Microsoft and Education in Ireland (N+S)

The Winners of this year’s Northern Ireland Innovative Teachers Competition are:

Christ the Redeemer Primary for “Driving Learning Forward”

Matt McGinley, Kevin O’Neill, Neil Watson, Ciaran O’Hare

And

Millennium Integrated Primary for “Home School Link”

Barry Corrigan

The winning Teachers (1 from each school) have won free travel to and accommodation in Berlin, Germany from March 22^nd until March 26^th. They will compete against Teachers from across Western Europe to win a place at this year’s Worldwide Innovative Education Forum in Capetown South Africa!!

The Runners-up in this year’s competition are:

· St. Columb’s College- Eoghan Barr

· Donaghey Primary School- Marcella Wilson

· Grosvenor Grammar School- Sammy Taggart

· Coaliste Feirste- Dara Woods

· Ballyclare HS- Gareth Shaw

· St. Mary’s Grammar School- Wayne McPhilomeny

They have each won a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate

Congratulations to all of this year’s entries and good luck to the winners in Berlin!!

There is a huge amount of discussion, debate and misunderstanding of “what is a learning platform and how can it help students, parents and teachers”. I follow the RSS feed of Mike Herrity (SharePoint in Education) who is a champion of using Microsoft SharePoint 2007 in his school (Twynham School) which in Christchurch, Dorset. Mike and his team are at the forefront in using SharePoint as their Learning Gateway. He posted this simple video a few weeks ago and I thought it was worth sharing with those people who might be confused about what  learning Gateway is and what it does. Thanks to Chris Thompson for creating this. I hope this helps you understand how Learning Gateways can add to and enhance the learning experience for students, teachers and parents.

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is also now available

It’s amazing how fast time moves on when I see I haven’t posted anything since January 18th. It’s not that there isn’t anything to write about, but just the opposite. There’s so much going on, it’s sometimes hard to find the time. Some of the big things I’ve been involved with lately are very exciting.

The submission deadline for the Innovative Education Forum Berlin 2010 has now closed and the level of submissions is outstanding. There is a great mix of Primary and Post Primary entries and I can say from early looks that the standard is extremely high, so it will be interesting to see what wins. Judging will take place on Friday February 5th and the winners will be contacted that evening.  The judges are from Microsoft, RTU, C2k, University of Ulster and the Inspectorate.

Good luck to all of those Teachers who took the time and effort to create their VCTs

This year for the 3rd time Microsoft volunteers will be partnering with officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the An Garda Siochana from the Republic of Ireland to deliver Internet Safety presentations to Primary school across the island of Ireland. This is in conjunction with the European Safer Internet Day 2010 and their Think B4U Post Campaign . There are almost 50 Microsoft volunteers partners with officers and we’ll be visiting more than 60 schools over 2 days (Feb 8th and 9th). My colleagues in England are all participating and you can get the details from Ray Fleming’s blog of January 25th.

Along with the Internet Safety Day, the planning for the official opening of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership, Innovation and Learning (CELIL) has gotten underway. I 1st discussed this in an earlier post. The opening will take place on May 10th as part of a 2 day conference entitled “Re-imagining Education” where our special guest and keynote speaker will be Michael Fullan (his details on this previous post). This will include a series of sessions to various audiences and will be open to Educators both  North and South. There will much greater details on what is happening, what is being covered and how to register in the coming weeks.

Oh, and by the way, I took delivery of a Microsoft Surface which will be in the new Centre. I’m working on getting Education specific applications for it and it’s a real WOW piece of technology.

Microsoft also released a couple of new applications for Education that I felt were worthwhile mentioning.

Mouse Mischief is a tool that Microsoft makes available free of charge, and that allows teachers to work with Microsoft Office PowerPoint to make interactive presentations. With Mouse Mischief, teachers can add multiple choice questions to their presentations, and large groups of students can answer the questions using mice connected to the teacher’s PC.

Mouse Mischief not only gives students the ability to engage, have fun, and learn in new, interactive ways, but it also provides teachers with a more affordable alternative to purchasing expensive student response systems, commonly known as clickers, by letting students use affordable wired or wireless USB mice that their school already own.  You can find out more and download it for free HERE

Ribbon Hero

With the imminent rollout of Office 2007 across the C2k estate, the timing of this release couldn’t have been better. Ribbon Hero is a game for Word, Excel and PowerPoint that helps you understand the new “ribbon” across the top of those applications. It works for both Office 2007 and Office 2010 (currently a free download in Beta). Now you can have some fun, compete with with friends and learn at the same time. Isn’t that what education is suppose to be about

These links will be added in the software section on the right side of the home page.

I want to remind all Teachers in NI, that Friday is the cut-off date for this year’s Innovative Teachers competition. Please contact me if you think you need the weekend to finish!!!!

My 1st post of the New Year will be a reminder that the closing date for this year’s NI’s Innovative Teachers Network Award is January 22nd.

If you’ve done some innovative and creative work using ICT to deliver curriculum, make sure you get your VCT in on time. The key questions you should be addressing are any mix of the following:

• What difference has it made?
• Were the students more engaged?
• Was there a community element to it?
• Was there collaboration involved?
• Was there any student self-directed learning?
• Was there any student peer assessment?
• Did it impact grades?
• Was there a special needs element?
• What Microsoft applications were used? (mandatory)

Judging will take place on the 5th of February and winners will be notified that evening.

Winners will be invited to showcase their work and compete in the Western Europe Innovative Education Forum in Berlin

SO DON’T PROCRASTINATE-GET YOUR VCTS SUBMITTED IN TIME

DETAILS IN THE PREVIOUS BLOGS!!!!

Today we launched the NI Innovative Teachers Network (ITN) Competition for Berlin 2010. It was held at the new Centre for Excellence in leadership, Innovation and Learning (CELIL). The Centre is not yet officially opened but this was the 1st time the facility was used and it was fantastic. There will be many updates in the coming weeks and months on this new Centre, so keep posted.

It was a fully packed 2 hours and we had Teachers, Principals and Vice Principals from Primary and Post Primary schools across the Province. The event was also supported by Stranmillis University College, University of Ulster, the Regional Training Unit of NI, Classroom 2000 the Department of Education NI Inspectorate, and the Dissolving Boundaries Programme. I couldn’t have asked for better endorsement or coverage.

The Agenda was set out and it kicked off with a video I created using Windows Live Movie Maker. This was my 1st try and I hope you like it and won’t be too critical

After that, I showed some past winners from Vienna and Brazil. This was followed by a presentation from Navanna Doherty, St Mary’s College Derry, where she told of her experience of taking part and competing in the IEF 2009 Vienna Competition. I was especially stuck by when she said that, “participating in the Innovative Teachers competition in Vienna was the highlight of her Teaching career”.  That was a very rewarding thing for me to hear and I believe everyone in attendance saw how much the experience meant to her.

Navanna was then followed by Dr. Victor McNair from the University of Ulster (apologies for no pictures). Victor discussed his experiences as a Judge for ITN events. We have been very fortunate to have someone as respected and knowledgeable as Victor participating in the programme. That can be reflected in the fact that he has been invited by Microsoft to Judge at 4 events worldwide.

I then went into the details around what to do and how to do it, showcasing the NI Innovative Teachers website. The event finished up with a coverage of the Free Educational software applications from Microsoft that Teachers might consider using in their Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT). All of these can be found in the top right section of this website.

For anyone who missed the event and wants to know more, you should refer to my posts from Nov 30th and Dec 3rd. Make sure if you are considering entering the competition, you need to:

• Register on the NI Innovative Teachers Network- with a Live ID (Hotmail, Live.com, Live.co.uk ,Live.ie). If you don’t have one, go HERE
• You must then join the ITF Berlin 2010 Community. All of the documents and directions are there along with calendar dates and examples of past winners.
• Create and upload your Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) in the VCTs for Berlin Competition folder by NO LATER THAN JANUARY 22ND 2010!!!

All of today’s presentations will be on my SkyDrive Berlin 2010 folder 

I want to say a special thank you the team and staff at Stranmillis for providing a great venue and wonderful catering. Also, special thanks go to Navanna Doherty and Dr McNair for participating. Last but not least, all of those who took the time to attend today's launch. At this busy and hectic time of year, it is much appreciated

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I hope everyone has a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season.

The next updates will be in the New Year!!

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be invited to take part in the BT Northern Ireland Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. I want to thank Dr. Mark Gibson of BTNI for inviting me on behalf of Microsoft to participate.

It took place at the Stormont Building in Belfast and was held in the Long Gallery room. There were 220+ Students and 50+ Teachers from 34 schools taking part along with exhibitions from Microsoft Education (me ), Classroom 2000 (C2k) and Queens University of Belfast through the Institute of Electronics, Communications, and Information Technology ECIT.

The Minister for Education NI, Ms Caitriona Ruane, MLA attended the event and gave the keynote welcome. She met with and spoke to scores of students and teachers on the day. It’s great to see our politicians getting involved and engaged at the grass root level. I think all of those attending were impressed by her knowledge, interest and commitment to students and programmes such as this. Peter Morris from BT, Director of Consumer and Corporate Services was the host and also spoke to the attendees.

I was showcasing the various Microsoft Educational applications that are available on my blog site, along with showing the Project Natal Milo video. I’ve talked about it in a previous post but the more I see it, the more I am awed by the technology that created it. To say the Teachers and students were excited about the possibilities would be an understatement.

Dr.Rabih Bashroush from ECIT was showcasing the work he has been doing on the Microsoft Surface. Needless to say, he drew quite a crowd throughout the event. Students are generally blown away when they see the Surface for the 1st time and have to try their hand at moving and manipulating the various applications

C2k was showing their new NI Maps which will become an important tool within the Learning NI (LNI) VLE. They are working with the Web Based uLearn group in Plymouth to develop and deploy it.

In additional to all of the activities around this event the new NI STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Truck was unveiled publically for the 1st time. I will be doing a future article on it but thought you like to see a few pictures’

Me with the Minister

From the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition website:

THE WHAT...

In its 46th year the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is much more than a competition; it is an unforgettable experience of a lifetime for the students who take part. The exhibition itself is the final stage in the competition which is open to all second level students from Ireland, both North and South. As well as the 500 student projects on display, there are a further four exhibition halls filled with science and technology based exhibits and entertainment, making it a thrilling event for those who enter and for general visitors too.

THE HISTORY...

In 1963 two UCD physics researchers, Rev. Dr. Tom Burke and Dr. Tony Scott, came across the concept of 'Science Fairs'’ while conducting research in New Mexico, America. These local school science exhibitions culminated in State Fairs and ultimately a national competition. The pair decided that this type of hands-on science was something that Irish students could benefit from, by taking science outside the four walls of the classroom and showing that it is all around.

And so the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition was born. The first competition was held in 1965 in the Round Room of the Mansion House in Dublin and attracted 230 entries and the first ever winner, John Monaghan, has recently retired as Chief Executive Officer of Avigen, a US Biotech company. The success of the first year was such that the exhibition moved to the much larger venue of the RDS in year two and it has remained there ever since.

In recent years the number of entries has increased dramatically, reaching an all time high last year when 1616 projects were submitted. All entries are screened to select just over 500 projects that go through to compete in the RDS. The event attracts over 37,000 people making it one of the largest events of its kind in Europe, if not the world!

The Ireland finals will be taking place at the RDS in Dublin from January 13th – 16th.

Today we visited 2 FE Colleges (SERC and BMC) to talk about and deliver a presentation on the Imagine Cup 2010 Competition. As you may remember, I’ve done some blogs on past competitions in 2009 and 2008. The Imagine Cup encourages young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world – today. Now in its eighth year, the Imagine Cup has grown to be a truly global competition focused on finding solutions to real world issues. Take a minute to learn more about the Imagine Cup's 2010 Theme.

There are 5 Competitions

 Software Design

Does the idea of creating an application that can be used by real people around the world challenge you? Consider entering the Software Design competition and show the world what you can do. This is for the best programmers, thinkers, and solution builders to go after the really tough problems. It’s a chance to start competing locally, show off your skills and then hopefully advance to the global stage at the Worldwide Finals. You and up to three friends form a team and apply your creative genius to creating a solution inspired by the 2010 Theme. Create innovative software and service solutions that unleash the power of technology to benefit your area or … the entire planet.

Game Design
Game Design is where art and science come together. Through the Imagine Cup, you can learn and advance toward a career as a game developer or entrepreneur. Use 3D or 2D, make it multi-level or single player but don’t forget one crucial thing – you have to take on the 2010 Theme in your game.  How about creating a game that is accessible for users with disabilities or an educational experience for children to learn about the environment? Join up to three of your friends and build a complex and full game experience, using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio 3.0, Visual Studio and/or Silverlight.

Digital Media

The world sees video everywhere. Our photos are online for our friends to view and every day we are checking out the latest cool media files. Today, you get to be that someone. You and one friend team up to create a web video submission. Use the internet to share your point of view, explain, and touch on issues in our global society that relate to the 2010 Theme. Go big, go viral and get the world to stand up and take notice of what you have to say. You’ll be judged not just on your incredible video content, but also on the number of votes you receive

Embedded Development

Embedded devices are becoming smarter, more powerful, and woven seamlessly in to our everyday lives. Get ready to go beyond the PC desktop and work in both hardware and software to build an exciting solution using Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3 plus a provided embedded platform. Are you ready to push the envelope of where you can apply embedded technology to improve the world around you?

IT Challenge

Systems are behind everything technical thing we do: from a single computer to massive enterprise infrastructures.  The IT Challenge asks you to become a master at making those systems work. You will be tested on your knowledge, faced with unique scenarios and diverse customer needs to solve at every twist and turn. If you make it to the end of this competition, you’ll attend the Worldwide Finals and be announced as the best of the best in the industry.

Included in the presentation were a few videos that I wanted to share with you. The 1st is an Imagine Cup video

The 2nd is the latest from the Microsoft Project Natal. I talked about this a year ago and the advancements are amazing. Is this the direction that multi-media and gaming technology is heading? If you want to hear what Steven Spielberg said CLICK HERE

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while (apologies for the delay) but I’ve been waiting for the photos, so here is the launch information:

On Thursday November 12^th the Irish version Microsoft Digital Literacy was officially launched in Belfast at Coláiste Feirste in West Belfast. Coláiste Feirste is the only Irish Post-Primary school in the greater Belfast area. Dr. Kevin Marshall, MS Education Lead, Tom Jackson, Education Programme Manager NI and Stephanie Conville, Education Business Manager NI worked with the Irish Medium Steering Group for Online Learning (IMSGOL) to put the event together. The IMSGOL is a programme to improve the effective use of ICT in the Irish medium educational sector in Northern Ireland and to deliver the programme to schools in Northern Ireland

Microsoft and the Localization International Programme (LIP) Team led by Louise Fitzpatrick, worked with Foras na Gaeilge and translation company, Treanslán, to develop and translate the Digital Literacy Programme and Office 2007 into Irish. The efforts of the organisations have been supported by a wide number of community groups and native Irish language speakers who have helped with vocabulary selection and testing.   

The event was attended by Minister for Education, Ms Caitriona Ruane, MLA, along with Paul Rellis, MS Ireland GM and Klaus Holse Andersen, MS Corporate VP Western Europe. In addition, students, teachers, local Community Groups and media from 5 different services attended the launch

Klaus spoke at the launch, “We are thrilled to be rolling out the Digital Literacy Programme for the first time ever in Irish. Microsoft is committed to helping people realise their potential through the use of technology and one way that can be achieved is to allow people everywhere use their computers to work, learn and play in the language of their choice. Today’s launch is the result of a huge amount of work by the team at Microsoft and its partners, as well as many members of the Irish speaking community north and south of the border who contributed to the community glossary.

“We anticipate that it will be a particularly valuable tool for schools, and not just Irish speaking schools, which can now use the technology to learn and teach through Irish. Schools can, not only teach students the technology skills they need to work in the 21^st Century economy, they now have the option do it through Irish.”

Dr. Kevin Marshall noted, “This launch is the result of considerable effort to build and maintain valued educational partnerships over the past years. IMSGOL and their relationship with Tom Jackson, through their work in the Belfast School Technology Innovation Centre (STIC), was instrumental in organising the event and getting the Minister to attend. It is this type of “on the ground” relationship that makes a real difference in ensuring that Students and Teachers alike have access to the latest and best ICT tools to enhance their learning and teaching”

Garaí Mac Roibeaird, Principal of Coláiste Feirste said, “This is a huge boost for us as an Irish speaking school as we are committed to teaching through technology but we had to teach digital literacy skills through English. The Microsoft Digital Literacy Curriculum’s availability in Irish means that we now can integrate technology into the teaching of the curriculum across the board in Irish, giving teachers and students alike a far richer learning experience.”

(Paul Rellis MS, Mary Kane (C2k),Tom Jackson MS, Klaus Holse Andersen MS, Stephanie Conville MS, Dr. Kevin Marshall MS)

Along with the launch, Coláiste Feirste students entertained the invited guests to music, dance and a scene from Grease in Irish. Overall, the event was a smashing success. Congratulations and well done to all involved

I’ve heard from several NI Teachers that they aren’t able to download and look at the past examples of the NI and RoI winning Virtual Classroom Tours (VCTs). This is because the SkyDrive folders are blocked on the C2k network. I should have thought of this when I sent out the emails and announcements. There are several ways around this.

The simplest and best way is to do this from home or a non-C2k connection. This way you can download  to your hearts content without having to deal with the security blocks the C2k network is required to implement.

A 2nd solution is the NI Innovative Teachers Network (NI ITN) site. After you have followed my instructions from the post on Nov. 30th, you need to join the ITF Berlin 2010 Community and all of the VCTs and required documents are there. A bit of advice when downloading a VCT. Because of their size and the site being a worldwide portal, it can at times be confusing and somewhat slow. My recommendation would be :

· Bring up the dropdown list

· Then go to “Send-Download a Copy” and save it to your computer

Hopefully this will make it a lot quicker and allow you to look at the past entries whenever you’d like to.

The last way to see a wide variety of VCTs, is to register on the Partners in Learning Network site (using the same Live ID and Password you used for NI ITN) and see them there. The winners from Brazil are all highlighted on my blog post from the 9th of November

The  NI ITN site will be migrating over to the Partners in Learning Network site in 2010 and by using the same Live ID and Password, it will make you registration and migration seamless. Or at least that’s the plan