Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts Program honors 238 Educators from India
New Delhi: Microsoft recently announced its 2016-2017 class of Education Innovators featuring 238 Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Experts across India. The Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) program recognizes global educator visionaries who are using technology to pave the way for their peers for better learning and student outcomes. Chosen through a rigorous process of selection, Microsoft Expert Educator Program continues to witness growing participation from India, as well as world over. Currently there are more than 7600 educators from 83 countries who are part of Microsoft’s global community of MIE Experts.
Eight Indian educators were further selected to attend Microsoft’s annual event Education Exchange (E2) in Toronto, Canada. The event recognizes and celebrates the achievements of educators who combine content, pedagogy, and technology to advance learning, achieve student outcomes, and transform education. This year 240 of the most innovative educators from 83 countries came together for the E2 Education Exchange to spark new ideas and celebrate outstanding teaching practices. Attendees were also shown some of Microsoft’s latest technologies and provided a platform to exchange best practices as they worked together to promote innovation in teaching and learning.
Leveraging technology, the selected educators created unique, impactful projects to provide a learning environment which is interactive, interesting and beneficial for students.
Ranjitsinh Disale from Z.P. School, Paritewadi in Maharashtra, attempted to bridge the digital divide through Mystery Skype a global guessing game that gets students learning about geography, culture, and the similarities and differences of how children live all over the world.
Seema Duggal from Ramjas School in New Delhi, applied Microsoft tools and technology in teaching of Mathematics alongside training more than 500 educators from the teaching community in use of various tools such as Sway, OneNote and Office 365.
Duhita Parmar from DLF Public School in Gurgaon, worked on a project where students were imparted a science lesson using technology with the larger aim of create a thinking school thereby creating a learning society.
Shefali Bose from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bhandup in Maharashtra helped students establish a relationship between heat, wind, moisture and air pressure and the rotation of the earth using technology
Paramjeet Kaur Dhillon from Kamla Nehru Public School, Phagwara in Punjab helped train teachers at E2 to help drive the future of STEM Professional development and curriculum support.
Premalatha Veeraraghavan from Chinmaya Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School in Chennai, Tamil Nadu helped students develop an availability to apply Math anytime anywhere and make math learning fun using technology.
M Chandrachoodeshwaran from The Ashok Leyland School in Hosur, Tamil Nadu through her project, My Microsoft Patasala, catered to the need of special children and children with learning disabilities. Microsoft Assistive Technology, like learning tools in OneNote, Accessibility Tools in Windows 10 and Accessibility Options in MS Office and Online Office tools helped the students to learn easily.
Deepa Gandhi from Suncity School in Gurgaon, showcased how by integrating Office 365 tools with subjects and in varied school related areas one can explore new teaching methodology, building curiosity, adopt application based teaching while making leaders and encouraging team work.
“This is the biggest group of MIEs from India since we initiated the program in the country. We believe in the power of the educator, and the impact educators can have on students and thereby society. Our mission at Microsoft is to equip and empower educators to shape and assure the success of every student. By leveraging the power of technology, these passionate teachers are adopting new approaches to teaching and learning, and reinforcing critical 21st century skills in today’s youth.” said Pratik Mehta, Director – Education at Microsoft India.
Seema Duggal from Ramjas School in New Delhi and Duhita Parmar from DLF Public School in Gurgaon were also part of two winning teams at the E2 group challenges in Toronto. They were part of international teams of five that were assigned a persona each and asked to come up with a pitch for a new tool or add in that could help solve common classroom struggles that aligned to their assigned persona.
Going forward, for educators interested in becoming MIE Experts, self-nominations will be open until July 15, 2017. The selected MIE Experts will get access to professional and career development opportunities and Certifications from Microsoft. They will be able to share their expertise with world-renowned educators and specialists to scale their innovations and will also be eligible to attend the Microsoft Global Educator Exchange Event (E2) apart from other special events by Microsoft.