Innovating in ‘edu-tech’ as a Microsoft Showcase School
As a Microsoft Showcase School, the Aga Khan Academy is maximising its potential to revolutionise teaching and learning through deploying personalised technologies. As part of this network of global quality educational institutions, the Academy is partnering with Microsoft to empower our learning environment, students and staff to enable anywhere, anytime education.
Grade 9, 10 and 11 students took part in ‘Microsoft Imagine Tech Day’ in September 2016, a 6-hour workshop designed to educate students about the way technology shapes the world around us, as well as inspire them to consider technical careers while building their confidence as next-gen developers.
30 selected design students developed their own software products from a panoply of Microsoft’s cutting edge learning technologies such as ‘MVA Microsoft Virtual Academy’, ‘Hands-on Lab’, ‘Build your own game’, ‘Touch Develop’, and ‘Build your own Sway Presentation” during the all-day event.
“It was a golden opportunity for us students to have the representatives of Microsoft giving us an in-depth view of how technology today can be used to enhance our skills and how there is need of just a spark of an idea to achieve what once seemed unrealistic. We saw how using software has become much more user-friendly and how Microsoft over the years has been successful to empower the ideas/dreams of the students through technology. The session made me realize how my ideas that are yet to be achieved are just a touch away from me,” said Ayaan Popatiya, grade 10.
John Franklin, Head of Design and Technology Integration at the Academy, confirmed that students later expressed their great interest to attend other Microsoft inspired events. In anticipation of experts from various fields of digital learning technologies visiting the Academy, they also requested that the same privileges be extended to other Academy students in future. This is a wonderful acknowledgement of our commitment to 21st-century skills and the Academy opportunity to support innovation and learning.
On 1 October 2016, eight grade 6 teachers experienced a Microsoft Proof of Concept workshop in the latest of a series of Showcase teaching experiences that are being delivered simultaneously around India in 23 other schools. The Academy is the only non-government school taking part in this national initiative to maximise student learning outcomes through technology rich classroom environments.
Teachers attending this, and similar future events, will be combining their expertise to generate a new teaching innovation to stimulate and enhance the learning of students across the entire academic range at the Academy and act as a beacon of excellence for schools in India. In the first phase of deployment, elements of Office 365 will form the foundation of a new educational delivery system utilising hybrid/tablet computers in support of the curriculum for grade 6 students.
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