Surface in the Classroom & The Surface Classroom Challenge

Education has always been a big focus for us here at Microsoft – we know that our future is being shaped now in classrooms around the world. And our mission in education is to help schools and universities, students and educators realize their full potential through technology solutions.

As many of you may know, over the past summer we made a concerted effort to serve our Education customers through a Surface RT special education price. We saw an overwhelming response from this, and have gotten some great feedback from students and teachers about how they are using Surface in their schools.

As you can see, many of them have told us how it has completely changed the way they are teaching and learning in the classroom. But one thing that hasn’t changed much over the past century, are classrooms themselves. We still see rows of desks lined up facing a wall, which isn’t an ideal setup for Surface in the Classroom.

So, we wanted to call on all of you to help us re-imagine the classroom. What would it look like if every student had a Surface as a learning tool? How would Teachers teach with a Surface? What kind of furniture, and accessories would they need? How can we make using Surface in the Classroom even better?

Ralf Groene, Creative Director and the design genius behind Surface explains:

We want your ideas for Surface-enabled desks, bean bags chairs with Surface mounts, holders, stylus clips, backpacks, anything you can dream up!

Just sketch out your design, explain it, and enter the Surface in the Classroom Accessory Design Challenge*. You could win a Surface 2 or a Surface Pro 2 for yourself, and the grand prize is a classroom full of Surfaces to be donated to the school of your choice.

http://www.SurfaceClassroomChallenge.com/

Jacqueline Russell

Manager – Microsoft Surface

* No Purchase Necessary. Open only to students, professionals, and enthusiasts 14+. Contest ends 1/24/14. See Official Rules for details.