During November at Microsoft, we focus on innovation, AI, and the cloud at one of our biggest events of the year: the Microsoft Ignite conference. It is free to join online from anywhere November 15 and 16, 2023, so anyone can learn about how Microsoft is innovating in ways that will impact teaching, learning, and the future of work. This year, a large focus of Ignite will be how Microsoft Azure brings your data together securely and privately to analyze your information and leverage other applications to provide enhanced learning, collaboration, and security. With secure access to your data on prem, in the cloud, or in a hybrid implementation, utilizing innovative education solutions with embedded AI and harnessing analytics in your career and technical education (CTE) classroom becomes easier than ever before.
Empowering educators with the latest cloud services and AI tools
Tools like Azure OpenAI Service, Bing Chat, and Bing Chat Enterprise for faculty (now available in paid academic plans) can save you time and personalize learning experiences by leveraging the power of large language models with enhanced cloud security. Since Ignite is free to attend virtually, you and other members of your IT or instructional team can join to learn more at sessions such as:
Register for Microsoft Ignite to take part in the experience!
Leveraging cloud services and Microsoft AI tools on your CTE classroom experience
Microsoft is committed to transforming education through the use of innovative developments such as AI. Our cloud services securely gather and analyze data, embedding it into AI-powered applications to enhance learning, collaboration, productivity, and security. This is a key point. To truly get the benefits of many of our developments with AI, you need to have your data in the cloud, not locked away in an out-of-date on-prem server or data warehouse. This requirement is just as important for CTE classrooms and programs as it is for entire school districts.
When considering the integration of cloud services and Microsoft AI tools into your CTE classroom experience, it’s essential to understand how to utilize these tools to enhance student career and technical skills. Microsoft takes some of the pressure off you when it comes to managing security to safeguard your data and student information. This delegation of certain security responsibilities not only frees up your resources for other essential classroom activities that utilize the power of responsible AI, but also leverages the inherent security features of the cloud to bolster your overall security stance.
Explore how to use Microsoft AI tools to enhance your CTE classroom experience.
If you want to learn more about how to support teaching and learning in your classroom using Microsoft’s cloud services and AI tools check out these solutions:
- Generate instant learning and visual engagement: Get information to help answer to student questions and support learning with visual aids with Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise. These tools give you access to AI-powered web chat (with added commercial data protection in Bing Chat Enterprise) that is grounded in data from the public web and provides complete, verifiable answers, along with visual responses that include graphs and charts. Use Bing Chat Enterprise with confidence knowing that Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) ensures secure access to Bing Chat Enterprise, protecting your user data and preserving chat privacy. Consider using these tools to quickly get responses with links to content sources during collaborative class discussions to dig deeper or generate visuals to explain complex concepts to students with Bing Image Creator.
- Elevate educational resources: Gather ideas and learning recommendations by incorporating tools that leverage the latest models from OpenAI. Microsoft Copilot in Windows 11, Bing and Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft 365 allows you to incorporate your own organization’s data. You can also integrate Azure OpenAI Service into your applications to ensure that staff have what they need tailored to your organization’s goals and their students’ data. For instance, you can personalize supplementary materials based on each student’s learning needs and interests or streamline tasks like writing engaging lessons or drafting assessments using standards and objectives that are tailored to your district and/or curricula.
- Customize learning solutions: For educational systems that want to harness the power of AI by building their own tools and services, Azure OpenAI Service offers a way to harness the scale and security of Azure with OpenAI’s generative AI model capabilities. Using this service, your staff will receive more detailed information when you build an application that is sourced from data you add and manage using a no-code approach. Plus, Microsoft offers the ability to detect and mitigate harmful use with built-in responsible AI and enterprise-grade security. For example, if you’re looking for ways to simulate CTE programs that involve potentially hazardous activities, you can create a chatbot using the chat playground in Azure OpenAI Studio that allows students to practice specific safety protocols and emergency procedures in a controlled virtual environment. You could also track the career progress of your program’s alumni by collecting their trajectories and success stories to showcase program outcomes and refine your curricula to align with industry standards.
- Open creative career pathways: Tap into the power of creative tools like Microsoft Designer, Bing Image Creator, Clipchamp, and Paint, all which are enhanced by generative AI. Designer produces an immediate visual draft of almost anything with a few simple prompts that can help learners brainstorm and iterate. These tools can provide you with innovative resources to engage students in career-specific design projects, multimedia assignments, and visual storytelling.
- Enhance productivity:Power Platform enables you to create low-to-no-code apps and chatbots, with no formal coding experience needed, that are specific to your classroom and student needs. From tracking student submissions to auto-sending notifications and calendar events, the options are limitless. Solutions can be as simple as a flow that notifies an educator when a student completes an assessment or project, or when augmented by Azure’s AI capabilities, as advanced as an AI-infused chatbot that leverages Azure machine learning to create personalized career pathway guidance. Power BI also quickly visualizes key metrics and trends from across your institution, such as CTE program enrollment, budgets, job placement rates, student demographic information, and more. This helps provide predictive insights in accessible dashboards to inform instructional changes and program decision-making.
Microsoft is leading the charge in bringing the power of cloud technology and AI to education. Our cloud services, particularly Microsoft Azure, are designed to enhance learning, collaboration, productivity, and security. Powerful, useful AI experiences come together in Microsoft solutions—simply, securely, and responsibly—into the products you use most. We invite you to join the Microsoft Ignite conference online for free from November 15 and 16, 2023, to discover cutting-edge AI tools like Azure OpenAI Service and Bing Chat Enterprise for faculty that can transform your educational institution. Embracing these innovations and exploring how they impact teaching and learning within your CTE program can help you revolutionize education.
Ready to take Microsoft cloud services and AI tools to the next level? Explore these resources to continue to innovate for education:
To help you make the most of these capabilities and build AI literacy, Microsoft offers free training on Microsoft Learn. Boost your confidence and explore the potential of AI in education:
