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21 April 2016

Great success for Scotland’s first Microsoft Redefining Learning Event for local teachers led by WCS

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This end of March, we were delighted to welcome at our Paisley Campus over 50 school teachers coming from all over the West Region - including Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.

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During this interactive event, Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE) from the College and partner schools shared tips and tricks in the use of Microsoft education software. Teachers were also able to try out by themselves the latest Microsoft tools under the expert guidance of MIEs. These included:

  • Sway – a great, new presentation tool
  • Office Mix – a new add on to PowerPoint that allows teachers to record presentations and make interactive quizzes.
  • OneNote – a fantastic tool for teachers to organise their personal and professional life along with their class work.
  • Diverse coding resources for pupils such as Kodu, Microbit and Touch Develop.
  • Minecraft – how to use this motivating resource in class.
  • Skype – how it can help teach MFL 1+2, social studies and get connected with experts.

Andy Nagle, Microsoft Senior Business Development Manager for Scotland, was also present at the event.

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Teachers were enthused over this unique opportunity to gain insight into the latest Microsoft tools. They found the event useful and are looking forward to implementing the experts’ tips and tricks into their teaching practice.

Margaret Harvey, Secondary School ICT Faculty Head, said: “I thought the conference was useful in that it demonstrated the new software which is available to teachers, most of it free through Glow.”

Linzi McMillan, Primary School Principal Teacher, said: “The Kodu session was great and it was good to be given lots of different ideas to use Minecraft back in the classroom.”

Our MEIs were also delighted to share their knowledge and learn from the teachers’ feedback.

Amanda Wilson, WCS Computing lecturer, said: “I helped out at the Coding session led by David Renton [WCS Paisley Campus Computing Curriculum Quality Leader]. This was a chance for the teachers to get some hands on experience using Kodu or TouchDevelop and it was really interesting to see so many teachers wanting to try it out. I hope that when they go back to school they will keep on trying.”

Read more about the event in Amada’s blog post: https://amandawilson.co/2016/03/31/scotlands-first-redefining-learning-event/

Our Technology & Innovation department is looking forward to organise other similar event with the support of our Computing lecturing staff and experts from Microsoft.

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West College Scotland is the first College in the UK to be a Microsoft Showcase School. This recognition allows the College to connect with a global network of Microsoft Educators and receive training to develop best practice in the in the use of technology in the classroom.