in AI happening faster than ever before, you might be wondering how you can use these tools in your classroom to save you time and energy. Educators worldwide are making strides to understand and integrate AI into their work and often find it to be a valuable tool. You can use AI to save time creating rubrics, personalized content for students, and educational materials such as quizzes and lesson plans.   

Generative AI is a newer piece of technology and a unique category of AI that focuses on creating new content. With generative AI you can generate new content like text, images, code, or audio. It achieves this by learning patterns from existing data and understanding the context and intent of language. This provides you with new opportunities for content creation, personalization, and innovation. Because this technology is creating new content, checking for accuracy in generative AI is essential—especially in the field of education.  

Microsoft Copilot is a tool that uses generative AI to serve as a helpful assistant to you in the classroom. Copilot can help you save time, differentiate instruction, and enhance student learning. With Copilot, you can easily create lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics, and other class resources for any level of learner.  

5 ways to use Copilot in education 

Here are just a few examples of the many ways you can use Microsoft Copilot to save time and energy: 

• Personalized learning: Copilot can support personalized learning by helping you create content, tailored feedback, and guidance for students based on their individual needs and learning styles. 
• Brainstorming: You can use Copilot to brainstorm new ideas for activities, lesson plans, supporting materials, and assignments.  
• Lesson planning: Copilot can help you plan lessons by suggesting or drafting activities, resources, and assessments that align with learning objectives. You can also use Copilot to start a rubric for the lessons. 
• Provide feedback: Copilot can help you draft initial feedback and ideas for students on their work, which you can edit and personalize for your students.  
• Get quick answers: Copilot can help you get quick answers to your questions without having to read through multiple search results. Also, Copilot provides links to content sources so you can assess the source or dive deeper into the original content. 

Getting started with Microsoft Copilot

To get started with Microsoft Copilot, you can follow these steps:  

1. Open copilot.microsoft.com or select the Copilot icon on the sidebar in your Microsoft Edge browser. 
2. Type your prompt into the chat window. 
3. Review the sources linked at the bottom by “Learn more.” You can fact-check the information provided or dive deeper into a topic by accessing the original articles, studies, or reports. 
4. Review the response to make sure the output is what you want and accurate. You are the expert, and you decide what goes into the classroom. 
5. To get the most out of Copilot, you can keep the conversation going by following up on your prompts. This helps you collaborate with Copilot to gain more useful, tailored responses.   

You can also give feedback to Copilot based on the quality of its responses to help the AI learn and match your preferences.  

How to write a prompt for AI 

To effectively guide generative AI, you want to give it clear and concise instructions, known as prompts. A well-crafted prompt enhances the generative AI’s output in the quality, relevance, and diversity. A good prompt should be clear, specific, and aligned with the goal of the generation task. A bad prompt can lead to ambiguous, irrelevant, or biased output. To get the best response from Copilot, consider the following tips:  

• Define clear objectives. Determine the main goal of the prompt and the role AI should take. Whether creating a syllabus, drafting a quiz, or revising lesson content, have a clear vision of the end goal. 
• Be specific. Chat experiences operate best when given detailed instructions. Specify grade level, subject, topic, or any other relevant parameters. For instance, “secondary math quiz on algebraic expressions” is clearer than “math quiz.” 
• Structure the prompt. Break complex tasks into smaller parts. Instead of asking the AI to draft an entire lesson, request an outline, then delve into specific sections. 
• Iterate and refine. The first response from AI might not always align perfectly with expectations. Don’t hesitate to rephrase the prompt, ask follow-up questions, or provide more context based on the initial output. 
• Combine expertise. Use AI as a tool to enhance and streamline work but remember to overlay its suggestions with your educational expertise. AI can suggest content, but the educator decides the best way to edit and present it to their audience.   

Want a fun way to practice creating effective prompts? Minecraft Education just announced Prompt Lab for Minecraft Educators, a free playbook on how to use Microsoft Copilot to write compelling prompts, develop interactive learning content and assessments, and generate creative ideas for Minecraft lesson plans.   

Create images from text with Copilot 

You can use Image Creator from Designer in Copilot to create personalized, engaging visuals for all sorts of lessons or topics. You can type in a description of an image, provide additional context like location or activity, and choose an art style. Image Creator generates an image straight from your imagination. Prompts can begin with “draw an image” or “create an image.” You can use this tool to create images for a class newsletter, lesson, or Teams post.   

• Get started in Copilot prompting “create an image…”  
• Then build out your prompt with adjective + noun + verb + style.  
• Click on your favorite image to open the result in a new tab and save the image. 

 An example would be “Create an image of an adorable black puppy wearing a hat in photorealistic style.” 

Try creating an image in Copilot for your lesson, or just for fun!   

Protected AI-powered chat

At Microsoft, our efforts are guided by our AI principles and Responsible AI Standard and build on decades of research on grounding and privacy-preserving machine learning. Copilot provides commercial data protection and delivers a secure AI-powered chat service for educational institutions. This means user and organizational data are protected, chat prompts and responses in Copilot are not saved, Microsoft has no eyes-on access to them, and they aren’t used to train the underlying large language models (LLMs). Additionally, our Customer Copyright Commitment means education customers can be confident using our services and the output they generate without worrying about copyright claims.  

Get to know your Copilot 

Dive deeper into the world of generative AI and unlock its full potential for your classroom.  

• The new AI for Educators Learning Path on Microsoft Learn is made up of three modules to help educators learn about and benefit from AI. 
• Prompt Lab for Minecraft Educators demonstrates how to use Microsoft Copilot with Minecraft Education to design engaging learning experiences. Level up your Minecraft teaching with this useful new resource! 
• AI classroom toolkit provides instructional information for educators and students to use generative AI safely and responsibly. 
• AI for education on Microsoft Learn is a collection of resources and courses on how to use AI for educational purposes.  

Ready to elevate your teaching with Microsoft Copilot? Start using Copilot today! copilot.microsoft.com 

The post Meet your AI assistant for education: Microsoft Copilot appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Bringing the future of productivity to education

Last month, we were thrilled to announce several Microsoft Copilot expansions for education audiences. Copilot with commercial data protection will be available to all faculty and higher education students who are 18+, including users of our free offers. And on January 1, 2024, education faculty and staff became eligible to purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365. We’re already seeing innovative organizations like The University of Hong Kong, The University of Manchester, and GEMS Education lead the way as early adopters. We shared additional updates this week including eligibility for Office 365 A3 and A5 faculty customers and removed the 300-seat purchase minimum to empower organizations of all sizes.  

Microsoft Loop is a flexible, AI-powered collaboration app that can help you think, plan, and create together. We’re excited to share that Loop will be included in Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 plans, including Student Use Benefit in early March 2024. Customers with Office 365 A1 can continue creating workspaces and pages through June 30, 2024, and will be able to access them afterwards. Watch the video Microsoft Loop – think, plan and create together like never before to learn more about Microsoft Loop and try Loop today! 

Transforming reading experiences 

It’s well known that reading is foundational to a student’s academic success; studies show that fluent readers are four times more likely to graduate high school and get better jobs. Educators and parents alike are looking for ways to help students improve reading fluency in a way that keeps them engaged and prior research has found that personalized learning is one of the most effective ways to help close learning gaps. With the latest AI technology, we have an opportunity to provide learners with personalized, engaging, and transformative reading experiences. Reading Coach, a Learning Accelerator now powered by generative AI, does just that. You can sign up for a preview of Reading Coach today and try it for yourself at Reading Coach Web app preview.

Reading Coach was already providing learners with personalized reading practice, instant feedback about pronunciation and fluency, while also giving insights back to educators. Today we’re sharing new features that will fuel student agency and motivation with dynamically created stories that adapt to their reading level and individual challenges.  

Reading Coach takes a unique approach to implementing generative AI with guardrails. Learners select the story’s protagonist, setting, and are provided with choices that alter the plot of the story as they read. Reading Coach combines these inputs with the learner’s selected reading level, and over time, words they mispronounce to dynamically create personalized stories that keep students engaged and in the driver seat. Students stay engaged with the power to pick a path of a story while they progress through the chapters. The story content is moderated for quality, safety, and age appropriateness. And in addition to creating AI-powered stories, learners can also pick leveled passages from the curated ReadWorks library.

Reading Coach intrinsically motivates learners to continue advancing their skills in several ways. They can unlock new story settings and characters, earn badges that reward their efforts, and see their pronunciation and fluency improvements in progress reports.  

We’re making Reading Coach more broadly available than ever, so that learners can read on the device of their choice, at home or school. It will be available on the web and as a Windows App, at no cost to anyone with a Microsoft account. Additionally, we’re making it easier for teachers to create Reading Coach practice assignments by adding integration with popular Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Canvas, which will be available in late Spring 2024. Learn more about how Reading Coach works on our support documentation pages.  

These new Reading Coach features build on top of the passage generation and comprehension question generation in Reading Progress which will be available for preview late January 2024. With the use of AI in an impactful, safe, responsible way, we believe that personalized learning at scale is within reach. 

Saving time and differentiating instruction

In addition to reading, over the past year we have been focusing on opportunities to free up time for educators by further enhancing our products with AI. Today, we’re sharing more features coming to Microsoft Teams for Education and Microsoft Reflect to help tailor content. They will be generally available at no additional cost to all education customers later this year.  

All these tools quickly and easily generate content such as reading passages, comprehension questions, rubrics, assignment instructions, and more. Educators are always kept in control as the experts and can review initial drafts of content, generate more options, make edits, or choose to discard. Educators can personalize learning with the click of a button by using filters like age, language, topics, and increasing or decreasing the complexity of the content. And education organizations can choose to turn these features on or off.  

Classwork is a feature in Teams which is built to manage your curriculum and allows educators to create and organize class resources including Assignments, Files, Links, Channels, Class Notebook pages, and more. Classwork module generation helps easily kickstart content with module suggestions based on your subject, student age range, and scope of learning.  

When creating an Assignment in Teams, educators will be prompted with opportunities to leverage AI to easily emphasize key content, simplify, or add more detail, learning objectives, and even emojis. In each case, educators are reminded that AI-generated content may be incorrect, and they’ll need to choose to keep, discard, or regenerate the content.  

Once the Assignment is ready, educators can generate a rubric draft after providing title, evaluation, age range, scale, and criteria detail. Educators are then encouraged to review thoroughly and make any edits before attaching to an Assignment.  

Microsoft Reflect is a tool that helps students identify and express how they feel in safe and fun ways, building their emotional vocabulary and giving educators the insights they need to provide active support. Reflect can now further enhance understanding by enabling educators to generate options for learners to specify reasons behind the emotion. These options are tailored to the check-in question set by the educator and draw on multi-year research by experts from the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Educators can regenerate, manually add, or completely discard results. Reasons can then be grouped at a class level into a predefined list of focus areas with strategies on how to navigate each one in partnership with Challenge Success, a nonprofit affiliated with Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. 

Building AI literacy for educators and students

As more exciting features are developed, we’ll continue to support building AI literacy in parallel. We’re now launching the AI for Educators Learning Path on Microsoft Learn, made up of three modules to help educators learn about and benefit from AI. It begins with empowering educators to explore the potential of AI, continues into how to enhance teaching and learning with Copilot, and finishes with our newest addition: Equip and support learners with AI tools from Microsoft. This new course walks educators through how to help learners discover, interact, and create with AI and generative AI. 

Educators can then leverage the AI Classroom Toolkit to help teach and support students in using generative AI safely. It’s a creative resource that blends narrative stories with instructional information to create immersive and effective learning experiences for educators and their students. 

Advancing youth online safety and wellness

As we head into 2024, there is an urgent call to action for us all to take steps to protect youth safety and privacy online and to ensure that technology—including emerging technologies such as AI—serves as a positive force for the next generation. As policymakers and regulators weigh potential measures to help advance safety outcomes in the coming weeks and months, it is essential that they consider both the benefits and the risks of technology for young people. Read more in our blog about Microsoft’s position on these issues and themes for policymakers to consider as they work through initiatives to protect youth safety and privacy online. 

Learn more about today’s announcements in our latest What’s New in Microsoft EDU blog and join us at Bett next week to explore AI in education with Microsoft. 

The post Unlocking productivity and personalizing learning with AI appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Bett UK is the largest education technology exhibition in the world, featuring three days of inspiring content, networking, and product discovery. We can’t wait to connect with the thousands of educators, school leaders, and edtech partners at the event—and we have a lot to share this year! 

For Bett 2024, we’re excited to give educators an inside look at AI-powered learning tools and share the latest features and tips for using Microsoft Education technology in the classroom. Learn more about how we’re bringing the future of productivity to education in our blog Unlocking productivity and personalizing learning with AI. 

We hope to see you there! See the full schedule of Microsoft at Bett 2024 and start planning your experience. 

Empower students to achieve more with Microsoft Education

Improving education is not as simple as adding up the components of a classroom, teacher, and textbook to get a test score. Each student learns differently. By engaging their unique imaginations, interests, inclinations, and secret abilities we can help every student achieve more. 

We recognize that every school’s most precious resource is its students and educators. Come visit us at stand SH20, join a workshop in our Learn Live Classroom (ICC Suite 8), or attend one of our sessions in the Bett theatres and discover ways we’re providing teachers with AI-powered, one-on-one coaching tools to engage individuals with tailored lessons and create more time for classroom instruction. 

See how we’re also helping IT protect the data of every single student to give every school greater security and flexibility. And explore how we’re giving schools easier ways to track progress to streamline management and support classes with clear data, all on one simplified and secure platform.  

Our AI-powered solutions help make learning more equitable by putting every student at the center of the equation, so educators in every school have easy access to the tools they need to empower every student to achieve more. 

Check out the full schedule of Microsoft at Bett 2024 and start planning your visit. We look forward to connecting with you there! 

Start your Bett 2024 experience with our keynote “Thrive with AI: Lead like a Scientist” 

We’re thrilled to hear our very own Chief Scientist and Technical Fellow, Jaime Teevan, share her insights on the skills needed in the era of AI. Join us at the keynote, Thrive with AI: Lead like a Scientist, to learn about the transformative power of AI in education and how you can develop your AI skills. 

• Thrive with AI: Lead like a scientist – Bett UK at ExCeL London 
• Wednesday, January 24, 2024 
• 10:00–10:30 GMT 
• Bett Arena 

Add this inspiring keynote to your calendar and discover how you can use AI to transform learning. See you there!

Attend Microsoft sessions in Bett theatres

Join fellow educators and school leaders in finding new ways to support students through AI, Microsoft Learning Accelerators, and more. 

• 2024 Agenda | Microsoft at Bett UK 
• Wednesday, January 24–Friday, January 26, 2024 

Review the schedule, and then visit the Bett agenda to add Microsoft sessions to your calendar. 

Get the latest from Microsoft Education in our Learn Live Classroom

Attend a Microsoft-led hands-on session to discover new tools and strategies to explore AI in education, improve efficiency and cybersecurity, and prepare students for the future with the power of Microsoft’s Learning Accelerators, Copilot, Flip, Minecraft Education, and more. Hear from experts each day of Bett, starting at 10:00 AM GMT daily.  

• 2024 Agenda | Microsoft at Bett UK 
• Wednesday, January 24–Friday, January 26, 2024 
• Open daily from 10:00 GMT 
• Microsoft Learn Live Classroom, ICC Suite 8 

Don’t miss a moment of learning before, during, and after Bett. Participate in the Microsoft Bett 2024 Challenge on Microsoft Learn, January 17 to February 29, 2024, and sharpen your skills with this curated collection of free asynchronous learning modules. Join the Microsoft Bett 2024 Learn Challenge and explore how you can support all learners in your classroom! 

Connect with Microsoft Education at stand SH20

Visit us at the Microsoft stand, SH20, and make the most of every moment with Microsoft Education. Attend Microsoft Learn Live Theatre sessions, explore AI with experts, engage with colleagues, and much more. 

• Wednesday, January 24–Friday, January 26, 2024 
• Microsoft stand, SH20 

Connect with product experts and get hands-on experience with your favorite learning tools like Reading Progress and Reading Coach, Microsoft Reflect, Copilot, Minecraft Education, and many others. Come see us at the Microsoft stand, SH20! 

Learn from our partners

From simple applications to complex integrations, we work with our partners to build innovative cloud-to-edge solutions, applications, and services. Visit our partner stations on the Microsoft stand at Bett to learn more. Along with Class Technologies and PowerSchool, we’ll also be featuring solutions from Phoenix, Haldor, Cloud Design Box, SalamanderSoft, Kahoot, Eventful, Academic Software, AspireCloud, Dugga, SoftCat, Wonde, and HybrIT.  

PowerSchool:

• Connect with PowerSchool: Thursday, January 25, 2024, 10:00–13:00 GMT, Microsoft stand, SH20 
• Add PowerSchool + Microsoft: Bringing trusted AI tools to your data and workflows to your calendar: Wednesday, January 24, 2024, 12:30–12:55 GMT, Microsoft stand, SH20 
• Join the session “Personalizing education with Data: PowerSchool and Azure OpenAI”: Wednesday, January 24, 2024, 17:00–17:45 GMT, Microsoft Learn Live Classroom, ICC Suite 8 

Class Technologies:

• Connect with Class Technologies: Thursday, January 25, 2024, 13:00–16:00, Microsoft stand, SH20 
• Add Class for Microsoft Teams: The next generation virtual classroom to your calendar: Wednesday, January 24, 2024, 13:45–14:15 GMT, Bett Theatre: Ahead Auditorium 
• Join the session “Class for Microsoft Teams: The next generation classroom,” Thursday, January 25, 2024, 12:30–12:55 GMT, Microsoft stand, SH20 
• Join the session “Next Generation Virtual Classroom”: Thursday, January 25, 14:00–14:45 GMT, Microsoft Learn Live Classroom, ICC Suite 8 

We can’t wait to connect with you at Bett 2024. Get ready for the show and start planning your experience with Microsoft—a lot can happen in three days! 

The post Plan your Bett 2024 experience with Microsoft Education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Today, we’re thrilled to announce several expansions for education audiences. Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection will be available to all faculty and higher education students ages 18 and above. And, Copilot for Microsoft 365 eligibility will now include education faculty and staff.  

Our efforts are guided by our AI principles and Responsible AI Standard and build on decades of research on grounding and privacy-preserving machine learning. Additionally, our Customer Copyright Commitment means education customers can be confident using our services and the output they generate without worrying about copyright claims. We look forward to exploring the potential for these offers in education, iterating and improving, and supporting all education organizations in the era of AI.  

Extending Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection to all faculty and higher education students ages 18+

Since launching Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection (formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) to faculty and staff in August, we’ve heard about powerful uses around the world. Wichita Public Schools is an inspiring example where their educators have already leveraged it to personalize learning, resulting in saving time and energy to reinvest back into their students.  

Today, we’re happy to share that we are expanding eligibility for commercial data protection to all faculty users and to higher education students ages 18 and above. Copilot provides AI chat for the web with access to models like GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 at no additional cost. Commercial data protection will be enabled when eligible users are signed in with their school account starting in early 2024. This means user and organizational data are protected, chat prompts and responses in Copilot are not saved, Microsoft has no eyes-on access to them, and they aren’t used to train the underlying large language models (LLMs).  

Artificial intelligence has the power to revolutionize higher education. Our partnership with Microsoft has allowed us to improve learning for students and support innovative research across Florida State University through an automated, safe, and reliable platform. I am excited to see what our next generation of leaders can achieve with tools such as Copilot.

Jonathan Fozard, Associate Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Florida State University 

Over the last 10 months, Copilot has continued to bring advanced capabilities and unlock new scenarios. Features rolling out soon include GPT-4 Turbo to tackle longer tasks, the new DALL-E 3 model with higher quality images, Multi-Modal with Search Grounding for better image understanding, and Code Interpreter for more accurate calculations and analysis. Students can leverage these innovations and more from Copilot to: 

• Summarize information easily. 
• Brainstorm and get started on assignments. 
• Get step by step explanations for math solutions.
• Find answers quickly, with links to sources.
• Improve their writing skills.
• Learn or study in the way that works best for them.
• Receive initial feedback on their work.
• Write code using natural-language requests.
• Make their projects more visually appealing.
• Free up time for what matters and interests them most.

We’re excited to offer Copilot to our students to help them build important skills, provide personalised feedback and innovative solutions, and ensure their privacy and protection. Free access promotes equality and enables economically disadvantaged students to use these powerful tools that would be otherwise inaccessible.

Mrs. Aune Valk, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at the University of Tartu, Estonia 

If you’re an IT administrator, you can find more information about managing Copilot from the overview on Microsoft Learn and adoption resources. Administrators have the ability to manage and control user access by validating their school type, leveraging the Copilot service plan, updating age group classifications, and even creating their own terms of use. We encourage all customers to learn more and prepare their student population for AI through the recommendations in our Tech Community blog. 

Offering Copilot for Microsoft 365 to faculty and staff

Copilot’s earliest users have already seen productivity and creativity gains in organizations across industries. We are excited to bring this opportunity to education by extending the availability of the enterprise offer for Copilot for Microsoft 365 at $30 per user per month for faculty and staff on January 1st, 2024. Copilot for Microsoft 365 combines the power of LLMs with your organization’s data—all in the flow of work—to turn your words into one of the most powerful productivity tools on the planet. It brings a whole new way to work for everyone from faculty and researchers to IT pros and administrators. 

Microsoft Copilot offers a transformative solution for higher education, significantly optimizing time for faculty. This multifaceted tool is already expediting Hoosiers’ workflows but also serves as an invaluable resource for cultivating specialized skill sets in AI and technology among our IU community.  

Anne Leftwich, Associate Vice President for Learning Technologies at Indiana University

Outside of the classroom, we see opportunities to shift how staff spend their time to their most impactful work across research, communications, marketing, data analysis, fundraising, and management. We’ve also heard from Academic Medical Centers who are experiencing improved efficiency and discovering new use cases to harness the potential of generative AI.  

 AI is a powerful differentiator, and our unique partnership with Microsoft accelerates our mutual focus on redefining conventional approaches for how we work and deliver care. Solutions like Copilot for Microsoft 365 bring us one step closer to realizing our vision for the future through the responsible, secure, and ethical use of AI.

Jeffrey Ferranti, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Duke Health 

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is your AI assistant at work, and it goes far beyond simple questions and answers. It combs across your entire universe of data—all your emails, meetings, chats, documents, and more, plus the web—to solve your most complex work problems. And it’s integrated into the Microsoft 365 Apps millions of people use every day—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. Plus, it includes enterprise-grade security, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI to ensure all data processing happens in your tenant. Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 faculty will be eligible, and you can learn more from our documentation, adoption resources, and Tech Community blog.  

As early adopters of AI and leveraging our recent partnership with Microsoft to develop our AI tutor, we are excited to realise the productivity gains of Copilot for M365 in the Ministry of Education.

Dr Hassan AlSayegh, Advisor to the Minister of Education UAE

Creating opportunities to build AI literacy

As we bring the latest AI technology into education, we will also continue developing training material and opportunities for learners to build AI literacy. Today, we are releasing a new resource, an AI Classroom Toolkit to help teach and support students in using generative AI safely. It’s a creative resource that blends narrative stories with instructional information to create immersive and effective learning experiences for educators and their students. We also recently launched the Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI which is helping make responsible AI more accessible for a wide range of K12 students. And for higher education students and educators, we just created a new Microsoft Learn module to help them learn about and practice with the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot.  

The post Expanding Microsoft Copilot access in education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

With at least 9 out of 10 jobs requiring digital skills and demand continuing to grow, education institutions worldwide are integrating computer science into curricular requirements. At Microsoft, we want all learners to be confident in their digital skills and have opportunities to develop the skills needed for their future careers. Learners who have access to computer science in school tend to perform better in reading and math and develop skills sought by employers like analytical thinking and problem solving. 

With a wide array of opportunities from Minecraft Education, Microsoft MakeCode, and Flip, we’re thrilled to provide educators and students with engaging and easy to access resources during Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) and throughout the year. From professional learning experiences to game-based computer science activities, learners will be able to explore new skills to become safer, smarter, and more confident online, opening potential career opportunities and raising awareness of responsible technology use. 

Start your planning with the CSEdWeek Resource Guide

The Microsoft Philanthropies Technology Education and Learning Support (TEALS) Program’s 2023 CSEdWeek Resource Guide is carefully curated to help you plan an inspirational week for your students. The guide includes events, Hour of Code activities, and more from Microsoft and our computer science education partners. Check out this useful resource and sign up to get the guide! 

Plan an inspirational week for your students with the 2023 CSEdWeek Resource Guide from the Microsoft Philanthropies Technology Education and Learning Support (TEALS) Program.

Do the new Minecraft Hour of Code with your students

All students deserve opportunities to explore AI technology to understand its implications, access career pathways, and be empowered to safely, confidently navigate an AI-powered world. Designed for anyone ages 7 and up, Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI is a fun, accessible way to explore the fundamentals of coding and responsible AI. Register to join a free Hour of Code Play Along on December 6, 2023, and let your learners engage in the Hour of Code lesson alongside a guest presenter and other classrooms tuned in around the world.   

Minecraft’s Hour of Code inspires learners to learn coding basics and essential principles of computer science, all while encouraging thoughtful discussions around responsible coding and AI development. Get involved with CSEdWeek and do the new Minecraft Hour of Code!  

Explore cybersecurity with Minecraft Education’s full curriculum

Boost learners’ awareness of cybersecurity, online safety, and digital citizenship with Minecraft Education’s full cybersecurity curriculum progression. Resources include information about cyber career pathways, lessons aligned to Cyber.org and CSTA standards, and family engagement strategies. Minecraft Education helps learners ages 7 to 18 build the knowledge and skills they need to protect themselves and their data in our growing digital world by allowing them to practice in a fun and immersive experience. 

The Cyber Skills Curriculum not only familiarizes students with digital citizenship and cyber ethics through critical thinking learning experiences but also covers essential cybersecurity topics such as digital footprints, phishing, password protection, and comprehension of encryption, malware, and ransomware. Learn more about teaching cybersecurity concepts with Minecraft Education in this self-paced Microsoft Learn module. 

Minecraft Education empowers educators to bring coding into any classroom and demystify critical topics like cybersecurity and AI. Educators have access to extensive computer science education resources, with opportunities for differentiated and student-centered instruction, inclusive standards-aligned content, and professional learning. 

Build coding skills at all levels with Microsoft MakeCode and Visual Studio Code for Education 

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade 

Microsoft MakeCode is a free online platform that brings computer science to life for all students with fun projects, immediate results, and both block and text editors for learners at different levels. MakeCode Arcade empowers students to create their very own Arcade games online! Try out the new Sparks Flying Skillmap or the Sparks Flying Junior tutorial to build a simple and fun clicker-style game. Check out the educator resources for the Sparks experiences and create games with your students this CSEdWeek! 

Try the new Sparks Flying Junior tutorial from MakeCode and create a fun clicker-style game with your students. 

Visual Studio Code for Education

Visual Studio Code for Education is a free online version of one of the most popular professional code editors in the world, optimized for learners. This year for CSEdWeek, challenge your students to explore Spooky Manor and code their own Python text-based adventure game! Learn more about Visual Studio Code for Education and bring the world’s leading code editor into your classroom. 

Challenge your students to explore Spooky Manor and code their own Python text-based adventure game.

Discover careers in coding with Flip

Minecraft Education and Flip are also joining forces for an engaging opportunity that focuses on careers in coding in honor of CSEdWeek. The Careers in Coding event, happening December 7, features robotics technologist Kamak Ebadi from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. His story promises to ignite the STEM dreams of every student and aspiring space enthusiast. During the event, he’ll discuss the power of coding in shaping future careers and share about NASA’s Artemis missions. 

Take part in the experience and register for the free Careers in Coding event. You can even submit your video questions in the Careers in Coding with NASA & Minecraft Flip Group for a chance to be featured in the event! 

Check out the Careers in Coding Flip event with NASA and Minecraft experts, happening December 7, 2023.

To extend student learning after the event, learners can code their way to the moon with Minecraft Artemis: Return to the Moon, developed in collaboration with NASA. 

Continue computer science learning long after CS Education Week

There’s plenty of learning to be had with so many Microsoft, Minecraft Education, MakeCode, and Flip opportunities to choose from before, during, and after CSEdWeek. Ready to explore even more complex topics like AI? Check out these resources to learn more. 

• AI for education: Resources and learning opportunities: Build your professional learning around AI with training and resources from the Microsoft Learn Educator Center. 
• Microsoft Ignite: Bringing the innovations of the cloud to your CTE classroom: Discover how you can leverage the latest Microsoft cloud services and AI tools in your Career and Technical Education (CTE) classroom. 
• Announcing Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) for faculty: Learn how you can use Microsoft Copilot to explore the potential of AI in your educational space with commercial data protection. 

Microsoft aims to inspire students to engage in computer science with opportunities to learn, make, and do. From our professional learning experiences to game-based activities, learners can discover new skills to help access career opportunities and thrive in computer science—during Computer Science Education Week and throughout the year. 

The post Gearing up for Computer Science Education Week appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

In partnership with Microsoft, Education+ is launching a new professional development series to help educators explore the potential of AI and learn how to harness its power in the classroom. 

Join us on November 29, 2023, at 4:00 PM PT for Empower Educators to Explore the Potential of AI, the first session in this new series. Featuring special guest speaker Becky Keene, a global education consultancy leader and Director of Operations at insight2execution, this free event will cover essential AI concepts and highlight practical applications for educators. Known for driving positive change in education and education technology, Becky will provide invaluable insights on how AI can transform your teaching methods and make learning more accessible for all your students. 

Tune into Empower Educators to Explore the Potential of AI to: 

• Understand Generative AI and its role in education.
• Demystify Large Language Models (LLMs) and their basic functioning.  
• Explore the capabilities of LLMs, from generating text to answering questions.  
• Discover how AI can improve learning outcomes, reduce workload, and enhance inclusivity in your classroom. 

The 60-minute introductory session, which will be available in English and captioned in multiple languages, is free to educators and schools everywhere and will also be made available on demand.  

Register today for Empower Educators to Explore the Potential of AI to take part in the experience! 

• Date: November 29, 2023 
• Time: 4:00 PM PT 
• Duration: 60 minutes 

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how AI can help transform your teaching, improve learning outcomes, and increase student engagement. For more resources and learning opportunities on AI, visit the Microsoft Learn Educator Center: 

• AI for education: Resources and learning opportunities
• Empower educators to explore the potential of AI 
• Skill up with the latest in AI, Microsoft 365, Windows, and security in education 

The post Empowering new possibilities with AI in the classroom appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

We believe today’s AI innovations will power a paradigm shift as big as mobile, cloud, web, or PC. That’s why we were excited to announce more than 100 new updates across every facet of the Microsoft technology portfolio—many of which will have a direct impact on education in the coming weeks, months and years. Industry experts highlighted everything from game-changing generative AI that can help save time and transform learning to new cybersecurity features that will help keep schools safe from the latest cyberattacks. 

With Microsoft Copilot I was able to near-instantly create an entire quarter-long, project-based learning assignment for fourth through eighth grades and simultaneously assign each of the Kansas standards that I had requested for every core subject.

Olivia Sumner, fourth through sixth grade teacher, Wichita Public Schools, U.S.

At first glance, many of these announcements may seem like science fiction, but the era of AI is bringing about these and many other transformational changes to education which will help personalize learning for students of various abilities and better prepare them for the future of work. 

A new era of AI has arrived

AI was everywhere in this year’s Ignite sessions including Satya Nadella’s opening keynote and over 100 sessions! Copilot was one of the standout product innovations from Microsoft this year and we’re excited about its potential in education. According to latest Work Trend Index research report, 70% of Copilot for Microsoft 365’s earliest users say that using generative AI at work has made them more productive, with 68% saying it improved the quality of their work and 77% saying that they didn’t want to give it up.  

• Copilot with commercial data protection for faculty (formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) launched earlier this year powered by world-class GPT-4 model to save educators and staff time and unlock creativity. Educators in Wichita Public Schools are leveraging the power of AI in Copilot to save valuable hours during lesson planning and to personalize learning content for students of various abilities. Check out our AI for education hub to learn how AI can support personalized learning, automate daily tasks, and provide insights for data-driven decision making.   
• Copilot in Windows is the next step toward making Windows the destination for the best AI experiences. It empowers you to create faster and makes once complicated tasks simpler by using the power of AI to lessen cognitive load. Microsoft has made accessing the power of Copilot seamless as it’s always right there on the taskbar or with the Win+C keyboard shortcut providing assistance alongside other apps. These features are available in preview on the latest Windows devices—in the classroom, lecture hall or at home.  
• Microsoft Copilot Studio announced at Ignite, is a low-code tool to customize Copilot for Microsoft 365 or build your own copilot experiences with Azure AI Studio. It brings together a set of powerful conversational capabilities including custom GPTs and generative AI plugins. IT can customize Copilot for Microsoft 365 with your own workloads—build, test, and publish standalone copilots and custom GPTs and manage and secure your customizations.  
• Microsoft has demonstrated its commitment to Responsible AI practices. In partnership with Code.org, this week we announced Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI. With resources to help educators run Hour of Code events in their schools and teach computer science, Hour of Code encourages all students to explore coding and responsible AI in the fun and engaging Minecraft world.  
• We announced numerous updates to Azure, including Microsoft Copilot for Azure—an AI companion for IT that simplifies day-to-day IT administration and helps IT teams unlock untapped Azure functionality.
• Another announcement, Azure AI Studio, is a unified platform to help organizations more easily explore, build, test and deploy AI apps. Finally, Azure OpenAI Service allows you to build your own Copilot and generative AI applications. To see how these developments are being used in education, read how a young inventor in UAE is building an AI Tutor with Microsoft’s AI capabilities including Azure OpenAI Service. 
• Learning Accelerators are AI-powered learning tools seamlessly integrated in Microsoft 365 Education to give individual students more opportunities to learn, practice, and receive specific coaching. Speaker Coach is a Learning Accelerator utilizing AI to give real-time pointers on pacing, pitch and filler words. Reading Progress leverages the power of Azure OpenAI Service to create personalized reading passages based on words or phonics rules that a class or specific student found most challenging. 

 Microsoft AI innovations are transforming how educators teach and students learn.

Unified and evolved cybersecurity tools

At Ignite, we also demonstrated our commitment to helping all organizations–including schools—keep their users and data secure. Considering more than 80% of malware attacks target the education sector, world-class cybersecurity solutions from Microsoft ensure that schools, districts, and ministries of education have the products and resources they need to establish and maintain a strong security posture. Microsoft technologies are built on trust. Moreover, we believe a school’s data is a school’s data—protected by the most comprehensive enterprise compliance and security controls—and is not used to train foundation AI models.   

• The future of security means both leveraging security tools built with AI and building features that help protect AI. At Ignite, Microsoft announced the next major step in this industry-defining vision: combining the power of leading solutions in security information and event management (SIEM), extended detection and response (XDR), and generative AI for security into the first unified security operations platform.  
• All of the Microsoft 365 Education plans offer built-in management and cybersecurity tools to help protect against threats. Microsoft 365 A5 plan allows you to integrate more advanced cybersecurity measures that make it easy to guard, manage, and maximize learning and productivity for students, educators, and staff. Connect with an expert to find out which plan has the right protections for your institution. 
• Effective cybersecurity starts with knowledgeable leadership and educators. Enroll in the Protecting our Future course for leaders or the Building Cybersecurity Resilience course for educators on the Microsoft Learn Educator Center to implement CISA-recommended cybersecurity practices that foster awareness and preparedness, safeguard schools, and counter cyber threats effectively. 
• Students can continue learning with the Minecraft Education Cyber Collection. The collection contains resources for learners from first grade through high school and is aligned to both Cyber.org and CSTA standards, meeting the needs of most school systems for cybersecurity education. 

Thrive in a changing world

The ways in which our tools are helping to prepare the workforce of tomorrow took center stage at Ignite, where we introduced a host of updates, ranging from improvements in the Microsoft Cloud to enhancements in the essential learning and creation tools used by schools every day. 

 Microsoft Teams and our latest AI tools can help educators, students, and leaders thrive.

• Microsoft Teams enables effective collaboration and communication for more than 320 million users around the world and we’ve seen some amazing use cases in education. At Ignite, Microsoft has announced numerous AI-powered improvements to Microsoft Teams. As part of our continued efforts to provide updates and upgrades to the Microsoft Teams experience, the Teams for Education app has been re-designed on a foundation of speed, performance, and flexibility, and has now launched as the next evolution of Microsoft Teams—new Microsoft Teams for Education. To utilize these improvements, we recommend upgrading to new Teams as soon as possible.  
• In this new era of AI, we are redefining cloud infrastructure, from silicon to systems, to prepare for AI in every school and business, and in every app. Updates to Microsoft Azure mean that IT admins can use tools like Azure AI Studio to create low-code AI services to create innovative solutions in schools. 
• Microsoft Fabric revolutionizes data analytics for education, offering an integrated platform for streamlined processes and enhanced collaboration. With Microsoft Fabric, we are excited to explore unique education use cases to optimize student outcomes, modernize data management, and facilitate secure cross-campus research. 

If you weren’t able to attend live sessions, you can still watch many of them on-demand at Microsoft Ignite. You can also learn more about how Microsoft is bringing these exciting announcements to the classroom and the lecture hall at Microsoft Education or by signing up for a free online AI course using the Microsoft Learn Educator Center. 

The post AI and security breakthroughs from Microsoft Ignite 2023 that schools won’t want to miss appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

A one-hour, grassroots introduction to computer science (CS), Hour of Code uses engaging, kid-friendly tutorials and fun activities for learners of all skill levels. The brainchild of Code.org, this hugely popular computer science learning campaign is supported by over 400 partners and 200,000 educators worldwide. It’s a dynamic movement where nearly two million students have learned how to code in over 45 languages from over 180 countries. According to an Hour of Code Impact Study, there were significant changes noted in students’ attitudes towards—and self-efficacy with—computer science after engaging in just one Hour of Code activity.  

Since 2013, Microsoft and Code.org have partnered to expand Hour of Code and other CS education programs worldwide. There have been more than 250 million sessions of Minecraft Hour of Code, and we are excited to build on this momentum with the new tutorial. 

Learn the basics of coding and responsible AI with new Minecraft Hour of Code

Venture through time to build helpful AI-powered inventions in the new computer science tutorial Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI. Use problem solving, creativity, and computational thinking to correct coding problems, solve fun puzzles, and use Microsoft responsible AI principles. With coding in MakeCode blocks or Python, Minecraft Hour of Code allows anyone ages 7 and up to learn the basics of computer science and how to build a better AI for all. 

All students deserve opportunities to explore AI technology to understand its implications, access career pathways, and be empowered to safely and confidently navigate an AI-powered world. With proper policies and pedagogy in place, AI can help inspire students to develop their creativity, acquire new skills, and gain more agency in their unique learning pathways. With Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI, students will learn how AI is a part of the computer science ecosystem and how it is connected to coding, learning to code, and understanding responsible AI. 

Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI is the perfect starting point for learning to code! The tutorial is available for all users in the Minecraft Education in-game library and as a free demo lesson. Access free resources for educators including a facilitation guide, walk-through video, and online training. This year, bring coding into your classroom and empower all your students to explore the amazing potential of AI! 

Here’s how you can get involved in this year’s Hour of Code: 

• Do the new Minecraft Hour of Code at aka.ms/hourofcode
• Register to join Drop Everything & Code, a fun community event hosted by Minecraft Education on December 6. Have your students do the Hour of Code lesson alongside a guest presenter and other classrooms tuned in around the world.
• Register for the Careers in Coding event on December 7, an engaging event in honor of Computer Science Education Week, featuring robotics technologist Kamak Ebadi from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. His story promises to ignite the STEM dreams of every student and aspiring space enthusiasts. He will also discuss the power of coding in shaping future careers and share about NASA’s Artemis missions.   
• Register for a free webinar on November 16: Transform Computer Science Teaching & Culture with Minecraft Education at aka.ms/cswebinar. 

AI guidance for schools  

Educators need the right resources to empower their students to be computer science proficient, stay safe online with cybersecurity, and explore the potential of AI and coding. To address the urgent need for school systems to develop safe, effective, and responsible use of AI, Microsoft became a founding supporter of TeachAI and is proud to have contributed to the development of their new AI Guidance for Schools Toolkit.

Written by a group of co-authors from Code.org, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), Digital Promise, the European EdTech Alliance, and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), the toolkit presents an overview of the issues involved in AI in schools, seven principles to consider when developing AI guidance for education systems, real-world guidance examples, sample language, and resources for staff, parents, and students. Check out this practical resource and see how the AI Guidance for Schools Toolkit can help your school use AI responsibly.

AI-focused professional learning

To help you level up your skills and build AI literacy, Microsoft offers free training on Microsoft Learn. Boost your confidence and explore the potential of AI in education: 

• AI for education: Resources and learning opportunities 
• Skill up with the latest in AI, Microsoft 365, Windows, and security in education
• Empower educators to explore the potential of AI 
• Enhance teaching and learning with Bing Chat 

Dive deeper with Minecraft for computer science

With comprehensive curriculum in cybersecurity, AI, and coding, Minecraft Education empowers educators to bring computer science into the classroom with new lessons aligned to Cyber.org and CSTA standards. Go beyond Hour of Code and explore ways to build coding skills, career pathways, and digital citizenship! 

Opportunities such as Hour of Code offer exposure to computer science, with engaging activities that provide a critical first step to engage more students in computer science subjects and practices, including AI. Explore Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI and the rich resources and tools available in Microsoft Education to make this year’s Hour of Code the spark that kindles computer science and AI learning in your classroom! 

Editor’s note: This blog was originally published on November 14, 2023, and was updated on November 15, 2023, to include the following: To simplify the user experience and make Copilot more accessible to everyone, Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise will now simply become Microsoft Copilot. For more information, visit https://aka.ms/BingIgnite

The post Join the global Hour of Code movement appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.