Microsoft Surface Pilot - download.microsoft.com

Microsoft Surface Pilot: Microsoft and 21st Century Learning – Demonstrating Success in Niagara Classrooms

Submitted by: Mark Di Tomasso - January 2014

Microsoft Surface Pilot

Microsoft and 21st Century Learning – Demonstrating Success in

Niagara Catholic Classrooms

Vision Microsoft and Niagara Catholic are committed to help student learning. Utilizing Microsoft Surface Tablets

can help improve the way educators and learners will interact in a variety of ways. These interactions can

foster real-time student collaboration and will help see positive impacts on student engagement. Increased

engagement can help lead to improved student social interaction, content retention, and motivation.

The use of the Microsoft technologies could help provide increased opportunities for learners to carry out

activities that simulate the work place, community and other relevant contexts. Assessment can be both

formative and summative.

Teachers will use technology to add greater capacity to their planning, and help provide more diverse

activities and resources. The diverse nature of the activities will enhance the range of teaching styles teachers

can adopt. Access to a diverse range of multimedia and high quality digital content will support their lessons

and help improve student engagement.

The ubiquitous access of Microsoft technologies will help provide opportunities for the universal design of

learning. One system that is scalable to meet the needs of the school, including all learners regardless of their

exceptionality.



Tablet Technology: Microsoft Surface RT (tablet) and Microsoft Surface Pro (tablet that is also a laptop replacement)

Comparison of the Technologies. *Prices/Features below are subject to change- use for example only.

Features* Microsoft Surface Pro Microsoft Surface RT

Cost 64gb($899), 128GB($999)* 32GB-$499, $599* with touch cover

Chip 3rd gen i5, 1.7ghz , Intel HD Graphics 4000

NVidia T30,

Screen Size & Resolution

10.6, 1920x1080 (HD) 10.6|, 1366x768

Ram 4GB DDR2 2GB

Operating System Windows 8 Pro Windows RT

Weight 2lbs 676 grams

Storage 64GB(29 available) or 128GB(89 available)

32GB(unknown available)

Points of Touch 10 5

Standard Warranty 1 year limited warranty 1 year limited warranty

Wireless 802.1 a/b/g/n + Blue Tooth 4.0 8021 a/b/g/n + Blue Tooth 4.0

Integrated Camera(s) Front/Rear way Camera (HD) Front/Rear way Camera (HD)

Video Out Mini Display Port HD Video Out

Microphone(s) 1 2

Storage Slot Micro SDXC Micro SDXC

USB 1 USB 3.0 1 USB 2.0

Headphone Jack 1 1

Speakers Stereo Speakers Stereo Speakers

Sensors Ambient Light Sensor/Accelerometer/Gyroscope/Magnetometer

Ambient Light Sensor/Accelerometer/Gyroscope/Magnetometer

Software 1 month Office 365 Office Home & Student RT Preview

Apps can be installed Via regular installation or windows 8 app store

Via windows 8 apps store only

Power Supply 48 Watt 24 Watt

Pen Included

Accessories*

Power Supply 48 Watt - $79.99 24 Watt - $39.99

Pen $29.99

VGA Adapter $39.99 $39.99 , HD ($39.99)

Type Cover $129.99

Touch Cover $119.99 $119.99

Extended Warranty 3 year - $130 3 year - $99



Planned Distribution

Microsoft Surface Pro Microsoft Surface RT

Device 1 - eLearning Consultant – 1 - Educational Technology Coach – 2 - Educational Technology – ITA – 1 - Science/Engineering Teacher –(Win 8 App testing) Elementary School Teacher – TBD 2 - TBD

1 - Educational Technology Coach 1 - Educational Technology – ITA – 4 –Student Design team for Windows 8 App 1 –Secondary teacher for evaluation 1 – Superintendent of Educational Technology 4 – Elementary School – group/centre student evaluation

Type Covers To each of the Pro recipients

Touch Covers Came with the RT upon purchase

School Readiness

Select a school(s) which can participate in the pilot. The school will require evaluation of the hardware and

applications in addition to a classroom to act as the control group.

The learning space should not impede the pilot criteria such as collaboration and ubiquitous access (technical as

well as for exceptionalities.)

Some of the recipients include computer science students working in conjunction with the eLearning Consultant

and their computer science teacher on the Windows 8 App development. The students will perform testing of the

app of the Microsoft Surface RT and Microsoft Surface Pro devices.



Technical Readiness

Site participant must have internet accessibility.

Program must be in place to create the updates to the tablets on a frequent basis. Will discuss with IT for

installation rights from the Windows 8 store as well as installs to the Windows 8 Pro.

The classroom will already have an LCD projector and ideally other technologies such as response units, Smart®

boards, document cameras and other technologies to determine integration.

Teachers may have a Windows Live ID, however, we will not make it mandatory for the student participants to

create one. Utilizing the cloud technologies and the sharing possibilities of SkyDrive can be done via Share via web

(view, view and edit and strictly public).

Financial Considerations

Niagara Catholic District School Board (NCDSB) will be responsible for the syncing of all applications and

maintenance of items (including updates).

All the cost to create the internet access infrastructure is the responsibility of Niagara Catholic District School

Board (NCDSB).

Site accessibility of the learner environment is the responsibility of Niagara Catholic District School Board

(NCDSB).



Evaluation Criteria

Technical

To be evaluated by Niagara Catholic Computer Technician or ITA individuals.

Determine Bluetooth or RF connectivity of keyboard to the unit

Evaluate signal strength to network

Evaluate connectivity to network (does it time-out on a frequent basis)

Evaluate average battery charge time as well as how long it holds a charge

Perform durability assessment

Security Implications

Ease of program installation and distribution

Educational

To be evaluated by Niagara Catholic eLearning consultant as well as teacher involved in the pilot.

Evaluate which applications for the Windows 8 operating system (or Win RT) are effective in the classroom.

Determine how the tablet integrates with other technologies in the classroom (document camera, Smart® board,

response systems, LCD projectors) etc.

The evaluation will also determine how the access is improved to applications as well as internet resources to

foster a 21st century learning environment. This will include access to the Learning Management System (LMS)

platform from D2L as well as the Pearson e-text products. In addition, access to other web 2.0 resources will be

evaluated on each of the Microsoft Surface devices.

Evaluate student attention span.

Evaluate Student social interaction levels.

Evaluate Learning Skill & Expectations to what happened.

Evaluate skills such as note taking and studying. Has access to the technology made these critical elements easier

and more efficient?

The evaluation will be determined by assessment by the teacher, on-going evaluation from visits from the

eLearning consultant as well as data collected via periodic surveys. The survey results will be shared with

Microsoft and the Partners in Learning (PiL) Community.



Duration

The evaluation will occur in stages. The first evaluation will occur in spring 2013. A follow-up evaluation may be

planned for September 2013.

Microsoft Surface Tablet – Actual Distributions

The Microsoft Surface tablets were distributed to each of the educators along with a session on tips & tricks of

their use. A follow-up session was held with the high school (Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School) and

elementary school (St. Vincent de Paul) within a week to add some software to the Microsoft Surface Pros.

Each of the Microsoft Surface Pro Tablets had Microsoft Office 2010 Suite installed to mimic the Office Suite on

the mobile cart laptops.

Elementary Evaluation

Upon recommendation from I.T for wireless infrastructure already in place, we selected St. Vincent de Paul in

Niagara Falls for the pilot location of the surface in elementary.

Teacher: Grade 7 Teacher

Delivered:

1 – Microsoft Surface Pro

5 – Microsoft Surface RT

Provided VGA Adapter for Microsoft Surface pro

Installed Smart® Notebook 11 SP 1 on the Microsoft Surface Pro for evaluation.

Secondary Evaluation

In line with the Windows 8 Development, Holy Cross Secondary School was chosen to pilot the Microsoft Surface

Pro so that in addition to other testing, they could test our Niagara Catholic Windows 8 app on the tablet.

Delivered:


4 – Microsoft Surface RT

As a control measure, we had the teacher, along with this 4 principal student testers evaluate another tablet

using the same Windows 8 platform.



Initial observations of the other tablet were that it was noticeably slower than the Microsoft Surface RT &

Microsoft Surface Pro and it took a long time to perform the windows update.

Skydrive convert word doc to the equivalent web word app took some time.

In addition to the designated teacher, we selected an alternate teacher who could evaluate the tablet in the use

of other than technology courses, such as Geography and other humanities.

Designated Teacher


Provided – VGA Adapter for Microsoft Surface Pro

Provided – Wireless Router pre-configured for NCDSB_AP since one of her classrooms did not have wireless

access at the point of tablet delivery. Added wireless code to Microsoft Surface Pro.

Teachers were informed about the following tablet evaluations.

From the Teacher Perspective

Did they find the use of the tablet gloves beneficial?

How long was the battery life? Does the battery charge quickly? Did the VGA adapter work well?

Did they find the keyboard useful/essential, and which version (type or touch) did they prefer?

Did they find themselves switching to desktop mode that resembles Windows 7 or did they utilize the Windows 8 tile

system?

What Windows 8 apps did they find would be useful for their teaching? If the apps were free, what ads were shown

and were they appropriate for classroom use?

How well did the tablet integrate with other technology in their classroom? (SMART® board, document cameras etc.)

How well did the tablet perform when trying to access web 2.0 resources, the learning management system (lms) that

we utilize for eLearning and Pearson eText?

How well did they like the integration of activities on the device with SkyDrive for storing, collaborating and displaying?

How did you find using the pen? Did the pen aid or distract from what you were doing?

How did the tablet compare to the existing laptops provided on the mobile carts?

Did you experience problems with connectivity to our wireless network with the device?



From the Student Perspective

In addition to their opinion on the keyboard and the glove use, students were to evaluate the educational and

productivity Windows 8 apps and their effectiveness for them as a student.

What tool(s) did students use for note taking and studying, and does having access to a tablet improve on their

experience from the regular pen/paper approach?

Did they experiment with SkyDrive and what is their opinion on how it works?

What was their experience with the battery life?

How was the size of the screen, was it a sufficient size for their day to day activities?

How fast was the device?

Did they prefer the device to the laptops that came from the mobile computer cart?

Approach

IT created a user id called “User” with administrative rights to support any installations required on the Microsoft

Surface Pro.

With the Microsoft Surface RTs, IT created a user id called student that would be easy for the students to use and

access.

Students were able to log onto the NCDSB _Guest wireless networks in their respective institutions.

Initial Evaluation from IT representatives.

Microsoft Surface RT

Windows RT can’t join a domain. This was later collaborated by Microsoft directly when inquired with Microsoft

to determine if there is any technological workaround. The Microsoft Surface RT does come with the four Office

2013 applications, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

There is a possibility to map the Microsoft Surface RT to a network drive, but they will need to have admin access

rights to do so. There is some concern that with system files and the installed Windows 8 apps, the Microsoft

Surface RT only has 17.1 GB remaining.



Microsoft Surface Pro

Authentication of users on the network is made available by logging into the domain with the same user

id/password as they do so on school issued computers.

In addition, the Microsoft Surface Pro does support a USB 3.0 to Ethernet Adapter (to connect to our network via

an Ethernet cable). Schools purchased a USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter from Startech.com to get this

accomplished.

Conclusions

21St Century Skills

Teacher observation - "Most students don’t use paper and pens anymore if they can avoid it." However, they can

only avoid it if they have technology. Technology, which is portable, versatile, effective and “just

works”. Students at Niagara Catholic found the Microsoft Surface tablets help foster 21st Century Learning.

21st Century Skills - interact, collaborate and publish with peers, experts, or other employing a variety of digital

environments and media.

Students in the secondary school used both SkyDrive to access documents, Microsoft OneNote to share ideas as

well as Microsoft Skype to virtually discuss ideas. All of these features were available using the tablet. The tablets

were used in the development of a Windows 8 app by some of the secondary students. This development

required communication beyond the classroom, where Skype allowed students at several locations to work

collaboratively.

Students in our elementary schools used the SkyDrive to share files during group projects. They also “discovered”

OneNote and found it to be great for organizing school work notes into subjects.

21st Century Skills - locate, organize, evaluate, synthesize and ethically use information from a variety of sources

and media

Students were responsible for the search and analysis of apps in the Windows 8 store. Theses apps were

evaluated in the school as well as the home. Students were able to install and evaluate a variety of apps which

they found effective for their learning. Apps were installed for time management, productivity, mathematics,

literacy and programming.

21st Century Skills - collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions



In addition to evaluating the apps, students also designed, by themselves, charts to evaluate battery life,

connectivity to our network, and any issue(s) they may have encountered. The data was part of their conclusions

on the effectiveness of the tablets. They also compared this data to the data for other technologies, including the

mobile laptops that circulate the school.

21st Century Skills - communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media

and formats.

Some of the elementary students found the built in voice recognition and assistive technologies in Windows 8

effective. In situations where the typing ability of the student was poor, the voice recognition was a good way to

capture their ideas.

In addition, combined with Microsoft OneNote, the ability to capture all ideas including the automatic sourcing

the information obtained from the internet was a good feature.

Final Thoughts

While many feel that a 1-1 relationship is ideal, many teachers found that 1 tablet to 2 students also worked very

effectively. It allowed each member of the small group to access the technology but also have different roles they

can play when they did access the technology. Collaboration promotes mentoring of their peers as well as

opportunities for leadership.

Technical Findings

Tablets were preferred to laptops by elementary students.

Windows 8 and the tile look and feel is the preferred operating system compared to the “desktop” mode (i.e.

Windows 7). Most students found the ability to search, the ease of use and the speed of the Microsoft Surface

tablets and Windows 8 in general outstanding.

The Microsoft Surface RT battery life was enough for either elementary or secondary school hours. The average

life of the Microsoft Surface Pro would be around 4 hours if a good number of videos were viewed.

Many teachers and students would list portability and battery life as important features and tablets were able to

achieve both of those goals as compared to laptops.

Despite liking the portability of tablets, all students (Elementary and Secondary) as well as teachers wanted a

keyboard.



The Microsoft Surface tablet keyboard (Type) tested better than the touch keyboard. All teachers and students

picked Type over the touch (the one that came with the Microsoft Surface RT).

The Microsoft Surface Pro and Microsoft Surface RT tablet were considered fast. It was fast to boot up and shut

down, it was fast when updates needed installing and it was fast when running apps or using the internet. It was

faster than, in the opinion of both the elementary and secondary students, than other tablets from competitors

(Apple iPad, Blackberry Playbook or Asus/Samsung Android tablets).

Functionality was an issue (e.g. everyone wanted at least one more USB drive on both the Microsoft Surface Pro

and the Microsoft Surface RT. Many of the teachers still connected a mouse to the existing usb port. Some tried

usb hubs, but didn’t like having to carry one around. However, everyone appreciated having an usb port (as

compared to the iPad)

While most teachers and students wanted more apps available in the Windows 8 store, all believed there would

be more eventually.

The ability to connect to the domain is an Achilles heel of the Microsoft Surface RT. The inability to package a

software image which would include Ontario Ministry offered software hampers IT ability to deploy and maintain

the tablets within the organization.

No tablet has ever worked better with our network than the Microsoft Surface Pro.

For further information:

Mark Di Tomasso

e-Learning Consultant

Niagara Catholic D.S.B.

www.niagaracatholic.ca

905-735-0240 ext. 130

[email protected]

Links

Twitter - @ncdsb_edtech

Linked-In – Mark Di Tomasso

Yammer - Mark Di Tomasso

http://www.niagaracatholic.ca/

Documents

Microsoft Surface Pilot - download.microsoft.com