Guest post by Joskos, one of our Microsoft Bett 2013 partners
Why visitors should attend the Joskos stand?
Joskos Solutions is a single provider of ICT solutions and services within the education sector. We deploy and support all levels of ICT infrastructure within schools, from the smallest infant school to large academy and university networks. Since 1999, our experience in education has allowed us to incorporate the latest technologies into our solutions, and continues to enable us to provide high quality strategic support and guidance to schools.
Customer feedback consistently demonstrates that we are committed to helping them to achieve their vision – a commitment that led to Joskos winning the 2012 BETT Award for ICT Service and Support, and being shortlisted for the same award again in 2013. We have also been shortlisted for the 2013 BETT Award for ICT Company of the Year in the £1m to £3m turnover category.
With the huge changes that are currently sweeping the technological landscape, it’s more important than ever for schools to be well-informed when deciding on how to improve teaching and learning through their ICT infrastructure - while staying within their increasingly squeezed budgets.
At BETT 2013, Joskos’ technical and educational experts will be on stand B270, adjacent to the Microsoft stand, and will be talking to visitors about exciting new developments that can have a huge impact on teaching and learning within schools.
One of the most powerful developments is the launch of Windows 8, which will revolutionise the use of ICT, both within the classroom and beyond. Technology is an enabler that, when combined with good learning and teaching, has the power to be truly transformational. Windows 8 helps to release that power, putting resources at the fingertips of learners and helping them to interact with technology in a seamless and intuitive way.
We will be showcasing a range of new tablet devices that run Windows 8, and our technical experts will explain to visitors how the Windows 8 environment can be adapted for their school. With school budgets increasingly being squeezed, we will show how innovations like Windows To Go can be used both to prolong the life of existing equipment within schools, but can also enable a manageable and secure Bring Your Own Device strategy within schools.
Increasingly schools are staring to explore the power of the cloud, and developments such as Microsoft’s Office 365 for education provide powerful tools that all schools can take advantage of. We will talk to visitors about how they can take advantage of cloud storage and online applications, enabling them to extend learning opportunities outside the confines of their physical school buildings. For schools keen to bridge the digital divide, Office 365 for education enables learners to access world standard office applications via the web, regardless of the age or specifications of their own PC. This ensures that no learner is disadvantaged by equipment available to them outside school.
We believe that young people should be able to use the best and most appropriate technologies wherever possible. By doing so they will be better prepared for an increasingly competitive and global workforce. Microsoft’s best of breed software ensures that this is possible and we are proud to be working in partnership at BETT 2013.
Guest post by ELearningforce, one of our Microsoft Bett 2013 partners
During BETT 2013 ElearningForce International will be running presentation 4 times a day on SharePointLMS, Parent Access Portal, Office 365 Integration and our mobile solutions for Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad and Android devices.
The presentations are held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday @ 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm and Saturday @ 11am and 1pm at our stand F274 just down the aisle from the Microsoft Stand.
During the demonstrations ElearningForce will show the benefits running a Virtual Learning Environment based on the Microsoft stack and using SharePoint and SharePointLMS to create a true Learning Environment for their pupils and staff.
After each of the presentations you can enter a draw(*) with the chance to win a perpetual SharePointLMS License for up to 200 pupils including one month free support to get you started! Winners will be notified and are announced on our Website. Over the course of BETT 2013 ElearningForce UK will be giving away a total of over £75,000 in software licenses! Make sure you visit us! (*Terms & Conditions apply).
SharePointLMS is the fundamental building block for your Learning Environment which extends way past the VLE element alone. Using SharePoint as your platform of choice you can create Intranet Portals for your pupils, their parents as well as staff. You can extend this further by adding your Public website creating a single solution, single logon and a fantastic user experience for all. No longer will your pupils, staff and parents need to go and logon to separate solutions.
So what is SharePointLMS? SharePointLMS is a tool that makes learning simple and affordable.
As a teacher you can easily:
· organise your materials
· create tests and assignments
· create and track lesson progress
· coordinate, collaborate and much more
With SharePointLMS you get new possibilities to structure your classes and deliver learning materials to your pupils and at the same time you have access to tracking and reporting tools for effortless evaluation of the individual pupils.
Our new Education Template will provide even the youngest of pupils with a simple and easy to use interface with only the necessary items show. As a teacher you can create your own lessons, add videos, quizzes as well as complete lesson packages provided by many of the current publishers using the SCORM standard. All results are recorded in the Gradebook.
Through our Parent Access Portal parents can see how their children are performing as individuals and compared to the class average, they can see what homework assignments they need to complete and when, what school announcements and events are made and in general anything the school would like to share with the parents.
A technical innovation powered by Microsoft Windows Azure platform led by The University of Sheffield
The advancement in cloud services now offers Universities and research groups access to an unparalleled level of technological power. The University of Sheffield will play host this event to demonstrate the Supply Chain Environmental Analysis Tool (SCEnAT), an innovative application powered by Windows Azure. The event will also celebrate the launch of the Microsoft and Janet document pack.
This event is being supported by the University of Sheffield, Microsoft, Janet and Shaping Cloud.
Register now at: http://scenat.eventbrite.com
Agenda:
Wednesday 23rd January 2013 Location: Alfred Denny Building, The University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN.
09.45 – 10.15 Registration (Tea / Coffee)
10.15 – 10.20 Welcome
10.20 – 10.40 Supply Chain Environmental Analysis Tool - Prof. Lenny Koh Founder of the LSCM Research Centre, University of Sheffield
10.40 – 11.00 Why Cloud Was The Perfect Fit For SCEnAT - Carlos Oliveira Managing Director, Shaping Cloud
11.10 – 11.30 Microsoft Cloud Services For Education - Mark McManus Cloud Services Business Manager, Microsoft
11.30 – 11.50 Janet’s document pack - Tony Lewis Principle Advisor, JANET
11.50 – 12.20 Panel Discussion
12.20 – 13.20 Close, Lunch & Networking
Professor Lenny Koh Director of The University of Sheffield Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM) Research Centre will speak about SCEnAT and its benefits to users.
Carlos Oliveira, Managing Director of Shaping Cloud will discuss the development of the tool and benefits of utilising the technology.
Mark McManus, Cloud Services Business Manager at Microsoft will talk about the Windows Azure platform and discuss the benefits to Universities and research groups.
Tony Lewis of Janet will conclude the event by discussing the exclusive contractual amendments and due diligence available to research and education institutions in the form of the Janet document pack.
Today has seen another three lucky winners of our Microsoft Treasure Trail competition. The prizes included an Xbox, Ergo Ultrabook and Toshiba Ultrabook, kindly donated by our partners Joskos, Ergo and European Electronique.
The prizes were presented by Microsoft’s Vice President for Education, Anthony Salicto, who also opened the show with Vince Cable yesterday at the Bett Arena.
You can win more prizes tomorrow including notebooks and a Promethean ActivExpression. Just visit our stand E270, pick up a flyer then get it stamped by our participating partners, before returning it to our stand. The draw will happen at our Learn Live theatre at the 4pm session – New Era for Digital Learning.
Here are today’s happy winners with Anthony Salcito and Mark McManus from Microsoft.
Microsoft IT Academy (ITA) Program provides students with the technology skills they need to be successful in education and a career. With Microsoft Certification, students can validate those skills and pursue a career path in business or technology. A full overview of the IT Academy Certification can be seen below. The roadmap can also be downloaded via our SlideShare account.
If you have any questions about IT Academy, pop over to our stand at Bett 2013 (D270 & E270) and say hi.
At Bett 2013, our Microsoft Learn Live Theatre will be host for sessions delivered by teachers, network managers and Microsoft staff to reveal how technology can make a real difference within your institution.
David Rogers from the Priory School will be delivering one of the sessions at Bett 2013 at our Microsoft Learn Live theatre titled Using devices to empower students (14:00 and 17:30 Wednesday – Friday and 13:30 on Saturday).
The session will cover OneNote, SkyDrive and free Microsoft Tools to enable young people to capture, share and collaborate.
Here’s a bit more information about David and his Bett 2013 session at the Microsoft Learn Live Theatre.
Using devices to empower students
I’m David Rogers and I’m the Professional Tutor and Curriculum Leader of Geography at Priory School in Portsmouth. My role enables me to facilitate and lead the CPD of our teaching staff, which is where Partners in Learning; Windows in the Classroom and Teaching with Technology have been very useful.
As a geographer, I’m well known for my ‘naughty’ guerrilla style of teaching. This simply has the empowerment of young people at its core: taking student voice and acting upon it – resulting in changes. Recent examples of this include; a mobile device learning policy and getting students, teachers and artists together to co-construct and team teach lessons that utilise technology, across the curriculum.
I’ve been involved with Partners in Learning since 2009 when my Twitter project got through to the Regional Forum in Berlin so I’m really excited to be able to speak at Bett 2013 on behalf of Microsoft. My talk will present a selection of stories from my school that demonstrate how using Microsoft tools and mobile devices has enabled our students to capture, share and collaborate.
I’ll talk about Olympic Geocaching, SkyDrive and TAG and how One Note has been used to develop students’ sense of place and produce detailed case studies.
Of course, there are two core values that underpin these stories:
· The use of technology is only appropriate when it is underpinned by sound learning objectives and strong pedagogy; and
· We use what we have and what our students are most familiar with, only we use it better.
I’m looking forward to sharing my story with you.
Twitter: @davidErogers
Blog: www.davidrogers.org.uk
You can register here for Bett 2013.
Full schedule details for the Microsoft Learn Live Theatre can be seen here.
Guest post by Civica, one of our Microsoft Bett 2013 partners
Through its team of E Learning Consultants, Civica has built one of the most experienced SharePoint in Education services and is ideally placed to support schools and academies with their learning platform.
Civica has a great wealth of experience in supporting schools to use SharePoint technologies to enable effective and engaging learning to take place and also to underpin the administration and management of schools; for example room booking systems, the recording and tracking of lesson observations or the automation of the options process for staff, students and parents.
Come and talk to us about what you want to do in your school with your SharePoint platform and see some inspiring examples of how we’ve used SharePoint for connecting people, systems and technologies to enhance learning and teaching. And find out about our SharePoint service, packed full of ideas, free web tools, webinars and online resources to ensure that your Learning Platform gets fully embedded into the life of your school.
Office 365 for education provides
> secure, anywhere access to email and calendars
> Office Web Apps
> instant messaging
> conferencing
> collaboration and file sharing
> a school web site
All schools that migrate to, or sign up for, the new Office 365 for education service (the replacement for Live@Edu) will get access to many new features, in particular the power of built- in SharePoint, giving fantastic opportunities for collaboration and sharing.
We’ll have E learning advisers on hand to discuss how you can use these tools – you may want a free public facing website for instance or discuss how you could use conferencing to deliver lessons online.
All of the features in Office 365 are free with Education licensing and we’ll show you how to make the most of them in your context.
Civica has now also fully embedded Office 365 into CloudBase, its own SharePoint Learning Platform, and we can provide you with a site that is fully aligned to your school priorities, facilitates parental engagement and delivers the ideal platform to bring learning to life for your students.
Our E learning team will show you how we’ve used CloudBase. They all have recent classroom experience covering a variety of subjects and educational areas of interest. All are currently engaged in helping schools and teachers to make the most of whatever technology is available to them, and their work is underpinned by a genuine drive to help transform learning for students.
You’ll see examples of custom- designed lesson observation tools, of sites designed by students and for students, of virtual staffrooms that give you all you need when you log on at the beginning of the school day to inform and prepare you for the day ahead.
Come and see us first before you sign up to anything or spend any money at Bett 2013.
Civica’s DigiPlan is a systematic approach to ICT planning and development. It helps you to deliver your whole school vision and achieve your goals, providing an effective approach to ICT project management.
It will provide you with
· A full analysis of staff skills and CPD requirements
· An understanding of stakeholders experiences of using ICT
· A detailed report and Action Plan providing clear direction for the Academic year ahead
· A completed NAACE Self Review Framework
· A clear strategy for on-going developments
Guest post by European Electronique, one of our Microsoft Bett 2013 partners
Bett 2013 will start an exciting new year for both European Electronique and our customers with the launch of a new range of innovative products and services. Building on last year’s mobility and client to cloud theme this year will see the official launch of ‘freedom’ the definitive cloud service for education. Making the most of readily available services from the world’s leading technology company Microsoft and combining this with market leading cloud applications and an approach to integration that maximises the use of the web and Windows 8 whilst minimising cost, and providing ultimate flexibility, ‘freedom’ will meet the exacting demands of schools, academies, free schools, UTC’s and even colleges of Further Education.
Now that most educators have embraced a strategy that integrates a range of cloud based services the discussion has moved to ‘how’ from ‘when’. To help in the next stage of this journey and to help bridge some of the complex issues that need to be addressed we are delighted to be running a series of customer led workshops, including; Steve Bolingbrook MD Kunskapsskolan ~ the critical importance of ICT in the Swedish model; James Penny ICT Director Harris Federation ~ Steps to building your own cloud service; Sarah Gore Chair West London Free School ~ The ICT decision is critical to sustainability. Guest speakers from Microsoft will also be presenting on the latest developments including Office 365, Azure and Windows 8 explaining how when combined they deliver a compelling new ways of learning and teaching.
Maximising the impact of your ICT investment will also be a major focus and the show will also see the launch of the EE educator programme. Experts will be on hand and able to advise on a wide range of topics from integrating Windows 8, Windows RT and other devices into the curriculum through to the practicalities of running student purchase schemes to the introduction in game based learning into the classroom. To give practical help in these areas we will be running a series of lunch time workshops on BYOD schemes, wireless networking and hands on sessions.
The stand will also showcase the latest innovations in wireless, storage and device technologies from the world’s leading manufacturers.
Guest post by Anthony Nneke
I am one of the School Business Managers here at Microsoft.
I am keen to advise you of forthcoming webinars that I am organising with our respective Partners. These will assist you in device and services information as well as serve as an aid for your planning of existing and forthcoming projects.
Webinars
January
· Thursday 17th January at 1pm-1.45pm, Lync in Schools, Learn how Lync can be used as a Unified Communications platform, through collaborative interaction, accessible from anywhere (please email, enquiry.uk@damovo.com )
· Tuesday 22nd January 12-1pm, Office 365 & IT Academy, Take a look at our cloud service and online collaboration tools and Microsoft certifications
· Thursday 24th January, 12-1pm, Office 365 & IT Academy, Take look at our cloud service and online collaboration tools and Microsoft certifications
· Monday 28th January, 12-12.45pm, XP-Windows 8 Migration A discussion of the operating system roadmap to upgrade and why
February
· Monday 4th February 12-1pm, “Microsoft Virtualisation in Schools” We will be discussing the benefits of Virtualisations in schools
· Tuesday 5th February at 12-1pm , “Lync in Schools”, Learn how Lync can be used as a Unified Communications platform, through collaborative interaction, accessible from anywhere
· Wednesday 6th February at 12-1pm, Lync in Schools , Learn how Lync can be used as a Unified Communications platform, through collaborative interaction, accessible from anywhere
· Friday 8th February, 12-1pm, IT Academy Learn how this Membership program enables schools to provide Microsoft Qualifications for their IT Professionals, Teachers and their Students
· Wednesday 13th February 12-1pm , “System Center 2012 in Schools” Take a look at how System Center can transform your IT Infrastructure
· Thursday 14th February 2013, 12-1pm, “Office 365 ” Take a look at our cloud service and online collaboration tools, accessible anywhere and anytime
· Thursday 21st February, 12-1pm, “Microsoft Windows Server 2012 in Schools” Take a look at Windows Server 2012 and Virtualisation with Hyper V
Event
Friday 8th February, 9.30am -12.45pm Cloud Computing in Education, To register please click here http://www.nviron.co.uk/events/bett-show-update/
How to Join the online Webinars (unless stated to Register)
Simply click Join Lync meeting, on the day of your respective webinar interest below, to Join the Webinar you also have a further option to join by phone , 01189093000. Should you join by phone , you will be asked to dial the respective Conference ID: 75586122. If you do not have Lync client installed on your respective device you can simply download the Lync Client to join the respective webinars, please click here
Further Contact
If there are other services you would like to know more about or further info on any of the above please email educationuk@microsoft.com
You can also email to add any comments of the great experiences you are having with our services, or for any suggestions relating to subject matter of future webinars/events.
Guest post by Hodder Education, one of our Microsoft Bett 2013 partners
You’ll find us showcasing our range of digital resources on Stand B150.
At Hodder Education our aim is to support you and your students, giving you the tools to plan and deliver the teaching you really want to. Dynamic Learning is an online subscription solution that makes things easier with three distinct product strands:
1: Teaching and Learning - Outstanding content and lessons for your VLE
2: Question Practice - Focused and flexible assessment preparation throughout the year to boost students’ grades
3: eTextbooks - Online access to eTextbooks from the UK's biggest provider of eTextbooks for education
Dynamic Learning includes over 200 products across 29 subject areas. Every single product is available to try for free – you can trial all Teaching and Learning resources and eTextbook titles, for free and with no obligation, for 60 days and all Question Practice titles for 14 days. Each great value and transparently priced subscription gives your institution access until the end of 2015.
Our simple lesson builder tool makes it easy to combine your trusted resources with our quality content and tools, streamlining lesson planning and saving you time. With a huge range of titles covering everything from Therapies to English we’ve got the resource to meet your needs.
Dynamic Learning and Windows 8
We’ve built a new way for teachers to interact with Dynamic Learning, using the best of Windows 8. The Dynamic Learning app from Hodder Education makes teaching and learning easier wherever you are and whatever device you are using, whether that’s a tablet, smart phone, desktop computer or whiteboard.
Enabling schools and colleges to browse and use a wide range of outstanding content, it provides time saving tools to create and deliver lessons, homework activities and exam question practice. Students can easily access activities and tasks assigned to them by their teachers, anytime, anywhere.
We look forward to showing you how these resources can help you get outstanding results in your school or college - see you at Stand B150!