Microsoft Education bosses: 'We're excited about the potential of hybrid learning'

Microsoft's VP of education and its UK director of education speak to CRN about the opportunities around hybrid learning post-pandemic and the industry-wide supply constraints

The remote learning policies instigated by COVDI-19 restrictions has opened up a host of possibilities for the education sector post-pandemic, according to Microsoft education execs.

Chris Rothwell, director of education at Microsoft UK, told CRN that the vendor has learned new lessons around hybrid learning which will be implemented when pupils return to the classroom again on a regular basis.

"I think that we've seen an evolution in teaching [over the past year] that has meant that opportunity and ways of engaging students using digital has actually fostered a more inclusive and accessible approach in teaching," he elaborated.

"Once we're all back in education, we're excited about the potential of a hybrid education and hybrid learning that builds on all the things brilliant about that technology, as well as all the things that are incredible about being in a classroom with an educator and learning together with your peers.

"The combination of those things - and using technology to encourage and facilitate a lot of accessibility - we've seen that increase over this period of time as teachers have become more comfortable with balancing the role of technology with what they traditionally do in the classroom."

Barbara Holzapfel, VP of Microsoft, added that the tools and services developed as part of the vendor's education packages allows greater accessibility to students, particularly those for whom a return to the classroom might not be immediately possible.

Holzapfel will be unveiling Microsoft's new Windows 10 devices for the school year and its Classroom Pen 2 alongside CEO Satya Nadella at this week's BETT trade show.

"There are some things that have been learned over these 10 months that will have an impact on how can we use the different modalities of learning in different ways and in different situations," she stated.

"Therefore, keeping more students in the learning journey because you might also not be bound to physical space, you can use a lot of accessibility features to make your learning easier and more tailored to you.

"There are of course, things that are best done in person - there's absolutely no doubt about that - but with a lot of the tools that we have, it then really allows the teachers and the students to focus on that group work, that peer-to peer-learning, the science experiments and those types of things."

The execs also stressed that the supply chain disruption experienced across the industry as a result of the pandemic is being resolved.

"We've worked really closely with the suppliers and the resellers and the customers to try and make sure that we're supporting in every way that we can to get the right devices out there," said Rothwell (pictured right).

"But the reality is that these are hardware devices and they all need components to be manufactured and then assembled and then shipped around the world, so not every device is available in the timeline that everyone would like. But we're doing our best along with all of the manufacturers to try and get the right devices to support education customers in the UK and everywhere else around the world that needs them."