We live in an increasingly connected world where communication is key to everything we do. If you’re in business, especially a service industry, then listening to and communicating with customers is essential. In education the skill of communicating effectively on many levels, teacher to students, peer to peer, teacher to parents etc etc is vital.
It is therefore essential that we support learners to become excellent communicators if we want to provide them with key skills for life. BUT, we need to also take into account that how we communicate has changed with technology and continues to change. Enabling students to make an effective powerpoint and present it and send email used to be a good starting point, now it barely scratches the surface. We’re now communicating with email, social media, blogs, presentations, websites, video conferencing and the list goes on.
WHICH ONES TO USE?
It can feel confusing for teachers how best to support students understanding and use of the technologies and which ones to use as part of teaching. Using Office365 means you already have access to a whole range of communication tools and features which you can use easily throughout the curriculum.
- Use the commenting tool in Word to discuss work with peers and / or Teachers
- Use Skype to bring in experts on video conference or communicate with other Schools
- Use OneNote to communicate ideas, thoughts, curriculum content
- If you want to move beyond powerpoint and explore something new – use Sway for creating presentations, newsletters etc.
If you want to give an introduction to a social media environment, use Yammer for posting news, messages and update. A Yammer group is a great way for having a class or group discussion and it’s safe and secure within Office365.
How we communicate is constantly changing and technology continually develops and enhances. Dictation tools and software were once at the edge of technology and are now fairly common place, now we can talk to our devices and get ‘intelligent’ responses. Siri, Cortana or Alexa are all becoming our voice activated assistants. Microsoft has Cortana within Windows but possibly the leader in this area at the moment is Amazon with Alexa and the Amazon Echo. How long before we connect our voice activated assistants to our learning technologies and shouting
“Alexa, when is my next literacy assignment due?”
or even
“Cortana, hand in my literacy assignment.”
If you’d like to know more about how you can communicate and collaborate using Office 365, how you can use extended functionalities to support 21st Century Skills, we’d love to talk to you.
