Microsoft Mouse Mischief Pilot

This article reflects interviews and observations conducted in Hanoi,

Vietnam, during December 2008. These observations have been taken from a
representative Hanoi school that piloted technology called Microsoft Mouse
Mischief.
Executive Summary
This article profiles a classroom experience using Microsoft Mouse Mischief in a pilot
program in classrooms at the Le Quy Don school outside of Hanoi, Vietnam. The pilot
was conducted during the trial and evaluation phase for Mouse Mischief. Despite a
low teacher-to-student ratio and frequent power failures, Le Quy Dons teachers were
able to offer more technology access to students by using Mouse Mischief. By
combining traditional blackboard and chalk techniques with the interactive benefits
of Mouse Mischief, teachers were able to present a more engaging classroom
experience. This pilot program is proving to be a success as Mouse Mischief helps
teachers invent new ways to help students work together and make the overcrowded
classrooms feel smaller. Students enjoy the change in active peer learning, welcome
the opportunity to work cooperatively in small cohesive groups, and are most
enthusiastic about using computers in the classroom.

www.microsoft.com/mousemischief

Le Quy Don, outside central Hanoi, is

evaluating Microsoft Mouse Mischief to
help improve teaching practices for all
school subjects.

Benefits of Mouse Mischief

change the face of classroom technology

The system helps schools that lack

in their country and beyond. The

sufficient resources take advantage of

application, Mouse Mischief (in its

existing technology infrastructure to

research phase at the time of this pilot),

increase access to more students.

enables multiple people to use a single

Students remain engaged because they

enjoy being able to work with the
content projected on a big screen.

computer simultaneously by using

common computer peripherals like mice.
This technology provides students with
unique social learning activities.

Teachers feel connected to their

Furthermore, Mouse Mischief works with

students because they can gauge

Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft

individual and whole-group status

Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation

quickly and frequently.

graphics programs, enabling teachers to

Microsoft Mouse Mischief has built-in

flexibilityusage varies according to
teaching style; there is no correct way
to use Mouse Mischief.

create interactive lessons within

PowerPoint presentations for the
classroom. Students sit at their desks and
can participate in the lessons using their
mice.

The system helped teachers invent ways

to make the class feel smaller than it

Twenty-two schools agreed to take part

really was.

in the trials, including the Le Quy Don

lower secondary school (equivalent to

The Pilot Program

In October 2008, Microsoft Vietnam set
out to continue work that had begun
earlier in Haiphong, Vietnam, by
contacting a set of Hanoi schools about
evaluating an application predicted to

grades six through nine in the United

States). This upper-middle class public
school was chosen because both the
headmaster and teachers are passionate
about improving teaching methodology.
It is a relatively well-funded school in the
midst of an expansion, but it does not

www.microsoft.com/mousemischief

have full-time power and regularly runs

were excited about using Mouse Mischief

devices off a central generator.

during class, and they knew that their

Le Quy Don is located outside the city

center of Hanoi. It is a relatively young
school that was established in 1995 to
meet the rising population of Vietnams
capital city. The school, with 1,548
students and 62 teachers, has an
established reputation for high-quality
While sitting at their desks,
students participate in
collaborative activities, which keeps
them engaged.

teaching and students who perform well

actions would be seen on the screen.

Thus, the students paid more attention
during class. Once the teacher had the
students attentions, she could choose
how to begin teaching: using the
blackboard, lecturing, using PowerPoint,
or even starting immediately with the
Mouse Mischief activity.

on the citys secondary-school entrance

Teachers who had experience using

examination. The school principal, Ms.

PowerPoint were more creative in the

Lan, works tirelessly on ways to improve

types of Mouse Mischief activities they

student performance, teaching practices,

developed. One teacher used multiple-

and school facilities.

choice polling questions throughout

This article profiles the headmaster, a

math teacher, two students, and the
general experience using Mouse Mischief

the lecture, finishing with a small number

of engaging and instructive competitive
group activities at the end of class.

in classrooms at Le Quy Don. The goal is

For example, the teacher handed out a

to provide a sense of what challenges

paper worksheet activity, and then she

and benefits arose in this school when

presented a virtual version of it on the

running a Mouse Mischief pilot.

screen. Student groups submitted their

In the Classroom

answers to compete with one another;

they felt their answers had greater impact

During this pilot phase, Le Quy Don set

because they were projected on the

up a Mischief Room where an LCD

screen.

projector was installed along with USB

extension cables that ran along the floor.
The cables were connected to wired,
normal, durable, and affordable USB
mice. Three to six students (one to two
tables) shared each mouse and took
turns controlling it.

Class flow varied according to the

teachers style. For new material, the
teacher used a mixture of blackboard
activities and PowerPoint to teach her
lesson, and then she closed the class with
a group review of the content using
Mouse Mischief. For classroom sessions

At the start of class, the Mouse Mischief

that focused on reviewing content, the

application was projected on the screen,

teacher used PowerPoint throughout the

and each group chose a cursor. The

lesson, mixing in Mouse Mischief

students immediately became engaged

activities as appropriate.

during this fun initialization process. They

www.microsoft.com/mousemischief

At the end of class, the teacher pulled up

of teachers and computers, but Mouse

a scoreboard showing which team earned

Mischief provides an effective way to

the highest number of points. The

share IT education with a larger number

students eagerly anticipated this activity

of students. Ms. Lan also saw Mouse

and took great pride in their scores.

Mischief as a potential improvement for

School Principal/Headmaster

teachers can use Mouse Mischief for any

As the schools principal and headmaster,

subject, students increased their overall

Ms. Lan participated in the pilot because

hands-on time with computers.

she wanted to experiment with methods

Ms. Lan, principal at Hanois Le Quy Don
school, explains why she decided to
implement Microsoft Mouse Mischief
technology in several of her classrooms.

teaching all school subjects. Because

that improved student performance in a

sustainable way.

The classroom was set up so that

students in small groups shared one
mouse rather than each of the 60

Ms. Lan is a former teacher who is

children in the classroom having his or

committed to the success of her

her own mouse. Ms. Lan was concerned

students. She worried about her schools

that there were not enough mice for each

teacher-to-student ratio (usually 1:60)

student, which was a potential problem.

and how her students would develop

We had to see if we really needed one

skills needed to succeed in an

mouse per student, or if sharing was

information economy.

feasible, she says. Different teachers

Before the 2008 school year began, three

had different reactions.

teachers from Le Quy Don attended a

Ms. Lan evaluated Mouse Mischief in her

Mouse Mischief training session at Hanoi

school for one year before deciding what

Teacher Training College. They came

next steps to take. The initial reactions of

back excited and urged Ms. Lan to

both the teachers and students were

implement and conduct an evaluation of

positive, she says. If it is effective and

the Mouse Mischief application.

people are still interested, I will

As Ms. Lan explains, We participated [in

the Mouse Mischief pilot] because we

encourage it to be used in more

classrooms.

wanted to be progressive, and we are

Ms. Lan plans to conduct qualitative

interested in experimenting with ways to

observations in the classrooms and rely

improve teaching practices. We wanted

on feedback from the teachers as to how

our young teachers to be pioneers. We

student performance, attitudes, and

wanted to be at the forefront of our

engagement were affected by the

countrys schools.

technology.

The school viewed Mouse Mischief as an

Im not going to use technology just for

efficient use of resources. Not all

the sake of using it, she says.

students took IT classes due to the lack

Blackboard and chalk are very useful.

www.microsoft.com/mousemischief

But Ill use the technology to try and help

Mischief because they became creators,

with low teacher-to-student ratio issues

not just consumers of content. By

and to experiment with ways to improve

contributing content on a shared display,

teaching practices and student

they had ownership over class flow and

motivation.

content.

Teacher

In her class, three to five students shared

Ms. Do Minh Anh has been teaching

eighth-grade math and IT at Le Quy Don
for almost two years. She was one of four
Ms. Do Minh Anh has been using
Microsoft Mouse Mischief in her Math
class since 2008.

teachers chosen to take part in the

training and evaluation of Mouse
Mischief. I volunteered for this project
because I am motivated to learn
everything I can about my job, she says.
[Using Mouse Mischief] is totally
different from the traditional way of
teaching because students have the
ability to interact with teachers more.
Students get more feedback, and they
get it faster.

one mouse, taking turns to control it.

Although this may seem undesirable, Ms.
Minh Anh used it to her advantage. Ive
used PowerPoint in class before, so I
could use that skill, but Mouse Mischief
let students be more interactive in my
classes. Students worked more actively
and worked well in groups. Vietnamese
students like team-building exercises,
and Mouse Mischief promoted that, she
says. A small group of students had to
discuss among themselves more than
usual to get a final answer because the
system only allowed one answer, and it
was visible to everyone else. I want each

The biggest challenge for Ms. Minh Anh

classroom in our school to use Mouse

is the size of her class. It is normal for her

Mischief.

to have 55 students in one of her math

classes. I would prefer 20 to 30 students
in each class, she says. To maximize the
amount of attention she could give each
child, Ms. Minh Anh used Mouse Mischief
to ascertain the classroom status more
easily, adjusting her teaching accordingly.
[By using Mouse Mischief], my teaching
was more open and transparent with my
students. My teaching style became
closer to the students. I could feel what
the students felt, and I could collect
feedback quickly and easily.
Ms. Minh Anh felt that students were
more engaged when using Mouse

The major challenge Ms. Minh Anh saw

with the Mouse Mischief application was
that students were sometimes distracted
by the interactivity. She sometimes felt a
lack of control if she did not take steps
to guide usage appropriately. This was
something she believed would come with
practice and experience. [Mouse
Mischief] worked well in a well-behaved
class, but it was harder to use in a rowdy
class, she admits.
Ms. Minh Anh saw Mouse Mischief as
being useful for reviewing content and
not for teaching new content, where she
still preferred using a blackboard.

www.microsoft.com/mousemischief

She is considering how Mouse Mischief

delivery and the subject matter. You can

can be used to teach new content and

make teaching effective with biology, but

believes that will come in time.

with other subjects, it might be more

Students

Two students at Le Quy Don describe

their experiences using Mouse Mischief
in class.

problematic, he says. In traditional

teaching, students were distracted more

Duong, a 13-year-old eighth-grade

often in class. But still, Im not sure if

student at Le Quy Don, did not use a

student learning was improved or if the

computer at school because she was not

students were just happier and more

enrolled in any IT classes. Duc, the same

engaged. Basically, student performance

age as Duong, was enrolled in an IT class

was most important, and I do not think a

that met three times a week. The two

technology can teach studentsthe

students shared a few classes. They are

teacher must teach the students. Duc

relatively successful students and

added that Mouse Mischief should be

perform well on assessments.

used for reviewing lessons taught in the

Both Duong and Duc used Mouse

traditional way.

Mischief in small groups in their biology

Solidarity and effective group work are

and math classes. Despite the fact that

held in high regard in Vietnam. Duong

not everyone got his or her own mouse,

notes that Mouse Mischief helped them

almost everybody in the group got a

develop their teamwork skills. The group

turn. They were accustomed to, but

discussed their answer and made a final

frustrated with, classrooms of 60 students

choice, and then it was displayed to the

trying to get the attention of their

teacher and the whole class. In traditional

teacher.

classes, the teacher would just point to

Duong mentioned that Mouse Mischief

was different from normal teaching
because it was easier to understand the
lesson and the whole class was involved.
[Combining traditional teaching with
technology like Mouse Mischief] worked

an individual student, so only that

student answered. Also, the scoring for
Mouse Mischief helps improve the
learning atmosphere. You get more
competition and more teamwork, he
says.

well because sometimes the traditional

Regarding how teachers should use

way worked the best. [Mouse Mischief]

Mouse Mischief in their classes, Duc

made students eager to participate, she

suggests, It would be better if the

says. They loved having instant feedback

teacher did not try to pack in too much

on their answers to the teachers

content. In teaching with computer

questions.

technology, you usually have more

Duc also believed that Mouse Mischief

complemented traditional teaching,

exercises, but when there are too many,

the students can feel overwhelmed.

depending on the teachers style of

www.microsoft.com/mousemischief

Conclusion
This article profiles the use of the Mouse
Mischief application in a pilot program in
the Le Quy Don school outside of Hanoi,
Vietnam. Although actual usage still
needs to be fine-tuned and best practices
better identified for the teachers, the
successes of the program outweigh the
challenges. The Mouse Mischief
Seventh-grade students in Ms. Do Minh
Anhs math class remain engaged with
the material, despite the large class size.

application provided the opportunity to

overcome issues that schools face, such
as large class size. It created an active,

The story of Le Quy Don is yet another

successful example of Microsoft making a
positive difference in the global
education fieldopening up classroom
activities, inviting teacher and student
collaboration, improving learning
experiences, and making education more
fun. The students are the real winners
as they become more computer literate,
better educated, and better prepared to
enter the twenty-first century technology
workplace and economy.

collaborative learning experience that

engaged students.
By combining standard teaching
techniques, such as blackboard and
lecturing, with Mouse Mischief, the
school, the teachers, and the students
benefitted.
The school found an affordable solution
that provided a simple but very effective
way of instantly multiplying the value of a
shared computer. The teachers felt more
connected to their students because they
could gauge the students progress,
individually and as a group, more quickly
and frequently. The students were
enthusiastic about working together in
small groups and receiving immediate
feedback when their answers appeared
on the screen.

www.microsoft.com/mousemischief