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My Year 10 English class had a really positive experiencing ‘skyping’ with Sarah Vaughan who is a “Director, Developer and Platform Evangelist at Microsoft Australia”.

The group is comprised of boys who volunteered to be in my class this year (knowing they would have more opportunities to use technology than in other English classes). Their first unit of work has been Connected? and without going into detail,  the students have been exploring the impact of technology on communication, work, learning and relationships. However, we also want to really connect with people that we can learn from during the course of the year, not just talk about it in class.

I have recently blogged about the boys’ enthusiasm for coding and shared the post with Sarah, who I met at the Microsoft #OMGtips lunch earlier this month. She kindly agreed to have a skype session which you can view below.

Skyping

The boys asked many good questions. They learnt what Microsoft looks for in employees and how they recruit. Sarah offered the class a tour of Microsoft in Sydney and also left the door open for the boys to do work experience later in the year. The class was, as you can imagine, very excited at the prospect of getting their hands on the new Xbox courtesy of Sarah. You will likely enjoy the interview as much as we did.

The students were genuinely excited at connecting with Sarah and listening to what she had to say about technology and what it is like to work for Microsoft.  Her enthusiasm for the next generation of gadgets and the Xbox resounded with them. They found it interesting that she had served in the military, graduating from Duntroon after university.

It is very important for students to have opportunities to connect with successful people and to learn about their journeys. Sarah attended nearby Moss Vale High School but commenced kindergarten at the same school down the road, Dapto Primary, that many of the boys attended. They certainly appreciated Sarah’s kind words about their town as well as her generosity towards them.

So did their teacher…

Featured image: cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by kmakice: http://flickr.com/photos/kmakice/4305998856/

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Comments(3)

  1. This sounds fantastic Darcy. I love the sound of your unit. It’s along the lines of what I’d like to explore with some of our juniors when approaching digital media. I was inspired by this talk by AManda Palmer regarding the capacity for connections via technology to enable quality perosnal connections and experiences in the real world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g&list=PLI20XmZqYDP8PCIRtBJ-BGF8Wq4x21zVg&feature=player_detailpage

    I’d love to hear more about how this unit goes.

      • Darcy Moore

      • 12 years ago

      Hi John,

      I had not seen this TED talk. Thank you. I understand completely why you have shared it here and will screen it for my class. Cheers.

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