Don’t ask me about blank page syndrome

Back to school pain points identified in Microsoft surveys

24 January, 2006
As millions of students are preparing to go back to school across Australia, international and local surveys commissioned by Microsoft reveal the top two student/parent homework stresses for 2006 are expected to be 'blank page syndrome' - not knowing where to start - and don’t ask me syndrome - parents’ inability to help children with more complex homework requirements.

Microsoft surveyed a selection of teachers from high schools throughout Australia about the issues students face when completing homework assignments. ‘Blank page syndrome’ was highlighted as a key issue for Australian high school students.

Guy Wright, Kingscliff High School, NSW, feels ‘blank page syndrome’ is widespread amongst High School students.

"Blank page syndrome is one of the top issues affecting High School students when completing their homework assignments. Students need help to get past the blank page stage and direction to explain and demonstrate what is expected when creating an assignment or essay" says Guy.

With the start of a new school year and the academic demands placed on high school students becoming more complex, many parents feel ill-equipped to help their children with homework. ‘Don’t ask me syndrome’ was identified among sixty-nine per cent of the parents surveyed by independent research company, MSI-ITM, who said they experience problems in helping their children with homework, citing the main problems as lack of knowledge, a lack of resources and not enough time.

Microsoft developers have drawn upon these homework pain point insights to develop Microsoft Student 2006, a new software program designed especially for high school students and their families.

Microsoft Student Product Manager, Julia Nicholls says: "Microsoft Student developers have created tools that help remedy student/parent homework issues - it’s like having your own personal teacher on hand 24/7. Interactive software like Microsoft Student encourages students to explore and seek information for themselves in an easy to use, safe environment and will help to empower those parents wanting to support students by providing them with some direction" says Julia.

Ian Hewitt, director of learning technologies at Marist College Canberra is confident Microsoft Student will have a positive impact on students. "Microsoft Student contains content that is extremely relevant to our high school curriculum. This software will create a link between the classroom and what occurs outside of classroom teaching time by giving students access to academic guidance beyond the school gate" says Ian.

Microsoft Student 2006 is an essential and unique homework helper, full of incredible educational features including:

Learning Essentials for Students - with curriculum-relevant templates and tutorials, Learning Essentials for Students provides assignment specific guidance in Microsoft Office applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel (requires Office XP or Office 2003).

Templates help students move past 'blank page syndrome' to get to the heart of an assignment, instead of spending time struggling with formatting or layout issues. Microsoft Student 2006 features templates for everything from planning and writing projects, to book reports and guidelines for great presentations. Plus, there are even templates for use in foreign language assignments, including Spanish, French and German.

Tutorials accompany many of the templates and walk students step by step through producing top quality work. For example, the Research Writing tutorial explains exactly how to complete different types of research reports, while the Understanding Chart Types tutorial explains how to use charts to organise and analyse data.

Graphing Calculator Software - Microsoft Student 2006 features the first fully functional graphing calculator software for the consumer market. It is a powerful yet easy to use tool for maths and science homework.

Full colour display with 2D and 3D charting capabilities helps students visualise difficult maths and science problems. Many students experience frustration with maths and science homework, and the more advanced the course, the more complicated the homework. The ability to view, rotate and animate large, colourful graphs makes understanding difficult concepts and problem-solving in advanced maths and science courses significantly easier.

Trustworthy information - Microsoft Student 2006 helps students find the right information - when and where they need it - from trusted sources, both online and off.

Web Companion streamlines internet research by surfacing accurate, trusted content options when a student conducts a search through popular online search engines. Without launching additional applications, the links to trusted Encarta content appear alongside the search engine results. Encarta Reference Library 2006 is included with Microsoft Student 2006, providing students with more than 68,000 text articles, along with more than 25,000 photos and illustrations, 2,500 audio clips, 32 Discovery Channel videos, 300 video and animation sequences, 2D and 3D virtual tours, and an Interactive World Atlas, featuring over 1.8 million interactive map locations.

Literature Guides help students understand and appreciate classic works of literature, from 'The Great Gatsby' to 'Charlotte’s Web'. These summaries cover more than one thousand books in addition to a synopsis of each story, they include information about the author, and analysis of the main themes and characters.

Book of Quotations helps students develop and improve their assignments with quotes from literature, history and popular culture on an array of topics. Each quotation includes correct attributions, dates and links to relevant articles in Encarta Reference Library 2006.

Availability:
Microsoft Student 2006 is available at a special Back to School price of $129.95 RRP from 1st January - 31st March 2006 at participating PC retailers. Student 2006 can be purchased at leading PC retailers across Australia and will be available at the special price while stocks last.

The usual price of Microsoft Student 2006 is $149.95 RRP.

www.microsoft.com/australia/student