Always mobile, always connected, always looking for something new. These describe the students of today. Are you ready to equip them with the skills they need to empower their futures?
Ezaddin Musbahuddin, Education Director, Microsoft Malaysia, posed this question to 120 school leaders and IT decision makers at his welcome address at the Higher Education Summit held in Kuala Lumpur on September 19.
With learning habits evolving in step with rapid technological change, many higher education institutes are looking to the cloud to adapt to students’ evolving needs and prepare them for future workforce needs.
Over a series of presentations, technology showcases and “Meet the Expert” sessions, the summit centered on helping schools and universities in Malaysia advance their digital transformation journey and build better learning environments.
Laying the right foundations for change
Setting the right objectives is essential to any plan for change and digital transformation is no exception. In his presentation “A Vision for Institutional Transformation”, Robert Smith, Higher Education Specialist, Microsoft APAC elaborated on the need for schools to embrace change in the digital age. He highlighted the steps they can take to drive their own transformation journeys with Azure and other Microsoft cloud solutions.
Guest speakers from partners Barracuda Campus and Cloud Nation gave presentations on the infrastructure required for a digitally-enabled campus, and how deployment and setup is made easier with Microsoft solutions. Through technology showcases by Ingram Micro, SNS Network, Lenovo, Acer and HP, event participants discovered how devices and software fit in with their digital transformation initiatives.
At the “Meet the Expert” sessions, Dennis Chung, Education Cloud Solution Architect, Microsoft Corporation, provided in-depth consultation on specific issues, exploring with participants the concrete steps they can take to integrate new technology into the classroom. One institution is now exploring the use of facial recognition technology to automate attendance taking to minimize administrative work and streamline the classroom experience.
Enabling anytime, anywhere learning
Having the right infrastructure further allows schools and educators to focus on creating more learning opportunities beyond the classroom, particularly in spaces students are most comfortable with. Growing up surrounded by technology, most of the current generation of Malaysian students are digital natives highly attached to their devices and the online sphere.
The afternoon presentations touched on this topic of blended learning environments. Dean Saunders, CEO of eCreators, spoke about how open-source learning platform Moodle and Azure can help improve the e-learning experience for students, allowing them to access and interact with learning materials more easily outside the classroom.
In “Anytime, Anywhere Learning” Lai Li Kuan, Education Program Manager, Microsoft Malaysia showcased software and devices that are ideal in promoting learning and collaboration wherever they are. Robert Smith presented the future outlook of how machine learning and cognitive services can improve the quality of learning materials delivered to students, in and out of the classroom.
Rounding off the day was a presentation on “Future-ready Skills” by Lai Li Kuan, providing insights into the skills highly demanded by the digital workplace for today. The presentation also underlined Microsoft’s commitment to helping educational institutes in their digital transformation, so they can better nurture future leaders.
“We were delighted to see that many educators in Malaysia share the same vision, as indicated by the 120 percent turnout rate,” said Nik Ariff Nik Omar, Public Sector Lead, Microsoft Malaysia. “We look forward to continuing the conversations we had today with the representatives from various higher education institutes, to help them empower Malaysian students to create their own tomorrow.”