Microsoft Customer SolutionLive@edu Case Study

Brunei School Improves Performance with Communication and Collaboration Tool

OverviewCountry or Region: BruneiIndustry: Education

Customer ProfileChung Hwa Middle School is one of the largest private schools in Brunei. The school was established in 1922 and currently has 3,250 students and 155 staff on its campus in Bandar Seri Begawan.

Business SituationChung Hwa Middle School wanted to communicate effectively with students, teachers and parents and encourage collaboration.

SolutionChung Hwa Middle School deployed Microsoft Live@edu as its communication and collaboration tool.

Benefits Improves access to parents Frees teacher time Strengthens relationships Enhances student performance Improves communication and

collaboration for teachers

“It’s important that we keep up with technology and ensure that our students develop strong ICT skills. Live@edu is playing a critical role in helping us to achieve that.”

Mdm Kho Guik Lan, Principal, Chung Hwa Middle School

Chung Hwa Middle School is one of the largest private schools in Brunei. The school was established in 1922 and currently has 3,250 students and 155 staff on its campus in Bandar Seri Begawan. It provides a tri-lingual learning environment and educates children from kindergarten right through to secondary school level. In 2009 Chung Hwa Middle School became one of the first schools in Brunei to implement Microsoft Live@edu.As a result the school has witnessed improvements in student performance, closer relationships with parents, and enhanced learning environments through the use of Live@edu as an online communication and collaboration learning tool.

Chung Hwa Middle School

Chung Hwa Middle School is one of the largest private schools in Brunei. The school was established in 1922 and currently has 3,250 students and 155 staff on its campus in Bandar Seri Begawan.

Chung Hwa Middle School is a tri-lingual school

With a key emphasis on the role of technology in supporting its educational goals, in 2009 the school became one of the first schools in Brunei to implement Microsoft Live@edu.

With Live@edu, all staff and students now have a stable and secure technology platform to enhance both the teaching and learning environment at the school. Kho Guik Lan, Principal, Chung Hwa Middle School, explains, “It’s important that we keep up with technology and ensure that our students develop strong ICT skills. Live@edu is playing a critical role in helping us to achieve that.”

Improves Access to ParentsEvery staff member and student has a school e-mail address that the school regularly uses for communication. Kho explains how e-mail has improved access to parents: “For example we send out school reports twice a year to parents and

previously we needed to print these individually and send the school reports home with the students. Now we send them to the student’s e-mail address, and parents can check this at home.”

E-mail is also being used to schedule school appointments, and keep parents up to date with school activities. “Staff members can e-mail an agenda for the meeting and send an invitation as an e-mail meeting request, which parents then accept to confirm their attendance,” says Kho.

Frees Teacher TimeAlmost all teachers now have their own Web site for uploading content, teaching resources, and important messages for students and parents. This has helped the school focus its energies on improving learning outcomes.

Strengthens Relationships between Teachers and StudentsLive@edu has created a closer relationship between teachers and their students because after the lessons have ended, teachers can support ongoing learning through using the various Live@edu services, such as chatting on Windows Live Messenger, posting a blog on their Windows Live Space, and encouraging discussion within Windows Live Groups.

Vibrant student community

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Enhances Student PerformanceThere has been a noticeable change in student performance as a result of deploying Live@edu. “We’ve noticed that students are now more confident in speaking in front of class. This is because teachers can encourage students by providing online resources and answering their questions using electronic communication,” says Kho.

Students in the school’s computer lab

Share Information and Encourage LearningAlmost all teachers have their own Office Live Web sites to share resources and work plans among their colleagues and with students.

Tan Been Tiem is using Live@edu to teach the Malay language to her students. In particular she is making use of her Office Live Web site to post teaching materials for students to use during classroom activities and at home, while her students have created their own Web sites. “Students can learn from each other by accessing the Web sites of their classmates. The students

edit and update their sites based on the feedback I provide them. This teaches them both Malay and ICT skills,” says Tan.

Tan publishes material and documents that will be of interest to students and uses her Windows Live Writer blog to pose topics for discussion to encourage students to express their opinion.

Ms Tan has also set up e-mail groups for each of her classes. “I can just send one e-mail to each of my classes, which saves me time and is very convenient. During the H1N1 crisis I used e-mail to send homework to each class and students could submit their class assignments online, so learning wasn’t interrupted even though they weren’t able to attend school.”

“Live@edu is really convenient for me when I want to send something extra to my class,” she adds.

Instant Communication Fang Wei Ping is using Live@edu to teach Science to primary school children at Chung Hwa Middle School. Windows Live Messenger is proving to be a useful tool for quick, point-of-need communication with students. “I’ll tell students specific times when I’m available on Messenger and we hold group conversations on their project work,” comments Fang.

Shared learning experience

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Salifu is using Windows Live Messenger to communicate with students in his English class and has found that this tool is particularly appealing to shy students. “Some students are not confident in expressing themselves in class. I can chat with students using Windows Live Messenger during agreed times and be confident they understand.”

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Chung Hwa Middle School products and services, call +673 222 9017 or visit the Web site at: www.chunghwa.edu.bn

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published August 2010

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