Microsoft

Mouse Mischief

Microsoft Mou
Office PowerP
program
Office
Windows op
Windows
and
lessons
respond
using
color in, or

se Mischief is an add-in to Microsoft

oint 2010 and 2007, the presentation
by Microsoft that is part of the Microsoft
system.
It
runs
on
the Microsoft
erating systems Windows XP SP3,
Vista and Windows 7. The
program enables teachers to
create and insert questions, polls,
drawing activity slides into Office
PowerPoint lessons. When the
are played, students can actively
to these slides, individually or in teams, by
their own mice to click, circle, cross out,
draw answers on the screen.

Mouse Mischief emerged from a collaboration between two of Microsoft's

research labs in India and China. In 2006, in response to the high studentto-computer ratio in many schools, Microsoft Research India (IDC) began
working on a technical solution that would provide each student with a
mouse and a cursor on the screen. They conducted several field studies of
multiple-mouse software program and computer-aided education. This was
extended by Neema Moraveji, then a researcher with Microsoft Research
Asia in Beijing, China, to class-wide interactions using a large display and
interaction with PowerPoint. Initial uses were meant to support remote
teaching from urban Chinese centers to villages. The remote-teaching
component was soon dropped and utility was observed for in-class
interactions.

Further studies by members of the same team were conducting

experimenting with mouse-based text entry and the impact of pointing
performance when seeing multiple cursors on-screen. Further research on
Mouse Mischief continued when Moraveji continued research as a doctoral
student at Stanford University's Learning Sciences and Technology Design
program.

Operation

Like Office PowerPoint presentations, Mouse Mischief lessons consist of a

number of individual pages or "slides." The "slide" analogy is a reference to
the now obsolete slide projector. Slides may contain text, graphics, and
other objects, which may be arranged freely on the slide. Mouse Mischief
adds three templates or "slide masters" to the standard PowerPoint
templates: yes/no, multiple-choice, and drawing slides. These are the
slides that students can click or draw on when then presentation is played.

HOW TO USE THE MICROSOFT MOUSE MISCHIEF?

1. Download Microsoft Mouse Mischief for free. Follow the steps described
on the download page to install this add-in. Once it has downloaded, open
Microsoft PowerPoint and find Microsoft Mouse Mischief on the ribbon.

2. Create slides for your interactive lesson by using the option buttons on
the Multiple Mouse tab. You can add different types of questions or a
drawing activity. After you have created your questions, click on Play Slide
Show and identify your mouse by moving it into the box and press ENTER.

3. Now decide if your students will participate in the activity individually or in

teams. Each student will have a mouse pointer with their own picture, and if
they play in teams, each team will have the same picture. Teamwork is
great for enhancing their collaborative skills.

4. You can select the correct answer by clicking on Assign Answer. You can
also opt to select no answers in case you want to poll your students.

5. You can control the presentation by clicking on the presentation tools at

the bottom of the screen.
6. After your students have selected their answers, their results will be
displayed on your slides.

Use in classrooms
Mouse Mischief has
three major benefits as
an educational tool for
classroom use. First, it
engages
students.
Rather than sitting
passively, students can
actively participate in
lessons, using their
hands as well as their
minds.
Participating
with other students,
instead of alone at their
desks, also engages
students. Working simultaneously on the screen in Individual mode with the
rest of the class can encourage healthy interest and competition. Working
in Mouse Mischief Team mode can help students learn collaboration.

Second,
multiple-mouse
lessons can help
teachers
connect
with
large classes. In
classes with low
teacher
to
student
ratios,
multiple-mouse
lessons
help
teachers
get
every
student
involved, and it
gives
them
feedback about
each student's grasp of concepts during lessons. In all classes, Mouse
Mischief provides teachers with immediate feedback on the understanding
and progress of the class as a whole. Using this information, the teacher
can adjust the lesson to make it clearer, to review specific parts, or to add
more examples.

Third, Mouse Mischief can help provide access to technology for more
students, even when resources are limited. A Windows MultiPoint
technology, Mouse Mischief enables large groups of students to gain
computer practice by taking advantage of computers already in the
classroom. Unlike clickers, which are used in other classroom response
systems, mice connected to the teacher's computer are relatively
inexpensive and readily available.