Now that everyone is back from Brazil safe and sound and over their jetlag (of which fortunately I did not suffer), I thought you’d like to hear 2 terrific podcasts that were done this week with radio stations in the Republic of Ireland. But first a picture of what I refer to as “The Irish Education Mafia”.

From left to right are: Tommy Maher, Seamus Ryan, Deirdre Butler and Kevin Marshall. As you can see they don’t get along at all

The 1st of the 2 podcasts is from Tommy Maher of Scoil Naomh Fiachra with Kilkenny Carlow Local Radio (KCLR).

You can hear Tommy’s podcast HERE

The 2nd podcast is with Seamus Ryan of County Meath VEC and is with TechNet and Pat Brennan

You can hear Seamus’ podcast HERE

2 great Teachers talking about 21st Century Learning and how ICT can play an important role in educating today’s students.

I had said in my last post that I would be putting up more details about the winners of the Innovative Educators Forum Awards. Rather than recreate a lot of new information, I thought it would be best (and easier) to just copy and paste in the official press release from Microsoft'.

In addition to that I have linked all of the winners to their Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) submissions. They are all posted on the newly launched Partners in Learning website. You will need to register with a Live ID in order to access VCTs. Once registered, go the the Communities tab and join “Innovative Education Forum Brasil 2009 - Teachers & Schools”.

News Press Release
Microsoft Partners in Learning Announces 2009 Worldwide Innovative Teacher Awards

SALVADOR, Brazil — Nov. 6, 2009 —After three days of seminars, teacher exhibitions and judging by an internationally renowned panel of education experts, today Microsoft Partners in Learning announced the winners of the 2009 Worldwide Innovative Teacher Awards at the Worldwide Innovative Education Forum. Partners in Learning recognizes and rewards teachers who demonstrate exemplary use of technology in the classroom to improve student learning. The 14 winning teachers — awarded first, second and third place in four categories — were chosen from among the 250 at the Forum representing more than 60 countries.

The Best Practice winners in the four main competition categories are Mandeep Atwal of England, Innovation in Community; Mark Sparvell of Australia, Innovation in Collaboration; Autumne Streeval and Harriet Armstrong of the United States, Innovation in Content; and Moliehi Sekese of Lesotho, Educators Choice. The 2009 Worldwide IEF award ceremony, held tonight in Salvador, Brazil, was attended by 400 educators, school leaders, government officials and others from more than 60 countries.

“The Innovative Teacher Awards exemplify the dedication and imagination of the world’s most forward-thinking educators,” said Michael Golden, corporate vice president of Education at Microsoft. “The energy and entrepreneurism of the winning teachers demonstrate the infinite possibilities that technology can create to improve learning opportunities and inspire future generations toward greater academic achievement. Microsoft remains committed to supporting the community in this quest. I’d like to extend warm congratulations to everyone who participated in this and the regional events that led up to today’s celebration.”

The following are the top three finalists in each category, in finishing order:

Innovation in Community

Best Practice: Mandeep Atwal (England), “Young Voices”

First Runner-Up: Ollie Bray (Scotland), “Thinking outside the XBOX”

Second Runner-Up: Lucrecio Filho de Oliveira (Brazil), Projeto “Barreiro”

Innovation in Collaboration

Best Practice: Mark Sparvell (Australia), “Connecting Hearts Heads and Hands”

First Runner-Up: Karina Batat (Israel), “The Travelling Mascot”

Second Runner-Up (Tie): Myreia Gussinye (Mexico), “Tolerant”

Second Runner-Up (Tie): Xiaoyong Tang (China), “Exploration of Ant Behaviour”

Innovation in Content

Best Practice: Autumne Streeval and Harriet Armstrong (United States), “US Industrial Revolution Tic Tac Toe”

First Runner-Up: Damien Lebegue (France), “Differentiated/adapted Teaching in PE”

Second Runner-Up: Alex Vieira dos Santos (Brazil), “Fontes De Energia”

Educators Choice

Best Practice: Moliehi Sekese (Lesotho), “Indigenous Plants”

First Runner-Up: Janjira Phongchoo (Thailand), “MS Excel Game Building Techniques”

Second Runner-Up: Isabel Schapdryver (Belgium), “Secondhandshop”

“Winning the Educators Choice award is certainly a great honor,” said Moliehi Sekese of Lesotho who won for her project Indigenous Plants. “Just being here and seeing how teachers from all over the world are enriching the lives of students is ultimately even more rewarding.”

Since 2003, the Partners in Learning award competition has been recognizing individuals with the Worldwide Innovative Education Awards for excellence in teaching. Teachers participate in country-level and regional events. Winners move up to the Worldwide competition.

The judging community includes education experts from all over the world. At the event 36 judges representing 23 countries spend nearly 20 hours talking to the teachers and learning about their projects; then in a private room they discuss, debate and share with one another until the winners are finally selected.

“Every year the submissions seem to get better and better, and this year is no exception,” said Judge Eduardo O.C. Chaves of Brazil. “The level of sophistication of these entries shows that teachers are continuing to innovate and expand the ways they use technology to help students all over the world realize their potential.”

Next year’s Innovative Teacher Awards results will be announced at the 2010 Worldwide IEF, which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa. Country- and regional-level competitions will take place beginning in November 2009. Interested teachers should contact their local Microsoft office for more information or look online at http://www.microsoft.com/education/pil/partnersInLearning.aspx.

At the event, school leaders from 12 Mentor and 30 Pathfinder Schools also participated in a three-day workshop and were recognized for their leadership in driving system-level educational reform.

About the Innovative Education Forum

The Innovative Education Forum is an annual worldwide event. Regional forums are held around the world to create communities of teachers who can share ideas and best practices with their peers and facilitate the creation of collective knowledge. Subsets of regional forum participants are selected to represent their country at the Worldwide Innovative Education Forum.

We had a night to end all nights last evening. The team from Microsoft Brazil put on an evening to be remembered. As I said yesterday, we didn’t know the venue until we got on the buses and what a venue it was. It was the Modern Art Museum (MAM)of Salvador. We were greeted by a Brazilian drum/dance group and everyone got right into the mood.

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The was a festive and exciting air about the night seeing people from around the globe were gathered to celebrate excellence in teaching. Here are the teams from India, Scotland and Ghana but they were only 3 of 100 countries participating!!!!

View Full Album

After some local drinks and soups and lots of dancing we headed into the marquee which was erected especially for the event.

The food and drinks were plentiful and the entertainment from the July 2nd Orchestra. This orchestra is only 2 years old and most of its members are in their team. There were incredibly good and the only orchestra I’ve ever seen that were dancing in their seats!!

They played before and after dinner and were called back for 2 encores. It was an incredible testimony to what can be achieved when the will and passion are there

Then we came to the awards. David wasn’t fortunate to pick up an Educators Award but there was still an air of excitement. There will be more details about all of the winners when I get back to Belfast but the UK Team won two of the major awards for Collaboration. 

Mandeep was the big winner for Best Practice and Ollie took 2nd place.

This was by far the best night the Innovative Teachers Programme has ever had and I look for to the choice of next year’s location CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA!!!!

As we wrap up the last day of the IEF 2009, we prepare for the final event this evening. It will be the Gala Dinner at a venue that has been kept secret but we know it will be about 20 km away.

This morning the 24 Semi-finalist were announced and unfortunately, David’s “E Portfolio 5-65” didn’t get through. He’s done an amazing amount of work and delivered an incredible innovative way to engage his students. There is one more category up for grabs and that is the “Educators Choice Award”. This morning there was a 3 hour session where all of the participants in both the Teachers and Schools track were able to visit with the exhibitors and discuss their projects. Then each country here voted for their top 3 exhibits and submitted them to the organizing committee. This is where the Teachers say what they liked best. So let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that the high level of activity David has had for 3 days translates into a place in the Educators Award.

And last but not least, I want to congratulate  Mandeep Atwal from England and Ollie Bray  from Scotland– both of whom are semi-finalists ! (Their projects – “Young Voices” and “Thinking out of the Xbox”, click HERE.)

Congratulations to all of the teachers at this year’s Innovative Education Forum!

PS- I've been meaning to put up a photo of my esteemed leader and thank him for all of the things he made possible. So Dr. Kevin Marshall, thanks and I'll buy you a beer tonight

It’s important to point out the key roles that are held by Ireland (N+S) at the Forum this year.

The 1st key person is Deirdre Butler from St. Patrick’s College in Drumcondra which has been a College of Dublin City University.

Deidre is currently the Chairperson of the Partners in Learning Advisory Board so she is at the epicentre in helping Microsoft define the direction of the Worldwide Partners in Learning Programme and how it can make a difference in Teachers and Students lives.

From their website:

Deirdre is a faculty member in the Education Department of St. Patrick’s College (a constituent College of Dublin City University) with chief responsibility for designing and co-ordinating learning programs for undergraduate and postgraduate students using a broad range of digital technologies to enable them to understand what being digital in learning can be.
She has close working collaborations with the Everyday Learning research group at Media Lab Europe and Seymour Papert’s Future of Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab.
Deirdre’s doctoral work was conducted in collaboration with Media Lab Europe under the supervision of Dr. Seymour Papert of the MIT Media Laboratory. Her dissertation centres around teacher learning and was entitled, “Self-determined Teacher Learning in a Digital Context: Fundamental Change in Thinking and Practice. Deirdre has developed a model of teacher professional development presently in use in several large projects, including the Empowering Minds community and the Diageo Liberties Learning initiative. Deirdre has consulted to and participated in educational development work using expressive computational materials in Mexico, Costa Rica, several European countries, and rural and urban areas of the Ireland.

Photo is of Deidre giving a Keynote presentation at last year’s event in Hong Kong

PS- She is also and above all a great lady !!!

The 2nd key person is Dr. Victor McNair from the University of Ulster School of Education. Victor has been selected for the 4th time to be a Judge at the Innovative Teachers Event. His deep understanding of relevant and impactful collaborative content and curriculum has been a great help to the Programme over the years. Victor would be considered one of the  Senior Judges due to his many past experiences with the Teachers and their Projects.

Photo- Victor in centre with Byron and Jean Evans in Vienna

A few of Victor’s publications are:

McNair,V. (2005), Using VLEs to support student teachers http://www.members.leadingteachers.com/Newsletters/0008.pdf

Clarke, L.M., Lambe, J.E. and McNair, V. (2004), Embedding e-Learning in Teacher Education http://www.elearningfutures.com/templates/template3.asp?id=38

McNair, V (2004), Using a Virtual Learning Environment to Build Reflective Practice Among Student Teachers http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/connected/connected12/specialfeature/index.asp

McNair V, (2002), Recruitment in Technology and Design in Northern Ireland http://www.socsci.ulster.ac.uk./education/tdweb/tanddrecruitment.pdf

PS again- Victor is also a great guy and a great friend

So rest assured that Ireland (N+S) are playing a key role in Microsoft’s Education roadmap .

Hi all. Apologies for taking so long to get something on the event up for you. Things have been very busy since we landed Sunday evening (3:00 AM your time) and having travelled for 20 hours!!

But now we’re here and settled in. We had Monday to see a bit of the city and visited the market area (Mercado Modelo)

Lots of aggressive sellers but tons of choices from linens, tee shirts, leather goods art and much more. We then spent some time around the Old Town section of Salvador and had a great lunch at an outdoor cafe.

On Tuesday morning the Innovative Schools track kicked off with the Keynote from Anthony Salcito, Microsoft VP WW Education. He was followed by Bruce Dixon founder of the Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation. Then we met the 30 new Pathfinder Schools and the 12 Mentor Schools.  The rest of the afternoon was taken up by the Innovative Schools showcasing what they’ve done to make it here. (I’ll have much more about that in upcoming blogs)

Ireland has 2 schools participating in the Innovative Schols track. Dunshaughlin Community College is now one of the 12 Mentor schools in the world and is being represented by Seamus Ryan. Tommy Maher is here as the Principal of Scoil Naomh Fiachra and his school has bee selected as one of the 30 Pathfinder Schools in the world.

Seamus and Tommy

Then last night the Teachers participating in the Innovative Teachers track set up their displays. Here’s David’s and I think it’s a winner

On the table is an actual model of the stage created for the project. You can see the details of his entire project (E-Portfolios 5-65) HERE

The banner showcase all of the key elements and he has attached a screen to play a series of supporting videos.

This morning was the official opening of the Innovative Education Forum with a speech from the Governor of the Bahia Region, Jacques Vagner and then the Keynote was delivered by Michael Golden, Microsoft Corporate VP Education Product Group.

Michael was assisted by Scott Burmester, Microsoft Senior Product Manager. Scott showcased many of the Free software applications the are offered to Teachers and Students around the world. Again, many of these I’ve spoken about in previous articles but there are some new ones I’ll be covering in the coming weeks.

In addition to that, Michael announced the official launching of the new Partners in Learning website which is available for any teacher in the world to join. I will be integrating my NI Innovative Teachers site with this in the coming months.

You can see the official press release HERE

This afternoon the Teachers had to show their work to all of the invited guests and the Judges who have been assigned to them. David was very busy for over 3 hours due to the high level of interest in his project.

So it’s off to dinner tonight with the Western Europe attendees and busy, busy, busy tomorrow, so stay tuned for more updates.

As you may already know, I’m leaving for Salvador, Brazil on Sunday along with David Stinson who is competing in this year’s Worldwide Innovative Education Forum next week. Joining us at the event will be Dr. Victor McNair, Senior Lecturer at the University of Ulster, who will be participating as a Judge for the event. Also attending from the Republic of Ireland as invitees of Dr. Kevin Marshall, Microsoft Education Lead and Academic Programme Manager Ireland, will be Mr. Tommy Maher of Scoil Naomh Fiachra whose school has been selected as a new Pathfinder School in the Microsoft Innovative Schools Programme and Mr Seamus Ryan who has led the establishment of Dunshaughlin Community College as a Microsoft Global School of the Future (now referred to as a Mentor School).

Make sure you follow the activity on this site along with my Twitter Feed (@tjinbelfast)

But the excitement doesn’t end there. I will have my busiest weeks and months (and hopefully years ) when we get back. Just a few of the things I’ll be working on are:

• The opening of a new Innovation Centre!!!. As you are surely aware, I managed the STIC on behalf of Microsoft for the past 5 years. The STIC was part of the European Education Research and Innovation Centre (EERIC). Well, that Centre has closed and I have been tasked to “find a new home”. Well, I’ve done that. Working in partnership with Stranmillis University College, Queen’s University of Belfast School of Education, the Regional Training Unit (RTU) of NI, and Classroom 2000 (C2k)  we will be launching the Centre for Excellence in Leadership, Innovation and Learning (CELIL). Our global STIC/EERIC partners, HP, Cisco Systems and Intel Corp will also be involved with the new Centre. There will be lots of news and activity to follow in the near future, so watch this space!!

• The re-launch of the Northern Ireland Innovative Teachers Network site. If you have visited the NI Innovative Teachers Network site recently you will have noticed a complete makeover has taken place. It looks much better and the navigation is much smoother and faster. if you’re not already a member, make sure you sign up to get access to Free software, Educational Video links, discussions, Communities and much more. I would recommend you register with a Live ID. If you don’t already have one, you can do it HERE. This will make sign on much quicker and easier and will allow integrating your registration on the new Partners in Learning Worldwide Network site in the coming months.

• The launch of the Northern Ireland Innovative Education Forum Awards Competition- As I have done for the past 3 years, I will be running a competition for Teachers in NI to show how they have used ICT in delivering their classroom curriculum in innovative ways. The winners of the NI competition will win an all-expenses paid trip to Berlin next March to compete against Teachers from across Western Europe. Winners of the WE competition are automatically invited to the Worldwide competition in Nov. 2010. Rumour has it that it will take place in South Africa!! David Stinson is going to Brazil because of his success in Vienna last march. 2 Great trips for his hard work. Not bad!! Details will be available in early December and you will find them here, on the NI ITN site, RTU’s website and C2k’s website. You must be a registered member of the NI Innovative Teachers Network to participate

• The launch of the Microsoft Innovative Schools Network-  Microsoft will be formerly be launching the new Innovative Schools Programme in Brazil next week. The 12 Global Schools of the Future will become Mentor Schools and share their experiences and learning from their 3 year participation. There has been 30 additional schools selected from around the world to become Pathfinder Schools and will build on the lessons and experience of the Mentor schools along with developing and sharing their work and innovation. I will be working with schools from NI  interested in the next round of submissions for Pathfinder accreditation. There will be toolkits and free content available in the next few weeks.

• Launch of the NI Imagine Cup Competition- In the past, students and schools who wished to participate in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2010 Competition did so by going to Dublin to show their work. This year we will be running a competition specifically for students in Northern Ireland with the winner automatically invited to the finals in Dublin next April. Winning teams in Dublin will then be invited to compete at the worldwide competition in Warsaw Poland in July 2010. Presentations to interested schools and student team will begin in late November. If you’re interested contact me (i-tomj@microsoft.com) or Michael Meagher (v-mmeagh@microsoft.com), Academic Programme Manager Ireland. Michael has taken up Liam Cronin’s post for those who have dealt with Liam in the past.

• Microsoft Community Affairs (CA) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – for the past 5 years I have led the CA and CSR activity in the north on behalf of Microsoft. Along with the work we do with FIT NI, EGSA, Action MS and BITC. We will run 2 major projects this coming year:
1. Internet Safety Day- once again Microsoft volunteers will partner with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Community Liaison Officers and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to deliver internet safety presentations to Primary schools across NI. This will take place in concert with the EU Internet safety Day 2010 on Feb. 9th. Last year we reached over 1800 students and 100 Teachers.
2. Microsoft NGO Day in NI- working with not-for profits and charities to share resources, training and skills to the wide NGO audience in Ireland. A similar day is taking place in Dublin on Nov. 26th.

I’m sure I’ve left something important out but that seems to be enough for you to take on board for now. So visit the site often, bookmark it, sign up for the RSS feed and let me know how I can help you.

The time to leave for the Worldwide Innovative Education Forum 2009 (IEF 2009) in Salvador, Brazil is rapidly approaching. This event is a gathering of the global winners of their regional or country Innovative Teachers Competitions. There will be teachers from over 80 countries competing in 3 categories: Curriculum, Content and Collaboration. As you may remember, 2 Teachers from NI and 1 Teacher from the Republic of Ireland competed in Vienna in March at the European Innovative Teachers Forum. They were:

• Navanna Doherty from St. Mary’s College in Londonderry/Derry and she presented her Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) on “GCSE Online History” and you can see that HERE
• David Stinson from Sullivan Upper School in Holywood and he presented his VCT on “Pupil E-Portfolio” and you can see that HERE
• Rose Lawlor from Dunshaughlin Community College in Co. Meath, Ireland and she presented her VCT on “Igniting Innovation in a School Community” and you can see that HERE

They were all terrific pieces of work in using ICT to deliver curriculum and were well received. David’s work was deemed especially good and he won 2nd Place for Content. as a result of that win in Vienna, David is invited to compete at this year’s WW IEF 2009 in Brazil. He also won 3rd Place in a special category “Educators Choice” which is voted on by all of the Teachers competing and in attendance. Getting that kind of recognition from his peers was especially gratifying.

Needless to say, David has been working very hard to expand and improve the VCT he submitted in Vienna. The amount of time and effort he has put into this is staggering and I think that when you go through it, you will surely agree. The original “Pupil E-Portfolio” has evolved and grown into “E-Portfolio 5-65”. The intent is to showcase how an individual learner can capture and track their work and progress and anytime in their learning life. You can see the latest version HERE.

So let’s keep our fingers crossed so David can come back as the 1st worldwide win for NI. You can follow events for IEF 2009 on this site. I’ll be Blogging and Twittering the whole week.

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On a much sadder note I wanted mention the passing of Byron Evans ,a dear friend and a true champion for Education in Northern Ireland. He had a passion for Teaching and Learning that would be difficult to match and leaves a hole that will be hard to fill. Our sincerest sympathies go out to his wife Jean and the entire Evans family. May you rest in peace and God be with you. And a warning to all you teachers in heaven- GET READY TO RUMBLE"!!!!

Byron, Victor McNair and Jean in Vienna

I’m just back from the Worldwide Academic Programme Managers’ meeting in London (and 2 additional days to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary with Caroline ) and I had the chance to remind myself of the great work being delivered by my  colleagues through the Partners in Learning Programme. Listening to all of the great things that are being done by Angela Schaerer,STIC Manager and her Education Lead, Reza Bardien made me want to work even harder and longer.

They have done an incredible amount of work on delivering resources for Teachers in the Sub-Saharan region and they are happy to share their work with Teachers here. Their site covers a full range of areas, such as:

This is why sharing and collaboration works, especially in Education. I hope you take some time to see what they’ve done and use it to your best advantage.

Remember- there may be parts the are local to Africa , but that shouldn’t be difficult for you to localise.

A full day of the WW APM meeting was dedicated to working with Michael Fullan.  From Michael’s website:

“Michael Fullan is Professor Emeritus of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Recognized as a worldwide authority on educational reform, Michael is engaged in training, consulting, and evaluating change projects around the world and his books have been published in many languages.

Michael Fullan is currently Special Advisor to the Premier and Minister of Education in Ontario. His book, Leading in a Culture of Change was awarded the 2002 Book of the Year Award by the National Staff Development Council and Breakthrough (with Peter Hill and Carmel Crévola) won the 2006 Book of the Year Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.”

  We spent a full day working through his book Six Secrets of Change. It was on of the best interactive, enjoyable and informative learning experiences I’ve ever had at a company meeting. With a mixture of presentation, video, group tasks and feedback, the 7+ hours Michael was with us flew by and we all came out the better for having attended.

Michael has done work with the Regional Training Unit (RTU) in the past along with Microsoft Ireland and UK. Hopefully, we’ll get him to visit our fair shores next May. I’ll keep you posted.

It’s not very often you come away from a 4 day meeting with 8:00 starts and long days packed with presentations feeling excited about the coming year, but I did. for sure

From our General Manager, Paul Rellis:

Today is a great day for Microsoft in Ireland!.

An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen T.D. officially opened Microsoft’s newest data centre in Dublin, Ireland, expanding the company’s cloud computing capabilities for business and consumers in Europe.  This represents an investment which is a mind blowing $500m USD!.  This investment solidifies Microsoft’s commitment to Europe and to Ireland,  and demonstrates the importance of data centres as a cornerstone of the company’s cloud services offerings and how Microsoft is investing today for the future of cloud computing.  

The first mega data centre built outside of the U.S. is more than 300,000 square feet and represents the next evolutionary step in building out the company’s infrastructure to meet the demand generated from Online, Live, and Cloud services.  

The Dublin Data Centre (DDC) represents a breakthrough in data centre facility design and efficiency.  It has been developed with sustainability in mind – being 50% more energy efficient than traditional data centres.  The cool winds and rain help ! After 24 years in Ireland we are still investing.   

The Cloud has a Silver Lining for Irish Customers!    The launch of this Data Centre in Dublin offers us a fantastic opportunity to bring the message of Cloud computing to our customers like never before.  Customers have options to embrace the cloud, and Partners can build businesses, through:

- Packaged applications hosted in the Cloud and managed directly by Microsoft or Partners e.g, Eircom.  These services are typically: Exchange, SharePoint and OCS/Live Meeting -  Customers are already seeing cost reductions of up to 45% across the globe with over 1m users signed up.  In Ireland, Chernobyl Children's Project International is an Irish based example of an organisation using Microsoft Online Services (email and collaboration), in order to connect their 2,000 volunteers in Ireland and around Europe.  The charity has seen dramatic time saving of more than 20 hours per person per week for office based staff and seen their communication costs plummet by using Live Meeting instead of traditional conference calls.

- Creating and running their own applications in the Cloud using our Windows Azure Platform - We already have customers in Ireland who are embracing Software + Services solutions.   In recent weeks we have worked with Aer Lingus to help support its objective of improving the customer booking experience while also supporting the business objective of encouraging them to look at more offers from the airline.   We helped them to develop new booking models for customers, utilising a pay as you go model where costs are directly related to the size and scale of the solution - they are now in a position where they can scale for success without having to worry about forecasting or additional investment. No additional hardware provisioning was required and bandwidth provision is no longer a concern as they now have global reach.   In addition, Eirgrid is already using the shared computing resources provided by Microsoft’s Data Centres, and as a result believe all electricity users will benefit from increased security and reliability of supply.

We are also very excited to be working with a group of BizSpark companies many of whom are early adopters and are developing and hosting services in the cloud.  These are the innovators and entrepreneurs who will be at the heart of Ireland’s future economic success and part of the Smart Economy.  In addition to the launch, we are also hosting 30 of our BizSpark companies at an exciting event in the Data Centre, and announcing to them an Azure Academy which we will be running in October in conjunction with the NDRA.   This will be a very exciting event as this group are the optimistic and focused groups we at Microsoft have seen in recent times.

There has been a great deal of work going on in the background to improve the experience on the NI Innovative Teachers Network site and it’s all starting to pay off. Check out the new Welcome Page:

Better, cleaner graphics thanks to my colleagues in the UK (Gordon, Kristen, Stuart and Ray). The hard work of getting the site upgraded has fallen to Robin Smallbone, and I couldn’t be happier. The navigation is much quicker and the upload and download speeds should also be greatly improved.

Make sure you revisit  or register if you’re not already and remember- Northern Ireland is in the country list. That’s got to be a 1st !!!

While you’re there, take some time and join one of my communities (or start your own) :

• Global Climate Mystery
• Computing and Developer Skills

You can also access all of the Tips and Demos and keep up to date with this year’s Innovative Educators Forum Competition.

Remember- you have to register in order to see all of the links 

Came across the latest version of the Did You Know presentation and thought I’d share it with you because I’m seeing the change towards understanding the impact and value of Social Networking. It has an American focus but the message translates to whatever country you live in. ENJOY!

The Cop15 game in Climate Mystery is up and running and students from across Western Europe are already collaborating. Give it a try and let me know how you’re getting on. I’ll be logging on most days and I hope to see some activity from Northern Ireland schools

Tomorrow sees the launch of Climate Mystery. You’re probably asking yourself, “what is Climate Mystery”?

It’s a product developed by the creative company Congin and has been funded by Microsoft and the Discovery network. From the 14^th September the climate mystery website will become the home of an interactive drama in which participants will virtually 'live' in an exciting story in which they will work to prevent environmental disaster.

Over the course of the 16 episodes that will be released periodically in the build up to the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. Participants will engage with constantly changing video, photographs, games, interactive chat and blogs all of which will ensure a health debate around climate issues.

This is a great opportunity for your students to learn about relevant environmental issues in a fun and motivational way, and we hope that the teacher materials will make participating in The Climate Mystery even easier for you and your students.

You can register on the Climate Mystery website and you can get access to all materials and content on the Northern Ireland Innovative Teachers Network (ITN NI) website. All materials are in the Global Climate Mystery Community. you must be registered on the ITN NI site.

Any schools wishing to participate should contact me at i-tomj@microsoft.com. There is not strict requirement to participate in all 16 weeks. You can pop in and out as you see fit. Each of the 16 episodes will have supporting materials to let you know what is covered in that episode.

Should you choose to fully participate, I will be available to assist with any questions  you may have. The programme finishes to coincide with the UN Climate Change conference, held in Copenhagen, from December 7th to December 18th, 2009.

For those schools wishing to familiarise yourselves with the programme and consider participating in the New Year, i will be holding a workshop in late November/early December if informed this would be of interest to you.

You can also join the Worldwide Innovative Teachers website by registering and joining their Global Climate Mystery Community.

For those Math Teachers out there that want a simple tool for creating sets of math problems for their students, our friends at Microsoft Education Labs may have the answer for you. They’ve created the new Math Worksheet Generator. In their words:

“Do you spend a lot of time searching for worksheets with practice problems to give your students? Now you can easily create your own in just a few seconds with the Math Worksheet Generator. This is a tool that generates multiple math problems based on a sample, and then creates a worksheet that you can distribute. By analyzing the math problem you provide, or one of the built-in samples, the generator determines the structure of the expression and provides similar problems. We tack on an answer sheet too.
The Math Worksheet Generator works best with Word 2007. If you have that, then the tool creates a Word document and the expressions are editable. If you have an older version of Word, we still create a document, but the expressions are small images that aren't editable. (This is because Word 2007 and higher has more built-in support for inserting Math equations.) If you don't have Word at all, the tool will create HTML versions of the worksheet and answer sheet. If you have a Mac, we didn't forget you, so stay tuned - we're working on a web version that should come out later this year.
The tool supports everything from basic arithmetic through algebra. We tried to get the most useful question types supported, and we'd love to hear from you about what we got right and what we need to work on. It's built on top of the foundation from Microsoft Math, so we had a lot to start with. Use the Discussion forums or the Feedback link below to let us know what you think.”

Make sure you take a minute to watch the video walkthrough of how it works

As we rapidly approach the new school year, I'm seeing more and more online resources for Students and Teachers. Just a few from the past 2 days:

• Permanent Link to 50 Fantastic Bing Tricks for Students & Librarians
• Top 10 Web sites for students
• 
• This will be especially useful now that C2k is beginning the rollout of Office 2007
• From Steven Holdsworth’s blog- UK Student Zine
• Make music with basic software- I especially like Songsmith
• Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day

And don’t forget about some of the tools we’ve touched on in the past:

• For Students and Teachers- the Learning Essentials Software
• Word 2007 Add-in: Microsoft Math
• Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 R2 Express Edition
• Microsoft Dreamspark
• Microsoft Faculty Connection
• Worldwide Telescope
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I’m just back from my vacation and have been very remiss in congratulating Melissa and Suzy on their outstanding achievements at the Microsoft Office World Championships in Toronto. These 2 ladies have done our island proud. Melissa finished an incredible 11th in the world in the Microsoft Excel Final and Suzy finished an unbelievable 5th in the world in the Microsoft Word Final.

From the Prodigy press release:

I especially love- “two Irish students … scoring the highest results by any European entrants…” 

Congratulations to you both and to your schools.

Every year Microsoft runs a Microsoft Office competition for students who are proficient in Word and Excel. This is in partnership with Certiport and Prodigy, our IT Academy Partners.

Yesterday morning Melissa Scott, the Irish Champion in Microsoft Excel, along with Suzy Farrell, the Irish Champion in Microsoft Word , flew out to represent Ireland in the “Worldwide Competition on Microsoft® Office” held in the Hilton Hotel in Toronto.

Melissa (left) and Suzy (right) at the airport

They will be competing with entrants from around the World for the title of “World Champion”.

Melissa Scott from Ballyclare High School in Ballyclare, Northern Ireland will take part in the Microsoft Excel Final.  Ballyclare HS is a NI Specialist School for ICT.

Suzy Farrell from Maynooth Post Primary School in Co. Kildare, Ireland will take part in the Microsoft Word Final.

Along with the competition our Irish champs will enjoy a trip to the CN Tower and Niagara Falls and get the opportunity to mingle with hundreds of other entrants from all over the World.

Congratulations to Melissa and Suzy -  GOOD LUCK IN TORONTO !!!

Generally, I write about Educational issues but when I saw this video I had to put it on the site.The Microsoft Xbox Team are developing new technology called  Xbox Project Natal. If you wanted to see what our answer to the Nintendo Wii is, look no further.

I’m certain these new technologies are going to play a major role and have a significant impact on how students and teachers engage in the classroom in the years ahead !!!

From the site:

No Strings (or Controllers) Attached.

Introducing Project Natal, a revolutionary new way to play: no controller required.  See a ball? Kick it, hit it, trap it or catch it.  If you know how to move your hands, shake your hips or speak you and your friends can jump into the fun -- the only experience needed is life experience.

"For us, this E3 is about breaking down barriers – between generations, between games and entertainment, and most importantly, between dreamers and the future – in a way only Xbox 360 can."

DON MATTRICK

"This is a pivotal moment that will carry with it a wave of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games"

STEVEN SPIELBERG

And if that’s not enough amazing technology , go to Microsoft Wave and watch the video for it.

It’S difficult to comprehend how fast technology is advancing and the changes it will bring in the next few years. CAN’T WAIT

Who says that Education shuts down during the summer . In just the past few days these announcements have come from various groups within Microsoft that all impact Education for Teachers, Students and Institutions. They are:

REDMOND, Wash. — July 22, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the next versions of its flagship desktop and server operating systems. With the completion of this development phase, industry partners are readying products in time for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 worldwide general launches. Windows 7 will be generally available to customers around the world on October 22, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be generally available on or before that date. As always, current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and TechNet subscribers will be among the first to get customer access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in the coming weeks.

The launch of Microsoft Education Labs

Microsoft Live Services Plug-in for Moodle

Microsoft Research Add-ins for Scientists

Microsoft Surface SDK will be available on MSDNAA Subscriptions

From Alfred Thompson –The Computer Science Teacher

That’s just some of them. NOT BAD FOR A SLOW SUMMER WEEK !!!!! Enjoy your vacation