From coding challenges to immersive Minecraft Education experiences, there are many ways to bring Earth Day themes to life while helping students develop essential skills. Discover six classroom-ready resources to help you celebrate Earth Day 2025 and make a lasting impact on your students.

1. Dive into data to protect the Earth with Data Explorers

Data Explorers is an action-packed Minecraft Education world that aims to build data science and sustainability skills, created by ReWrite Edu in collaboration with NetApp and World’s Largest Lesson. This choose-your-next-path style game takes students across five different ecosystems in search of scientists who help them use data to solve specific environmental problems. Along the way, students can hone their data collection and analysis skills, as well as see how scientists apply data to real-world problems.

At-a-glance:

• Designed for students ages 11-14
• Focused on data collection and analysis skills
• Includes an educator guide for easy implementation

2. Engage in animal adventures with Planet Earth III Worlds

This beautiful lesson collection is the third installment in Minecraft Education and BBC Earth’s series of worlds inspired by the groundbreaking series from BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit. Students will step into wondrous 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. They’ll explore the way these animals’ lives are intertwined by playing as both predator and prey, parent and offspring, friend and ally, and discover the precarious balance of survival.

At-a-glance:

• Designed for students aged 8-13
• Explores the challenges and victories of survival
• Experience beautiful visuals inspired by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit

3. Build eco-themed games with MakeCode Arcade

Microsoft MakeCode is a free, online learn-to-code platform where students can build games, code devices, and mod Minecraft. Support your students’ programming skills with MakeCode Arcade by quickly creating and modding retro arcade games with Blocks and JavaScript in the MakeCode editor.

This Earth Day, check out these eco-themed MakeCode Arcade experiences:

• Save the Forest – Engage students in an interactive coding challenge where they help control wildfires. Using block-based coding, students program an air tanker and set up technology to support a ground team working to protect the forest.
• Happy Flower – Teach students about the relationship between flowers and pollinators by coding a digital flower that sends bees back to the hive. This activity introduces basic programming concepts while reinforcing key science connections.
• Shark Splash – Take students on an underwater adventure where they code a shark navigating the deep sea in search of food. This skillmap blends game design and computer science with marine ecology.

4. Foster a sustainable future with FarmBeats for Students

Empower students to explore how technology can drive sustainability with FarmBeats for Students. This hands-on program brings precision agriculture to classrooms, engaging learners in real-world applications of digital sensors, data analysis, and AI. Through interactive activities, students collect and analyze environmental data, build machine learning models, and discover how AI can help optimize farming practices—supporting a future where we can feed a growing population while preserving our planet’s resources.

At-a-glance:

• Combines an affordable micro:bit-based hardware kit with free, curated curriculum
• Features interactive activities that engage students in real-world applications of AI
• Focuses on sustainability in agriculture and environmental stewardship

5. Enhance literacy skills with Earth Day reading assignments

Use Reading Progress to seamlessly blend Earth Day topics into your reading lessons while supporting each student’s literacy growth. With AI-powered passage generation, you can create customized reading passages on environmental themes in just a few clicks. Simply choose the topic, age level, length, and language—and adjust the complexity as needed to meet your students where they are and deepen their engagement with Earth Day.

You can also use AI-generated comprehension questions based on the passage. Specify how many questions you want, review the questions before assigning them, and easily tailor them to fit your students’ learning goals.

At-a-glance:

• Quickly generate Earth Day-themed reading passages with AI-powered passage generation
• Personalize reading passages based on phonics patterns or words students find challenging
• Use AI-generated comprehension questions to check for understanding

6. Design, update, and personalize Earth Day lesson plans

Spark creativity and save time with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Whether you’re planning an Earth Day lesson, generating engaging content, or creating visuals to bring your teaching to life, Copilot Chat can help—for free.

Need fresh activity ideas or ready-to-use classroom materials? Just ask Copilot Chat! Try these prompts to enhance your Earth Day lessons:

• Create a detailed lesson plan on sustainable farming practices for [grade level]. The lesson should highlight concepts like crop rotation, organic farming, soil conservation, and water management, with real-world examples and student-friendly explanations.
• Generate a list of thought-provoking, open-ended discussion questions for a [grade level] Earth Day lesson. Ensure the questions encourage critical thinking, personal responsibility, and diverse perspectives. They should be designed to spark meaningful conversations about [topic] and connect students’ thinking to their role in protecting the planet.
• List a variety of engaging, hands-on eco-centric activities for a [grade level] class to do for Earth Day. Include indoor and outdoor options with a brief description, required materials, estimated time, and how it connects to [a specific topic like environmental awareness, sustainability, or climate action].

Explore the Copilot Chat learning module on Microsoft Learn to discover practical ways to use it in your daily workflow.

Celebrate Earth Day 2025 by bringing sustainability to life in your classroom. These ready-to-use resources are designed to help you engage students and spark meaningful conversations about our planet’s future. Empower your students to take action for a greener future—one engaging, interactive lesson at a time.

The post 6 ways to create memorable Earth Day experiences for students appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

The Copilot Scenario Library for education is a great place to start for finding ideas on how to integrate AI into your daily workflow. It offers easy to follow day-in-the-life examples tailored to your role in education. Whether you’re designing personalized lesson content, collaborating with colleagues, or communicating with families, Copilot helps you save time and focus on supporting student success.

Additional Copilot Scenario Libraries provide targeted guidance and even more day-in-the-life examples:

• IT Management – Strengthen cybersecurity and optimize device management.
• Communications – Craft engaging content and improve communication.
• Operations – Boost efficiency in planning, reporting, and scheduling.
• Accessibility – Enhance digital accessibility and create inclusive environments.

Leverage these useful resources to get inspired and support success across your institution with Copilot.

Copilot Chat: Your AI assistant for education

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is the AI chat experience you can use every day. It’s powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and designed to be safe and secure. Copilot Chat includes free, secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o, agents accessible right in the chat, and IT controls, including enterprise data protection and agent management. In addition, pay-as-you-go agents are available through Copilot Chat.

While Copilot Chat is an excellent starting point for integrating AI into your day-to-day workflow, Microsoft 365 Copilot offers all the features of Copilot Chat and additional capabilities to transform educational experiences. Integrated into the apps you use every day, Copilot combines the power of the latest AI models with your institutional data—documents, presentations, emails, meetings, chats, and more—plus the web to deliver relevant responses with sources.

Schools using Copilot have seen tangible benefits. In fact, educators in Brisbane, Australia, reported saving an average of 9.3 hours per week on routine tasks. The time saved is especially crucial in a profession where burnout is a common challenge. As St Francis College Principal John Marinucci highlights, Copilot can transform education by streamlining administrative tasks that often overwhelm educators. This means teachers can now devote more energy and time to their core mission—helping students be successful.

Simplify daily tasks with Copilot Chat

From lesson planning to school operations, Copilot Chat can help you be more productive. Whether you’re personalizing instruction, gathering resources, communicating with stakeholders, or rolling out new technology, Copilot Chat simplifies everyday tasks—so you can focus on what matters most: helping students thrive. Let’s explore how Copilot Chat can assist you.

K-12 educator: Differentiate lesson plans

Personalizing instruction takes time, but Copilot Chat can help you adapt lesson plans faster. Quickly adjust activities by specifying accommodations, instructional strategies, and student needs. Try this sample prompt:

Adapt this text for a student who is struggling with reading. Address vocabulary issues, identify and define words to practice, and explain figurative language. Include a list of 5 corresponding comprehension questions. Here’s the original text: [copy and paste text]

K-12 special education assistant: Find appropriate resources for each student

Special education assistants and support staff work with students across multiple classrooms. Copilot Chat can streamline resource collection by helping you plan your day ahead and suggesting materials based on your input. Spend less time searching and more time supporting students.

Education leader: Communicate clearly with staff, families, and students

From morning greetings to school board updates, effective communication is essential for education leaders. Copilot Chat helps you draft clear, professional messages, so you can keep staff, families, and school communities informed without spending hours crafting communication.

IT professional: Create an onboarding plan

When introducing new technology, instructional coaches and IT leaders often need a structured rollout plan. Use Copilot Chat to create onboarding guides, find training resources, and outline step-by-step implementation plans. It can save hours of planning time while ensuring a smooth transition for staff and students.

Take it even further with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot builds on the capabilities of Copilot Chat by connecting with your institutional data and is available in the apps you use every day. Whether you’re summarizing your day in Outlook, adapting lesson plans in Word, or analyzing data in Excel, Copilot can streamline your workflow—helping you stay organized, informed, and more efficient. Let’s explore how Copilot can further assist you.

K-12 educator: Prepare for meetings with families

Meeting with families is essential to supporting student growth, but preparing for these conversations takes time. With Copilot in PowerPoint, you can generate meeting-ready presentations that include key details—then customize them for each student. Reuse and remix templates to streamline your prep work and keep meetings focused.

K-12 special education assistant: Review and adapt lesson plans with ease

Collaboration between educators is key to supporting diverse learning needs, but time constraints often make it difficult to quickly review materials and provide feedback. Copilot in Word can help you streamline review of educator lesson plans in the context of individual student needs. You can then ask Copilot to suggest differentiated learning activities and adjust formative assessments to meet the needs of each student.

Education leader: Analysis and insights from budgets

Education leaders make strategic financial decisions to support student learning. Copilot in Excel helps track spending, identify variances, and optimize budgets. Need a quick analysis? Ask Copilot to insert a budget variance column, so you can easily spot trends and reallocate funds where they’re needed most.

IT professional: Align IT solutions with school priorities

IT teams play a vital role in keeping schools running smoothly. Copilot in Word helps you draft strategy documents that align IT solutions and projects with school and district goals—making it easier to secure approvals and drive long-term success.

Find your inspiration

Copilot is your AI assistant for everyday tasks—helping you support student learning outcomes, boost productivity, and save time. No matter your role, Copilot can help securely empower everyone at your institution, making it easier to work smarter and stay organized. Explore the Copilot Scenario Library for education for inspiration and prompts that you can start using today.

You can also use Copilot to find inspiration. For example, you could write a prompt explaining your role and what you need help with. Then, ask Copilot for use cases or examples of how others in similar roles have used AI to improve their daily workflow. This way, you can discover new ways to use AI to enhance your work, streamline your tasks, and achieve your goals with greater ease and creativity.

To help you and your team build competency with AI and Copilot, check out the Microsoft 363 Copilot learning path which walks you through the basics of Copilot.

The post Scenarios for success: Streamlining everyday tasks in education with Microsoft 365 Copilot appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

The 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report from Microsoft and LinkedIn also found that 66% of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills. As we celebrate National AI Literacy Day in the US on March 28 this year, it’s clear that no one company will likely be able to meet the opportunities of tomorrow. We believe it’ll take innovative partnerships to meaningfully impact the lives of people around the world with AI literacy and skills development.

Empowering learners with essential AI skills

Microsoft and Pearson, the world’s lifelong learning company, announced a strategic collaboration to help address one of the top challenges facing organizations globally: skilling for the era of AI. The partnership will focus on providing employers, workers, and learners with AI-powered products and services to help prepare the current and future workforce across industries for the evolving landscape of work in an AI-powered economy. By combining Pearson’s expertise in learning and assessment with Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies, this partnership will play a foundational role in helping organizations realize the full value of AI through reskilling.

Microsoft and Pearson are addressing the challenges and opportunities around reskilling at the ASU-GSV Summit in San Diego, US, April 6-9, 2025. The summit is dedicated to the scaled innovations in the delivery of education and workforce skills that are critical to creating a world in which all people have equal access to the future.

At ASU-GSV, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Learning, Jeana Jorgensen, will join Pearson President of Workforce Skills, Vishaal Gupta, for a discussion on transforming skills development and talent planning for the AI era. They’ll talk about how rapid intervention is needed or we risk the AI skills gap becoming a skills chasm, threatening the ability of individuals and organizations to thrive in an AI-powered future.

I’ll be also joining Vishaal and Jeana for a discussion at ASU-GSV on skilling for the AI era. We’ll dive deeper into how the Microsoft and Pearson collaboration will transform and scale AI skilling and help organizations equip learners and workers with the critical skills they need to succeed in a technology-driven world.

Rethinking reskilling

Given the urgent need to rethink learning and reskill workers, Microsoft and Pearson will collaborate in several ways, including:

• Personalized learning at scale – Pearson will power its trusted and world-renowned content, assessment, upskilling, and certification services with Microsoft Azure cloud computing and AI infrastructure. This partnership will help Pearson further scale AI and technology capabilities across the business, expanding personalized learning and AI-enabled services to millions of learners, at different stages in their learning journey across the globe.
• Innovative collaboration – Pearson and Microsoft will launch a strategic collaboration aimed at helping people build AI proficiency and technical skills through new AI credentials and certifications. Additionally, Pearson and Microsoft will collaborate on a series of copilots, agents, and AI tools targeted at helping people develop skills—such as English language learning—and identify skills gaps seamlessly while they work.
• Investing in technology-driven careers – Microsoft will extend its current partnership with Pearson VUE, a key provider of Microsoft Cloud and Office certifications, through 2029. These certifications have already helped millions of young people, educators, and workers prepare for jobs that use Microsoft’s world-class technology. This expansion will open these vital credentials to scores of additional learners and workers around the world.
• Powering the Pearson workforce – After having piloted and tested Microsoft 365 Copilot, Pearson will expand its use by deploying it to its global workforce. This is part of an ongoing effort to introduce workplace AI tools that enhance efficiency, creativity, and productivity and drive better operational performance.

The partnership extends the efforts of both Microsoft and Pearson to provide AI skilling to people across the globe. In 2024, Microsoft and its partners trained and certified over 23 million people in digital skills. Pearson launched its Generative AI Foundations certification to equip professionals and students with the essential skills needed to work with generative AI technologies. Additionally, organizations around the world use Pearson VUE, along with Pearson’s AI-powered Faethm capability, and Credly badging to diagnose, assess, and certify skills.

Develop your AI skills

Curious about additional ways to develop AI literacy and build AI skills? Get started today and join the Microsoft AI Skills Fest. Registration is open now to engage in deep dives, experiential content, hackathons, and practical sessions that will enhance your AI skills over 50 days of discovery and learning, starting April 8, 2025.

There’s a significant opportunity to work together to build AI skills and empower the future workforce. Whether you, your team, or your students are just getting started or looking to refine your capabilities, discover resources to support your journey.

¹ IDC InfoBrief: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024

The post Transforming the future of learning and work with AI skilling appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

There’s a strong opportunity to boost understanding and use AI more intentionally through professional learning and thoughtful practices. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to refine your AI capabilities, we have free training and resources to help you build AI skills and integrate AI in meaningful and responsible ways. Get started by exploring our curated list of resources to help you and your students develop AI literacy skills.

Develop your AI literacy with professional learning

To support meaningful AI integration in education, it’s important to engage in professional development opportunities that build foundational knowledge. Explore these free learning resources designed to deepen your expertise and give you the tools to incorporate AI into your classroom:

• AI for educators learning path – Use this foundational training on Microsoft Learn to enhance your AI literacy and explore how to integrate AI into your classroom.
• AI skills for educators – Jump-start your AI skilling through free training courses and programs like the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert global professional learning community.
• AI for education resources and learning opportunities – Discover resources and courses on how to use AI for education with Microsoft.
• Microsoft Education AI Toolkit – Access a collection of AI resources, research, and best practices for education leaders to support AI adoption in schools.

By engaging with these resources, you’ll build confidence in using AI and discover innovative ways to support student learning and save time. Continue growing your expertise by experimenting with AI tools and collaborating with peers to share best practices.

Grow your skillset with the Microsoft AI Skills Fest

Join the Microsoft AI Skills Fest to build your skills and stay ahead. No matter your role in education, the AI Skills Fest offers experiences tailored to your needs. Engage in deep dives, experiential content, hackathons, and practical sessions that will enhance your AI skills over 50 days of discovery and learning, starting April 8, 2025.

Additionally, we can make history together while attempting a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS^TM title for most users to take an online multi-level artificial intelligence lesson in 24 hours. It’s easy: Join us on April 8, build your skills, test your knowledge, and attest your participation. We’ll kick things off on April 7 at 23:00 UTC (9:00 AM AEST) and conclude on April 8 at 23:00 UTC (16:00 PDT), with learning events scheduled around the globe. Participate in this unique opportunity to learn, compete, and celebrate your achievements!

Enhance teaching and learning with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat enhances teaching and learning by helping you simplify administrative tasks, personalize learning, and enhance creativity. Learn how you can maximize the potential of AI in education with the following Copilot Chat resources:

• Enhance teaching and learning with Copilot Chat – Explore using Copilot Chat in education by learning basic concepts and features and then applying that knowledge to design effective prompts and analyze results.
• Copilot Chat resources for education – Find resources to help you, your team, and your institution get started with Copilot Chat.
• Meet your AI assistant for education – Delve into this blog post to help you get started with Copilot Chat to write prompts and generate images.

These materials will help you integrate Copilot Chat into your daily workflows and create more engaging learning experiences. Keep exploring new ways to leverage AI-powered tools to personalize instruction, prepare students for the future, and save time on your routine tasks.

Improve your students’ AI literacy

Building students’ AI literacy is essential to preparing them for the future. Use these pre-planned lessons and immersive experiences to demonstrate AI concepts while fostering critical thinking and responsible AI use:

• AI Foundations – Discover a set of accessible, engaging materials for building AI literacy with Minecraft. The program is designed to empower students, educators, and families with a fundamental understanding of how AI works and how to use AI tools responsibly.
• CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper – Help students develop responsible AI habits by exploring academic integrity, human oversight, and data privacy in this engaging Minecraft world.
• AI Classroom Toolkit – Access lesson plans, activities, and teaching strategies for students ages 13-15 to introduce AI literacy into your classroom.

By incorporating these experiences into your curriculum, you’ll empower students to understand and interact with AI responsibly. Encourage continued learning by fostering discussions about the role of AI in society and the importance of human-centered skills for future careers.

Build a solid foundation with online safety

Empowering students and their families to support informed choices about their online activity is crucial, especially in the context of generative AI. As students engage with AI, it’s important that they have the skills to stay safe and make informed decisions. In 2024, we launched a Family Safety Toolkit which provides guidance on how to use Microsoft’s safety features and family safety settings. This toolkit supports and enhances digital parenting and offers guidance for families looking to navigate the world of generative AI together.

Take the opportunity to build your AI skills on National AI Literacy Day and continue to enhance them throughout the year. By embracing AI literacy, you can empower yourself and your students to confidently navigate the evolving digital landscape. Get started with our free AI literacy resources today to deepen your understanding, integrate AI into your teaching, and prepare your students for the future.

The post Level up your AI skills on National AI Literacy Day appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

This time savings is especially significant in a profession where burnout is all too common. As St Francis College Principal John Marinucci observed, Copilot transforms education by expediting those administrative tasks that often overwhelm educators. The result? Teachers have more energy and time to focus on what brought them to education in the first place—helping students learn and grow.

Your AI assistant for education

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is the AI chat experience you can use every day. It’s powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and designed to be safe and secure. Copilot Chat includes free, secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o, agents accessible right in the chat, and IT controls, including enterprise data protection and agent management. In addition, pay-as-you-go agents are available for Microsoft 365 education customers through Copilot Chat.

Moving forward, educational institutions will have a mix of Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot. While Copilot Chat is an excellent starting point for integrating AI into your day-to-day workflow, Microsoft 365 Copilot offers all the features of Copilot Chat and additional capabilities to transform educational experiences. Integrated into the apps you use every day, Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of the latest AI models with your data—documents, presentations, emails, meetings, chats, and more—plus the web to deliver relevant responses with sources.

Smart help across your apps

Unlike other AI tools, Copilot works within your Microsoft 365 environment to provide contextually relevant assistance.

• In Word, you can draft and refine documents—such as lesson plans and reports—in seconds that might otherwise take hours.
• In PowerPoint, you can transform basic content into engaging visual presentations that are tailored to your needs.
• In Excel, you can analyze data and identify patterns that inform instructional and policy decisions—without complex formula creation.
• In Outlook, you can more easily manage communications by drafting clear messages and summarizing important information from lengthy email threads.
• In Microsoft Teams, you can capture key points from meetings, organize action items, and help manage collaborative projects more efficiently.
• Copilot Chat turns your organizational content into a rich database of information and insight, enabling you to collaborate with Copilot like a partner to perform tasks in a single interface.
• Use agents to make Copilot your own. Easily build an agent right in Copilot Chat or SharePoint with agent builder and explore agents pre-built for you.

Copilot is your AI assistant that frees up time for what matters most and transforms education experiences, bringing opportunity to life through customization.

Enhancing efficiency with Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot helps you balance strategic vision with day-to-day operations. Copilot puts thousands of skills at your command and can reason over all your content and context to take on any task using natural language—freeing you to focus on what matters most.

Data-driven decision making

Educational leadership increasingly demands evidence-based approaches to resource allocation, program evaluation, and strategic planning. Copilot helps you analyze complex data sets, identify meaningful patterns, and communicate your findings effectively to various stakeholders.

Try these prompts:

• Analyze this attendance data spreadsheet and identify any concerning patterns or trends that might require intervention.
• Summarize the key findings from our quarterly assessment data and suggest three to five focus areas based on the results.
• Write a data-informed narrative for our school board presentation that explains our resource allocation decisions for next year.

Streamlining admin tasks and communication

Education leaders often manage extensive communications, creating and reviewing documentation, and coordinating across departments. By using Copilot to streamline these tasks, you can spend less time on paperwork and more time on the people-focused aspects of leadership.

Try these prompts:

• Create a template for our weekly staff communication that includes sections for celebrations, important dates, and professional development opportunities.
• Help me organize this folder of policy documents by creating an executive summary of each document with key points highlighted.
• Draft a grant proposal outline based on our school improvement goals and the requirements in this funding announcement.

Preparing presentations

School leaders need to process large amounts of data and present findings in clear, impactful ways to support decision-making. Copilot can transform how you analyze and communicate educational data, helping you create meaningful visualizations and distill complex information into actionable insights that drive improvement.

Try these prompts:

• Help me create a slide that clearly shows the relationship between our new reading program implementation and student achievement scores.
• Build a presentation about our school’s new academic programs and initiatives for tonight’s Alumni Donor event.
• Turn the insights I prepared in this Word document into an 8-10 slide presentation for the conference I’m attending next week.

Classroom-ready prompts for Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat helps you tackle time-consuming and repetitive tasks so you can focus on what matters most. View links to sources, generate images, summarize or analyze files, and more. Get started with Copilot Chat for free with this collection of prompts designed to help you save time by streamlining your daily tasks.

Lesson planning and curriculum development

Creating engaging, standards-aligned lesson plans often requires hours of preparation time. Copilot Chat can generate structured frameworks, differentiate existing content, and help align materials with curriculum standards—all while preserving your unique teaching approach and classroom needs.

Try these prompts:

• Create a 7th-grade science lesson plan on photosynthesis that includes a hands-on activity, digital resources, and assessment options aligned with NGSS standards.
• Transform my lecture notes on algebraic equations into an interactive lesson with think-pair-share activities and real-world application problems.

Assessments and rubrics

Developing varied assessments that accurately measure understanding across different learning levels is challenging and time intensive. Copilot Chat helps you create diverse question types, design clear rubrics, and craft personalized feedback to support student success.

Try these prompts:

• Create a rubric for assessing a persuasive essay from 10th-grade students, with criteria for argument structure, evidence quality, and mechanics.
• Draft three versions of constructive feedback for students who struggle with supporting their arguments with evidence in their history essays.

Content personalization

Educational research consistently shows that addressing different learning styles improves engagement and retention. Copilot Chat helps you transform existing materials to meet different learning needs.

Try these prompts:

• Convert this text explanation of the water cycle into a visual learning aid with minimal text for visual learners.
• Adapt this worksheet on fractions to make it more accessible for students with dyslexia, including font and layout recommendations.

Communication

Clear, consistent communication with caregivers and colleagues is essential but often time-consuming. Copilot Chat helps you craft professional messages, summarize student progress, and prepare for conferences with organized, actionable information.

Try these prompts:

• Help me organize student data from this spreadsheet into a narrative format I can use during parent-teacher conferences, highlighting strengths and growth areas.
• Create a template for weekly classroom updates that I can send to families, with sections for curriculum highlights, upcoming events, and celebration moments.

Get started with Copilot

When introducing Copilot to your institution, consider starting with a small pilot group of educators who can explore its capabilities and develop best practices before you move forward with wider implementation. This approach allows your organization to identify the most valuable use cases and identify training opportunities.

To help you and your team build competency with AI and Copilot, check out these resources:

• AI for educators training resources, a comprehensive collection of professional learning opportunities designed specifically for education professionals.
• The Microsoft Education AI Toolkit, a comprehensive resource to assess AI readiness, build strategies, and implement AI in education. 
• The Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness Evaluation Toolkit for Education, a collection of research instruments and resources to help leaders collect insights around Copilot deployment, impact, and use cases.
• The Get started with Microsoft 365 Copilot learning path, which walks you through the basics of Copilot.

Ready to explore how you can transform your workflows with a powerful AI assistant? Get started with Copilot today.

The post Mastering Microsoft 365 Copilot in education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

We’ll showcase some of the latest product enhancements and features that can help you increase student engagement, refine your instructional techniques, and simplify your workflow. Additionally, we’ll share professional learning opportunities to help you grow and enhance your skills. Let’s dive in and explore some of the latest developments from Microsoft Education.

Simplify your workflow and enhance student engagement

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and agents

We recently introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, an offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 education customers. Copilot Chat is the experience you can use every day—powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and designed to be safe and secure. 

You can customize your Copilot Chat experience with AI agents tailored to your specific needs. Simply provide the agent with institutional files—such as a lesson plan template and language usage guidelines—to create specialized assistants, like a “lesson plan agent” that aligns to your institution’s standards.

Advancements in AI

At Bett UK 2025, we announced AI-powered products and resources to help boost your efficiency, expedite your administrative processes, and enhance student engagement. Some highlights include:

• Copilot+ PCs – featuring enhanced security, optimized performance, and AI-integrated experiences. Now with code name Project Spark—our first education-focused Windows 11 app for Copilot+ PC—to bring on-device intelligence to your classroom.
• Microsoft Education AI Toolkit – new resources and updates help leaders deliver safer AI experiences in their schools.
• Minecraft Lesson Crafter – an AI-powered tool that helps you design custom lesson plans in Minecraft Education, while also practicing how to write effective AI prompts.
• Khanmigo for Teachers – provides over 20 free, AI-powered tools to help streamline class prep with no prompting required.
• Khanmigo Writing Coach – designed by educators, it uses AI to make essay writing an interactive experience and provide students with step-by-step guidance without ever writing a word for them.

Learning Accelerators and Teams Assignments updates

Help your students build foundational and future-ready skills with Learning Accelerators, a set of learning tools included in Microsoft 365 Education. Support ongoing improvement and give your students more opportunities to learn, practice, and receive targeted coaching instantly in an inclusive environment. Check out some of the latest updates to Learning Accelerators:

• Reading Coach is now available as a free, standalone app. Explore how Reading Coach helps students build reading fluency with AI-powered reading practice.
• Math Progress is now available with Microsoft Teams for Education, making it easier for you to create math problems, track student performance, and identify learning needs.
• Speaker Progress now allows students to upload their own PowerPoints and provides real-time feedback on their presentation skills like pacing, pitch, and body language. Also, more languages are now available in Speaker Progress, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean.
• Teams Assignments are now integrated with Blackboard by Anthology—bringing Learning Accelerators, MakeCode projects, Reflect check-ins, and other tools directly into the learning management system (LMS).

Whether you’re helping students become more confident readers, strengthening math skills, or improving public speaking, these updates make it easier to support student learning and engagement.

Dig Deeper into the world of AI with Minecraft

The CyberSafe series from Minecraft Education uses game-based learning to help students boost their digital citizenship skills. In the latest installment, CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper, learners develop skills to use AI tools responsibly by tackling real-world challenges and exploring questions of academic integrity, human oversight, data privacy, and deepfakes. Discover this fun Minecraft world and empower your students to think critically and use AI responsibly.

Stay ahead with professional learning opportunities

Level up cybersecurity curriculum with MSLE

Bringing AI, cybersecurity, and digital safety into the classroom is easier with the right support. The Microsoft Learn for Educators (MSLE) program offers professional learning opportunities that help you integrate these important topics into your teaching with confidence. The MSLE Cybersecurity and AI Bootcamp provides:

• Train-the-trainer sessions led by Microsoft experts.
• Flexible resources to help you incorporate AI and cybersecurity into any subject area.
• Support for preparing students for Microsoft Certification exams.

With expert guidance and ready-to-use resources, this program helps you equip students with the knowledge they need for the future.

Tap into possibilities for innovation

Inspiring a new generation of learners

Microsoft welcomed nearly 30,000 Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts (MIEE) and 600 Microsoft Showcase Schools (SCS) for the 2024-2025 academic year. These educators and schools are leading the way in enhancing learning through technology, and they’re poised to make an even greater impact in the year ahead. Interested in joining these inspiring communities? Learn more about the programs and details about the nomination process for each.

Education pricing for Microsoft 365 Archive

In today’s digital landscape, educational institutions require strong information management to fully leverage AI. Effective information governance helps ensure that AI applications use accurate, complete, and reliable data to generate meaningful insights and improve outcomes. Microsoft 365 Archive can help you manage your data and is now available for qualifying education tenants at education pricing.

Whether you want to try new ways to engage your students, boost your professional learning, or tap into possibilities for innovation at your school, Microsoft Education has tools and experiences for you to explore. Dive in and get started today!

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Pi Day not only highlights the importance of this fundamental concept but also serves as a reminder of the beauty and wonder of mathematics. Whether students are exploring fractions through the new Minecraft Education world Ratio Riddles or geometry through PiCraft, building skills with Math Progress, or engaging with activities you designed with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, find creative and innovative ways to make math more meaningful for Pi Day 2025.

Solve Ratio Riddles with Minecraft and Cambridge Mathematics

Ratio Riddles, a brand-new mathematics lesson from Minecraft Education, introduces the concepts of ratio, proportion, fractions, and scale through a series of three engaging games designed for students ages 8-14. This is an easy-to-teach lesson designed to engage learners in foundational mathematics principles while fostering curiosity and confidence.

• Help the Professor of Cartography rescue students from the gardens using fractions.
• Assist the Guild Master with the installation of new stained-glass windows using scale factors.
• Compete in the Professor of Alchemy’s well-diving challenge by using ratios to concoct powerful potions.

Made in collaboration with Cambridge Mathematics and accompanied by lesson guides, Ratio Riddles makes these essential mathematics concepts concrete and fun! For educators new to teaching with Minecraft Education, explore more easy math lessons and resources.

Immerse students in the world of math

As Pi Day approaches, we invite educators, students, and families to embark on an educational adventure with PiCraft! This student workbook offers a unique blend of gaming and learning that transforms the abstract concept of pi into a tangible, interactive experience. By engaging in activities such as estimating and calculating the area of a circle within the Minecraft universe, students can grasp the practical applications of pi in geometry. This hands-on approach demystifies complex mathematical concepts, making learning both accessible and enjoyable.

Designed for students ages 8-14, PiCraft encourages critical thinking and problem-solving through immersive challenges. Along the way, students also learn coding with Microsoft MakeCode, applying mathematical concepts through block-based or Python programming. Easily integrate these activities into your Pi Day lesson plans and encourage students to explore math in a dynamic, engaging way.

Personalize math practice with Math Progress

Bring engaging math practice to your classroom on Pi Day and throughout the year. Math Progress, a powerful Learning Accelerator, streamlines math assignment creation, provides student performance insights, and helps educators determine course trends at the student or class level. With Math Progress, you can tailor your teaching strategies and differentiate instruction to support student success. Get started with Math Progress with Microsoft Teams for Education and use it to assign personalized math problems to your students.

Math Progress offers access to:

• Problem generator – Easily create sets of math problems based on specific concepts or assign custom problems tailored to your class needs.
• Customizable assignments – Personalize assignments by allowing students to “Show their work,” requesting they upload images or links to OneNote pages to demonstrate their problem-solving process.
• Real-time feedback – Students can work through problem sets at their own pace, receiving immediate guidance to reinforce key concepts and address common mistakes.
• Performance insights – Access powerful insights at both the student and class level to prepare for upcoming math topics with student performance data, misconceptions, and the most frequent question difficulty ratings.
• Inclusive learning – Math Progress is available in over 80 languages, making it easily accessible to a diverse population of learners.

Immerse students in deliberate practice with real-time coaching on key math concepts—while streamlining and simplifying lesson planning. Use Math Progress to help your students improve math fluency, build confidence, and celebrate their progress.

Enhance math instruction with assistance from Copilot Chat

Pi Day is a great time to reimagine math instruction, and enriching your math lessons doesn’t have to stop there. Copilot Chat can be your math instructional assistant year-round. Whether brainstorming creative activities, solving complex problems, or generating fun math challenges, Copilot Chat can help you make learning more interactive.

Take your math instruction to the next level with support from generative AI. Try these customizable Copilot Chat prompts to spark curiosity, reinforce key concepts, and make learning more engaging throughout the year:

• Explain how [math concept] is used in real life, especially in [industry or career]. Provide examples that students in [grade level] can relate to.
• Suggest interactive, hands-on activities to teach [math topic], using [list available classroom materials or technology].
• Give me three thought-provoking questions to start a class discussion on [math concept].
• Create a math challenge in which I ask students questions about [topic], and students must answer before receiving the next clue or question in a fun, game-like format.
• Create a problem based on [math topic] with a common mistake and generate a question I can ask students to identify and correct the error, explaining their reasoning.

Refine your responses by providing more details in the prompts or selecting questions suggested by Copilot Chat. Interested in learning more about prompting? Check out five prompting tips to get more from your AI assistant.  

For Pi Day 2025, explore math in fun and engaging ways with your students. Bring essential math concepts to life with Ratio Riddles, PiCraft, Math Progress, and Copilot Chat. Create impactful learning opportunities that inspire curiosity and confidence in your students, making Pi Day—and every day—a journey of discovery and encouragement in mathematics.

The post Design interactive Pi Day activities with Ratio Riddles, PiCraft, and Math Progress appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

To help you bring these stories to life in your classroom to celebrate Women’s History Month 2025, check out our list of tools and resources that will help make learning more meaningful and engaging. Students can explore the triumphs of strong, female leaders in Minecraft Education, learn valuable information literacy and presentation skills with Learning Accelerators, and discover contributions of local women through lessons you create with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. These tools help inspire curiosity, support critical thinking, and connect students to the powerful stories of women who have shaped our world.

1. Experience the courage of Hispanic women in LatinExplorers 2

Introduce your students to a remarkable group of Hispanic women who have shaped their communities and the world. With Minecraft Education’s LatinExplorers 2, created in partnership with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, students will discover how Gloria Estefan, Ellen Ochoa, and Monica Ramirez made an impact through music, science, and advocacy. Along the way, they’ll develop leadership skills, build empathy, and learn how to tackle challenges—just like these fearless women.

Classroom connection: Before getting started, explore supporting files on the LatinExplorers 2 webpage. You’ll find an educator guide to help facilitate the experience in your classroom, along with a toolkit for using LatinExplorers 2 at a family event.

2. Walk in the shoes of Noble laureates

Conflict resolution is a critical leadership skill, and Minecraft Education’s Peace Builders lesson helps students develop their capacity to deal with problems through real-world examples. In this immersive experience, created in partnership with the Nobel Peace Center, students meet four Nobel Peace Prize laureates who addressed global conflicts in unique ways—including Jody Williams who worked tirelessly to ban landmines in post-war Cambodia. Through Williams’ story and other peace builders, students will explore strategies to prevent and resolve conflict, strengthening their ability to lead with empathy and action.

Classroom connection: Check out the supporting files and use the Jody Williams Class PowerPoint to introduce important concepts and guide your students in creating their own campaign to address issues that matter to them.

3. Introduce strong female role models with Lessons in Good Trouble

Inspire your students to become catalysts for positive change in their community by learning from civil rights leaders like Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, and Emmeline Pankhurst in Minecraft Education’s Lessons in Good Trouble. In this experience, your students will work alongside outspoken activists to understand historic periods when women were denied educational opportunities and voting rights. The courageous women in Lessons in Good Trouble demonstrate how peaceful activism can challenge injustices and create a more equitable society for everyone.

Classroom connection: Enhance your students’ learning by making Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, or Emmeline Pankhurst the focus of a research project. Use a Learning Accelerator such as Search Progress or Search Coach to help take their learning to the next level.

4. Research influential women with Search Progress and Search Coach

Extend learning beyond Women’s History Month while helping your students build essential digital literacy skills with Search Progress and Search Coach, two Learning Accelerators. An assignment in Search Progress empowers students to find, evaluate, and use credible online sources to develop critical information literacy skills along the way. And, both tools make it easy to track student learning in real-time.

For example, you might create a Search Progress assignment that asks students to research Emmeline Pankhurst’s contributions to the women’s suffrage movement. Using Search Coach, your students receive real-time feedback on their queries, helping them to refine their research strategies while building background knowledge on this influential leader.

To get started with Search Progress and Search Coach, explore these resources:

• A quick guide to Search Progress
• A quick guide to Search Coach
• A guide to Search Progress for educators
• A guide to Search Coach for educators
• Search Progress and Search Coach learning module

5. Practice presenting with Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach

Help students share their Women’s History Month learning by creating a PowerPoint and practicing their presentation skills with Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach, two Learning Accelerators. Use Speaker Progress to create presentation assignments and track your students’ growth at the individual, class, grade, and school levels. Then have your students use Speaker Coach to complete the assignment, while receiving real-time, AI-powered feedback on pacing, pitch, clarity and more.

To integrate Minecraft Education learning with presentation assignments, have students create a PowerPoint on ways to increase diversity just as Ellen Ochoa modeled in LatinExplorers 2. They can practice their delivery in a private space with Speaker Coach, helping to boost their confidence as they strengthen their communication skills.

Get the most out of Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach with these resources:

• A quick guide to Speaker Progress
• A quick guide to Speaker Coach
• A guide to Speaker Progress for educators
• A guide to Speaker Coach for educators
• Speaker Progress learning module

6. Expand on Women’s History Month with Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat can help you create classroom materials, activities, and lessons tailored to Women’s History Month topics or even more of your students’ interests. Use generative AI to streamline lesson planning by copying and pasting one of these ready-to-use prompts into Copilot Chat:

• Generate a list of five women from [geographic area or country] who have made significant contributions in the past [two decades]. Include a paragraph on their achievements, challenges, and leadership. Include an engaging activity for students in [grade level] that requires them to explore information in an interactive way.
• Write an oral reading passage about Jody Williams, detailing her Nobel-prize winning accomplishments. The passage should be at a [700L] Lexile level and under [number] words. Provide three comprehension questions for a [grade level] student.

Make sure to check out “Meet your AI assistant for education” to discover more ways Copilot Chat can help you personalize learning, support brainstorming, provide feedback, and more.

From Minecraft Education experiences with women leaders to Learning Accelerators that help students practice their skills, find an activity that will make Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day 2025 memorable and inspiring for your students. Start inspiring the next generation of leaders in your classroom today!

The post 6 ways to inspire future leaders during Women’s History Month appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

SEL helps create an inclusive environment where every student can feel valued and respected, playing a crucial role in promoting equity in education. Microsoft Education is committed to helping educators build experiences that support SEL. Discover SEL activities, curriculum, and professional learning opportunities that offer innovative ways to help students develop a growth mindset, understand their emotions, and build a foundation for success.

Essential academic and career skills

SEL is proven to favorably impact academic outcomes and provide several life-long benefits to individuals, communities, and economies. When students engage in SEL, they not only improve academically but also build essential life skills like resilience, empathy, and collaboration. This helps create learning environments where all students feel seen, heard, and supported—laying the groundwork for equitable access for educational success.

Social-emotional skills are crucial to ensuring students are set up for success—both in the classroom and in their future careers. Our emotions act as gatekeepers to cognition, motivation, and attention, and [they] impact how we navigate our own thoughts and actions and interact with the world around us.

Paige Johnson, Vice President Public Sector, Financial Services and Media, Microsoft

School leaders and educators recognize SEL’s transformative power in enhancing communication, managing emotions, and navigating complex thoughts. These concepts extend beyond the classroom into the workplace. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) identifies self-control, stress resistance, cooperation, sociability, and curiosity as skills that support academic achievement, well-being, and job performance. It’s clear that from the classroom to the workplace, SEL serves as a foundation for equitable opportunities and lifelong achievement.

To learn more about integrating SEL into your classroom, take the learning path in the Microsoft Learn Educator Center.

Explore SEL in your classroom with Reflect

Support your students in developing essential social, emotional, and academic skills using Reflect. This Learning Accelerator offers opportunities for every student to feel heard while developing skills to identify, understand, and manage emotions. Reflect provides access to:

• Intentional emotional check-ins: Quickly survey students about their feelings and help them develop their emotional vocabulary with age-appropriate reflection.
• Ready-to-use activities: Explore a variety of fun activities for you and your students to practice well-being skills.
• Data-driven insights: Understand the emotional patterns and needs for each student and the whole class so you can better support their well-being and academic success.
• Easy access and seamless integration: Access Reflect through your web browser (sign in required), via the Windows app, Microsoft Teams for Education, and through integrations into learning management systems (LMS) like Canvas, Schoology, Moodle, Blackboard Learn, and more.

Easily set up regular check-ins and access a wide range of activities to support SEL with Reflect. Engage students in a series of mindful movements that help them unwind, uplift, and reconnect during stressful times. Explore SEL themes and skills through engaging stories with nature-themed art activities. Play curated classical music focus timers designed to support a calm learning environment. Get started with Reflect today!

Supporting SEL with innovative solutions

Reflect regularly introduces features and tools to help support SEL skills development, promote equity, and enhance academic success. Reflect Compass is one of the latest tools to help you navigate student check-in results by targeting evidence-based strategies to enhance well-being, engagement, and a sense of belonging. It’s built on the expertise of Challenge Success and grounded in over 20 years of research at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

Reflect Compass provides a framework to help you understand recurring themes and patterns in student responses to Reflect check-in questions. You can use it to identify areas of focus for SEL based on student feedback data. Reflect Compasses are designed to work across different types of schools and age groups. They help build SEL into the school community whether you have a formal program you’re using or just beginning your SEL journey.  

To further enhance the understanding and application of SEL data, use the Microsoft Graph API for Reflect. You can create a centralized system for both analyzing and taking action on SEL assessment data from students across your educational organization. Use these data-driven insights to analyze trends and identify gaps, inform district-wide strategies, and design impactful professional development that fosters inclusive, emotionally supportive classrooms.

Explore more ways to use Reflect in your classroom in the learning module in the Microsoft Learn Educator Center.

Foster SEL skills with Minecraft Education

Minecraft Education is a game-based learning platform that promotes skill building, teamwork, and problem-solving. It provides students with a safe space to express themselves, collaborate and practice empathy, and navigate their emotions in a low-stress environment.

The Minecraft Education Social and Emotional learning pathway brings together experiences and challenges designed to help your students develop their SEL skills. Use these activities and worlds as they are, or as a starting point to adapt to your students’ needs.

Get started with Reflect World where your students can practice emotional processing strategies, encourage teamwork, and visualize the representation of emotions to develop empathy and self-awareness.

Explore more SEL experiences in these Minecraft Education lessons:

• Welcome to the community: Build valuable social and emotional skills by processing emotions, sharing, and supporting others through a shared experience. 
• The Mindful Knight: Understand the benefits and basic concepts of mindfulness and encourage students to set aside a few minutes each day to practice. 
• The mystery of the Budokan: Embark on quests to build a better future based on judo’s core values: courage, friendship, self-control, modesty, sincerity, respect, politeness, and honor.

SEL is more than a classroom strategy, it’s a foundation for equitable student opportunities. International SEL Day 2025 is the perfect moment to consider the role of SEL in your classroom and explore activities and curriculum from Microsoft Education. Together, we can foster equitable learning environments that prioritize student well-being and academic success.

The post Social-emotional learning for student success appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

To support leaders in this journey, we continue to update the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit with emerging AI Navigators and comprehensive guidance, helping you assess your AI readiness and build sustainable and scalable strategies. The AI Navigator stories provide a roadmap to help strengthen your approach to AI and prepare students and staff for a future shaped by technology.

Empowering leaders to achieve their goals

Educators and leaders are harnessing the power of AI to help them fulfill their mission. From preparing students with skills for the future to closing equity gaps, improving motivation and engagement, and fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs, AI has become an essential tool in education. Discover how these trailblazers are using Microsoft AI solutions to innovate operations, prepare learners for new opportunities, and shape the future of education.

Auburn University: Exploring new ways of using AI

Recognizing the growing use of AI by students and faculty, Auburn University, Alabama, US, set out to explore how AI could enhance both teaching and research. They saw an opportunity to foster innovation and deepen technological understanding across campus. The university turned to Microsoft and its comprehensive, flexible solutions to develop approaches that would help them move forward and pivot as new technologies emerge. Auburn has embraced AI as part of their campus culture, encouraging students, faculty, and staff to imagine new ways of working by promoting AI literacy, accessibility, and collaboration.

• Improving AI literacy: To help faculty integrate AI confidently into their instruction, Auburn created “Teaching with Artificial Intelligence,” a course designed to improve AI literacy and provide strategies to support student learning. The university also hosted an on-campus event to spark meaningful discussions about the role of AI in education, helping both faculty and students navigate and leverage this transformative technology.
• Expanding secure access: To provide students and faculty with secure access to AI, the university offers Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to students as an academic and professional resource. They also hosted a “build-a-bot” workshop, where attendees learned how to develop their own chatbots using Azure OpenAI Service.
• Empowering innovation: Auburn is beta testing Microsoft 365 Copilot with faculty and staff, using feedback to discover new ways to enhance learning with AI. As they continue to explore the potential of AI, Auburn is committed to experimenting with new Microsoft AI tools and finding ways to make AI an even more valuable part of campus life.

The Education University of Hong Kong Jockey Club Primary School: Amplifying learning potential

To boost student engagement and support teachers with innovative tools, the Education University of Hong Kong Jockey Club Primary School (EdUJCPS) partnered with Microsoft Hong Kong and its Global Training Partner, Gamenoodlesoup Ltd, to reimagine student learning. Using Azure OpenAI Service, they developed chatbots and AI assistants that personalize educational materials, making teaching and learning more interactive, efficient, and student-centered.

• Developing future-ready skills: In STEAM classes, students use generative AI chatbots and image generation tools to design a “sustainable ship,” making learning more interactive and immersive. These AI tools provide instant responses to student questions, fostering continuous dialogue and deeper engagement. By encouraging curiosity and supporting scientific inquiry, these AI-powered interactions help students develop AI literacy and critical thinking skills while sparking creativity.
• Individualizing learning: To support personalized learning, EdUJCPS integrated the “Maths AI Learning Partner” into their lessons, enabling educators to generate individualized math questions and delivering immediate feedback to both students and educators. This helps educators assess comprehension, identify areas for additional practice, and tailor their instruction to each student’s needs.

Tecnológico de Monterrey: Pioneering an AI-powered learning ecosystem

Eager to take control of their AI journey from the start, Tecnológico de Monterrey, a private university in Mexico, took a proactive approach to designing their own AI strategy. Their goal was to personalize education, improve the learning process, boost teachers’ creativity, and save time on tedious tasks. To achieve this, they created TECgpt, a generative AI-powered ecosystem built on Azure OpenAI Service, to gradually transform the learning experience for students and faculty alike.

• Personalizing user experiences: TECgpt provides tailored AI tools to meet different user needs. Some tools are accessible to all employees and students, including a natural language chat that uses internal data to answer questions related to tuition, scholarships, and campus shuttle schedules. A separate set of academic tools is used only by teachers and students, including Skill Studio, which enables professors to create teaching material, and the Academic TECbot and Librarian TECbot, which work as personalized assistants for students.
• Collaborating for efficiency: Professors at Tecnológico de Monterrey are enhancing productivity by creating and sharing “skills” with colleagues through a pre-designed prompting system. This allows faculty to create reusable prompts that save them time on planning. Their goal is to empower all students to produce their own customized prompts based on content provided by their professors.
• Prioritizing security and privacy: TECgpt prioritizes safety by using Azure AI Content Safety to detect and block harmful or inappropriate content in user prompts and AI-generated outputs. For instance, if someone tries to force the tool to generate an incorrect answer, the system is designed to generate an error message.

IU International University of Applied Sciences: Revolutionizing learning

With students studying at different times and in different locations, IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU) needed a solution that would allow students to learn in a way that aligns with their individual needs and preferences. To meet this need, the university developed Syntea, an AI study buddy built on Azure OpenAI Service and designed to deliver a personalized learning experience.

• Boosting student knowledge: Syntea acts as an AI study buddy, providing personalized feedback and targeted practice based on knowledge gaps and exam preparedness. Since introducing the exam trainer, IU students have seen a 27% reduction in the average time required to complete online courses.
• Ensuring flexible learning: Available around the clock and in multiple languages, Syntea provides IU students the flexibility to learn virtually anytime, nearly anywhere. Its seamless integration with applications like IU’s myCampus learning platform and Microsoft Teams makes accessing it even easier.

Advance your AI journey

These AI Navigator stories highlight how education institutions worldwide are leading the way in creating more personalized, efficient, and secure learning environments. From enhancing student engagement to streamlining administrative tasks, these institutions demonstrate why strategic AI adoption is key to shaping the future of education.

Explore more AI Navigator stories and support your AI journey with the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit. Use this comprehensive resource to assess AI readiness, build strategies, and implement AI in education. Whether your institution is just starting out or striving to expand, you’ll find tools and resources you need to confidently advance your AI adoption.

Join the AI Navigators in shaping the future of education. Get started with these additional resources designed to help you navigate your AI journey with confidence and purpose:

• AI for educators learning path: Practical guidance on integrating AI into teaching and learning to enhance student outcomes from Microsoft Learn.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness Evaluation Toolkit for Education: A collection of research instruments and resources to help leaders collect insights around Copilot deployment, impact, and use cases.

The post AI Navigators: Exploring the power of possible appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

As AI technologies advance, a new world of possibilities emerges in K-12 and higher education. Educators and administrators around the world who attended Bett UK in London this year learned firsthand about these advancements, particularly the transformative power of agents. Designed to work alongside you, agents will have a particular expertise in areas such as instructional design or individual student preferences. And they can leverage institutional data to offer relevant insights for educators and administrators in real-time.

At Microsoft, we’re excited to help faculty, staff, and students achieve greater impact with AI and agents through our recently announced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat—the chat experience you can use every day—powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and designed to be safe and secure.

Understanding the impact of AI in education to empower educators and students

Understanding how the use of generative AI impacts learning outcomes is key to creating effective guidelines for and usage of AI in education. Our latest insights emphasize the need to position AI as a complement, not a substitute for established practices that are essential for learning. By integrating AI thoughtfully with traditional methods, we may achieve enhanced learning outcomes that neither approach can deliver alone.

A study conducted by the World Bank with students using AI at Edo Boys High School in Nigeria saw remarkable learning gains in their after-school program with preliminary findings improving learning by “about 0.3 standard deviations, equivalent to nearly two years of typical learning in just six weeks,” illustrating the potential for AI. We look forward to sharing the full report and continuing to understand the long-term effects, role of educators, benefits extended to other disciplines, and more.

Microsoft Research and Cambridge University Press & Assessment conducted one of the first large-scale investigations into the impact of large language models (LLMs) on the foundations of learning: understanding and retaining information. The preliminary research findings reveal the continued importance of traditional learning approaches. They also demonstrate the benefits of combining AI with traditional learning resources over AI alone and point to the AI skills that students need to maximize those benefits.

Through a “snapshot in time” study of AI in higher education, Microsoft Research sought to understand how practices and norms are developing around practical and policy realities. Both students and educators prefer AI to be further integrated as a complement to other learning methods, but to do so they need training. The study suggests involving students and educators in guidance and development, empowering students to use AI to support learning, providing training with exposures to errors in AI output, and encouraging collaboration between students and educators.

Defending at the speed of AI

As educational institutions harness the power of AI, it’s essential campus environments remain secure, reliable, and compliant. Designing a strategy that balances innovation and security with policies and practices to support AI is critical. Microsoft principles of Responsible AI—fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability—help institutions prepare for AI implementation. A robust framework of tools from Microsoft can guide you through successful implementation. World class security tools like Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Defender, and Microsoft Intune, can play an important role in protecting sensitive data and securing AI applications.

Planning your implementation with the AI Toolkit

Start your AI journey with the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit, a comprehensive guide for educational organizations to plan AI implementations. The toolkit introduces a variety of technologies—Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and more—and showcases successful implementations through AI Navigators—institutions leading the way with research, experimentation, testing, and deployment of generative AI solutions. It’s easy to implement these tools with step-by-step instructions to offer educators, technology coordinators, and policy makers practical guidance to support deployment, usage, and best practices.

Teaming up with Pearson on AI workforce skilling

The demand for training in AI-based skills has never been higher according to a global IDC study. To help meet this demand, Microsoft is teaming up with Pearson to bring world-class learning and assessment expertise with cutting-edge AI and cloud technologies. Microsoft Cloud and Office certifications are now more accessible to help organizations realize the full value of AI through reskilling.

Learn more about the advancements in AI

Don’t miss out on the latest announcements to learn about new AI-powered products and features designed to support your educational organization. We’re thrilled to announce these new AI solutions:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – a new offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 education customers.
• Copilot+ PCs – the fastest, most intelligent and secure Windows PCs ever, featuring enhanced security, optimized performance, and AI-integrated experiences. Now with code name Project Spark—our first education-focused Windows 11 app for Copilot+ PC—to bring on-device intelligence to your classroom.
• Microsoft Education AI Toolkit – designed for education leaders, access these updated tools and support you need for your institution’s AI implementation.
• Khanmigo for Teachers – offers over 20 free, AI-powered tools to help streamline class prep with no prompting required. Learn how to get started.
• Khanmigo Writing Coach – designed by educators, using AI to make essay writing dynamic, interactive experience and provide students with step-by-step guidance from outline to final draft without ever writing a word for them. 
• Learning Accelerators – new tools like Reading Coach and Math Progress bring personalized learning to students and are available in over 80 languages.
• Minecraft Education – the newly expanded AI skills program, AI Foundations, offers a new student credentialing pathway in AI offered through Prodigy Learning. Educators can also use the free AI-powered Lesson Crafter tool to build new Minecraft lessons and practice prompting.²

Follow me on LinkedIn to stay up to date with new ways to use Copilot Chat in education through my “Prompt of the Week”.

¹ IDC InfoBrief: Sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024

² Requires sign in with a faculty account from your school.

The post Advancing education with AI to prepare the workforce of tomorrow appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Dive into Minecraft Education to explore Lessons in Good Trouble, discover the Coretta Scott King Rose Gallery virtual museum experience, and create custom Black History Month learning activities with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Join us in celebrating Black history and its profound impact on society.

Create good trouble with Minecraft Education

With Lessons in Good Trouble from Minecraft Education, your students can step into history and join global civil rights activists as they march, ride, sit, and stand for equality and positive change. With an updated Minecraft world and lesson plan designed for students ages 8-14, Lessons in Good Trouble lets students discover their own power to create change.

Centered on the life of former US Congressional Representative and civil rights leader John Lewis, students explore pivotal moments in the fight for equality throughout history and meet changemakers like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malala Yousafzai, Mahatma Gandhi, and more. Through immersive challenges, students experience the struggles of different time periods while learning how activism can inspire meaningful change.

Just like other Minecraft experiences, students dive into history by completing building-based challenges and reflective writing activities such as:

• Reflecting on segregation during the Civil Rights Movement
• Constructing a stage for a suffragette rally
• Helping to rebuild a school in Pakistan
• Creating a monument to an anti-Apartheid leader

By the end of their journey, your students will have insight into how activists create change by challenging systems of inequality and make meaningful choices that positively impact others. Explore the accompanying Good Trouble lesson plan for additional activities that reinforce what students experience in Minecraft.

New to Minecraft? Any educator can learn to integrate Minecraft into their teaching practice with Minecraft Teacher Academy. Discover free, on-demand content, a lively online community of educators, and training cohorts. Learn how to use Minecraft Education’s features and explore curriculum alongside your peers. Continue your adventure by joining the Minecraft Teachers’ Lounge, a moderated Facebook community with more than 10,000 members. Get inspired by the amazing ways educators are using Minecraft across their curriculum!

Explore Coretta Scott King’s enduring legacy

Mrs. Coretta Scott King was a powerful advocate for non-violent resistance and racial equality. As the founder of The King Center, she established a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing Dr. King’s teachings through education and community programs.

Introduce your students to Coretta Scott King‘s inspiring legacy. Together with The King Center, we’ve created an immersive gallery experience that chronicles her enduring legacy. Discover the story of a woman who devoted her life to advocating for social justice and peace with unwavering faith, courage, and dignity.

Join us to experience an immersive gallery that captures and celebrates her lasting impact.

Create resources and activities for Black History Month with Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat can help you create custom materials, resources, or activities tailored to your students’ needs and interests. Focus on any historical figure, event, or theme, and Copilot Chat will assist you in creating flexible and creative ways to enrich your classroom.

Try these ready-to-use prompts in Copilot Chat to create engaging activities:

• Describe what happened during the student sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter on February 1, 1960, from the perspective of the Greensboro Four. Include information about why they chose to sit-in, what happened, and why this was an important event during the Civil Rights Movement. Then, create a podcast assignment for [grade level] students that requires them to conduct additional research and develop an engaging broadcast about the event.
• Generate a list of black civil rights activists who made contributions to fair labor and working conditions. Organize the list by decades and include the name of the activists along with a paragraph that describes their lasting impact on labor and work practices. Then, suggest an engaging activity for my [grade level] students to explore this information, incorporating interactive or creative elements.
• Create an activity that helps [grade level] students form connections between Coretta Scott King’s accomplishments and today’s social justice issues. The activity should reference The Coretta Scott King Rose Gallery (https://unlocked.microsoft.com/dear-coretta-king-center/) and include opportunities for students to reflect and engage in hands-on learning.

These prompts are just a starting point. You can refine them to focus on other perspectives, historical eras, or themes. For example, ask Copilot Chat to describe events from a different viewpoint, focus on the period from 1850-1950, or create an activity that fits within your class period.

To further enrich your students’ understanding of Dr. King’s historical contributions, check out our Martin Luther King Jr. Day blog post for additional ideas and Copilot Chat prompts.

If you’re new to Copilot Chat, make sure to explore our blog “Meet your AI assistant for education” to learn how it can help you personalize learning, brainstorm, provide feedback, and more. You can also explore using Copilot Chat in education with our training course for educators.

We hope these resources inspire your students to explore the lives and contributions of historic social justice leaders, fostering a future rooted in inclusion and empathy. Celebrate Black History Month with us and empower the next generation of mindful, informed global citizens.

The post Empower students with engaging activities for Black History Month appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.