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Assignment
Use Sway to create a digital story and enhance with copyright free images and video or create a 5 question multiple choice quiz and share a link to either here.Engage with two Microsoft Learn Education Centre courses
Reflect on the potential classroom use of these tools and how this can impact on the school self-evaluation process. Post a reflective piece (150 words minimum) as a reply to this post.
Use of AI Tools: Our facilitators occasionally observe that course reflections may be generated with the assistance of AI tools. While AI can be a helpful support for drafting ideas or exploring different ways to express your thinking, it is essential that your forum posts reflect your own understanding and engagement with the course content. This is in line with the Department of Education and Youth’s Summer Course guidelines.
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I did create a digital story in Sway and I can see the benefits of using this tools over powerpoint. It seems that I can only share Sways within my organisation. Below is the link to a simple student exit ticket in MS forms
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/rdYrPGMCM5
The modules on Microsoft Forms and Sway made me think about how these tools could be used in a hospital school, where teaching is often very different from a mainstream classroom. Lessons can be short, interrupted, and delivered at the bedside, so anything that helps make learning more flexible is worth exploring.
One idea I had while working through the Forms module was to create a simple student exit ticket. Students could quickly tell us how engaged they felt during the lesson, whether they learned something new, or if there was anything they would like more help with. Because many of our students only work with us for a short time, this kind of feedback could be really useful. It would also give us evidence to support our School Self-Evaluation process by helping us understand students’ experiences and identify areas we could improve.
I also think Sway has real potential in hospital teaching. We already use iPads regularly with students on the wards, and I can imagine creating interactive learning “stories” that combine text, pictures, videos and short activities. Students could work through them at their own pace and return to them if their lesson is interrupted by treatment or if they become tired. It could also help ensure a more consistent learning experience, even when different teachers are working with the same student.
Overall, these tools seem like practical ways to make learning more engaging while also helping us gather useful information about our practice. In a hospital school, where flexibility and student-centred teaching are so important, I think both Forms and Sway have the potential to support teaching, learning and ongoing school improvement.
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I agree with your point of the potential of the application Sway to enhance student learning, I think like you this will benefit my students. It is a different way to present information to students rather than PowerPoint, which I use daily. The ease of being able to create different interactive lessons for individual students is a bonus; using text, pictures, and links to videos or podcasts will help when differentiating lessons.
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Hi Fergal,
Welcome to the course, your teaching setting as outlined is significantly different to a counterpart working in a mainstream school. All relevant digital tools, not just the M365 apps, when used appropriately can support the unique needs of your context, where flexibility, as you’ve mooted, is often essential.
I also agree with yours and Carol’s point about the potential of Sway as an alternative to PowerPoint. The ability to combine text, images, video and other media in an interactive format makes it well suited to differentiated learning and allows pupils to engage with content at their own pace without first having to master the busier interface of its bigger and more powerful stablemate, PowerPoint.
Just returning to your context working in a hospital school, I think some of the Learning Accelerators referenced in Module 2 could be particularly useful for the children you teach. Tools such as Reading Progress and Reading Coach can provide personalised support while also allowing pupils to work independently and revisit activities when lessons are interrupted. In a setting where continuity can be challenging, these tools may help maintain engagement and support progress over time.
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I enjoyed learning how to use Microsoft Sway and Forms, and I can see both being useful in my teaching. I think Sway will be especially helpful for creating lessons. I usually use PowerPoint, so it was nice to learn a different way of presenting information. It could make lessons more engaging and give students a better visual experience.
Forms will be useful for working with other teachers and sharing information. I may not use it as much with students because we only have access to laptops once or twice a week for short classes. As a small special school, our technology budget is limited, so student access to devices can be challenging.
I also completed the Microsoft Learn courses on Forms and Copilot. I found both courses very informative and practical. The Copilot course showed how it can help with lesson planning, while the Forms course gave me ideas for collaborating with staff and gathering feedback. Overall, I learned a lot and picked up some useful tools that I hope to use in the classroom.
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Hi Carol
Thanks for sharing your reflections. You’ve convinced me to have a look at the Microsoft Learn courses on both Forms and Copilot. I liked your suggestion in the other discussion about embedding podcasts and videos in Sway. I wonder if adding Forms into a Sway could make those lessons even more interactive for students.
The challenge of limited access to technology for students is a huge barrier to fully incorporating ideas like these into our teaching.
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I’m on a serious learning curve here as we are only becomind a digital school in very small steps. I can see where Microsoft Copilot Chat and Reading Coach can support teaching, learning and school improvement.
Microsoft Copilot Chat helps teachers create lesson plans, worksheets and simplified texts for different ability levels. It can also explain topics to students and answer questions saving us time as teachers and supporting independent learning.
Reading Coach will help students improve reading skills by giving feedback on pronunciation and accuracy. It also tracks progress so teachers can see how students are improving and identify those who need extra support.
Both tools can help with school self-evaluation. It will provide useful information about student learning and progress which teachers can use to reflect on their teaching. This can help identify what strategies are working well and what needs improvement. Reading progress and assessments can show progress or regress unfortunately across a class
or year group.
These tools support better planning and individual learning for each student. They help schools improve teaching quality and learning outcomes through ongoing reflection and data.
https://sway.cloud.microsoft/x1OkRqNl4KUkgzdN?ref=Link
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I teach in a special class with children from Junior Infants to 5th Class. My students have a wide range of abilities, including some who are minimally speaking and many who have social and emotional needs.
Every day, as a class we do “Our News” PowerPoint with pictures, videos, and sound effects. After learning about Sway, I can see how it could be a great alternative for presenting this information in a more engaging way. Whenever something is happening in school, such as a school trip or a special event, I usually create a PowerPoint with pictures and simple text to help the children understand what is going to happen. I definitely plan to use Sway more for this once I become more confident using it.
I also think Forms could work well as a whole-class quiz. As my students do not all have their own devices, I would use it on the interactive whiteboard as a turn-taking activity. It could support literacy, oral language, science, and social skills while allowing everyone to take part. I would change the questions every couple of days and use plenty of pictures alongside the answer choices to make the quiz accessible and engaging for all of the children.I did not realise that Microsoft had these tools of Sway, reading coach. It has opened a whole new world to me. Over the years I have relied on PowerPoints inserting videos and audio I will definitely use these tools that I have now discovered to engage the children in their learning.
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Hi Rose,
Thank you for your post and welcome to the course. I hope that you will be able to take some ideas back to your class next year, and I look forward to us all learning from your own experience of working in a special class, and how the 365 tools can be of assistance here. The Forms quiz you have attached is a perfect example of how the Microsoft suite of tools can be used within the classroom. Quickly capturing children’s attainment at either an individual or whole class level is so important to ascertain where they are presently at – indeed, the inclusion of visuals, videos, audio files, etc. could make this an activity that is accessible to all children in all contexts.
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