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Microsoft Partners in Learning is a 10-year, $500M global initiative aimed at supporting schools and educators’ use of technology to help every student receive an excellent education and gain the skills they need in work and life. With governments, academic institutions and NGOs, Partners in Learning...

Ok , I know this is an exaggerated statement, but it does apply to the ones I know. It has struck me that many teachers I meet or find in forums and on twitter are geography teachers, doing great stuff with technology. Has any one else discovered this phenomenon? Or do I need to broaden the range of...

No ideas submitted from anybody this week, I suspect it is that time of year with everybody busy writing reports, and not even the lure of the coveted pink Partners in Learning USB stick could tempt you from such an important job. So , I thought that I would remind you of a tool that I have used and...

Stuart and I work with a lot of teachers. We both used to be teachers (Stuart more recently than me). We meet teachers from all over the world and spend a lot of time in schools. Yet there are times when we think we have absolutely no idea what you want and how we can best help you. So we decided to...

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...

I am always amazed at the various professional networks that teachers belong to. When I was teaching, my professional network revolved mainly around the teachers I met on local authority organised training (these don’t happen to the same extent any more ) and a professional subject network, such as the...

Over the past year, the work we have undertaken with teachers and schools has resulted in us creating and collecting a plethora of video resources. We wanted to make sure that we are able share these with as many of you as possible. So we have created our very own YouTube Channel. The UK Partners in...

";" mce_src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/teachers/WindowsLiveWriter/TuneintoScienceTV_A240/video837c2b7c232f.jpg" galleryimg="no"> Those of you who are old enough may remember school science broadcasts, where you sat with the whole class, (often a number of classes) waiting patiently for...

A while ago I blogged about PowerPoint and highlighted some of the great resources that are available, such as Plex for PowerPoint for example. That gives teachers and students absolutely no excuse to create boring and dull presentations and not to avoid the ‘death by PowerPoint’ scenario. Here is...

In Monday’s blog post, I introduced you to the first half of our all-star team of teachers coming to this year’s Innovative Education Forum in Berlin. I hope you’ll take a look at Amy and Jan’s work in more detail on the Partners in Learning Network . Today I’d like to introduce you to David Rogers...

There are two main keyword phrases that people use to find this blog from a web search. These are Autocollage and the Deep Zoom Composer Workshops . So when I was asked at a recent Innovative Teachers workshop, Did I have any guides about Autocollage?, writing an AutoCollage Workshop seemed to be a good...

Happy New Year, and welcome back to the grind - I mean, to school and work and all the rewarding things they have to offer! We have lots of exciting things planned for our blog readers this year, and we can't wait to share them with you. To kick off our first week back, I wanted to make you aware of...

Stuart and I haven’t had a moment to relax since our very successful Innovative Teachers Forum last week. Last Friday, I ran a workshop at a school in Lewisham for school and local authority leaders going through BSF or other significant school transformation projects. And at the crack of dawn (actually...

A new name, a whole new sleek look and a whole new direction. We're talking about the launch of our new Partners in Learning Network . Like all new things it will take a little getting used to. Think of it as like getting a new pair of shoes: they need breaking in and you may get a blister or two, but...

We’re all finally back from Brazil, after an exhausting and very rewarding week. Our week ended on Friday with the event’s gala dinner and teacher awards. Before and after dinner, we were treated to a performance by the local Salvador youth orchestra. The orchestra has brought together some of the less...

Next week is an important one for Microsoft education – and for some teachers and schools in the UK. It’s our biggest event for worldwide teachers and schools: the Innovative Education Forum. Last year, we wrote about this event when we brought two English teachers, Peter and Dan, to Hong Kong. This...

During this Summer, we held a unique event for us, the first Innovative Teachers Summer Camp , where we invited 10 of our innovative teachers to develop some classroom resources. Their task was to begin creating short, 3-5 minute videos, to support teachers and educators in the use of technology in the...

Whilst planning these blog posts the guys at Expression and Blend team at Microsoft have added some great features to Deep Zoom Composer . The application now includes features to add links to images and areas within your deep zoom. If you have been following this series, I described how to create...

Whilst working for Microsoft, I have had some great opportunities. One of the things that has had the biggest impact has been the people I have met. I am convinced that it would have been very unlikely that I would have met or even heard about such people when I was in the classroom. This thought is...

Anybody that has taught knows that certain well-known myths are just not true. For example, there is dinosaur living in a lake in Scotland (actually, I believe this one is true), woman are worse drivers than men and teachers do not work in August. Today I can dispel at least one of these myths: teachers...

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...

In my previous post I described how I see D eep zoom as a resource for the classroom, rather than just as image design tool for web sites. In this post, I am going to explore how easy it is to create your own Deep Zooms and use them as a medium for visual story telling. To take part in this workshop...

I leave Kristen alone for 5 minutes and she has had a blogging frenzy,now I need to catch up after my summer break. This is the first of a series of posts in what I hope will be an informative and constructive workshop, that you would be able to recreate with student and colleagues. As well learn how...

Sometimes I don’t know how I ever found any information before the Internet. Granted, you have to know how to sift through all the garbage that’s out there in order to uncover the quality resources that the Internet has to offer. This can be especially difficult in education, as there is an endless number...

For our second post in this planning series, we’re talking to those of you who organise professional development workshops, twilight sessions, or inset days for other teachers in your school. If this sounds like you, read on! In addition to writing this blog, Stuart and I are a bit of a travelling...