Volume 1 Issue 4, May 2008

Since 2005, Bakti Senior High in Ponorogo, a small town in the Indonesian province of East Java, has been utilizing IT in its teaching-learning process. There have been many workshops and training seminars on that issue, but the results were not satisfying. It was never easy to change the mindset of the teachers to change the traditional teaching process into IT-based. The technique and method of motivating these teachers had to be transformed as well.

Through the adoption of the Peer Coaching program for the school's educators, initiated by Microsoft's Partners in Learning (PiL), the effort to change the teachers' mindset can be done. Each teacher has different needs, so the first step was to analyze those needs in IT implementation in order to maximize the teaching process.

The next step was upgrading teachers' competence. The traditional training model did not interest most teachers because it failed to identify their individual needs. Through the Peer Coaching process, setting the teachers' objectives, roles and norms was conducted individually. It raised the fact that the improvement of teachers' IT competence is not solely the responsibility of the school; the teachers themselves had to take that responsiblity. IT competence became a necessity and no longer a burden deriving from an assignment from the school leaders or local education authorities.

The result of the Peer Coaching training model was very effective. Teachers felt that their needs can be fullfilled and also helped to increase IT use among the teachers. Before this training was conducted, computers were utilized only for administrative work. Now computers are used as education media and in the learning process. In 2005, only three teachers were categorized as advanced in the use of IT, 12 teachers were categorized at an intermediate level, 10 at an elementary level, while 35 teachers had no IT knowledge whatsoever. Peer Coaching changed all that. By 2007, 12 of these teachers reached the advanced level, 28 were at the intermediate level, and 20 at the elementary stage. None of the teachers was illiterate at IT (see chart).



Some teachers integrate IT into the curriculum and the Internet has become a compulsory reference in the teaching-learning process. E-mailing is now a common practice in communications between teachers and students.

This progress has impacted beyond the walls of Ponorogo's Bakti Senior High, as the school has also been facilitating teacher training in other surrounding schools.

For more information, contact Ananta Gondomono at anantago@microsoft.com

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Microsoft New Zealand Partners with MARVIN to Launch Interactive, Educational Software for Children

Microsoft New Zealand recently launched MARVIN, an interactive, software-based, learning tool available to New Zealand schools, at no cost, as part of its Partners in Learning (PiL) program.

The software was created in Australia by the Northern Territory government, local software developers and Microsoft, and is an avatar-based animation tool allowing users to design animations in minutes. By adopting a multi-sensory approach through the integration of real voice, computer generated voice, written text, images, video and Microsoft PowerPoint® presentations, MARVIN allows users to quickly and easily create or customise presentations that accurately reflect the cultural, lingual and social attributes of target audiences.

Microsoft teamed up with avatar-animation specialist and MARVIN creator, J. Easterby-Wood, to facilitate no cost access to MARVIN for schools and students around the world.

"International, national and local studies have shown that the use of avatars in training, education and information services leads to better uptake of information and increased levels of participation by those groups interacting with technology. Avatar animation systems help users to interact with technology and information on a more human level," says J. Easterby-Wood.

"This is especially exciting for us as New Zealand is the first country participating in the PiL project to launch MARVIN. New Zealand is also one of only three countries where students and teachers who excel in developing MARVIN content will have the opportunity to help implement the software in developing nations through Microsoft scholarships."

Dr. Garry Falloon, from the New Zealand Partners in Learning Advisory Group and the University of Waikato, School of Education, will be working with students from schools in Hamilton and the Hawke's Bay on an evaluative study focusing on the impact of MARVIN as an interactive digital learning tool.

Primarily the study, which will commence in mid-to-late April 2008, will aim to identify and describe the nature of student interaction with the software and will focus on how MARVIN supports selected key competencies outlined in the New Zealand Curriculum Framework (2007).

Microsoft Innovative Teacher Scholarships (MInTS) recipient Sharon Harper, from Mt. Maunganui College, will work with Core Education in Christchurch to assist in the development of New Zealand-themed avatars and will be part of the team that gives MARVIN a 'Kiwi' flavour. While the New Zealand-themed characters are still under development, the first avatar called Islander Lady was recently unveiled.

MARVIN has received more than 23 national and international awards including a Gold Medal at the Commonwealth Innovation Awards, the Australian Information Industry Association's Inspiration iAward and eGovernment & Services Award. MARVIN was also a finalist in the United Nations Public Administration Awards.

More information relating to MARVIN can be found at http://www.marvin.com.au/school, or contact admin@marvin.co.nz, or contact Nils Beehre at nzedu@microsoft.com.

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Sustaining a Professional Learning Community Using Peer Coaching

Peer Coaching, supplemented by the use of Microsoft Office Communicator, has helped foster in a new era of professional practice in the Lakeshore School Division in the province of Manitoba in Canada. Not only have these tools supported the effective infusion of technology into classrooms, they have created a "Peer Coaching anyone, anywhere, anytime" paradigm in the school district, located about a 150 kilometers north of Winnipeg, the province's largest city.

"Lakeshore School Division was the first division in Canada to fully implement the Peer Coaching Program, developed by the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology," pointed out Phyllis Hildebrandt, the division's educational leader as Superintendent of Schools. "Like many other educational jurisdictions around the world using Peer Coaching, Lakeshore involved strong teachers with good leadership skills in the training process. They have good technology skills as well, but they are not necessarily experts."

Until the introduction of Peer Coaching, Lakeshore had used a program of school-based technology coordinators who were responsible for the school's "gigabytes" and "gigahertz." Peer Coaching provided an opportunity to work more efficiently on integrating technology into learning, rather than integrating learning into technology - a shift from technology to pedagogy.

"That was a good beginning and we did what we thought we should do," explained Clarke Hagan, the divisional technology coordinator responsible for introducing Peer Coaching to the school division. "We did not plan for or expect what came next."

"The program worked well as our teachers perceived the peer coaches as helpful colleagues rather than experts. However, there were things that our coaches could not easily help their colleagues with. To resolve this, Lakeshore experimented with Microsoft Office Communicator. Office Communicator is a communications client that allows users to communicate easily with each other via instant messaging, voice, and video."

By using this software, coaches across the school division were able to collaborate with coaches, but also teachers from one school could work with coaches across the division vastly increasing the coaches' collaborative and innovative scope.

"The changes that have occurred also have a financial and psychological impact. We are very spread out here and the time and money to get around the school district are in short supply. We hope the helpful experiences with Office Communicator will get people to think more about using it. Lastly, a few kilometers away have now turned to being a few keystrokes away."

For more information about Peer Coaching and/or the use of Microsoft Office Communicator in the Lakeshore School Division, contact Clarke Hagan, Technology Consultant, Lakeshore School Division at haganc@lakeshoresd.mb.ca. For more information about Partners in Learning in Canada, contact Jacinthe Robichaud, Director, Partners in Learning, Microsoft Canada at jacinthr@microsoft.ca.

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2008 APAC Innovative Teachers Forum

"Teaching with technology and new engaging instructional strategies has changed my classroom. My students are actively engaged in learning, there are no discipline problems and teaching is fun." This comment and many others like it were often heard from the 214 participants at the 2008 APAC Innovative Teachers Forum. The forum, which was held in Hanoi from April 8-10, gave innovative educators from 21 countries the opportunity to share learning activities that modeled ways technology can support engaging teaching strategies. Much of the forum focused on these opportunities for sharing.

Challenged by Dr. Miao Fengchen of UNESCO to use education to promote sustainable development, the innovative educators also had the opportunity to collaborate together to create new learning activities that model the ideas Dr. Miao outline. International teams of 7 to 8 teachers created projects on one of the following four themes:

After creating these projects, the teacher teams presented their work to the forum attendees. You can find their projects at the APAC Innovative Teachers Network site: http://apac.innovativeteachers.com/Pages/Welcome.aspx.

In addition to sharing best practices and collaborating to create new innovative learning activities, the participating teachers had a unique opportunity to celebrate their successes. Celebration was a continual theme thoughout the conference and that celebration culminated on the last night of the event at a gala awards banquet.

For information on how you can participate in the Innovative Teachers Forum in your country, contact your local Microsoft Academic program manager. You can find their contact information in the "Resources" section of this newsletter.

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Events

Microsoft Canada Regional Innovative Teachers Conference

Microsoft Canada, Manitoba Science, Technology, Energy and Mines and Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth, and 15 other partners invite educators and others who are interested in innovation in education to the first Microsoft Canada Regional Innovative Teachers Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, May 27-29, 2008.

Interested professionals from around the world are welcome to join educators from across Canada, including the finalists in the Microsoft Canada Innovative Teachers Awards 2008, for a unique "in-basket" innovation experience called "Realizing Your Innovative Potential: Thinking Outside the Blocks."

"We are asking conference participants to bring a problem or issue to solve to the conference," says Jacinthe Robichaud, Director, Partners in Learning, Microsoft Canada. "The event is set up so that the participants will immediately apply the experience, knowledge and strategies they learn at the conference to that problem."

For more information about this event or to access the conference Web site, contact Jacinthe Robichaud at jacinthr@microsoft.com.

The Second Regional Workshop on ICT-integration Training for the Next Generation of Teachers

Faculty and deans from universities from approximately thirty-three universities in ten Asia countries will participate in the Second Regional Workshop for ICT Integration Training in Darussalam, Brunei from May 12-15, 2008. This training is part of the Next Generation of Teachers (Next Gen), a project co-sponsored by UNESCO, Microsoft and Cisco. Next Gen is designed to prepare the next generation of teachers in the Asia Pacific Region to utilize ICT to enhance teaching and learning, and improve integration of ICT into education throughout the region.

Participants from Brunei, Cambodia, the Peoples Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam who participated in the first phase of this training in Kunming in October 2007, will complete their training in the Peer Coaching program. The Peer Coaching program is designed to help teachers develop the skills to create effective, ICT-rich curriculum and the communications and collaboration skills needed to assist other teachers to offer similar learning activities. The workshop will be lead by the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology.

One key aspect of the workshop will be a "Gallery Walk" in which each Teacher Education Institution will outline its plans for implementing Peer Coaching. This activity will give each institution the chance to learn from the successes of others and to discuss common challenges and solutions.

For more information about the Next Gen program, refer to the Next Gen Web site at: http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/teachertraining/next_gen.

For more information about Peer Coaching sponsored by Microsoft, please visit the Asia Pacific Web site at: http://anon.apac.innovativeteachers.com/Pages/Welcome.aspx.

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Resources

APM Corner

Academic Program Managers Contact Information

If you want to contact your country's Microsoft Partners in Learning Academic Program Manager, their name and e-mail address follows.