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On 19 October 2011 over a hundred educators, teachers, technical trainers, decision makers all descended on Microsoft HQ UK in Reading. The one thing that bound all these people together – they all represented UK Microsoft IT Academes from all corners of the UK.

The event was hosted by Greg Pearson (UK Lead, Microsoft Learning). The day was filled with sharing best practice and giving glimpses of the future of Microsoft certification and technologies. Here are some key points from the event:

Key Note

Karen Price OBE (CEO e-skills UK) and Stephen Uden (Head of Skills and Economic Affairs, Microsoft) presented the Key Note. They highlighted how the rate of unemployment (especially youth unemployment) has increased dramatically. Another grim aspect is that the number of young people taking ICT related A Levels had decreased by 14% in the last year. There were plenty of statistics that can be found at:

http://www.e-skills.com/technologyinsights2011

There were a certain number of initiatives that have been launched in order to ensure that the next generation IT workforce will be ready:

A brand new IT GCSE: http://www.e-skills.com/behindthescreen

This will change the focus from the GCSE which has become all about using Office to actually doing coding, understand cyber security and generally getting “behind the screen”.

Computer Club for Girls: http://www.e-skills.com/education/teachers/online-club-cc4g/

To encourage more women to enter the IT industry.

Also some bodies have been set up to “up-skill” the IT workforce:

The National Skills Academy for IT: http://www.itskillsacademy.ac.uk/
Skills Framework for the Information Age: http://www.sfia.org.uk/

ITA Benefits and Certifications

After all this, Greg once more took the stage and ran through the benefits of the ITA programme which can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/itacademy/default.aspx

Greg also highlighted how the “Cloud” is going to drive forward the Microsoft certification track. A summary of current certifications can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-cloud.aspx

Greg mentioned that approximately 10,000 MTA exams were delivered worldwide in the last year – the coolest point of this statistic is that over 4000 of those exams were delivered by Zenos!

Some key dates were mentioned at the ITA summit regarding new MTA certifications:

Mobile Development Fundamentals (98-373)

• Release: 30 November 2011
• ERK & SSG: January 2012

Gaming Development Fundamentals (98-374)

• Release: 17 November 2011
• ERK & SSG: January 2012

Office 365 coming in June 2012

OCR

Simon Garratt (Qualifications Manager, OCR) gave an update of how they have incorporated MS Certifications as part of their Competency Diplomas – to the point an entire Competency Diploma can be gained by completing a MCDBA – a bit of a tall order!

Lync Demonstration

Ewan Dalton (Partner Group Technology Manager, Microsoft) gave a great demonstration of using Lync in an enterprise. Educational institutions can get this as part of Office 365 for education:
http://www.microsoft.com/liveatedu/learn-about-office-365.aspx

City and Guilds

Ken Gaines (ICT Portfolio Management, City and Guilds) mirrored the talk from OCR and said that they have also incorporated MS certifications completely into their qualifications portfolio.

Best Practice

Best practice case studies were given by:

Alan Stevens, Headmaster at Sawtry College
Julian Brunger, MCT at Walsall College
Richard Seaton, Senior Lecturer at the Open University

You can watch video case studies for Sawtry and Walsall here:
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/schools/curriculum-resources/IT-academy/the-programme.aspx

Microsoft Evangelist

Lee Stott (Academic Developer Evangelist) gave a great overview of a range of technologies that can be used in teaching and learning. Lee talked about a range of technologies including:

Kinect: http://kinectforwindows.org/
Gadgeteer: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/gadgeteer/
Windows Phone: http://create.msdn.com/en-US/home/getting_started
Windows 8: http://www.buildwindows.com/

Microsoft Academic Service Partners

If you need help with harnessing your benefits then in the UK you have access to:

Prodigy Learning: http://www.prodigyuk.co.uk/
IT Skills Management Company: http://www.itskillsman.co.uk/

More information

If you want to know more about the topics discussed at the event, you can view all the presentations at:
http://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/presentations

As part of my PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Sector) course, I presented a session which I am extremely passionate about – making learning fun through using games!

When you speak to technology educators the aspect of using simple tried and tested tools of Saturday night evening entertainment in your classroom seems to never have been considered.

By employing the vehicle of a game where the learners are more concerned about the rules and the objective of scoring points, the focus is taken away from the strenuous nature of learning CompTIA A+ facts by rote, and instead you’re learning to WIN!

A game that I love using is the word game of “Shiritori” – something that I adapted from my time in Japan (see a video of its use in a Japanese classroom: http://youtu.be/4sEhxaYCsPI)

Below are my slides from my session, if you wish to share your own tips, please feel free to comment.

I recently delivered a remote training event to fellow online facilitators on the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT).

Here are the slides from the session:
 

When the revolution came and MCP cards were withdrawn from the MCP benefits, MCTs were still receiving a brand new card every year. It was nice and shiny and showed off our range of certifications at the back. Now with the release of the brand new MCP wallet cards, the question had to be asked would we MCTs be getting the new card as a free benefit or would we have to pay (in addition to the annual fee).

I am pleased to announce that MCTs will still get a free wallet card in the next programme year (2012-2013).  The difference is that MCTs will need to proactively go to the wallet card site to order the card instead of it being sent in the kit.  The site has been set up so that when you choose MCT for the front of the card, it will give you the card for free.  The process will start in the next programme year as everyone has already received their current wallet card.

The new wallet cards with the Microsoft Tag link to the VBC profile look great and definitely have an air of sophistication about them. However, they are limited to only 5 certifications to go on the back of the card. My current MCT card has 10! I’m sure that more experienced trainers have a lot more. So the price of new technology is losing the extra certifications. The plus side is that if a prospective employer wants to check that you actually have a certification a simple Tag scan will tell them everything they need to know.

If you do have a VBC profile and intend to carry around one of these cards in your wallet, then I would strongly recommend that you adjust your profile to limit the amount of personal information e.g. address, phone number, when you go on holidays etc. The danger is that your wallet could be stolen and then the criminal can access information that you would like to keep private.

Technology – powerful in the right hands, extremely dangerous in the wrong hands…

Somehow I missed this earlier in the week, but if you are a MCP and missed out on the era of free wallet cards or have worn out your existing ones, then you now have the opportunity to buy a shiny new wallet card.

Microsoft has updated the style and colours to be more in line with the recent branding (Red for Trainers, Green for Technical and Orange for Office). You can also customise the back of the card to add up to 5 more certifications. Say for example, you’re a MCITP – so that can be your primary card. Let’s say on the way you took the MTA, MCP, MCSA, MCTS and MCDST, then you can include those on the back. A nice handy way to confirm with your prospective employer of your certifications.

The coolest factor has to be the Microsoft Tag code on the back of your card – this links your card to your online VBC. Once again making it more valuable.

The final addition on the new card is the option to add your picture to it – I’m not a big fan of ID cards (having had to carry around a “Gaijin card” for 2 years in Japan just felt wrong) so this feature is quite subjective. I can see people uploading icons/logos of their own companies to replace this. It will be interesting to see if this feature is taken up.

When I went through the system, it gave me a price of $8.95 – not too bad (if the cards are well made!)

You can order your wallet card by logging into the MCP member site: http://www.microsoft.com/certified