Month: October 2018

Microsoft Stream

Stream is another of the many Microsoft Office 365 apps which are available.   Stream is basically a video streaming solution designed in a similar vain to Microsoft Teams in that Groups are created and within a group, various channels can be created.

I have recently started experimenting using Stream to host our user training videos for our IT Services department.   Stream allows me to easily upload the videos and then provide a description including hashtags so that users can easily find videos when they need them.    As such users can easily find the training videos which relate to Microsoft Teams, to our management information system or to other topics based on the tagging of each video.

Another little feature of Stream is that it automatically processes the audio from uploaded videos and creates subtitles.    This makes videos accessible for those who may have a hearing impairment.  This seems like an excellent idea however in my initial tests it wasn’t sufficiently accurate to be of use and in some cases managed to create some spectacularly confusing sentences.   Thankfully you can easily download the created subtitle files, correct them and then re-upload them thereby solving this issue.   I would also suspect it may work better for those without a (mild) Glasgow accent like myself, plus I also think with time the engine which processes the audio will only get better and more accurate.

Outside of our current experimentation with Stream I wonder about using it with students where they might create a school news programme which is shared video stream or they might create vlogs as part of a project.    The walled garden of Stream makes it ideal for these kinds of uses as students can share with their peers and staff with the content limited to those within the school rather than the wider internet.

Stream, currently, is a rather basic app however in terms of allowing you to upload and share video content, often all that is needed is a simple app.   Stream therefore fits nicely.

 

 

Microsoft Teams

I have been playing more and more with Microsoft Teams for use in school over the last 6 months of so.    My focus to date has very much been on the teacher and department side of things as opposed to the pupil and classroom side of things however there are already a number of key benefits.

Discussion

One of the excellent things about MS Teams is the Conversation section.     This allows comments to be shared along with documents, links, etc very much in a similar vain to you would share things via social media.    Users can comment on the posts of others plus can “like” what they see.   As a way for teachers to share lessons thoughts and ideas along with resources, this is easy to do plus for those who use social media the format and process will seem very familiar.   For those not so engaged in social media it may take a little getting used to however not much, and as their colleagues start sharing resources and ideas they will soon be drawn in.   I also see this as a key opportunity to engage such staff in social media such as twitter given the wealth of ideas and resources bouncing around out there.

Communication

A department might decide as I have done to have a weekly briefing which is shared.    For me this is now published in Teams with team members invited to comment or action things in teams.    This in turn has allowed us to start to reduce some of our email traffic, where email had almost become the default method of communication.    As such ideas and resources might be published in teams, where I can view them when I have appropriate time as opposed to having them emailed to me as would have happened previously, where they would become just another email in amongst many emails.    If I really want I can receive notifications via email, however this is at each individual users control.

Collaboration

Teams allows collaborative working in that files can be shared.    Department staff might be invited to contribute to a joint scheme of work, with multiple staff able to concurrently access and edit a shared document.  Gone are the days of heads of department having to receive individual emails and comments from their team and then collate their responses.

Cloud Hosted

Through using Teams files are hosted in the cloud.   This allows users to access the files from any device, anywhere.   This offers a flexibility that was often achieved through the use of VPNs, remote desk or third party apps like Foldr, without the complexity.    Staff can easily download the app to their devices and then access it on an iPad, on an android device or on a desktop computer.

 Final thoughts

MS Teams is an excellent tool which ticks a lot of admin boxes in terms of sharing resources and allowing easy communications.   This is not however where I see its biggest strength.    Its biggest strength for me is in being a space for teachers to openly share thoughts, ideas and resources; An almost IntraTwitter system, internal to the school.  All the benefits of sharing ideas as in twitter but without the scale, a minor disadvantage, and without the online posturing about the “correct” way to teach or policy or educational theory, a major advantage of teams.

I haven’t as yet ventured into class teams however I am sure that will be something we will be looking at in the future and I am sure it too will bring with it benefits.

 

Future Gazing: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The phrase “future gazing” has came up recently so I thought it worth sharing some thoughts on the future of EdTech as I see them.     As such I intend to share a series of separate posts on different technologies which might have an impact on education in the years ahead.

Artificial Intelligence

This is a big topic in the wider IT world but also increasingly in education.   The challenge is that AI covers a multitude of sins plus the application of the different AIs are substantial.

The holy grail of AI, as I see it, is the general-purpose AI.   Am not going to spend any real time in this area as this is, in my opinion, some way off.    When it does become a realisation, there is great potent

ial for it to be used in education to supplement teaching staff both as a virtual teacher, a virtual classroom assistant or a virtual coach or mentor.     As I said however, this is some years off.

More specific purpose AIs are much more likely to make an appearance in the short term.   An example of this might be a Mathematics AI which students can pose questions to in natural language, and that will then either provide answers or direct students to appropriate learning materials.   This isn’t that far off and is being used already on organisations help pages.    It just hasn’t thus far been focused on education.

Another application of AI might be in its ability to recognise emotions and activities of students.   This is already in trial in China.   Basically, this involves a classroom camera and an AI which analyses the facial expressions of students along with what they are doing.   This information is then fed back to the teacher to inform learning.    The teacher will get information on the students which appear confused or upset, indicating possibly they are struggling with the materials, along with data on which pupils have been busy with the work, which have been raising their hands to ask questions or provide answers and those which have been more disengaged or not participating.    From this the teacher can then decide how to change the learning activities, target questions or revisit concepts.   I suspect this AI could also be expanded to look at teacher questioning and provide feedback and advice on the types of questions being asked, the frequency and who the questions are directed to.  It might also look at the engagement of students throughout the school day to try and identify trends and develop a structure for the school day which is more in line with the physiological and psychological needs of students.

School data analysis is one area where I think AI is very close to being usable widely in schools.    Schools already are sat on a wealth of data in terms of the student academic data, student demographic data and pastoral data among others.    AI or machine learning can easily analyse the data and identify patterns which humans may not be able to identify.     At a school level this can easily be applied to summative academic results, identifying how different student groups perform, allowing comparisons across subjects, etc, however as we gather more and more formative data these AIs will then be able to feedback to teachers in relation to areas which students do or do not understand.   It will also be able to identify whether there is a pattern across different teachers therefore suggesting a change to how a particular topic is taught, or whether it relates to a group of students or to specific related topics.

In the wider school there will also be opportunities for use of AI.   In the dining hall for example AI might be able to examine data to identify possible lunch timings to improve efficiency.    Analysis of book titles taken from the Library might help in providing a window into pupil preferences and interests.    AI may have the ability to examine parents evenings and parents meetings to try and streamline these events and ensure everyone gets to see who they need to see with a minimal period of waiting.    Machine learning may be able to examine teacher performance management data and identify opportunities for peer support and peer learning to occur, or to identify cross school professional development needs.   Facilities use might be analysed to identify when they are under-utilised and then seek to make them available to the local community.    Teacher work days might be optimised through AI recommendations resulting from an analysis of our working habits looking at when we tend to send emails, our timetable, who we commonly meet with, etc.   These are just some of the ways in which AI may makes its way into our school.

Artificial Intelligence is going to make an increasing appearance in schools.  I think this is inevitable.   In actual fact I would say to some extent AI or Machine Learning is already in schools possibly in the schools firewall or mail filtering solutions or in the network infrastructure.    Going forward however it will become much more visible as it enters more areas of school life.       Or maybe like all good technology use, may become more common yet will be transparent in its use, with users unaware of where AI is providing help, support and guidance.

I think the general-purpose AI, the Data from Star Trek TNG, or HAL for 2001: A Space Odyssey is some way off.   In the first instance AI will provide hints and tips as well as other low-level recommendations or suggestions.     It is to this, and the possible productivity and efficiency gains that may result, that we should therefore first look.