[Pat Brennan]

Hi Brendan,

Welcome to the course. From what you’ve outlined here your school has been using 365 for communication and collaboration effectively now for some time. However, with so many additional tools like Sway and Forms as mooted. Coupled with ongoing upgrades and additions, it’s hard to keep up to speed with what Microsoft 365 offers. I’ve been using the Microsoft suite extensively for over 20 years and yet have only really gone beyond PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook in recent years. That’s really the primary aim of this course is to get , people to look beyond these staples and start to explore tools like Sway, Forms, OneDrive, Teams and OneNote…

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Shane,

Welcome to the course. I agree, Immersive reader can be a very powerful literacy tool when used in SET and and mainstream. It enables all text to be accessible to all students and provides a scaffolding approach to learning. Functionality like the ability to adjust text size and spacing, break words into syllables and the talk to text features are the key parts of this scaffold. These tools as you’ve mooted, are great for improving student confidence and increasing their opportunities to work independently.

Dictate too is a great tool in 365, particularly for students who struggle with keyboard input.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Patrice,

Welcome to the course. Unfortunately, I’m unable to access that link to the form due to sharing permissions but no worries as this part of the assignment is optional. Going by the link, the form appears to be a Google and not a 365 one, both share the same name and indeed functionality so are equally useful in the classroom, particularly for formative assessment.

From what you’ve outlined, your school is already using OneDrive very effectively for teacher planning and collaboration. The next step I would suggest is to integrate OneDrive with a Staff Team in Microsoft Teams if you don’t already have one setup? The benefit of this is that you can then use this not just to access shared files/resources but also as a hub for all staff communication, collaboration and digital productivity, keeping everything together in one place rather than having to move between apps like Forms, Outlook, OneNote etc. More on Teams in Module 2…

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Niamh,

Whilst I couldn’t agree more, we must start with the learning outcomes and then at how technology can could support same rather than feeling compelled to use technology for the sake of it. However, it’s difficult to integrate digital learning when there’s a lack of hardware, 9 iPads shared among 24 isn’t adequate and creates added classroom management headaches. At a minimum you should have a device between two and these, preferably with similar spec and running the same version of the OS. Having the right hardware is crucial and should be the priority in your school improvement plan. Finding the money for same in already tight school budgets is another story but fortunately in the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 published in April there is a commitment for technology specific funding annually over the course of the strategy. Exactly how much this will equate to isn’t known yet but reassuring nonetheless so schools can plan effectively for digital learning going forward.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Laura,

Thanks for sharing the link but unfortunately due to sharing permissions I am unable to access same. No worries, as this is an optional part of the assignment.

I agree that developing collaboration skills among our students is really important as it is an essential skill in today’s (And tomorrows) workplace. Providing your students with more leadership opportunities through collaboration and then getting them to critically analyse the effectiveness of their group work is a great way to increase awareness and in turn develop such skills.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi again Clairemarie,

Just picking up on one point from your post. I think the phrase “Adaption of pedagogical strategies when using digital technologies to personalise and facilitate pupils” is key. We need to start with the teaching and learning strategies and then integrate the technology, not the other way round. Far too often digital technologies are seen as the panacea for all and this notion becomes particularly nuanced when it comes to assistive technologies. Technology should only be part of a bespoke student support programme when the technology is matched with the needs of the student.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Clairemarie,

Welcome to the course. The issue you’ve experienced when posting affects participants who use Word to write their assignments and then copy and paste these into the forum and find that additional extraneous formatting is brought across. To avoid this, right click in the post window and choose ‘Paste as Plain Text’. Alternatively, you can first paste the content into Notepad (Or similar) and then copy it from here to the topic window.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Jacqui,

Game-based learning and specifically Minecraft has huge potential in the classroom, providing open opportunities and possibilities to learn curricular content in new ways. It’a also great for building communication and collaboration and other important 21st century skills.

We have been running a blended EPV day course (Face-to-face and online) in association with Microsoft Education for a number of years now that examines the possibilities of the Education Edition. In fact there’s one scheduled for August 15th & 16th in Dream Space in MS HQ with the remainder online if you live within commutable distance. More info is available at Minecraft for Education August 15th & 16th – Teachnet.ie

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Celine,

Welcome to the course. As previously mooted on this forum, whilst PowerPoint is an extremely powerful presentation tool it can be overkill when recording simple digital stories. Content is always king, and pupils can focus on this when using Sway rather than be distracted by the bells and whistles of PowerPoint. The adage of ‘Horses for courses’ applies, start with what learning outcomes you want to achieve and then select the digital tool best suited…

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Laura,

Welcome to the course. Sway is a great app for digital stories and project work and could be used for digital portfolios as you’ve suggested. However, I would suggest using OneNote (Covered in Module 3) with the Class Notebook Add-in instead for this purpose. This provides a workspace for every student, content libraries, and a collaboration space for lessons and activities. It also integrates seamlessly with Teams. For more information on OneNote and Class Notebook see onenoteforteachers.com.

 

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Alana,

I think students with SEN were disproportionately affected by the recent lock downs and indeed had a more negative experience of emergency remote teaching in the main, anecdotally, more so than mainstream pupils. This I think was the case due to a combination of factors, probably most obvious, their greater need for the in-person support but also as you referenced the lack of/ absence of routine and whilst your school made every effort to address this where possibly digitally, the remote learning experience will always pale in comparison with the in-class, scaffolded learning environment SEN teachers create for their learners.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Suzanne,

As already mooted many times on this forum, I’m very much a OneNote convert, primarily because of its remarkable versatility, it has so many uses in the classroom. You’ve mentioned differentiation and the inbuilt colour coding to improve organisational skills. In fact, OneNote offers so much for SEN teaching and not just the tools Immersive Reader provides. OneNote is ideal for student portfolios offering multi-modal recording options like audio, video and inking (For pen enabled tablet devices) giving pupils who struggle with text input options when it comes to recording their work allowing them to focus on the content.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi John,

I agree, OneNote  is a great tool for digital notebooks and ePortfolios. In fact, I would liken OneNote to a Swiss Army Knife in digital terms. It is so flexible and adaptable and it can be put to work on a whole host of different learning tasks and works across all devices and platforms. Planning organisation, research, annotation (inking), collaboration and sharing, the list goes on…

On Immersive reader, I think it’s a game changer in assistive technology for inclusion and accessibility, it is so easy to use and integrates across the 365 suite.

[Pat Brennan]

 

Hi Kathryn,

I agree the recent lock downs and the resulting, unprecedented bouts of emergency remote teaching (ERT) meant that teachers were given no choice but to embrace digital learning and I think the experience was mixed to say the least. In your case a positive one in the main but for others (Particularly those less comfortable with the tools) it was more negative and some I think just want to return to pre-covid times and more traditional methodologies. However, the reality is digital learning is here to stay and we all need to get onboard with it, take the positives from ERT and build on them…

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Brendan,

Thanks for sharing this excellent lesson idea, one I had not heard of previously but one I’ll certainly be exploring more. Not only are your pupils collaborating with classmates they’re being exposed to different school cultures and communicating with peers all over the globe. Already on this forum, there has been much discussion about what real collaboration means and indeed a lot of what we categorise as collaboration isn’t really. However, here with the assignment of specific roles, you are distributing the responsibilities ensuring pupils work closely together and collaborate in the true sense.

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