Planning for Next Year (Post #5): Resources for INSET Days

Our colleague Ray wrote a great blog detailing many of the videos and other resources from Microsoft that you can use in your INSET days next year. I’ve included most of the post below; you can read the full post on Ray’s award-winning Schools Blog.

It may be a little early to write this, but I’m aware that some of you will be starting to think (perhaps subconsciously) about starting next term well. And for many schools this will mean the day before the pupils arrive – the INSET day.(Or in-service day, for our US readers - Kristen.) Somebody in your school will be thinking about how to engage, enthuse and inform everybody in your school, and I thought that I’d share a few of the resources we have available.

Videos with a technology theme

1. Shift Happens UK Education Version (6 mins)
   It’s old, it’s been used at many education conferences, but there’ll be some people who will see this for the first time and be wowed.
   And as an alternative, there’s a version made by Sony, for a conference, which doesn’t have the UK Education content, but is much more interactive.
2. The Future of  Productivity (6 mins)
   This video is a look into the future of work, and it does provide an excellent way to introduce a discussion about the skills sets needed by pupils when they leave school – as it illustrates what their working lives might be like. Although it might seem very futuristic, a pupil starting in reception in September will enter the workforce in 2030!
   This is also a great conversation starter if you want to start a “What are we hear for?” debate!
3. The Future Vision Montage (2 mins)
   This video is a montage across a range of different scenarios – the banking, health, manufacturing and retail – looking at the future role of technology. It is another video which is great to start a discussion about the world students are going to be working in.

Videos with an education technology theme

1. Innovative School case study videos (37x4 mins)
   This series of videos, from September last year, features staff, students and parents from four schools from around England, talking about the strategic use of ICT in their schools. There are chapters about change management, the student experience, learning outcomes, parents’ experiences, school administration, the view of their local authority, how ICT fits into their strategy, and the schools’ future aspirations.
   There are case studies from one primary school (Broadclyst) and three secondary schools (New Line learning, Bowring and Shireland).
   In total there are 37 videos to choose from.
2. Surface in the classroom (5 mins)
   This video, filmed at Churchend Primary School in the UK, shows how new technologies like Surface, might be used in the classroom – and the reaction of teachers and pupils.
   I’m not suggesting this because you might be considering a Surface for your school, but to use to open teachers thinking to other ways of using technology in the their lessons.
   (We were quite chuffed to see this video make it to one of only two videos featured on the worldwide  www.microsoft.com/surface homepage)
   There is also a “behind the scenes” video about the production of this.
3. Vision for technology in schools (4 mins)
   This video was produced by the American Microsoft team to demonstrate how today’s technology might be integrated together to deliver a future learning experience.
4. Marsh Academy’s 1:1 story (5 mins)
   If you’re starting a 1:1 laptop scheme for your students this autumn OR are wanting to get a head start on thinking about how you benefit from next spring’s Home Access programme. There are two videos – an overview and the main story. There is also a written case study on Marsh Academy too