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.

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!

The post Amplify learning with updates from Microsoft Education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

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.

Safer Internet Day 2025 offers us an opportunity to “work together for a better internet” today and throughout the year. Join us to help students improve their digital literacy skills and explore the responsible use of AI with CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper and other exciting resources.

Dig deeper into the world of AI with Minecraft

Minecraft Education’s CyberSafe series uses game-based learning to help students boost their digital citizenship skills like recognizing common online threats, building strategies to protect themselves, and exploring ways to safeguard their personal information. 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. Immerse your students in this fun Minecraft world and empower them to think critically and use AI responsibly. This collection includes an educator guide and classroom-ready PowerPoint and family toolkit for at-home learning.

Keep the adventure going with more lessons in Minecraft’s CyberSafe series:

• Home Sweet Hmm: Students learn to recognize common threats on the internet, build strategies for protecting themselves and their information, and to know where to go if they need help.
• Privacy Prodigy: Students explore what personal data is, who should have access to their data, when it’s acceptable to share their data, and how to manage their personal data.
• Good Game: Students build digital literacy and digital citizenship skills while learning the responsibilities, tools, responses, and strategies needed to foster digital well-being and build positive connections.

Teach cyber safety with Minecraft

Created through partnerships with industry experts, Minecraft Education has lessons focused on cybersecurity, online safety, and digital citizenship aligned to Cyber.org and CSTA standards. The full cyber curriculum progression helps students of all ages build foundational skills and offers pathways and credentialing for careers in cyber.

Built into age-appropriate bands, the activities build incrementally and give you easy entry points through lesson plans and video tutorials. Explore the curriculum collections that you can start using anytime:

• CyberSafe: Teach students ages 7-11 cyber and digital safety skills with topics like online safety, spotting phishing scams, password protection, and cloud storage for photos. Introduce digital citizenship, data privacy, and data centers, aiming to protect personal data and raise career awareness in the digital world.
• Cyber Fundamentals: Empower students ages 10-14 through hands-on experiences in building network components and encrypting data. Students will investigate malware and save the school’s network as part of the Incident Response Team.
• Cyber Expert: Build digital fluency and cyber skills in students ages 13-18. They’ll explore encryption, social engineering, the effects of malware, and techniques to combat it. They’ll learn to prevent digital threats, fix affected systems, and explore cybersecurity careers.

Cyber safety resources for educators

Preparing your students to navigate the digital world starts with developing your own skills and confidence around tools and knowledge to teach cyber safety effectively. Microsoft Education offers resources designed to support educators, school leaders, and families, to build students’ cyber skills.

Begin discussing internet safety with students with help from these resources from Microsoft Education:

• K-12 Cybersecurity Conversation Guide: Get practical tips and conversation starters for talking about safe online practices and cyber hygiene with your students.
• K-12 Cybersecurity Infographic: Use visual examples of phishing links and scam ads to teach students how to identify online threats.

Explore Microsoft Learn modules designed to enhance your instructional strategies and cybersecurity proficiency:

• Build cybersecurity resilience in K-12 classrooms: Gain skills to anticipate common cyber threats, implement security measures, and educate others to build a strong cybersecurity culture that helps protect yourself and your students.
• Boost K-12 school cybersecurity leadership: Learn to apply Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommended cybersecurity practices to foster awareness and preparedness, safeguard schools, and counter cyber threats effectively.

Expand your teaching toolkit with a deeper dive into Minecraft Education:

• Join the Minecraft Teacher Academy to access free on-demand resources and training.
• Connect with over 10,000 educators and experts in the Minecraft Teachers’ Lounge for tips and ideas.

Tackling abusive AI-generated content risks through education and empowerment

For almost a decade, Microsoft has marked Safer Internet Day by releasing research on how individuals of all ages perceive and experience risk online. Last year, we highlighted the growing importance of AI. This year, in our ninth Global Online Safety Survey, we’ve dug deeper to understand how people view and are using this technology, as well as how well they can identify AI-generated content.

Our findings show that while there’s been a global increase in active AI users (up to 51% compared to 38% in 2023), worries about the technology have also increased: 88% of people were worried about generative AI, compared to 83% last year. Further, our data confirms that people have difficulty in identifying AI-generated content, which may amplify abusive AI content risks.

We’re committed to advancing AI responsibly to realize its benefits. Fundamental to this is the work we do to protect our users from potential harms. Last year, we launched a Family Safety Toolkit, which provides guidance on how to leverage Microsoft’s safety features and family safety settings to support and enhance digital parenting, plus guidance for families looking to navigate the world of generative AI together.

We’re announcing a new partnership with Childnet, a leading UK organization dedicated to making the internet a safer place for children. Together, we’re developing educational materials aimed at preventing the misuse of AI, such as the creation of deepfakes. These resources will be available to schools and families, providing valuable information on how to protect children from online risks.

Join us and celebrate Safer Internet Day on February 11, 2025. Online safety activities and resources from Microsoft and Minecraft Education can support and empower your school community. Get started today and help everyone navigate the digital world safely and confidently.

The post Leading the way to a safer internet together appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Math Progress helps educators tailor instruction to support individual student needs by identifying opportunities for improvement. Educators can adjust teaching strategies and differentiate instruction—supporting student success and helping boost confidence in math learning. Get started in Math Progress, now generally available through Microsoft Teams for Education.

Simplify assignment creation and enhance learning

Math Progress helps students build their foundational math skills with educator-led assignments, activities, and insights. An easy-to-use problem generator helps you to create sets of math problems based on a specified topic or create your own math problems. And, Math Progress is available in over 80 languages, making it an inclusive tool for math fluency development. To start using Math Progress, educators can sign in with school-issued credentials (Microsoft Entra ID) and access it in Microsoft Teams for Education.

Save educators’ time

Math Progress automates the generation of practice assignments based on educator input. With an intelligent question generator, it’s easy to create a robust set of relevant math problems, including distractors based on common mistakes to help students think more critically as they build their knowledge. And, assignments can be customized by choosing options such as “Show your work,” which requests students to upload images of their work or share links to OneNote pages to demonstrate their work.

Address mistakes and misconceptions

Math Progress makes it easy to keep students on track by addressing mistakes or common misconceptions to accelerate learning. With real-time feedback, grading work, and generated questions, Math Progress helps to free up your time to focus on individualized instruction. By identifying which concepts students need more practice with, Math Progress helps you quickly pinpoint areas of opportunity for individual students and your entire class.

Track progress and performance

Math Progress offers powerful performance insights that identify course trends at both the student and class level. These insights include the overall grade, number of points, most frequent question difficulty rating, and mistakes and misconceptions identified in this and other assignments to help better understand learning trends. You can easily track challenging concepts for individual students, helping to quickly identify areas of progression. And since it’s available in over 80 languages, Math Progress is easily accessible to a diverse population of learners.

Use Math Progress to assess your students’ abilities to accurately and efficiently perform mathematical procedures—such as arithmetic calculations, solving equations, and applying algorithms. When learners demonstrate misconceptions or gaps in understanding, Math Progress identifies these areas and offers targeted solution steps. Educators can then use these steps to guide students toward better comprehension. It also helps students track their learning, evaluate their own performance, and set realistic goals.

Get started with Math Progress

Engage your students in deliberate practice with real-time coaching on math concepts. Use Math Progress to free up your time with tools that streamline assignment creation, review, and analysis. Collect insights and visualize data to track progress and help improve your students’ learning outcomes.

It’s easy to get started with Math Progress:

1. Log into your Microsoft Teams for Education account and click “Assignments.”   
2. Next, click the “Create” button. 
3. Then click, “Learning Accelerators > Math Progress.” 
4. Create a math assignment with the help of a problem generator. 
5. Extend an assignment to your students, then review with automatic grading.  
6. Students will review their assignments to understand their math knowledge and areas for improvement.  
7. Educators will gain insights into each class or students’ performance to consider the future course path to support learning and build retention.

Help build math proficiency for students with Math Progress—while streamlining and simplifying lesson planning for yourself. Integrate it into your classroom to help your students improve math fluency, build confidence, and celebrate their progress.

Support foundational and future-ready skills acquisition with Math Progress and all the Learning Accelerators. Browse training modules, learning paths, and interactive demos to learn more about how Learning Accelerators can help you and your students.

The post Transform math assignments and boost learning with Math Progress 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.

Explore engaging CS curriculum and tools for your classroom

Discover tools and resources to bring CS to life in your classroom. Explore interactive activities, coding platforms, and digital lessons that encourage students to think critically and creatively.

Minecraft Hour of Code 2024

Introduce your students to coding or have them hone their skills with Minecraft’s latest Hour of Code: The Show Must Go On! In this fun and bustling lesson, students step into the theater to save the day while solving coding puzzles, unlocking hidden gags, and customizing the show. For the grand finale, they’ll personalize the stage performance with their creative ideas and see their coding abilities come to life! Hour of Code is a great on-ramp to teaching CS, easy and fun to implement, and available free for educators and families.

This is the tenth year of Minecraft’s partnership with Code.org, which has led to more than 300 million Minecraft Hour of Code sessions since 2015. Join the movement and help bring CS to even more learners this year! New to Minecraft Hour of Code? Learn how to facilitate a Minecraft Hour of Code experience with a quick Microsoft Learn training module, geared toward K-12 educators and school leaders.

Minecraft Computer Science Progression

Explore the Minecraft Computer Science Progression for standards-aligned lessons that build CS skills at every level. From introductory block coding to advanced Python, these resources help you create a comprehensive learning path for your students. Integrate Minecraft Education into your curriculum to spark interest in CS.

Microsoft MakeCode

MakeCode has partnered with three incredible organizations to bring you fun, self-paced Hour of Code activities for elementary and middle school students:

• Bubble Popping with Joy: Students create a bubble-popping game featuring Joy, Envy, and other emotion characters from the popular Disney and Pixar movie, Inside Out 2.
• Mission to Hubble: Developed by Code Ninjas, this space-themed tutorial challenges students to pilot the Space Shuttle Discovery to the Hubble Telescope with guidance from astronaut Scott Kelly.
• Snack Chase: Perfect for younger coders, this tutorial based on the PBS KIDS’ show Lyla in the Loop allows students to code a multiplayer game with characters from the show. Discover coding with Lyla and friends in this engaging activity for beginners.

Visual Studio (VS) Code for Education

VS Code for Education is a free, web-based platform that offers an integrated curriculum and a sandbox coding environment. Introduce students to web development with the Memory Matrix lesson where they create a memory card matching game using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This lesson combines game design with foundational coding skills to inspire your students with hands-on coding experience.

GitHub Education

GitHub Education equips students and educators worldwide with free tools to learn, build, and collaborate. Verified educators and students aged 13 and above can access GitHub Copilot for free, enabling real-time code suggestions and explanations directly in their editor. With GitHub Codespaces, students can code from any device without requiring powerful hardware, and the GitHub Student Developer Pack provides free access to dozens of professional-grade tools to build real-world projects. Educators can integrate coding into their classrooms with resources from GitHub Education for schools, while the Campus Experts program supports student leaders in creating and growing tech communities.

Race into STEM, powered by Microsoft

Race into STEM helps break down barriers for women in motorsports, promoting inclusion, and opening doors to STEM careers within the industry. Students will investigate STEM concepts that women at BWT Alpine F1 Team use every day to create the fastest car possible for race weekend. Help students work their way around the track as they develop and practice their skills with activities and hands on learning—all while discovering more about the compelling world of motorsport.

Explore professional learning for CSEdWeek 2024

Want to build up your CS teaching confidence? Grow your skills with Microsoft’s professional learning resources. Designed to support educators at all levels, these opportunities will help you build skills to facilitate engaging, high-quality CS experiences for your students.

Training in Minecraft Education

Any educator can learn to integrate Minecraft into your 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 coding features and explore CS and STEM curriculum alongside your peers.

Continue your adventure by joining the Minecraft Teachers’ Lounge, a moderated Facebook community with more than 10,000 members. Connect with Minecraft educators and experts from across the globe, explore lesson ideas and learn classroom management tips, and get inspired by the amazing ways teachers are using Minecraft across the curriculum.

Free AI tools training

Check out “Embark on Your AI Journey,” a training module that introduces K-12 educators and school leaders to free AI tools that enhance teaching and learning. Learn to leverage Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Teams, Minecraft Education’s AI Foundations, and GitHub Copilot to develop students’ coding skills and support future-ready competencies.

Microsoft Learn for Educators AI Bootcamps

Designed for educators at higher education institutions and technical colleges, the Microsoft Learn for Educators (MSLE) AI Bootcamps provide institutions knowledge and skills to include AI-related training in their courses and programs of study. Covering everything from best practices for teaching AI courses to exam preparation resources, this instructor-led bootcamp helps educators empower students with the tech skills needed to succeed in an AI-powered job market.

Search Progress and Search Coach training module

Empowering learners to seek, evaluate, and use online sources responsibly is crucial. Two of our Learning Accelerators, Search Progress and Search Coach, help you track the development of your students’ information literacy skills and teach them how to search online effectively. Take this short training module on Search Progress and Search Coach to empower learners to build information literacy skills.

Discover resources from our partners

Microsoft is a proud partner of Code.org, Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), TeachAI, and numerous CS curriculum providers. Check out the following events and free activities carefully curated to help you plan and host an inspiring and engaging CSEdWeek for your class:

• Code.org: Join millions worldwide for the global Hour of Code movement. Register your Hour of Code event and discover how-to guides and free resources.
• TeachAI and CSTA: Explore critical questions and insights related to AI’s role in CS education with “Guidance on the Future of Computer Science Education in an Age of AI.”
• CodeHS: Celebrate CSEdWeek with on-demand Hour of Code Workshop Recordings, K-12 Hour of Code lessons, and free webinars to learn how to run an Hour of Code with your students.
• Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) CS Academy: Designed for late elementary and middle school students, this Hour of Code module introduces learners to text-based programming in Python.

Inspire your students to discover the power of CS and its impact on their futures during CSEdWeek 2024. Along with Hour of Code, this week is the ideal time to introduce engaging CS learning into your classroom while enhancing your own professional skills using Microsoft’s curriculum and resources. Join the movement and equip your students for success in CS!

The post Celebrate CSEdWeek 2024 and Hour of Code with curriculum from Microsoft appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Findings from the 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report from Microsoft and LinkedIn show that the cybersecurity industry has an urgent talent shortage that’s expected to grow. MSLE aims to help educators build an effective and continuously updated curriculum to teach students these cybersecurity skills and prepare them for the workplace of the future.

Whether you need guidance on integrating security teaching into your curriculum or you’re an experienced security educator looking to discover additional resources and labs, MSLE has you covered.

Work with Microsoft Training Services Partners to be cybersecurity ready

In August 2024, we launched the MSLE Cybersecurity and AI Bootcamp, building on the popular MSLE Foundational AI Bootcamp. The MSLE Cybersecurity and AI Bootcamp is designed to prepare educators and faculty across multiple disciplines to use MSLE curricula and classroom resources to teach students critical security concepts, threat mitigation, and related AI skills. The bootcamp takes the form of flexible, train-the-trainer sessions, either in person or virtually, depending on your school’s or institution’s preferences.

“We know that it’s really hard for educational institutions to not only keep their curriculum up to date on technical topics,” explains Liz Butowicz, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder of Microsoft Training Services Partner (TSP) Black Dog Black Cat, “but also to skill their faculty and educators on delivering those new skills to their students. Microsoft developed the Microsoft Learn for Educators AI Bootcamps program to tackle these problems.”

Bootcamps are led by trainers from the global network of Microsoft TSPs equipped with official MSLE resources. They’re designed to train higher education and other post-secondary educators on how to use these resources within their existing course syllabi, create new courses or programs, and deliver Microsoft Certification exam preparation courses to their students. “Educators are often just presented with resources,” continues Butowicz, “and they need to figure out what to use. In the bootcamps, we can walk them through that and help speed up adoption of the material.”

The bootcamp structure and content can be customized to meet your institution’s specific needs, and it is typically divided into three sessions.

The three-part Microsoft Learn for Educators Cybersecurity and AI Bootcamp was fantastic, helping our faculty understand the AI-related teaching resources within MSLE they can now use in their courses. It can be difficult to find technical instructors, and the bootcamp helped build instructional capacity and can help educators transition into advanced teaching roles.

Jonathan W. Townes, Vice President of Career and Technical Education, Sponsored Grants, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Initiatives, Hinds Community College

Boost your cybersecurity curriculum with MSLE training resources

Even if you don’t feel the need for an instructor-led bootcamp experience, you can still use MSLE resources to help you learn new skills and build curricula around cybersecurity and AI-related concepts. With MSLE offerings, you can access tools and resources to enable innovative, experiential learning to augment students’ existing degree paths.

MSLE uses Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC), along with up-to-date training materials that feature an emphasis on real-world scenarios. The program includes instructional tools, test preparation content, interactive labs, and resources supporting Microsoft Certifications—all designed to integrate into your classes.

Microsoft’s teaching resources and materials, with self-paced study and certification options, [made] it ideal for teachers and students in any subject: science, math, and even humanities. The content can be used in any course or classroom and [can] help students prepare for future transitions into higher education or the workforce.

Jonathan W. Townes, Vice President of Career and Technical Education, Sponsored Grants, and HBCU Initiatives, Hinds Community College

MSLE also offers professional development, training resources, and support for educators and faculty at your institution through TSPs. This is coupled with community features, such as forums, networking sessions, office hours with community managers, and more. The program also offers discounted exam vouchers to help you get certified to teach cutting-edge technology subjects.

Take the next steps with MSLE

MSLE is here to help you get the training and skills you need to prepare your students for the opportunities of the era of AI and cybersecurity. To learn more about bootcamps or to find a TSP and discuss joining a bootcamp, check out the MSLE AI Bootcamp for Educators.

To access training materials, education resources, and more, join the Microsoft Learn for Educators program for free.

The post Level up your cybersecurity curriculum with MSLE appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

This year, inspire your students to build a strong foundation for AI literacy with Minecraft Education and Microsoft resources, opening doors to exciting, AI-powered careers.

Build AI literacy and fuel STEM fascination with Minecraft Education

Minecraft Education’s AI Foundations offers an exciting opportunity to integrate AI literacy into your STEM lessons in a fun, interactive way. This comprehensive resource is designed for learners ages 8 and above and turns abstract AI concepts into immersive learning experiences through a platform they already love.

Featuring bite-sized animated videos, free teaching materials, a parent guide, and imaginative new Minecraft worlds where players solve real world problems and explore AI-related careers, AI Foundations builds AI literacy and fosters a love for problem-solving and creativity. Explore these three exciting offerings from AI Foundations.

Discover the power of AI through Fantastic Fairgrounds

Kick off your AI literacy lessons with the Fantastic Fairgrounds world, which introduces students to AI through engaging gameplay. They’ll assist Park Director Leslie in solving real-world problems in the park’s pavilions. Through interactive, hands-on challenges, students explore foundational AI concepts, practice data analysis, and tackle dilemmas. By the end of this experience, students will have a better understanding of AI fundamentals and gain insights into potential AI career paths.

Harness AI to address global challenges in AI for Earth

Help your students dive deeper into AI’s real-world potential through the AI for Earth collection. With five engaging lessons, students are introduced to how AI can help solve environmental challenges such as water quality monitoring, ocean observations, and sustainable farming. Each lesson highlights the tangible ways AI can be a force for good in addressing global issues.

Through these lessons, students will develop their problem-solving skills and gain deeper insights into how AI can make a difference in areas like environmental sustainability. Whether your students aspire to be engineers, data scientists, or policymakers, this collection demonstrates AI’s broader impact.

Journey into the world of AI with AI Adventures videos

Explore AI with your students in the exciting AI Adventures video series. These three bite-sized videos make AI approachable for everyone. Your students will join two curious companions as they discover the wonders of AI, its problem-solving capabilities, and the importance of responsible AI usage. The series, produced in partnership with Microsoft’s Democracy Forward initiative, begins with AI 101: Building the Basics, where an unlikely pair of friends learn how AI systems work.

The series also contains AI in Action: Using AI Tools Responsibly and AI for Good: Solving Problems with AI. Both videos underscore the importance of trustworthy AI use. These videos are not only informative but also fun, making them a great way to break down complex ideas.

By integrating AI literacy through Minecraft Education, educators empower students with essential STEM skills that combine problem-solving, creativity, and data-driven thinking with real-world AI applications. As AI becomes central to STEM fields like environmental science, healthcare, and technology, building these foundational skills prepares students for dynamic careers that drive innovation. Whether they aim to be engineers, data scientists, or researchers, these resources make AI a tangible and transformative part of STEM learning, ensuring students are ready to lead in a world where AI plays an essential role in shaping the future.

If you’re looking for even more ways to integrate AI into learning experiences, check out:

• Minecraft Prompt Lab: Learn how to use Microsoft Copilot with sample prompts to create dynamic game-based learning experiences.
• Hour of Code: Generation AI: Explore engaging coding tutorials that introduce students to AI concepts and considerations.

Teach foundational generative AI concepts with our classroom toolkit

The AI Classroom Toolkit is a creative resource that blends engaging narrative stories with instructional information to create an immersive learning experience for educators and students aged 13-15 years. Available in multiple languages, the AI Classroom Toolkit is accessible to a wide range of students, making it a versatile resource for fostering digital and AI literacy in diverse educational settings.

The toolkit is designed to assist you in initiating important conversations about responsible AI practices in the classroom. Students will gain valuable insights and develop practical skills to enhance their digital safety including:

• Fact-checking
• Cultivating good digital hygiene habits
• Safeguarding their data privacy
• Adopting strategies to manage their mental wellbeing effectively

This adaptable resource allows you to cover everything in a single lesson or break the information into four parts to offer more time for discussion and reflection. It also features guided “Try It Yourself” activities that let students explore various AI tools and applications. These hands-on experiences enrich the lessons, but aren’t essential for achieving the core learning objectives, offering flexibility for classrooms regardless of their adoption of generative AI tools.

Use this quick video guide to help you plan how to use the toolkit with your students. It offers practical tips on structuring your teaching sessions, ensuring students grasp the essentials of generative AI at a comfortable pace. If you’re comfortable with generative AI concepts and ready to start using the toolkit, this may be the easiest place to begin.

Empower your classroom with AI literacy skills

If you’re interested in learning more about AI on your own, check out our AI for educators learning pathway. It offers modules that break down essential AI concepts and showcase real-world applications that can enrich your classroom. From automating routine tasks to supporting personalized learning, you’ll discover practical and interesting ways to integrate AI into teaching and learning with tools like Microsoft Copilot.

As technology continues to advance, the need for qualified professionals in AI-fueled STEM fields will only increase. National STEM Day is an opportunity to ignite your students’ passion for STEM and equip them with the vital AI literacy they need to thrive in the future. Use these resources and tools from Minecraft Education and Microsoft to help you innovate on November 8 and empower students to become active participants in shaping the AI-powered world of tomorrow.

The post Full STEM ahead: Inspire students with AI-powered innovation on National STEM Day 2024 appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Through Minecraft’s Hour of Code activities, students of all ages can dive into computer science in fun, interactive ways that spark creativity, develop problem-solving and critical thinking, and build a foundational knowledge of basic coding.

Microsoft is empowering classrooms worldwide to connect through the power of computer science. Together, with Code.org, we’ve brought programs like Minecraft Hour of Code to students around the world, making coding fun, accessible, and engaging. The impact has been huge with Minecraft Hour of Code reaching nearly 300 million sessions since 2016.

Code the show, save the day with Minecraft

Step into a vibrant theater world to help save the day in Minecraft’s Hour of Code 2024: The Show Must Go On! In this new Hour of Code adventure, students will explore the theater to find the missing star, the Agent, while solving fun coding puzzles and interacting with lively characters. They will unlock hidden gags, customize the show, and plan an unforgettable performance.

Students can help the Agent overcome stage fright as they navigate backstage areas like the Dance Studio and Prop Department. For the grand finale, they will customize the stage show with their creative input and watch their coding skills come to life!

In this year’s exciting Hour of Code experience, students will: 

• Explore the theater to find the missing Agent and help them find their coding confidence. 
• Solve engaging coding puzzles throughout the venue.
• Team up with the Agent to create the Minecraft Hour of Code Extravaganza.
• Share their unique vision and grand finale with their friends.

While navigating the theater and discovering various departments, students will use the power of code to: 

• Compose toe-tapping tunes in the Recording Studio. 
• Choreograph dazzling dance routines in the Dance Studio.   
• Craft eye-catching props in the Prop Department. 
• Create show-stopping costumes in the Wardrobe. 

Explore Minecraft’s Hour of Code 2024: The Show Must Go On! today, and plan to join millions of students worldwide to celebrate the power of code during Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) December 9-15, 2024.

Join the global Hour of Code movement

In addition to this year’s new adventure, explore our growing collection of Minecraft Hour of Code activities that are available throughout the year. Each self-guided activity is approximately one hour long and can serve as a fun and creative introduction to coding and computer science.

• Generation AI: Venture through time to create AI-powered inventions. Students learn about the principles of Responsible AI through problem solving, creativity, and computational thinking.
• Escape Estate: Use coding and computational thinking to solve puzzles and escape from Dr. Breakowski’s mysterious mansion.
• Minecraft Timecraft: Travel back in time to save the future. Students choose their adventure and learn basic coding concepts to correct mysterious mishaps throughout history.
• Minecraft Tale of Two Villages: Leverage the power of code to bring the two villages together. Students develop cooperation and empathy while learning computer science skills.

Throughout the entire collection, students can develop core coding skills like:

• Problem solving: Develop logical thinking to create unique solutions.
• Debugging: Identify and resolve errors in code.
• Computational thinking: Create strategies and structures to solve challenges.

These fun coding activities bring a unique opportunity for you and your students to learn and play together while practicing interdisciplinary skills like collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

Minecraft Education resources to support teaching and learning

If you’re new to Minecraft Education or need a refresher, our training materials will help you navigate the platform with ease, understand its features, and guide your students through engaging activities. These resources can help you design meaningful tasks, set clear objectives, and effectively assess learning. Tailored for all experience levels, you can use these tools to incorporate Minecraft Education into your teaching practice and confidently lead your students through an Hour of Code.

Explore these popular resources to get started:

• Minecraft Education Teacher Academy: This four-part series, led by Microsoft Certified Educator Michael Barrett, will teach you pedagogical strategies for planning, assessing, and structuring Minecraft Education activities.
• Minecraft Trainer Academy: This module guides you through best practices for preparing and facilitating Minecraft Education training for your organization.
• Facilitate a Minecraft Hour of Code experience: This module equips you to successfully lead an Hour of Code session using Minecraft Education.
• Minecraft block coding academy: This learning path teaches you how to use Minecraft Education to teach programming skills and concepts to learners at all levels.

Deepen learning and student engagement with Minecraft Education

With Minecraft Education, Kent School District students are building critical skills for the future, such as AI literacy and coding. Recognizing Minecraft Education’s value, the district invested in scaled professional development to enable educators to effectively use this platform for teaching and learning. This initiative drove the integration of Minecraft Education across the curriculum in subjects ranging from chemistry and geography to library use as well as computer classes and English Language Arts (ELA). Since incorporating Minecraft Education as part of their Microsoft licensing agreement, Kent School District has seen a significant increase in student engagement.

“Every single time I use Minecraft, it makes my job easier,” says Mike Cline, an educator with Kent School District. “I see my students doing what they love and being creative. They have a spark in their eyes when they have the opportunity to show themselves—who they really are—or learn something new in Minecraft. Minecraft is another useful tool for my students, one that can make learning more fun: allowing them to do amazing things that help make the world a better place.”

Hour of Code is a perfect opportunity to ignite your students’ passion for coding—whether during CSEdWeek or anytime throughout the year. With Minecraft’s Hour of Code 2024: The Show Must Go On!, your students can experience the excitement of coding while developing essential future-ready skills. Join millions of students worldwide in celebrating the global Hour of Code movement and watch your students bring their ideas to life—one line of code at a time!

The post Code, create, and take the spotlight: Minecraft’s Hour of Code 2024 appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.