Microsoft
Giving schoolchildren a chance to shine
Microsoft in Education are ‘empowering every student on the planet to achieve more’. The digital services they provide emphasise ‘personalised learning experiences’ in order to boost engagement. BlockBuilders have teamed up with Microsoft on innovative student-centred projects across the UK.
The story of our partnership with Microsoft all started in a town called New Milton. We were involved in a Heritage Lottery Fund project called Block2Block, along with Arnewood School, Hampshire Cultural Trust and the Forest Arts Centre. The project gave local young people the tools to produce a digital museum of their town, which BlockBuilders modelled using Ordinance Survey mapping data.
Young carers contributed songs and raps, the skatepark community made experimental videos and students at Arnewood School filmed historical re-enactments inspired by interviews with older residents, including the Mayor. The creative contributions were collected and exhibited virtually within the Minecraft model, which became a shared source of information and entertainment for the whole community.
Young carers contributed songs and raps, the skatepark community made experimental videos and students at Arnewood School filmed historical re-enactments inspired by interviews with older residents, including the Mayor. The creative contributions were collected and exhibited virtually within the Minecraft™ model, which became a shared source of information and entertainment for the whole community.
Block2Block attracted the attention of the Education Team at Microsoft who invited the participating young people to present Block2Block at the software giant’s UK headquarters in Reading. The virtual museum was also exhibited at the Forest Arts Centre and featured on BBC South Today.
In the wake of Block2Block’s incredible success, we started running workshops for Microsoft, encouraging large groups of children to learn to code, to design a new home or town, to learn about the water cycle and much more.
Our work with Microsoft’s ‘Education Edition’ of Minecraft™ was positively received by the EdTech community when we presented at Bett Show 2019.