Interactive Classroom Lessons with Microsoft Mouse Mischief
It’s been known and studied that children learn better when they are able to participate and have interactions with lessons in class. The more activities they are encouraged and attracted to join in, the better they are at absorbing what is being taught. Who wants to sit in a boring classroom anyway? Microsoft has come up with an idea that makes every classroom lesson more fun, interactive and collaborative, with the help of Mouse Mischief.
Every Classroom Needs a Little Mischief
Microsoft’s Mouse Mischief is a PowerPoint plugin that allows teachers to create interactive classroom lessons that are much more fun. With one computer, a PowerPoint presentation, and Mouse Mischief, students can make use of their individual mice to interact with their lessons. This encourages students to participate more in class, thus improving learning and allowing teachers to have better classroom management and much more attentive students.
With Mouse Mischief, teachers can easily insert question polls, drawing tasks, multiple choice questions, puzzles, and many more engaging and exciting activities. Students just need to have their own mouse to participate and the learning possibilities are endless.
Why You Need Mouse Mischief?
From Science to Math, Geometry to Language to even Chemistry and Music, Mouse Mischief is a wonderful tool to make every lesson memorable and fun. Microsoft sites three compelling reasons to use Mouse Mischief in the classroom:
1. Actively engages students and supports collaborative learning – Let’s face it. Students today are much more tech savvy and are generally unimpressed by the old ways of teaching. PowerPoint presentations tend to get old and teachers can just throw away their flashcards. With Mouse Mischief, you grab the students’ attention with the new technology that they are widely familiar with, allowing them to also actively participate together with their classmates.
2. Improves classroom management and overall student participation – Once you have grabbed everyone’s attention, there is less chance for the students’ attention to simply drift off the lesson. With Mouse Mischief, you have a better chance of grabbing the students’ attention and making sure that they are focused on the discussion at hand.
3. Is familiar to use and easy on the classroom budget – Mouse Mischief is a PowerPoint plugin that is integrated into the Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. You don’t need to download a whole new set of applications and you don’t have to spend time learning new skills in order to use and navigate through the software. You also don’t need to buy additional hardware, which may even tend to be expensive. All students need are mice and USB hubs of their own.
Create Lessons Full of Mischief
Microsoft Mouse Mischief runs on Windows operating systems with Office PowerPoint. Mouse Mischief work with approximately 20-25 mice on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, approximately 5 mice on Windows XP SP3.
All you need to do is to install Mouse Mischief into your computer. With the application installed, you can download lessons from Office.com and from the Microsoft Partners in Learning Network. You can also create your own multiple-mouse presentation customized for your class.