Report back on the first Microsoft Meet held in Cape Town, 16th May, organised by Linda Foulkes one of our MIEExperts

Submitted by Fiona Beal
It was exciting to make my way to the first Microsoft Meet in Cape Town. Linda Foulkes one of our really enthusiastic MIEExpert15 teachers obtained permission from Sally Bowes for the use of the venue for the Meet.

Unfortunately we had connectivity issues on the day as there was no WIFI in the room (only dedicated connections) and many of the 3G devices also couldn’t seem to connect to their service providers. Hence no tweeting took place.

Here are some of the takeaways from the day:

1. Warren Sparrow joined us by means of a video that he had created on Office Mix on how to use office Mix. – Introduction to OfficeMix. You can watch it at this link. http://1drv.ms/1QlDf0W

2. Linda Foulkes gave a hands-on overview of the Microsoft Educator Network its benefits. She chatted about the MIEE (Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert) program, the process and benefits of entering. She also mentioned Microsoft Sway and the benefits of using OneNote in the Classroom.

3. Fiona Beal spoke about different ways of using Microsoft PowerPoint other  than as a presentation tool.

PowerPoint is alive and well! 25+ ideas for using PowerPoint creatively in the classroom (by Fiona Beal) from Schoolnet SA

4. Sachita Jeeta, from Mauritius, joined us via Skype and presented on presented on  ‘Skype in the Classroom / Mystery Skype’

5. Mabore Lekalakala also joined us via Skype with a presentation called ‘Mix to Learn Maths’ but because of connectivity issues we weren’t able to connect with her.  – https://goo.gl/DuRkRH

6. Bradley Lawrence from Living Maths – presented an energetic demonstration of Kahoot (https://getkahoot.com/) and got the audience involved in the process. We needed to log in to the computers for this so that we could access the Internet.

7. Marija Preteska also sent us an Office Mix video – https://mix.office.com/watch/11jwvp0bgumn9 on how to use One Note



Photos from the day




Further plans
Upcoming Meets will be held at Rondesboach Preparatory School next term thanks to Warren Sparrow’s generous offer. After the Meet the participants asked if we could included other webtools and not just Microsoft tools in future Meets. We say a big thank you to Linda Foulkes for organisng such a great Microsoft Meet.