The Bing in the Classroom program started a new partnership this week. In addition to providing daily lessons that work with the Bing image of the day, safe searching, and a points system that will let schools get free Surfaces, students can now learn OneNote and 21st skills – all for free.
Bing has been providing teachers with daily lessons on the Microsoft Educator network site. Teachers can download a lessons geared toward K-4, 5-8, or 9-12 classrooms. The lessons are intended to last around 10 minutes and provide a nice start-of-class activity or can be extended to let students dive deeper into the topic. All lessons are aligned with CCSS standards and include best practice tips and ideas for teachers.
This week, Bing also added the power of OneNote to this project. Student can now access a OneNote notebook that mirrors and enhances the lessons on PowerPoint. The notebook combines the features of OneNote with information literacy skills. The notebooks provide a place for students to research, write, problem-solve, brainstorm, and collaborate.
Teachers needs to download the notebooks first and provide them to students. Once students open the file, it will expand into whatever version of OneNote they have on their devices. Instructions for using the features of OneNote are included with each lesson, with audio instructions added along the way. Students can add each day’s lesson to the previous notebook and build a powerful resource of all the lessons they complete.
NCCE has been instrumental in this program, using its professional learning specialists to work with the Bing in the Classrooms instructors and OneNote team. I’ve been able to jump into this project and have benefitted from the creative and dedicated work of my team of Dianne Krause, Kim West, and Kelli Etheredge. You can follow NCCE on Twitter for more information about its learning partnerships and projects.
Go to the Microsoft Educator Network today and try one of the Bing lessons. I think you will be pleased with what you find.