Aves prepares students for the challenges of tomorrow using Microsoft Education tools and Surface devices

“At Aves, we believe that technology has the potential to change the world. Our role as educators is to make sure that children have the right digital skills to make that happen.” Ronald Heupink, Educational Advisor at Aves, is explaining his organization’s digital literacy initiative – and how this is helping to revolutionize education in the Netherlands. 

“I have a five-year-old daughter who’s growing up in the age of electric cars, climate change and digital wallets,” Heupink says. “These are elements that I didn’t have at her age, but which she’ll soon need to learn about. 

“That’s what Aves is committed to doing: helping her and her generation to understand these elements and learn how to tackle them with technology.”

It’s a mission that Aves has been pursuing for more than a decade– continuously looking for ways to make teaching and learning more digitalized, dynamic and future-proof. 

One that recently led them to embrace a wealth of Microsoft Education products and solutions that are allowing its teachers to provide a more diversified and personalized set of teaching curricula. Ultimately helping to forge a new generation of digitally savvy, innovation-driven students.  

“Not only have we empowered teachers to provide the best education,” he says. “But most importantly, we’re enabling our students to improve their digital literacy by creating a diverse, accessible and inclusive learning environment.”

Putting innovation at the centre of education

Aves is an educational organization that manages 34 primary schools in the north-eastern part of the Netherlands. A long-term technology adopter, Aves has spent more than ten years integrating technology into its education systems wherever possible.

“We started using Microsoft technology nearly a decade ago, giving each teacher a Surface device,” says Heupink. “Prior to then, we used paper and emails for everything.”

At the heart of the initiative – and all the projects that followed it – has been a desire to improve the output of students’ learning and make sure that they’re ready for the challenges of the future.

“The world is in dire need for digital solutions that make it more sustainable and efficient,” says Heupink. “It’s imperative that our students are well equipped to realizing them.”

This need has been at the heart of Aves’ digitalization program of the past decade – persuading them to implement Surface devices, but also shift meetings to OneNote and work in the cloud. 

And, more recently, to build an entirely new digital portal for teachers and students. 

“The solutions we have are great,” says Heupink, “but in the last few years we’ve been looking for a way to easily and securely connect our employees and students. And help them to develop tailored curricula that can further support our digital literacy ambitions.

“Once again, Microsoft has been there to help us.”

The schools co-create a learning environment

To address the evolving needs of its students and teachers and encourage a more tailored and dynamic style of teaching, Aves decided to adopt MijnOnderwijsportaal – a solution created by Cooperation MijnOnderwijsportaal. Built in a SharePoint environment, this offers schools a plethora of solutions and a customizable curriculum to suit the needs of each teacher. 

“Everything we do at Aves is conceived and delivered to make our teachers’ lives easier, and our students’ learning better,” says Heupink. 

“So when it came to creating our portal, we had one certainty: we didn't want it to be designed by engineers and technology developers, but instead by those who would be using it every day; teachers, children and the school board.”

To do this,  Aves decided to hold a series of workshops to gather inputs and plan the design phase. Although each school had different requirements, they all shared the same vision: bringing digital literacy into the classroom. 

“We asked the children what they needed for online learning,” says Heupink. “Then we turned to the teachers and directors and asked them how we could help them to deliver a high-quality curriculum. 

“All of the feedback was pointing towards an easy-to-use platform where everyone could work, collaborate and learn.”

Empowering teachers to provide best-in-class education

Since its launch, the platform has received some positive feedback from its users, who recognize its key importance within Aves’ digital literacy efforts. “The platform is truly great,” says Annemarie Le Fevre, a teacher at Aves. “It’s empowered us to deliver a great education and given us the flexibility to do it using a safe solution.”

To make sure that each teacher is always up to date with the solution – and has the right skillset and knowledge to use it – Aves has been holding annual workshops for all its staff. 

Security and governance were vital components to this project, so Aves has started managing all its devices with Microsoft Intune, to install the software onto each Surface device, enable encryption and ensuring each user sees the right environment. The organization also uses Microsoft Autopilot to zero-touch enroll the Surface devices and with Azure Active directory allow students to log in using anonymous email addresses – encouraging them to learn about digital privacy. 

“Having a secure solution has also been vital for supporting teachers through hybrid working,” says Le Fevre. “Each teacher can use applications such as Microsoft Teams to work from anywhere and the camera on Surface devices adds a personal touch.”

Supporting students in the classroom and beyond

The initiative doesn’t just aim to empower teachers, it’s instrumental in helping students thrive in the classroom, equipping them to develop their digital literacy in engaging ways. “Children can use the game center to play games such as Minecraft, which helps them to understand developing and programming,” says Le Fevre. “The older children also love filming themselves, watching the recordings back to see how they look and sound.”

There are also education tools on Windows educational devices, such as Microsoft Reading Progress, Immersive Reader and Reading Coach, which are all available within Microsoft Teams and the Microsoft Office applications. 

These help to improve accessibility and inclusivity by enhancing students’ reading skills, especially among students who are new to the Netherlands, such as refugees. “Children can read to themselves using their own device without the pressure of an adult sitting next to them.

“The software helps us to give our attention to students who need it most,” Le Fevre continues. “When you have 30 children in a classroom, it can be hard to monitor everyone’s development. But we can use Microsoft Education tools to manage how well children are doing.”

“The technology is incredible,” Heupink adds. “It’s always working for us, not against us.” 

Preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow

The use of education tools is expected to expand even further at Aves in the future. “In the next four years, we’re looking to grow our digital learning environment with a focus on digital literacy,” says Heupink. “Using various tools and applications we’d like to teach students skills such as presentation building, fact checking and how to use data and information to better prepare them for the future.

“We’re also planning on piloting the new Surface Laptop SE laptops with a small group of children.  It’s a great opportunity for students to own their own devices.”

Above all though, technology helps to prepare students for the future. “Making digital literacy one of our guiding principles here at Aves means that we can prepare children for the digital workplace and jobs that didn’t exist a few decades ago,” says Heupink.

“The problems we are facing now as a society will become the problems our children will need to solve,” he concludes. 

“Technology can make their lives better, but they must learn how to use it. Our digital environment helps us incorporate technology into education to set children up for success. It's an exciting time at Aves and it’s just the beginning for digitalization in education.”