Microsoft Brings STEM Education Home During COVID-19 Crisis

Microsoft Ireland has today announced that its digital skills experience, DreamSpace, is being made available remotely with the roll-out of a dedicated online resource that will help young people to engage in STEM from their own home for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis with three free webinars a week run through live Teams events and hosted online for use later. Microsoft is also making free remote learning resources available to support teachers, parents and students during this time as everyone navigates learning at home and in many cases teaching students remotely with the help of technology.

DreamSpace is Microsoft’s dedicated innovation and education hub located at its headquarters in Leopardstown where schools visit every day for bespoke digital experiences. While the physical DreamSpace experience is closed temporarily as a result of the current public health crisis, the team at Microsoft has created new assets and repurposed others so that the fun of learning new Science Technology Engineering & Maths skills helps to keep young people interested and engaged during these challenging times.

The new webinar series, entitled DreamSpace HomeSpace, will build on the goals of DreamSpace by helping to give young people aged six to sixteen the digital skills they need to engage with technology in new ways. The content shows technology in use in everyday life helping to show children that whether you are interested in maths, architecture, music, sport or creative pursuits technology, there can be digital at the heart of that.

The tailored DreamSpace HomeSpace resources are being announced by Microsoft to also support parents and teachers throughout the country during this time as they take on the challenge of educating children and young people at home. While many schools are providing work programmes, the DreamSpace HomeSpace content will complement schoolwork and will provide a fun, yet valuable, learning experience for children of all ages.

All participants, whether students, parents or teachers, will have the opportunity to programme their very own piece of music, design their very own retro game, and will be introduced into the world of coding through Minecraft. Microsoft is inviting every primary and secondary school student to get involved in the company’s new immersive sessions, which can be accessed for free via Teams Live Event. All that students need to participate fully is access to a device and ability to get online. Full details are at aka.ms/DSHomeSpace.

Three DreamSpace HomeSpace sessions will be hosted at 1 pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a session planned for tomorrow Wednesday, 1st April at the scheduled time of 1 pm. Each session will contain a 30-minute tutorial followed by a home challenge and a live Q&A. For those who cannot join, all webinars in the series will be available on demand.

Speaking today Cathriona Hallahan, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland, said: “The impact of COVID-19 is something that we could never have imagined. It is affecting every part of our daily lives and making us challenge many of our previously held perceptions. While as individuals we all need to play our part to help combat this public health crisis, as a company we want to do what we can to try to keep things as normal as possible for as many people as possible. Importantly, this means our young people.

“For primary and secondary school children, going to school every day for social interaction and learning is a huge part of their lives. This opportunity has temporarily been taken away from them so we wanted to look at what we could do to help support the learning process while they stay at home. At Microsoft, we have always been passionate about ensuring the next generation have the skills they’ll need to participate fully in the digital economy.

This is at the centre of our DreamSpace experience where everyday students from primary and secondary schools from across the country come to Microsoft and have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a digital experience, challenge themselves to think differently and open their minds to the possibility of a career in technology.”

“In line with school closures DreamSpace also took similar measures and is now closed to school visits. We know that many parents are now presented with a new challenge of working from home while also keeping children entertained and importantly continuing to learn. We want to help with this challenge by providing free webinars that children can participate in at home.”

“In creating three fun and interactive online sessions each week, we want to continue to engage primary and secondary school students in a virtual digital skills experience and ensure they stay connected through technology. In times like this, it is important that we continue to empower young people to be creative, to think critically and to see how technology can be used to tackle the many issues we’re facing as a society now and will continue to face into the future.

“Microsoft remains committed to helping every student, parent and teacher to achieve more in the weeks and months ahead. We understand that navigating the new world of remote learning and working is a challenge that we’re all juggling on top of the worry of keeping ourselves and families safe. We all have to support one another during this time, and we hope these webinars bring some benefit to you and your childs day in the weeks ahead.”

To participate in Microsoft’s ‘DreamSpace HomeSpace’ sessions every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 pm go to aka.ms/DSHomeSpace and select the live or on-demand lesson of your choice. To access the remote learning resources for all teachers, parents and students during this time when learning is continuing outside of the classroom log onto aka.ms/RemoteLearnIRE.