Don’t confuse visual search with image search, visual search is about finding information using images rather than a keyword. Bing has number of visual data collections, some of which are ideal for creating learning opportunities for pupils, especially in developing questioning and analytical skills.
To use Visual search, go to www.bing.com and click Visual Search on the menu on the left-hand side. You will be presented with a range of data sets. Some maybe more useful than others, but finding data for pupils to interrogate can be difficult, so all are potentially useful in the classroom. If you change the location setting and use the United States Bing page, you get some US centric data sets and some more unusual ones. For example, Handbags, I didn’t realise there were so many to choose from, with the most expensive being over $2000!
Once you have selected a data set, the left hand side gives you a list of main categories to sort the data, then a list of categories to narrow those groups even further. Combining these categories gives pupils the opportunity to ask and develop some very interesting questions.
So as an example , using the data set of UK Premier Football league players, the question ‘Who is the tallest Goalkeeper to win the most international caps?’. The answer is, of course, ‘Maik Taylor, who plays for Birmingham City’ , click the image and you get a list of websites that relate directly to it.
Now, admittedly knowing who is the tallest most capped Goalkeeper or the cost of the most expensive handbag, is perhaps not the knowledge we feel our pupils need to acquire. But, the focus here is not knowledge acquisition, but the developing questioning skills.
Visual search is a great environment in which to allow pupils to create imaginative questions, that they genuinely do not know the answer to. Such activity will influence how pupils think about their questions and keywords in their everyday search activities, using more traditional search engines.
Here are two quick ideas around Visual search :-
-Use Visual Search as an alternative or support to creating and interrogating database lessons plans and schemes of work. -Get your pupils to create a 'Who wants to be a millionare?' type game, with them devising the questions.
-Use Visual Search as an alternative or support to creating and interrogating database lessons plans and schemes of work.
-Get your pupils to create a 'Who wants to be a millionare?' type game, with them devising the questions.
Have a look at Bing Visual search and let us know if you have an great ways of using it in the classroom. Also, why not share with us some of the most imaginative questions it has prompted you to ask.
Here is my favourite, ‘In the periodic table, which element found in the human body is used in anti-dandruff shampoo?’
You can use Bing Visual search to find the answer.
So we decided to find out. With our marketing colleague Ray, we employed a research organisation to help us survey real, live teachers to find out what you want from Microsoft and how we can create and -- more importantly, we learned -- organise resources and materials to meet your needs.
We learned a great deal from these interview results; Ray blogged about his key learning already (network managers and teachers have a relationship problem). Here are a few things we took away from this research.
- Teachers aren’t just teachers. You’re English teachers or French teachers or geography teachers or science teachers, and you teach primary or year 7 or S1, and so forth.
- You want resources that will fit what you need when you need it.
- You want to be able to find these resources quickly and easily. If you can’t see a link to what you want on a site’s homepage, you move on.
- You like web sites and content repositories with reviews of content, so that you can see what other people liked and what is worth using.
- You have to be able to edit whatever content you download to fit your specific needs.
- And…you don’t have enough time to do even the things you have to do, much less start anything new (this one we knew).
What can we do about all of this? For a start, we’re going to be writing shorter blog posts. (Starting with the next one, I promise.)
We’re also reorganizing both the blog and the Partners in Learning Network so that you can find what you want a bit more easily.
And, we’re introducing something new for the next few weeks in the blog – called Subject Snacks (once again, we’re really not marketers…). We hope these will encourage more of you to share you ideas of how you use technology to teach your specific subjects.
What do you think – was our research right? Or are we completely off the mark? Let us know!
posted on KristenW’s behalf
Over the next week, we are moving the thousands of blogs that run on the blogs.msdn.com site over to a completely new web platform, which will give us lots of new ways of keeping in touch. We’ve had a trial run already, and it seems to be pretty smooth.
However, whilst the change is happening, there are a couple of things you need to know about:
We’ve also decided that we’re going to take the opportunity, whilst the builders are in, to revamp the site a little, to make it look a little nicer too. When we come back, on Monday 24th May, you’ll hopefully notice the difference, and I’m sure you’ll be good enough to rush in with your thoughts and comments.
Ben, Kristen, Stuart, Mark and I, who all blog for the UK Education team, are poring over our colour charts. To be honest, everybody’s choice is being influenced by their own life.
We’ll just have to see decide on something we get to next weekend
And just think – we’ll have hopefully stored up a few interesting blog posts for you to read in seven days.
We really welcome comments and these thoughts from Steve McCorquodale, Principal Education Consultant at European Electronique, add to the mix on thinking about the question ‘ What do we mean by a teacher’s practice?’
You can read more comments like this here
Stuart, as someone who spends a lot of time trying to develop teachers use of ICT in teaching and learning I found your post particularly interesting and thought provoking. There are a myriad of different ways to answer you question and some of it goes right back to why we teach in the first place. I'm a former primary practitioner and I went into teaching because I wanted to help children learn. I taught all of the Primary age range. Young and idealistic I tried some things and some of them worked and some of them failed. When things failed I agonised over how to make sure that they succeeded next time round. This sometimes meant looking at how to teach a concept or skill more effectively, sometimes meant using different resources, sometimes meant asking advice of colleagues. When the teaching succeeded I had a big grin on my face in the staff room and often couldn't wait to tell someone abut what I'd done. I'm sure others will read this and see something of themselves in this early teaching experience. But don't all teachers do this? Isn't that how it works? Maybe it does for some but it does not for all. But why doesn't it work for all? And why does it start out like that but quickly fall into a more routine like existence? What you have written about practice makes perfect sense to me. It's a number of different actions, facilitation, lecturing, demonstration and so on. It's also assessing and evaluating; understanding where learners go next - it's a plethora of teaching aspects all of them requiring deep understanding. Developing effective practice in a formal setting starts with teacher training. When I think back to my college days they were wholly inadequate at preparing me for the classroom in a whole variety of ways. They seemed obsessed with understanding teaching concepts within subjects. Going into a classroom for the first time felt like driving a Formula One motor racing vehicle after spending 6 months looking at diagrams of how a piston worked. i.e. a million miles away from the reality! Developing effective practice covers a number of areas but it requires reflection the need to improve at the very heart. Something I never felt was important at teacher training. reflection and a focus on improvement are things I demonstrated by default not because I was encouraged or taught about their value or importance. My own view is that "reflection" is key. The people I experience being successful with ICT are reflective. They are constantly looking at ways of improving what they say and what they use in teaching situations in order to develop learning. By constantly I mean pretty much every thing they do and every minute of the day. They reflect on what went right and what went wrong as lessons progress, after lessons and long after lessons take place. Very often it is a mindset and not learned behaviour. They often refer to learners being at the very heart of everything they do as well and that is why they are constantly striving to improve their practice. I know plenty of teachers who say that learners are at the heart of what they do but they are just empty words. Schools and teaching by their very nature are very busy and overloaded and they do not naturally allow for reflection or the strive for individual improvement. Amazingly I still walk into schools with no CPD plan for staff. With no CPD how can staff improve? If they are not afforded time to develop a deep understanding of the aspects of teaching; if they do not sit down in a professional environment with a view to reflect how can practice develop? 21st century learning has best been described, for me anyway, by Daniel Pink's book "A Whole New Mind". In part of the book he refers to the change from the information age to the "Conceptual Age". We are in an age where information is at our fingertips. What is important is what we do with it so creativity, design, storytelling and making, inventiveness, collaboration and empathy. It's about how we communicate our ideas and how inventive those ideas are. If Pink is to be believed then these skills are important as are ICT tools that develop these skills and concepts. If this is the case just how many of our teachers in the UK agree, believe or indeed are able to recognise this and teach to support learners in this world? If you are not reflecting on the world you live in and if you have no concept of the fact that ICT is a part of that; or if you are not determined to improve to the point where the learners are getting the very best from you then it isn't hard to see what problems thus ensue.
Stuart, as someone who spends a lot of time trying to develop teachers use of ICT in teaching and learning I found your post particularly interesting and thought provoking.
There are a myriad of different ways to answer you question and some of it goes right back to why we teach in the first place. I'm a former primary practitioner and I went into teaching because I wanted to help children learn. I taught all of the Primary age range. Young and idealistic I tried some things and some of them worked and some of them failed. When things failed I agonised over how to make sure that they succeeded next time round. This sometimes meant looking at how to teach a concept or skill more effectively, sometimes meant using different resources, sometimes meant asking advice of colleagues. When the teaching succeeded I had a big grin on my face in the staff room and often couldn't wait to tell someone abut what I'd done.
I'm sure others will read this and see something of themselves in this early teaching experience. But don't all teachers do this? Isn't that how it works? Maybe it does for some but it does not for all. But why doesn't it work for all? And why does it start out like that but quickly fall into a more routine like existence?
What you have written about practice makes perfect sense to me. It's a number of different actions, facilitation, lecturing, demonstration and so on. It's also assessing and evaluating; understanding where learners go next - it's a plethora of teaching aspects all of them requiring deep understanding.
Developing effective practice in a formal setting starts with teacher training. When I think back to my college days they were wholly inadequate at preparing me for the classroom in a whole variety of ways. They seemed obsessed with understanding teaching concepts within subjects. Going into a classroom for the first time felt like driving a Formula One motor racing vehicle after spending 6 months looking at diagrams of how a piston worked. i.e. a million miles away from the reality!
Developing effective practice covers a number of areas but it requires reflection the need to improve at the very heart. Something I never felt was important at teacher training. reflection and a focus on improvement are things I demonstrated by default not because I was encouraged or taught about their value or importance.
My own view is that "reflection" is key. The people I experience being successful with ICT are reflective. They are constantly looking at ways of improving what they say and what they use in teaching situations in order to develop learning. By constantly I mean pretty much every thing they do and every minute of the day. They reflect on what went right and what went wrong as lessons progress, after lessons and long after lessons take place. Very often it is a mindset and not learned behaviour.
They often refer to learners being at the very heart of everything they do as well and that is why they are constantly striving to improve their practice. I know plenty of teachers who say that learners are at the heart of what they do but they are just empty words.
Schools and teaching by their very nature are very busy and overloaded and they do not naturally allow for reflection or the strive for individual improvement. Amazingly I still walk into schools with no CPD plan for staff. With no CPD how can staff improve? If they are not afforded time to develop a deep understanding of the aspects of teaching; if they do not sit down in a professional environment with a view to reflect how can practice develop?
21st century learning has best been described, for me anyway, by Daniel Pink's book "A Whole New Mind". In part of the book he refers to the change from the information age to the "Conceptual Age". We are in an age where information is at our fingertips. What is important is what we do with it so creativity, design, storytelling and making, inventiveness, collaboration and empathy. It's about how we communicate our ideas and how inventive those ideas are. If Pink is to be believed then these skills are important as are ICT tools that develop these skills and concepts. If this is the case just how many of our teachers in the UK agree, believe or indeed are able to recognise this and teach to support learners in this world?
If you are not reflecting on the world you live in and if you have no concept of the fact that ICT is a part of that; or if you are not determined to improve to the point where the learners are getting the very best from you then it isn't hard to see what problems thus ensue.
Thanks Steve, the much coveted Partners in Learning Network USB memory stick is on its way to you. Would anybody else like to add any further thoughts?
On a recent car journey with Kristen, I was amazed at her multi-tasking ability to drive fast, navigate the M25, brake late, drink coffee and discuss her Doctorate research. Now, I am honestly really interested her research findings at the best of times, and maybe it was my fear as a nervous passenger, but one question she asked, has stuck with me. I have been trying to think of answer ever since. I thought I would share it with you, in the hope I could get some answers. Her question was ‘What do we mean by a Teacher’s practice?’.
Thinking for a moment, all I could come up with was, a Teacher’s practice is what a teacher does everyday with their pupils. But, that what does that mean? What is it as Teachers we really do? Do we instruct, demonstrate, teach, facilitate, guide, direct, all of these and more? or is it something else? I never realised how important a question this is.But, if we want to create and support professional development, we need to identify what it is that professional development will change.
From my own experience, official development of my own practice came about as a result of outside pressures, such as OFSTED inspection or policy changes at local authority level. It was never as a result my own practice needs. Bizarrely enough, my own practice was given top marks in my school inspection lesson observations, so did that mean my practice was ‘perfect’? If so why did the work I did with the Partners in Learning Network have such an impact on what I did every day in the classroom?
So here are some questions that I would welcome some insight on.
Please post your comments here on this blog or email me at v-sball@microsoft.com. As a special added incentive, I'll send the first 25 people to respond an Innovative Teachers USB stick.
I will happily pass your comments on to Kristen, so the next time we travel together by car, the conversation might distract me enough to stop my right leg twitching with imaginary braking every five minutes!
I don’t know about all of you, but Stuart and I had a lovely Friday, driving from our offices in Reading to Margate, Kent to deliver a car full of Stone Netbooks to Nicki Maddams, our Innovid video contest winner.
We met Nicki’s head teacher Andy Somers (pictured here with Stuart, Nicki and me) and other members of staff, and we got to see Nicki’s classroom. She was keen to take one of the netbooks home over the weekend to have a play with it, and the staff all had ideas of how to make the best use of the computers for the school.
More information about Nicki and the contest can be found in an article on Merlin John’s blog.
During our long drive to and from Hartsdown Technology College (once Stuart forced me to turn off the continuous loop of the Glee soundtrack), we had lots of time for brainstorming about this blog and our plans for the Innovative Teachers Programme in the coming months. We were really happy with the results of the Innovid contest, and we want to provide more opportunities like this for all of you. Watch this space for updates!
Kristen and I are quite excited about the launch of Office 2010 (I think we need to get out more!). We have gathered some resources from our colleague Ray Fleming who writes the UK Schools Blog; he and his team have been busy creating some entertaining videos with suggestions of how they think features of Office 2010 could be used in the classroom. Along with an Overview and Product Guide, these provide a great way to introduce the new features, and illustrate that the changes will not impact negatively on current teaching and learning resources. The new features might give some ideas of how current resources can be enhanced and opportunities developed to create new ones.
This is what we're really interested in -- what great learning opportunities will teachers and students be able to create with these new features? (We're especially excited about the Office Web Apps.) We will be looking for, developing and sharing these ideas throughout next year as part of the Partners in Learning Network programme. In the meantime, we think these guides will help plant the seeds of those ideas for your teaching.
As yet, we do not have an education-specific video for Office Web Apps. As soon as we receive one we will let you know.
A Quick Look at PowerPoint 2010 from UK Education on Vimeo.
A Quick Look at OneNote 2010 from UK Education on Vimeo.
A Quick Look at Excel 2010 from UK Education on Vimeo.
A Quick Look at Word 2010 from UK Education on Vimeo.
Last month I wrote a blog post about Mouse Mischief , unfortunately it appeared on the day they removed the beta version, Whoops! But, I am really pleased to announce that the full version is now available to download for free at www.microsoft.com/mousemischief
If you haven’t read my last post and don’t know what Mouse Mischief is, then here is a brief summary. Mouse Mischief is an add-in that Microsoft makes available free of charge, and that allows teachers who use Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 to make interactive presentations. With Mouse Mischief, teachers can add multiple choice questions to their presentations, and large groups of students can answer the questions using mice connected to the teacher’s PC.
Mouse Mischief not only gives students the ability to engage, have fun, and learn in new, interactive ways, but it also provides teachers with a more affordable alternative to purchasing expensive student response systems, commonly known as clickers, by letting students use affordable wired or wireless USB mice that their school already own