In the ever-changing digital age, student “Digital Aborigines” are used to diverse sounds, sights, and stimulation from an early age. What’s more, teachers, mere “digital immigrants” themselves, cannot use the didactic teaching methods of before to hold the attention of their students. The question of how teachers can use convenient tools to help students to study meaningfully is a hot topic for many in education.

Many different courses of action have been proposed in different countries which make use of different directions in applying technology. With regard to the application of technology to the learning environment, the American SRI International Center has mooted the concept of School 2.0, which describes the student ecology of the next era, which effectively uses technology to fuse the home, school, society and government centers’ environments and resources, meeting the aims of school education. In another area, the American ISTE (The International Society for Technology in Education) has developed NETS（National Educational Technology Standards）divided into those to be used with students, teachers, and managers.
NETS divides teacher ability indicator into 5 main aspects, which are: (1) promoting and stimulating students’ motivation and creativity; (2) designing and developing digital-era student experiences and assessment; (3) Merging work and study in the digital era; (4) Promoting and producing citizen’s rights and responsibilities in the digital era; (5) Investment in professional growth and leadership ability. Teachers do not only play the role of leading students in learning, but need to improve themselves, and assist and co-operate with society and those engaged in education.

However, how are teachers to nurture their own technologized teaching ability in present teacher- training systems and the educational system? How are they to further use these technological abilities in the field? I will now introduce the Intel Innovative Educational Plan and Microsoft PBL Class Planning, and use the present situation of the teacher training provided by two large enterprises in Taiwan as a reference for the promotion of internationalized technological services by domestic enterprises.  

     Intel® Teach to the Future

In 2001, Intel launched the “Intel® Teach Essential Course” in Taiwan, in which they trained 30, 000 elementary and middle- school teachers in using technology in the classroom. In 2007, they once again collaborated with the National Taiwan Normal University and the Ministry of Education to launch the “Intel® Teach Thinking with Technology” which again involved training professional teachers- this time, the course centered around a project-based learning and high- level critical thinking models of teaching, and provided free interactive online tools and teaching strategies for teachers around the world, allowing them to guide students and raise their high- level independent thinking ability. Through class design, educational concepts which are student- centered, and raise students’ skills in the area of analysis, integration, and critical reflection, among others, were introduced. Aside from this, planned teacher training has also raised superior talent possessed of a high level of thinking ability and competitiveness.   

This course lasts for a total of 40 hours, and its content is divided into 10 themes. The first phase of the course is analysis of students’ thinking ability and educational objectives, to help teacher to design their own educational units. The content of this course includes: how students’ thinking abilities can be improved, how to undertake specialized design, establishing techniques for leading students’ skills, and planning student- centered assessment activities.
Phase 2: Learning to use the free, interactive tools provided by Intel, accompanied by educational strategies and resources to lead and raise students’ high- level independent thinking ability. Students are provided with three free cloud- computing tools, whose separate features are:
Visual Ranking Tool：
Creating items and placing them in order, undertaking discussion of the results of different orders and group thinking to create a consensus.
Seeing Reason Tool：
Creates a hidden relational diagram of complex systems, to understand their interactions and cause-and- effect relationships.
Showing Evidence Tool：Uses a visual structure to create rational talking points supported by evidence.
Phase 3: Completing design of a teaching unit, assessing how thinking tools helped to achieve the unit’s aims. Finally, teachers share their units with the class, and fill in a questionnaire about the critical thinking activity.

Picture 1: Using the Visual Ranking Tool to Compare Different Sequences

After attending the free 40- hour course, teachers receive a certificate from the National Taiwan Normal University, and begin teaching innovative thinking in their school within one semester, and can be lecturers for the program if they are judged to meet the standard required. Qualified teachers became lecturers on the teacher training course, and could also apply to the project work group to hold their own classes after raising the needed fees themselves. This program will assist them in gaining the right to use related materials, included textbooks, website resources, and learning tools.

Beginning in 2011, the program will offer a series of online training course that  will be centered around the themes of “developing innovative thinking” and “professional teacher growth”, and will invite people from all areas of education to talk about the connotations innovative thinking teaching, not only discussing key points in teaching and learning, but also sharing their experience as teachers. Such online classes will also be applied in “Intel Web 2.0 Teach to the Future”. This kind of mixed online learning course integrates digital learning technology ( class content will be transmitted through webpages, online interaction, and e-mail) and face- to- face teaching methods (real activities, lectures or small- group discussion) to allow participating teachers to effectively integrate information technology to improve students’ learning skills.

Aside from the above- mentioned teacher training,  “Intel Teach Program in Taiwan”  helps teachers to understand that they can add technological tools and resources to education at any place or time. Aside from this, different research plans and related services are provided for higher and further education, education in the community and K-12 education.

Intel Web 2.0 Teach to the Future
Face-to-face and online simultaneous research model
Online Browser (3.5 Hours)
Introduction to the course
Activities 1-4 Summary
Face-to-face course(12 hours)
 Chapter1 All teachers Chapter 2 All teachers Chapter 3 Discussion and sharing Activity 1: Preparing an online activity

Picture 2: Mixed Class Planning for “Intel Web 2.0 Teach to the Future”

“Microsoft PBL Teaching Strategy”

 At the end of 2003, Microsoft Taiwan and the Ministry of Education drew up the “Partners in Learning” plan, which was to take action in the three broad areas of Innovative Schools, Innovative Teachers, and Innovative Students.

Picture 3: The 3 Main Directions of Microsoft Taiwan’s Partners in Learning Plan

 Innovative Schools: The School of the Future; Educational Summit, Academic Forum, Interview, Copyright Plan.

Innovative Students: Children’s King of Reasoning Contest; Imagine Cup; Administration of International Student Exchange Activities.

Innovative Teachers: Peer Coaching, Innovative Teachers’ Contest, Global Innovative Education Network; CARE- Teaching Laws.

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In the area of innovative teachers, a project- based teacher training course was designed, which is divided into a 6-hour introductory course and a 24- hour advanced course. The main contents of the introductory course are: a familiarity with online search-themed design tools, the use of multiple mice in education, and the connection between IP rights and technological education. Teachers who attend the course are awarded Microsoft PBL certification after completing a teaching plan and uploading it to the Internet.The advanced course introduces School of the Furture MCloud, as well as Microsoft’s  free cloud- computing software (including Live@edu, Photosynth, Photostory, Office Live Workspace, SkyDrive, etc.) and its use in creating finished products. After teachers complete both a “PBL Project Plan Form” and “PBL Project Strategy Form” and upload both to the core knowledge network channel, they receive an advanced Microsoft PBL Teacher’s Certificate.
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In 2010, Partners in Learning held the “6th Greater Asian Innovative Education Forum” in Singapore, in which more than 250 teachers from 15 countries took part together. Microsoft Taiwan led eight junior high and elementary school teachers to represent Taiwan in this forum and competition. Aside from taking part in the teachers’ competition, they also discussed how students’ international views as well as the creation of “citizens of the world” could be created through discussion of global warming, and fisheries, as well as the exhaustion of water resources. This plan involved not only technologized teacher training, but also provided teachers with an international platform for making innovative education a reality.

Summary

The book Brain Rules mentions that “undertaking emotionally stimulating activities related to a theme yet is conducive to increasing attentiveness and increasing the strength of memory.” The “Intel Innovative Education Plan” and “Microsoft Partners in Learning” are based around the themes of group study and pluralistic assessment, and accompanied by free cloud software to lead students to critical thinking, both teachers and students can feel their “brains coming to life” in the process of education, which confirms that subjective and objective stimulation as well as interaction with peers really can increase the memory capacity and thinking ability.