I attended the Microsoft Education Roadshow in Wellington earlier in the week. I must say, even as a Google fan boy, I was very impressed with what I saw. Microsoft may have been late to focus on cloud computing, but they have obviously thought about their new strategy with the upcoming Office365 and Windows 8, both of which products look like a great option for schools.
I found the presentation that looked deeper into Word 2010 to be a real eye opener. Scratch the surface and you will find a lot of great applications; two of which being the scientific calculator and the ability to generate mathematics tests at the click of a button.
As a learning tool I found the Kinect device to be fantastic. The Dr. Kawashima game is a great brain gym application. There is plenty of evidence highlighting the benefits of moving while learning; this being an integral part of the Dr Kawashima / Kinect experience. One such example finding that children learned to tell the time in a matter of minutes.
Overall the day was a very enjoyable and enlightening experience. It certainly opened my eyes to to company that appears to be putting the learner at the centre of it's vision for the future.
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