Microsoft Certified Educator Program

As a 21 st century educator you must be aware of the latest tools, resources and apps to transform your teaching and provide the best in terms of engaging today’s learners.


ACT Collaborates With Microsoft To Provide Microsoft Certified Educator Program (MCE)

Asian College of Teachers (ACT), the pioneer in teacher education in Asia in collaboration with Microsoft, introduces Microsoft Certified Educator program, a professional development program that aims to connect the gap between technology skills and innovative teaching among the 21 st century teaching fraternity.

Since the main aim of Microsoft is ‘transforming education by focusing on 21st century skills’, the program on 21CLD has been created to reach and engage as many teachers as possible in this training.

MICROSOFT CERTIFIED EDUCATOR PROGRAM

By enrolling in the Microsoft Certified Educator program, educators will get the skills needed to provide rich, customized learning experiences to their students that integrate important 21st century learning skills using Microsoft tools. ACT aims to help the aspirants get access to this program from Microsoft and help them flourish in their specific area of teaching. For successfully passing the exam, you will want to master the 21CLD curriculum and have a working understanding of a variety of Microsoft tools. 21CLD or 21st Century Learning Design helps teachers redesign their lessons and learning activities to develop their students’ 21st century skills.

The 21CLD curriculum is based on rubrics, which have been developed and tested internationally for the Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research project. With the help of these rubrics, educators will be able to identify and understand the opportunities that learning activities give students to build 21st century skills and incorporate these learning activities to ensure you are embedding 21st century skills in your teaching practices.

There are 8 courses in total with approximately 20 hours of online tutorials, video, readings, educator-discussion and self-assessment. Educators are provided with the opportunity to actively engage with classroom evidence of 21CLD in action in classrooms across the globe.

Any teaching aspirant/professional can prepare, take a pre-test and finally the test at 5000 INR / 75 USD which also includes the Preparatory Materials.

ACT Alumni can avail the same at 3500 INR / 50 USD and become Microsoft Certified Educators.

Candidates for this exam include individuals preparing to become classroom teachers, working teachers, faculty at teacher training or pre-service colleges, educational administrators or other professionals looking to provide validation of competency.

The 21st Century Learning Design provides teachers with clear and practical ways to develop 21st skills using digital technologies with their students. Through a collection of Office Mix Lessons, this collection builds on the research methodology providing a collaborative, practice-based process to help educators transform how they design enriching learning activities for their students - to become more innovative with cloud-based tools, regardless of the device they use. Educators will also learn how to use basic features of Office 365 including Microsoft Teams, OneNote, Sway, Microsoft Forms, Office Online and One Drive.

The 21CLD curriculum consists of the following 8 online courses:

  • The 21CLD introductory course explains the background to the 21st century skills and provides the research at the foundation of the overall 21CLD curriculum.
  • In the next 6 courses, each of the 21st century skills is introduced. The 21CLD rubric is used to analyse learning unit examples.
  • The final course brings together the whole of 21st century learning design elements and leads the teachers to reflect on the methods the 21CLD approach can influence their own classroom practice and their students' learning.
  • Throughout the curriculum, educators are encouraged to share new and redesigned learning activities.

The core elements of the 21CLD curriculum include:

  • A focus on redesigning learning to develop 21st century skills and deepen understanding of 21CLD curricular goals.
  • Facilitating educators to use new learning designs within their own teaching and to analyse the impact on the 21 st century student learning.
  • Sharing new learning activities with other educators locally and globally.
  • An opportunity for educators to discuss and support each other as they get familiar with the 21CLD skills.
Benefits of the program
  • Ensures faculty/staff have basic understanding of Microsoft Education tools
  • Ensures faculty/staff can demonstrate how to successfully incorporate 21st century skills into lessons
  • Ensures faculty/staff know which Microsoft Education tools can support which specific 21st century skills
  • Provides access to free effective professional development
  • Provides reliable validation of ICT investments

Taking up MCE learning program and taking the certification exam along with other teacher training programs or professional development will help teachers gain confidence and help make good use of new technologies to maximize student learning outcomes.


The 21CLD curriculum describes six rubrics of 21st century learning, each of which represents an important skill for the 21 st century students to develop. These are:


  1. Collaboration
  2. Skilled communication
  3. Knowledge construction
  4. Self-regulation
  5. Real-world problem-solving and innovation
  6. Use of ICT for learning


Microsoft Certified Educator Exam Centres
Delhi
Bangalore
Kolkata
Mumbai
Chennai
Hyderabad