MICROSOFT PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMME (Ai) - A LIFELINE FOR DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES CURRICULA

NZ Schools are increasingly noting that adopting the "new" digital technologies curriculum verbatim means further legitimising the 2-decade trend of simplification in NZ education; deepening the issues industry and tertiary have raised regarding the ability for Secondary education to supply prepared, digitally savvy and attitudinally ready talent.

The growing concerns are such that whereas the incumbent NCEA digital technology standards had ‘some’ bounds to assess upon a scholastic theme, digital-technology tranche focus and or held 'some' broad terms for the assessed "requirement" (validation of teaching and learning), the new NCEA standards have, by and large, removed these broad terms and technology tranches altogether. There are rubrics, but no means to measure quality or cognitive development. As an example, this enables "programming", for example, to be a course as sophisticated as ‘programming a TV Remote’.

Without attention to the impacts of this “flexibility”, the effects will continue to:

• Deepen race to the bottom technology choices in schools (Chromebooks, Ipads and surrounding architecture - which are at odds with the goals of the new digital tech curriculum in themselves).

• entrench the prevailing technocratic ideology that weakens the cognitive development, skill prepardness and overall societal development

• Increase adoption of gimmick software or applications: offering little experiential and or real world learning for students.

• Continue or exasperate the deterioration in higher-order learning and quality skill development.

• Erode the preparedness and or drivers for educators to up-skill.

On the other hand, Microsoft’s new Professional Programme [MPP] provides schools with a massive lifeline for adopting the NCEA Digital Technologies.

On the back of Microsoft's 6 MTA certification release, in 2017, Microsoft’s Professional Programme “provides real-world skills and hands-on instruction that keeps pace with the technology industry”.

With on-demand or an “as a service” styled offering the real opportunity sits with front-line schools to reverse the trend and establishes a means to a credible and high value NCEA Digital technologies:

Amongst many tranches, Microsoft Professional Program for Artificial Intelligence is of particular value. Further tracks also include, Data Science, Big Data, Front-End Web Development, Cloud Administration, Dev Ops.

By embedding MPP into NCEA, to give NCEA much needed local and international validity or credibility, enabling schools to realise multi-subject programme/course offerings; delivered through triple-loop learning students create projects to highly objective goals. This, as proven, creates performance-measurable education, in real-time (no paper and no post-learning assessment), systems, design and critical thinking development for all curricula-standards: resolving ambiguity, providing students with real-time feedback and tailored content provision.

The MPP programme is one of several major answers for New Zealand (and more broadly) talent development leveraging the goals of the new-digital technologies curriculum - to ensure students understand the potential for using platforms such as Azure, with AI, Machine Learning and AI - to solve growing societal issues.

Accordingly - MPP embedded into NCEA, experientially delivered, with these tranches, together with applied use of Microsoft’s MOS Certification and MTA programme, means:

STEM has purpose, outcomes and a performance driver (currently there is no performance driver).

Schools can create (as proven) integrated curriculum with STEM and beyond stem by bringing together any or all of Mathematics, Business, Commerce, Media, English, Sciences and Arts, Physical education, Drama, Music, Languages – in any project format.

As Microsoft’s Professional Programme leverages Microsoft Azure, with a growing appetite in schools for support with addressing the new digital-technologies curriculum, and how to deliver integrated-programmes (to support “modern learning environments”); this justifies a review of the entire school management and procedural dark-ages - to meet student demand for these important new programmes.

This is an incredible opportunity.

As such, MPP, together with industry certification, embedded in NCEA, delivered through 1:1 triple loop, means justified adoption of race to the top technologies such as Office 365, high-performance device(s) and or computing. This means automation, digital-content provision and new-forms of student-data/performance - a must have beyond standard school management system data. This mix creates, at the very least, significant gains for the erosion of administration wastage [time and money]), freeing up educators to develop professionally and implementing these powerful programmes.

Given these variables, the new (and proven) format, further enabled by 24/7/365 teacher-supported, and or self-paced and or 1:1 learning - drives massive student engagement and reduces behavourial issues; as a result, MPP (embedded into NCEA)) creates another reason to abandon the free fall into the participative programmes (to create a false sense of academic success or outcome) which undermine the cognitive and or skill outcomes for learners – the very issues the new digital technologies solution were to resolve.

On this basis, MPP, underpinned by certification programmes, delivered through triple-loop project education (project education: an core MOE goal), as proven, also establishes the opportunity to reconsider the removal of NCEA L1. This is because NCEA Level 1 does not need to be scrapped due to the perceived ease of attainment or irrelevance. Scrapping NCEA Level 1 would only serve to legitimise the gradual, now explicitly visible, erosion of cognitive development in New Zealand learners and would simply result in a re-badging of NCEA L1 as L2; a recipe for further degradation in education quality.

With MMP in NCEA, and in being equally applicable in many global education systems, the combination offers genuine and authentic learning experiences. The mix drives students to acquire a sense of personal responsibility, to create their own success stories – they are able to prove that they can “hit the ground running” with demonstrable project-evidence and speak from experience; supported by highly credible qualifications.

As proven, through implementing Microsoft’s MTA certification in junior and NCEA, for all learners, the real opportunity, strengthening the STEM and or Integrated subject–project model (as desired by the Ministry and NZQA) (through programmes such as MPP), this combination enables the replacement of the current NCEA Level 3 as L1.

Summarily – adopting MMP (and Certification) in or within NCEA (and other core curricula) means schools are able to:

1. Renew their posture, grow and attract enrollments.

2. Present genuine, measurable (in real-time), higher-order learning for all students; creating schools as regional talent development vehicles.

3. Demonstrate practitioner development, tailored to the practitioner (in the same manner as a learner), without the implications of mass-staff after-school PD.

4. Prove school-smarts with digital technology adoption, streamlining, BI-use and or automation; even using IOT / AI to establish much needed substance to return investment from the multi-million $ injected into "modern-learning-environments".

5. Engage with industry and community as high-value regional contributors.

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