Microsoft Copilot for educators webinar

 Notes taken from Copilot for educators webinar this afternoon. 

The session hosted by Microsoft  based in Australia. Beginning with acknowledgement of country and instructions for live captions and transcriptions.

Hosted by Jennifer Ruan (overview/facilitator) and Victor Kochetkov (demonstrator).

Started with running through the 'Teach' module with its various teaching tools. Tools are specific to sectors. For example, alignment to standard for school sectors. Went though 'create lesson plan', attaching files (allows specific standards to be added) and the drop down menu. UK English will be available soonat present, only American English. Once the lesson plan created, save to onedrive as a word doc.

Standards for vocational education in plans to be added for Australia. 

Demonstrated how to then draw on the lesson plan that was created to generate lesson notes/handouts using 'new chat'. Then showed how to edit the handout in Notes and then add it to a Notebook. 

Advised to use custom instructions (in settings) to provide specific instructions that cover the tone and specificity of AI responses. 

Then showed capabilities in 'Create'. So infographics can be created from the handout/lecture notes. Now stored in the 'Library'. Then did the same with powerpoint which should have organisational template available. Images etc. for ppt are from microsoft pool for copyright accreditation or AI generated. Institutional images can also be availed. 

Then used new chat to compare transcript of the lecture with the notes to identify gaps in delivery.

Next, demonstrated rubric creator in Teach module. Description only allowed, as no download/attach file capability yet. 

Then showed how the quiz creator works. Created a quiz into microsoft forms. Then used Analyst agent to do a analysis of the quiz responses (converted into excel spreadsheet). Then using the analysis, create another lesson plan which addresses the content that students did not achieve in the quiz. 

Then went back to 'create module' to create a video based on the ppt slides with a voice over.

Lastly, focused on notebooks - to collate items in one topic and how this forms the base for use in different ways. Especially for putting parameters on AI reference for responses, to create quizzes, flashcards etc.

Q & A ensured.

Many of the participants seemed to not have used copilot M365, so time spent to show how to access and where the Teach module is, how to  navigate through Copilot and use the various icons, enterprise/organisational data security etc.

Presentation recorded for further review. 

Microsoft Classroom - interim thoughts

One of the platforms to pilot through a recently approved Ako Aotearoa National Project funded 'eassessment' project will be Microsoft classroom.

This platform was launched in April 2016 and currently in preview ( ie.beta ) mode.Microsort classroom requires access by students to Office 365 and allows teachers to to manage classes and assignment. It is different from OneNote and more akin to an LMS.

There is a website to learn how to use the platform.There is an overview video on syncing microsoft classroom to school data - 12.20 minutes long. In short, the platform allows for bringing custom office tools (OneNote, Word, Powerpoint, Sway etc.) to the classroom.  

The video covers  how the platform runs and overall the visual / user experience is similar to onenote class notebook layout. The process of how microsoft classroom integrates outlook, planner, has announcements, conversations, office mix, sway etc. and cassroom experience also over viewed.

Apps for iOS and Google are also available to smooth the path to BYOD.

Using Sway

Sway is microsoft's free, online, presentation and storytelling app. I have been dipping in and out of it and the concept holds promises for enabling our staff and students to put together short presentations.

Several examples are showcased on the sway site, including this one on the future of education, and this one with examples for teachers. So education is one of the areas, the developing team have targeted as users of sway. Microsoft blogs indicate the trend with this one on using sway as a case study in education and another on teaching math with sway.

Also examples from ethos3 as a comparison between other presentation apps and mieexpert archiving various sway features and resources.

A few critiques / reviews from teacher with this one from the Australian teachers' blog and another which includes a tutorial on using sway / office mix from jonathanwhylie.

Looks like sway will be here to stay. Overall, the app is quite user friendly but tends towards a linear structure. So, sway is structured for linear rather than ad hoc storytelling. Along with office mix, sway provides an alternative to powerpoint. Both useful expecially for tutors putting content together for distance students and students to showcase their learning. However, there is a need to ensure story boarding type planning precedes, otherwise, messy presentations lacking coherence are the result :(

Onenote - resources for getting started

After Travis Smith's presentation, we field a few staff keen to get started on onenote as a learning tool. The current onenote has improved in terms of usability and its main advantage is the ability to use it on various devices.

I have archived here some guides / resources to using onenote:

A good way for our tutors to learn about how to use onenote and its possibilities is to actually use it for their own work first. So, first up, a guide to using onenote for beginners vis PC world and another one via lifehack on using onenote in a work.

Then some 'non-conventional' ways to use onenote via blogs.office com and makeuseof.com 

The best way to deploy onenote in an educational setting is to leverage off notebook creator. Unfortunately, we need to await the installation of Office 365 on to our network before we can use notebook creator. The official guide to notebook creator is offered via office support.

A youtube video offers good step by step guide (10 minutes). Pros and Cons and discussed by broadeneducation.com. I hope to start a pilot with one or our engineering tutors to find out possibilities and test usability next semester. This will then feed into any work we do with other tutors when Office 365 is installed sometime next year.

Travis Smith - Microsoft specialist - notes of presentation

Notes from presentation with Travis Smith - microsoft specialist -education - held morning of 7th May 2015 at CPIT.

Mark Marshall CPIT ICT manager and Ann Taylor from Microsoft introduced Travis.

Mixed audience of schools and tertiary educators, administrators and IT.

A focus on using technology to achieve good learning outcomes for learners.

Went through 'high impact gradualism' - why education moves so slowly in the adoption of technology and things to prioritise to maximise impact of TEL.

Issuing hardware has not changed pedagogy - still content focused rather than learning focused. Deploying technology should lead to 'better' learning not replicate learning activities already common.

Need to have evidenced informed strategy, shift to collaboration platform, choice of device is actually critical, be deliberate in developing skills you think you are developing in students ( 21st collaborative learning design - 21CLD) and used data (learning analytics) better (see new line school use of customer relationship management CRM).

Need for institutions to align innovation to strategy and prioritise TEL that works (as per research informed) in the context. What are we trying to improve by using technology??

Need to establish pedagogical framework - and innovative teaching and learning is more likely to occur when there is a shared understanding of what it looks like ....

BYOD is NOT an approach to learning or pedagogy ... it's just how kids get device. Difficulty for pedagogy to be fully utilised if devices are to varied. Learning so often messy, multimodal and subject specific.

Used notetaking as an example - Mueller, P.A. & Oppenheimer D.M. (2014) the pen is mightier than the keyboard: advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science.

Choice of notetaking method and device, has impact on learning factual or conceptual facets.

Used OneNote as an example of annotating diagram to take notes. including embedding audio notes. and tracking of 'making thinking visible' through maths problem. Also uses onenote as his presentation tool. - see possibilities of onenote

Mangen, 2008, Mangen & Velaym 2010, Oviatt, 2006 - annotation on digital texts leads to depth of processing, reflection on meaning, ability to integrate and critique knowledge.

version one learning implies the cogitative process and version 2 is the 'final version' encapsulating concepts.   2 is high fidelity, version 1 is low fidelity. Onenote provides capability to bring both together.

The design of educational interfaces - Sharon Oviatt - thinking tools require stylus.

Paper is not going away, just getting smarter - how do we use to help learning?? embed animation? making concepts visual assist with supporting abstract thinking. = using fluid math app

Provided example of Adobe's latest application to make editing of images intuitive and 'instant'. see creative cloud

Monash University intervention by asking lecturers to include 40%  ppt slide which require annotation. Use ctrl P to bring pen into ppt. Add / sketch in - on the fly, allowing for better narrative of how thinking occurs. Provide the version 1 not just the version 2 as a completed ppt slide.

Need to remember, digital collaborative problem solving is a specialised skill. Collaborative problem-solving over distance using real world tools a developing field. Use white board feature on Lync.

Future possibilities being build with surface table, allowing sharing of artefacts across distance or augmented reality through hololens.

Preparation for working in a digital environment requiring collaboration at a distance now a 'must have' skill. Demonstrated real time authoring / collaboration on word online.

Discussed capabilities of office 365 for education. Provides access to 5 iterations of the software for students. Provided example of how to set up onenote to share folder with students. office 365 has a onenote class notebook creator. Demonstrated how to set up a 'course' onenote folder, allowing teacher to see all students' work. Teacher can provide feedback and students will see latest version of their work - with feedback.  opens possibility of using onenote as a form of LMS.

Finished with demo of office mix. (see my first attempt - from learning a trade project)

two other presentations from Travis - on collaboration and onenote for schools.

Microsoft Hololens

With the reported demise (see one version here) of google glasses, news from microsoft about their work on hololens brings some relief for future watches. The video on the possibilities of the hololens provides a glimpse into a 3D virtual environment. Official launch of the hololens reported to be mid-2015 for developers.

Positive reviews on the prototype from usual reviewers - wired, cnet and endgadget.

The hololens can be envisaged as a follow through from microsoft's work with the kinect which has had difficulties moving into the mainstream beyond gaming. Forbes  article recommends some scepticism required beyond microsoft hype based on experiences with the kinect. So it's a watch the hololens space for the interim, to see what actually eventuates.