The Classroom of the Future
A story of wholesome tools.
In a recent local gathering with edtech folk my peers from other districts talked about what they do to support digital learning for their students. The conversation made me think about the perfect recipe, if one exists, to provide a holistic digital learning experience. We are starting to see integrated solutions being used with logic, to create a fully immersed and multi-faceted digitally interactive environment for learning. As I listened to my peers still talking about supporting the classroom with digital tools, it was interesting to hear some advocating for Google classroom and tools, boasting over it being free, and having integrated app store and plug-ins, as opposed to Office 365 solutions and its offerings. I guess Microsoft did indeed make Office 365 the best kept secret, as one of our Microsoft partners was saying. So it dawned on me that, while I was extremely fortunate to work on so many new developments that educated my digital tool selection choices (like Single Sign On integration and services, app integration via standards, Google implementations with Microsoft authentication, cross-platform and cross-device functionality, analytics, and best of all, school and classroom implementation), many of my peers may not have had the same exposure. Since I’m a firm believer that “if you care, you share”, and as many school districts use Office 365, it only made sense to help “share out loud” Microsoft’s best kept secret - the classroom of the future. There are far too many pieces of the puzzle to chat about, so I’ll only tackle five of the least known or overlooked features that can save districts money, time, and a lot of hassle. Device agnostic, the choices below can help teachers and students work productively together in a safe environment.
1. Classroom
No brainer - teachers need inclusive solutions with integrated features, and classroom brings all the tools we’ve known forever, plus organization. Probably the newest best kept secret, Microsoft Classroom is free and includes OneNote Class Notebook add-on; it allows you to build and share resources for your students, distribute assignments easily to each student in your class, deploy and grade assignments via Forms, and have access to all the productivity tools your students are already knowledgeable with (presentations type of your choice, static with PPT or dynamic with Sway, editing, spreadsheets, etc).
2. Analytics
To complement the learning suite, Power BI gives the teachers a handy tool to zone in on their students instantly. With a minimal learning curve (think Excel with drag-n-drop data templates powered by file upload) it’s the perfect tool to visualize student progress. Not a plug-in, it also ensures that data stays safe in your account, and you don’t have to worry about third party Data Sharing Agreements or if your Legal department will banish you from using digital tools forever. 3. Groups
Professional Learning Community (PLC) Groups provides a dedicated space for our shared files, with automatic group mail merge, a calendar that can be merged into your regular one or kept separate, task tracking, and plenty of collaboration without the need to meet face-to-face. This is a great way for grade level or subject specific groups to keep track of their work together and know who is responsible for what. Groups is a great combination between google calendar, Teamwork, and the usual O365 tool set which makes life so much easier. This goes to one of my principals who was desperately trying to get her staff to be more accountable and responsive to deadlines. And to provide the interactivity of resources, you can use connectors to plug in applet services (like twitter feeds) these are available by default when you navigate to any Group from Outlook on the web.
4. SSO
To those who have experienced the pain of integrating apps, this will be a breath of fresh air: Microsoft School Data Sync (SDS) provides single sign on/rostering services via, among other options, IMS' Learning Tools Interoperability. SSO can be deployed via CSV, OneRoster, or via already contracted SSO services like Clever or similar, however, the real value of the new classroom of the future is that it enables systems to communicate via direct integrations. A teacher can also use school data sync directly for their classroom with limited access to apps - if they don't have the required licenses in Office 365, School Data Sync will still create their profile, but Classroom will not finish provisioning properly for them for any apps they aren't licensed to use. 5. Data Encryption Office 365 Message Encryption is an online service that’s built on Microsoft Azure Rights Management. For many school districts encryption is ideal, but difficult to achieve, while at the same time the confidentiality practices used by staff and teachers are less than established, with student information still floating around via emails or exposed in other environments. Microsoft makes encryption easy, and even recipients who don’t have a Microsoft account—or who have one but aren’t logged into it—can view their encrypted message using a one-time passcode. The other security features that make districts opt to use Microsoft credentials when integrating Google and other platforms include no mining for advertising purposes, ability to manage privacy settings, and encryption at rest and in transit.
As a little bonus, here’s a tool that I’ve been using forever, and now lives in my outlook, Skype. We all agree that it’s wonderful to have experts in class, and Skype in the classroom gives teachers the chance to link to professionals from various fields, authors, or even other classes around the world. Districts that have Office 365 services can enable Skype for business and provide their teachers and staff with an integrated solution that brings fluid video, interactive tools like whiteboards and polls, alongside chats and screenshares for up to 250 people. What a great way to bring your PLCs together across districts or states!
And last but not least, while not an O365 tool, coding has been on every educator’s mind. The Microsoft offerings grow with the students, from tools like Kodu, or a family favorite, Minecraft for Edu, to full blown CS courses where you can have the help of TEALS, a Microsoft subsidiary that provide co-teaching support to teachers attempting CS courses. This one goes to my CS teachers with whom I spent many a days drafting CS curriculum to create innovative courses. Now you can have a professional in your class going with you through the weeds and helping troubleshoot along the way. If we think of digital learning as a well-rounded process that should come together and be trans-platform and safe for our students, Office 365 delivers.