Students may easily surf the web for information when working on homework, but Microsoft now wants to educate those kids how to recognise disinformation and think critically. In addition to the current Search Coach function, Microsoft is launching a Search Progress feature in Teams for Education that will assist instructors in developing good online research habits via practise work. Instructors may not only need a particular number of sources for an assignment, but they can also check to see if students are searching properly – they’ll know whether students are merely clicking the first site in the results, or if they’re using filters like NewsGuard to assess source quality. Students can also demonstrate their rationale and effort prior to submitting a project.
The Progress tool complements Search Coach (pictured below), which pushes students utilising Teams to search more specifically while also keeping an eye out for lies. They have the ability to limit searches to certain domains (such as.gov or.edu), date ranges, and file kinds. They may also run inquiries via fact-checking websites to see if a claim stands up to inspection. Safe search on Bing is enabled by default, and the results are ad-free. Instructors can also utilise search trends to refine their teaching.
Later this year, Search Progress will be available in preview form. Search Coach is already accessible in Teams all around the world. According to Microsoft, both functionalities will support over 50 languages.
Microsoft also aims to boost pupils’ general reading skills. Reading Coach from the firm will be accessible in Immersive Readers for Word Online, OneNote, Teams Assignments, Minecraft Education, and other platforms, providing students with additional reading fluency experience both online and in the apps they use. Meanwhile, Reading Progress will include comprehension questions to ensure that children genuinely grasp what they read. These updates are expected to be available later this year.
