Fast Facts Teachers Fuel Creativity and

Organization
Five schools in the Krasnodarsky Cooperation in Russian Schools with
region of Russia
Program Windows MultiPoint Mouse SDK from
With the growing knowledge
economy in Russia, schools Microsoft and Curriculum Curiosity
need an affordable and effective
strategy for integrating software
technology into the classroom.
Profile Russian citizens need computer skills to succeed in their country’s
Participation in a pilot project
new knowledge economy, but schools struggle to ensure every
utilizing Windows MultiPoint
Mouse and Curriculum Curiosity student has access to a computer to learn those skills. Five schools
software from Noviy Disk in the Krasnodarsky region of Russia found a way to build a
enabled 28 teachers at five
technology-rich curriculum and provide computer access to all their
schools to incorporate computed-
based projects into lessons students, thanks to Windows MultiPoint® Mouse SDK from
across the curriculum. Microsoft® and Curriculum Curiosity software1 from Noviy Disk.
Program Impact Russia has experienced explosive growth in its knowledge economy in recent years.
 90% of teachers noted Demand for employees with core technology skills and the ability to work
improvement in student
collaboratively has increased dramatically. As a result, K–12 schools have
computer skills.
experienced increased pressure to integrate Information and Communication
 Significant increase in student
Technologies (ICT) into the classroom.
engagement and teamwork.
 Teachers better able to identify Educators in Russia, like teachers worldwide, recognize the benefits of integrating
and address student technology into their curriculum, and they are eager to introduce students to
challenges with technology-
computers at the earliest opportunity. But with limited funding, many schools simply
based curriculum.
cannot afford to purchase and maintain computers for every student. This was the
Resources challenge facing schools in the Krasnodarsky region of Russia.
To learn more about MultiPoint
Mouse, visit: In early 2009, five schools in the region had a unique opportunity to address this
http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint situation. Participation in a pilot program developed by educational publisher Noviy
To see Noviy Disk’s Curriculum Disk and sponsored by Microsoft made it possible for 28 nursery and primary school
Curiosity in action, visit:
http://www.school.nd.ru/experience

Microsoft Unlimited Potential is committed to helping all people benefit from information and
communications technology (ICT) that is accessible, affordable, and relevant to their needs. Learn more
at www.microsoft.com/unlimitedpotential.
1
The Russian language version of Curriculum Curiosity is known as Fantazery.

“The use of this
technology gives an
opportunity for teaching
creativity.”
Teacher, preschool No. 12,
Novokubansk
“Each student gets an
opportunity to discover
and create. Spending
minimum time, students
have an opportunity to do
practical work, get results
and draw conclusions
together. They learn to
interact in pairs to
achieve a common goal.”
Teacher, Secondary School No
18, Armavir
teachers to develop a creative, computer-based curriculum and expand their
students’ access to technology.
The pilot program, which was conducted by Noviy Disk in association with the
Regional Institute for Further Professional Education in Krasnodar, provided each of
the participating schools with MultiPoint Mouse and Curriculum Curiosity, an
interactive, educational software package from Noviy Disk. Together, these solutions
empowered the schools to expand their computer-based activities in the classroom.
MultiPoint Mouse enables three to 30 students to simultaneously use a single
MultiPoint Mouse and Curriculum Curiosity: one PC
with multiple users
computer. Each student has a mouse and can work independently at his or her own
computer monitor. Students can also collaborate on a shared set of tasks at one
monitor. By increasing the number of students that a single computer can serve, the
MultiPoint Mouse platform enhances the overall value of a school’s ICT assets.
Curriculum Curiosity, which is built to run on MultiPoint Mouse, meets a broad cross-
section of educational needs for children between the ages of five and 12. It engages
students through five workshops focused on different creative activities, including
construction, modeling, and painting.
Together, these tools provide new opportunities—for teachers in the developing
world to build a 21st century curriculum, and for students to develop invaluable
technical and collaborative skills in the classroom.
Pilot Program Stimulates Learning
Instructors involved in the pilot program used Curriculum Curiosity software in a total
of 61 lessons, covering everything from mathematics, the Russian language, the
English language, art, technology, nature, and psychology.
With MultiPoint Mouse, they were able to use the software for activities in multiple
situations: the entire class could work on material projected from a single PC onto an
interactive whiteboard in the classroom; two to three students could collaborate at

“Work with this
technology can be
diagnostic because it
reveals a child’s social
and interaction skills and
their status within a group.
Such diagnostics allow us
to address emerging
difficulties.”
Teacher-psychologist,
primary school, Armavir
the same computer on a common task
or each student could work on an
single component of a shared task;
and they could work at their own
monitors, all of which were connected
to a single computer.
Within the context of these scenarios,
each teacher developed a variety of
activities to stimulate student creativity,
analytical skills, and attention to detail.
As they worked, children practiced both Children learn to work independently
independent learning and teamwork. As and as a team
one secondary school teacher put it,
――Each student gets an opportunity to discover and create. Spending minimum time,
students have an opportunity to do practical work, get results and draw conclusions
together. They learn to interact in pairs to achieve a common goal.‖
In order to track the results of the pilot program, teachers, parents and children were
asked to evaluate how the technology influenced instructor effectiveness and
students’ social development and abilities. Results from the questionnaire suggest
the benefits of the pilot program have been far-reaching. Children reported being
more engaged in their studies, while instructors felt they had greater ability to adapt
their teaching style to meet each student’s needs.
Flexible Tools Improve Teaching Outcomes
The combination of MultiPoint Mouse and Curriculum Curiosity has proved effective
across a range of lessons and learning environments. All 28 of the teachers who
participated in the pilot reported that the technologies improved teaching results. In
particular, the teachers all found that they were able to organize their lessons more
easily and that the learning process itself was enhanced because of increased
teamwork.
In addition, 97 percent of the teachers reported improvements in learning outcomes,
with nine out of ten teachers citing specific developments in each student’s computer
skills. This is particularly noteworthy since no additional PCs were provided as part of
the pilot. Despite this limitation, 91 percent of the teachers indicated that with
MultiPoint Mouse they were able to increase the absolute amount of time students
spent on a computer.
Finally, 94 percent of the teachers felt that the computer-based lessons were more
interesting for their students. As one preschool teacher put it, ―The use of this
technology gives an opportunity for teaching creativity.‖
Students More Engaged
Student responses to the pilot have been no less impressive, as they discover new
ways to learn and new ways to work with their classmates.
Ninety-nine percent of the students surveyed confirmed that their lessons were more
 interesting with the introduction of MultiPoint Mouse and Curriculum Curiosity, while
96 percent said that they would enjoy repeating the lessons.

A survey of 340 parents indicates that they too noticed improvements in their
children’s work habits since the MultiPoint Mouse pilot project began. Approximately
90 percent of the children were sufficiently inspired by the project to talk to their
parents about it, and almost all of the parents noted that their children were
“It interests the children,
interested in the technologies. Ninety-three percent felt that the teamwork
motivates them in
encouraged by MultiPoint Mouse was useful to their children’s development and that
achieving results, makes it will help to develop other beneficial behaviors, such as their social skills.
them confident, increases
self-appraisal, and helps New Computer-Based Curriculum Reveals Student Skills
children to work with their
In addition to providing computer access to all the students in the classroom, these
friends as partners in powerful technologies also helped teachers to be more effective overall.
achieving a common
goal.” In particular, teachers reported that with the new curriculum they were better able to
identify and address issues with students who exhibited difficulty in working as part of
Preschool teacher, a team. As one teacher-psychologist at a primary school in Armavir said, ―Work with
this technology can be diagnostic because it reveals a child’s social and interaction
Novokubansk skills and their status within a group. Such diagnostics allow us to address emerging
difficulties.‖

By assessing students as they worked on the same tasks, these teachers were better
able to identify variations in the social and
intellectual development of their students and
thus better able to support those children in
need.

Windows MultiPoint Mouse and

Curriculum Curiosity Enhance
Collaboration
While the students developed technical skills
MultiPoint facilitates development of as part of the pilot project, the value of the
collaborative skills technology-based classroom activities extends
far beyond competence in ICT.
The unique nature of MultiPoint Mouse and Curriculum Curiosity facilitates student
development of important life skills. Children learn how to interact, communicate,
negotiate, express opinions, compromise and come to agreement. They learn how to
be flexible in their thinking, harness their creativity and take responsibility, individually
and collectively.
In commenting on the curriculum, one preschool teacher in Novokubansk noted ―It
interests children, motivates them in achieving results, makes them confident,
increases self-appraisal, and helps children to work with their friends as partners in
achieving a common goal.‖
In other words, these academic projects, built on Windows MultiPoint Mouse and
Curriculum Curiosity, help students develop the skills they need to thrive, both in the

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft and MultiPoint are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other
trademarks are property of their respective owners.
workplace and as responsible, confident citizens of their country and the world
community.