Atlus has been one of the strongest supporters of Nintendo’s 3DS handheld over the years, keeping RPG fans busy with a total of seventeen stellar RPGs from the company. These releases have been coming at a consistent and reliable pace since the 3DS’ first year, so it’s only fitting that Atlus gets to be the one to turn out the lights on Nintendo’s autostereoscopic platform. As of the time of writing, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth is the final release scheduled for the 3DS (barring the final DLC expansion for Shovel Knight) and if this game is to be the punctation mark at the end of the life of the 3DS, it’s reassuring that we’re looking at an exclamation point, rather than a period.

As the follow up to 2014’s Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth demonstrates the ability and willingness of the developers to listen to feedback and improve on their previous work; what we have here is an enormously enjoyable RPG that builds on what its predecessor set out to do in finding the perfect harmony between the wildly different styles of two different RPG series’. The lovable characters and Jungian-infused theming of the Persona games have been married to the fraught decision-making and first-person dungeon crawling of the Etrian Odyssey games in a way that feels so natural, it’s a bit disappointing to consider that this experimental spin-off series might be ending with this entry.

The narrative starts off with the curtain rising in a mysterious cinema as a glowing blue butterfly flutters about in the dark, all of which evidently is taking place within the dream of Persona 5’s main protagonist. After he’s woken up by Morgana, the Phantom Thieves soon go on a routine mission to Mementos to stay sharp ahead of an impending deadline, but things quickly go awry when the gang finds themselves dragged through a portal and onto the streets of a sprawling city that might or might not be in the Metaverse. Confused and disoriented, our heroes are soon accosted by a powerful foe and flee through another portal, this time finding themselves trapped in a strange movie theater.

From this point, the main drive of the plot is established: our heroes must find four keys to unlock the front door and free themselves from the theater, and each key is locked away in the larger than life technicolor worlds of the movies playing on the screens. Each movie contains its own set of villains and Shadows (the staple Persona enemies), but the Phantom Thieves aren’t alone in their struggle against these obstacles on the path to freedom. Not only do they meet a couple mysterious new characters original to this release, but most of the casts of both Persona 3 and Persona 4 are introduced with time, leading to a bevy of intriguing and hilarious encounters as many of these characters meet each other for the first time.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth assumes you’ve played (or are at least familiar with) the casts and storylines of the Persona games and though newcomers will certainly be missing out on a lot of key moments and fan-service, the plot is still kept simple enough that it’s easy to follow and (mostly) understand what’s going on. Centering the narrative around this established and known cast of characters is a smart move, as it lends the narrative proceedings a certain kind of familiarity that the first Persona Q lacked in some ways. Fans of Persona 3 and 4 will perhaps be a little miffed to hear that the story primarily focuses on the Phantom Thieves of Persona 5, but everyone gets their fair share of the screen in due time. The story is all well-written, then, but one omission we feel bears highlighting is the complete lack of English voice acting here. It’s not game breaking by any means, and you gradually acclimate to the Japanese actors as the hours pile on, but it still would’ve been nice to have the option to hear the lines delivered in one’s native tongue.

Though the storyline is distinctly Persona-flavoured (for the better), the gameplay style primarily takes after the Etrian Odyssey series, and this iteration of that gameplay certainly doesn’t disappoint. Upon entering a new movie, you’re faced with a dungeon that’s viewed through a first-person perspective on the top screen, while the bottom screen presents you with a completely blank, grid-based map. Every wall, floor, crevice, treasure chest, trap, or whatever you come across in your expeditions must be recorded by hand on the bottom screen with a stylus, using the extensive selection of symbols and tools at your disposal to make it readable. Indeed, this custom mapping proves to be one of the most divisive aspects of the experience, something that will be loved by some and hated by others. Luckily, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth favors both camps, and if you don’t want to be bogged down with scribbling down everything, you can enable an ‘auto-map’ function that will fill it in for you. We’d encourage you to at least give the manual cartography a try, however, as it adds a certain element to the exploration that’s lost by just having the game do it for you.

Rather than the random generation employed in some past Persona titles, these dungeons are all smartly designed around sets of traps, shortcuts, secrets, and powerful enemies that keep you on your toes as you search for the stairs to take you to the next floor. New puzzle ideas, like gates that have to be temporarily disabled with switches, are introduced at a brisk but manageable pace, and help to keep the relatively slow pace from getting stagnant. See, nothing in the dungeon ‘moves’ until you step forward onto the next tile, and many of the environmental hazards and puzzles are designed around this key limitation. For example, powerful enemies called “FOEs” roam sections of the dungeon on a set path; you don’t have a chance to beat these enemies when you first encounter them, so it becomes a game of finding the holes in their rotation and slipping through unseen. Puzzle segments like this are often bookended, then, by convenient shortcuts that then make subsequent runs through the dungeon that much quicker.

Enemy encounters are handled in a semi-random way, with a small counter in the bottom right corner of the screen displaying how long you have until you get jumped by another enemy. Once it reaches “1”, however, you don’t necessarily get attacked right away, although each step is likely to trigger a fight. The key thing here is the surprisingly tense situations that can develop from balancing one’s odds with that counter; if you happen to be embroiled in combat when on a tile in a FOE’s path, that FOE can then enter the battle and effectively wipe the team in one or two hits. Puzzle segments can then become a matter of weighing one’s chances as you judge whether or not you can make it to safety in enough steps.

Once you enter combat, the system takes on something of a blend between the Persona and Etrian styles of combat, which gel surprisingly well together. Taking from the Etrian side, your five party members are arranged in a two-line formation, three go in the front and two go in the back, and elements like Link Attacks and Pierce Attacks have been worked into the movesets of the characters. On the Persona side of things, the eight-way element system, HP-draining special attacks, and All-Out Attacks have made their way in to round out the fights. A standard fight unfolds almost like a puzzle, as you initially experiment with different attacks to figure out what can ‘floor’ the enemy and disable them for that turn. If you can manage to incapacitate all of them, an All-Out Attack is triggered in which the entire party lays into the enemies in a cartoonish ball of smoke, dealing enormous damage and often ending the fight.

Landing a super effective hit on another enemy will also have the benefit of giving the character who inflicted the attack the “Boost” status. When in Boost, all special attacks by that character cost zero SP or HP and many attacks even receive a damage buff to boot, but this comes with the caveat that the Boost can’t be taken advantage of until the next turn. If the character takes damage before the turn comes, they lose the Boost and go back to normal. This Boost mode adds a nice wrinkle to the already deliciously gripping combat, especially when you factor in how the Baton Pass of Persona 5 has been reworked here to allow you to pass on your Boost status to another member of your party.

This leads into another wrinkle of combat, which is the involvement of the support member of your party. This extra member doesn’t directly participate in combat, they instead have a broad selection of support skills—like a party-wide damage buff or passive health regeneration—that are governed by the “Party Meter”, which fills incrementally every time you deal or receive damage. The meter grants you a star every time it fills and you can hold up to five stars at once, with a certain amount being spent depending on the support skill you want to use. Though the bulk of the work is always being done by the five members involved in the heat of the fight, this support system proves to be a lifesaver in many ways and makes fights that much more interesting due to the wealth of options available to you. Later on, you can even equip another support character to help out when you’re off the battlefield, offering passive boons like healing for every step you take, or highlighting the locations of treasures on the floor.

It’s a given that your party likely won’t have the stamina to clear out a floor, much less a whole dungeon, in one go, so a positive feedback loop is quickly established to keep you regularly bouncing in and out of dungeons. Once you’ve filled up your bag with enemy drops or your characters are running too low on HP or SP, you can leave the dungeon (manually or by using a consumable item) and return to the theater, where the party is refreshed and you’re given the opportunity to gear up. Items you find in the dungeon can be sold to the store for profit and also will occasionally ‘inspire’ the shopkeep to offer new items for sale, such as better equippable weapons or consumables. You can also have ‘mystery’ items you find in the dungeon appraised by the shopkeep, often granting you access to better gear than you could buy in the shop. What’s nice about this shop system is how straightforward it’s kept relative to other RPGs; there’s still plenty of depth to the myriad things you can equip to each character, but none of it bogs you down in exhaustive detail over things that really don’t matter. Stat upgrades are clearly marked so that it’s obvious when a given piece of gear is better than another, and the shopkeep will even offer to buy your discarded piece of equipment at a decent rate.

The theater also grants you access to the Velvet Room, which acts more or less as the Persona ‘store’. Though every character’s main Persona is set in stone, each of them can equip a Sub-Persona to build out their options for combat skills, and most of these are ‘made’ in the Velvet Room. Here, you can fuse two existing Personas into a single (often better) Persona, and a certain number of skills can be carried over in the transition. It’s always a tough decision, of course, as you have to pick what elemental attacks and debuff abilities you could live without, but the passive stat gains offered by equipping more powerful Personas is essential to surviving the occasionally harsh difficulty. Plus, any Persona that you’ve possessed will forever be recorded in a compendium that allows you to summon them again for a price, encouraging the player to keep experimenting and changing up the Persona line-up on a frequent basis.

What’s nice about this whole system of equipping and swapping Personas is how it allows you to functionally turn any character in your party into any ‘class’ you’d like. Both a character’s skillset and stats are heavily dependent on what Persona they have equipped, and if you want to experiment with turning your tank into a pure healer, you can do so with a few quick reassignments in the pause menu. This goes a long way towards keeping characters useful and interesting, as nobody is pigeonholed into a particular role and you can take risks on swapping those roles with very few drawbacks.

Naturally, you’ll build up quite the deep bench of characters as the campaign wears on, making it more and more difficult to avoid favoring one set over another. To combat this, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth uses a concept called “Motivation” in which certain characters will have better stats and a higher critical hit rate if you swap them into your party before jumping back into a dungeon. Motivated characters change each time you come back to the movie theater, ensuring that you keep a balanced bench, and things are made even easier by the impressively organized party management screen, which partitions characters by the game they came from and allows you to set up a few pre-set teams that can be swapped out on the fly.

To encourage you to take advantage of Motivation more often, the theater also offers a “Special Screenings” section that expands on the “Stroll” feature of Persona Q. Special Screenings are essentially side-quests that have you go back to completed floors or movies, but with fresh objectives and incentives, and with the caveat that your team be composed of specific characters. These are where Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth gets creative with its mission objectives, often offering up things more interesting than the tired “go get me five boar skins” RPG mission tropes, while also creating the space for some memorable and interesting character encounters that wouldn’t fit in the main narrative. Think of the Special Screenings as sort of ‘mini-narratives’ that take place within the bigger picture; they aren’t essential, but they’re often more than worth your time for both the quest rewards and narrative payoff that they offer.

Much like its predecessor, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth employs a chibi style of animation that’s both charming and well-tailored to the limited horsepower of the 3DS, making it a game that’s quite easy on the eyes. The flamboyant pop-punk aesthetic of Persona 5’s menu design has made the transition here almost without a hitch, giving each menu you come across a little something more to make it visually distinctive and interesting. Environments are similarly over the top and detailed, whether you’re moving through a crowded city or a dinosaur-riddled jungle, and each one is afforded its own colour palette to make it stand out in your memory. Our only complaint in this area is the way in which stereoscopic 3D has been completely omitted; considering that it was present in both Persona Q and Etrian Odyssey Nexus, the omission here feels a bit lazy and half-hearted. Still, you don’t miss it after a while, and though it would’ve certainly made the experience that much more immersive, it’s not essential.

Matching the stylized visuals is an equally impressive, boundary-pushing soundtrack that showcases some of the best tunes we’ve heard in either the Etrian or Persona series to date. This soundtrack takes more after the music of Persona 5—characterized by its piano-heavy acid jazz and big band style—and this works greatly in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth’s favor, as it infuses effectively every minute with a certain kind of vim and vigor that many RPGs often lack. The main battle theme is infectiously catchy, but even tracks like the slightly more dialed back tune that plays back in the theater still have an undeniable energy that keeps you locked in. We would definitely encourage you to play through this one with some headphones, as it’s well worth paying some special attention to the music.

Launched in 2014, Girls Make Games provides a service that’s near and dear to our hearts here at Xbox: inspiring the next generation of designers, creators, and engineers to change the world. As an organization, Girls Make Games aims to increase gender diversity in the both the video game industry and in STEM fields. To that end, the team offers a series of summer camps, workshops and game jams that have reached over 6,000 girls in 52 cities worldwide, and they’re growing every year.

We are very proud to have been supporting them from the start, and we’re even more excited to share that we’ll be hosting another camp on the Xbox campus this summer.  The camp will run from July 8 to July 26 and will allow girls 8-17 to learn about designing, programming, and pitching their own video games. The Girls Make Games team says the camp’s attendees “will work in teams to create fully functional games while meeting and interacting with video game industry professionals in the region.”

We’re also happy to announce that there will be scholarship and financial aid opportunities for summer camp participants. During the camp, attendees will learn about the many different roles that bring a video game to life, including Game Design, Game Art, Level Design, Narrative Design, Audio Engineering, and Game Music. We’ll also be partnering with our neighbors at Nintendo with shared activities for girls attending either the Xbox and Nintendo camps.

So, if your daughter, niece, neighbor, or friend is interested in attending the Girls Make Games summer camp here in Redmond or at any of the other camps nationwide, check out the Girls Make Games website to register or learn more information.

Jay Silver, one of the minds behind the Makey Makey invention kit, is working on a plug-n-play game console called GameBender that introduces children to programming by letting them create and modify games on the fly.

At its most basic level, GameBender allows its players to jump right into a game, and then modify different elements of that existing game mid-play. It’s an approach that aims to let kids learn code while playing, and make the whole process more appealing from the get-go.

The concepts they learn from modifying an existing GameBender game can be used in other games on the platform, or even used to create and share entirely new games using the visual coding language Scratch.

“Coding lessons often fall flat because they don’t start with what’s awesome, and because many children don’t learn well in isolation,” explains the GameBender Kickstarter page. “The GameBender approach doesn’t start with ‘learning to code,’ instead it immerses the children as a group in a truly engaging world, a world in which code is the currency for doing new things.”

Just a few days in, the GameBender Kickstarter has already surpassed its goal. More information on the kid-focused system can be found on its campaign page.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Here are just some of the many, many positions being advertised right now. If you’re a recruiter looking for talent, you can also post jobs here.

Location: London, England

The “Dinosaurs & Robots” (working title) project, under the co-creative direction of The Almeida and Factory 42, will combine the latest mixed reality technology from Magic Leap with immersive theatre to create two separate adventure game visitor experiences, exploring multi-sensory and truly interactive worlds. In the iconic rooms of the Natural History Museum and Science Museum, visitors will play the role of detectives and meet and interact with a cast of digital characters, from androids and artificial intelligences to velociraptors and fossils.

The project is led by Factory 42, creators of the multi-award winning interactive virtual reality experience Hold The World with Sir David Attenborough at the Natural History Museum, in conjunction with Sky.

Join a world-class creative team that includes some of the UK’s leading theatre directors, computer game designers and developers, 3D audio, multi-sensory technologists, animators, graphic designers, writers, actors, artists and researchers collaborating with museum curators and academics.

Location: Prague, Czech Republic​

As the Lead Game Designer you will fill a critical leadership role across these disciplines, and in the development of VBS3 and related products. You will become the ultimate expert on the game, with all its virtues and flaws, and will shape future projects which will be worked on by the development teams.

Our Technical Game Designers work as part of cross-functional teams, and fill a unique role as a “jack of all trades”. They blend strong coding knowledge with traditional game design and other soft-skills such as teamwork, communication, and the ability to think in terms of usability, player-experience and training value. Meanwhile, our UI/UX Designers act as “mercenaries” that own the UX process across multiple teams and projects.

Location: Foster City, California

Sanzaru Games is looking for a rendering core technology engineer to  Work alongside Technical Directors to determine development guidelines, asset guidelines and best practices to push the limits of mobile hardware rendering, Establish a close working relationship with artistic leadership to determine and fine tune asset limitations in a mobile rendering environment, and more as part of its California-based team.

Location: Washington D.C.

Through an innovative marketplace of educational games, Legends of Learning has created a captive audience of almost 2 million students in over 25 thousand schools and our audience is growing very fast! To capitalize on this guaranteed audience we have put together a top notch game development team to work on an all new at home gaming experience. We are looking for a Unity UI/UX programmer with a passion for delivering high quality player experiences for our all new home game. You will work closely with our lead designer and game development team to build UI elements and deliver high quality player experiences centered on excellent game feel.

Gahlran knelt before his Emperor in a chamber of gold.

Every surface reflected a resplendent sheen that blinded him.

“What is this place?” he asked.

“Many things,” Calus replied, lounging with his cheek in his palm. “This chamber once held an Arkborn. The only one of her kind to leave the interstellar conduits of her people. It is the place where Valus Nohr earned her shield in trial by combat. Shadows were cast here. History made.”

“Am I to cast a Shadow?”

“Yes. You were bred to be a sorrow-bearer. I seek a Hive commander, but those are not so readily available. So I made you.”

“The Council says the Hive cannot be contained. They worry.”

Calus raised an eyebrow. “Who among them?”

“Councilors Rahl and Verloren.”

The Emperor shook the golden chamber with his guffaw. “Only a few hours old, and already your words have killed two.”

Gahlran pondered what his Emperor could mean.

“I will enjoy you,” Calus said, and keyed a hidden control on the armrest of his divan.

The ceiling shrieked as it opened like an eye. Gahlran craned his neck to stare  as two hovering Councilors descended with a massive, plated helm from the vast iris above.

He could hear a litany of voices shouting down at him from inside the thing as it slowly descended. He thought they sounded like warnings, but there were no discernible words in the speech.

“What is that?” he asked his Emperor.

Calus finished the Royal nectar in his chalice before belching, “Your crown.”

Gahlran thought he could glimpse a faint violet glow on the inside of the helm as it drew nearer.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Calus asked, as the voices echoing from the helm grew louder.

“No,” Gahlran replied.

He thought he should run. He tried to stand, but he found that he could not, rooted to the floor before the Emperor’s throne by the will of the Councilors.

“I do not like this,” Gahlran said.

“This,” said Calus, as the Councilors crowned Gahlran, “is why you were born.”

The violet interior filled Gahlran’s vision.

“What does it feel like?” asked the Emperor.

“Fear,” Gahlran said.

Calus must have responded, but Gahlran couldn’t hear him over the cacophony of voices.

He suddenly found that he could see.

Through a hundred billion eyes.

And that he could eat.

With teeth enough to consume entire systems.

He felt beautiful.

If you follow our regular UK chart updates, you’re probably aware that the data compiled within those lists only takes into account physical sales. The UK charts have been this way since – well, forever – but things are slowly starting to change.

For the very first time, a UK digital chart has been presented. It’s still very much a work-in-progress, with some truly big names – including Nintendo – not sharing their sales data, but it still provides a decent look at how the charts might be affected when digital sales are included in the weekly figures.

The data below covers the week ending 26th May (the week before last). In our usual chart update for that week based on physical sales, we shared the news that Team Sonic Racing secured number one, but if digital sales had have been included too, that would not have been the case. Instead, Total War: Three Kingdoms would have been number one after comfortably leading the digital chart.

It’s pretty bizarre all around; the mysterious selling power of GTA V in the UK is amplified even further in the digital charts, and Cities: Skylines lurched forwards from 94th place to sixth by going on sale.

Here are the top ten UK digital games for the week ending 26th May 2019:

Last Week	This Week
New	1	Total War: Three Kingdoms
1	2	Grand Theft Auto V
4	3	Monopoly Plus
2	4	Minecraft
49	5	FIFA 19
94	6	Cities: Skylines
7	7	Red Dead Redemption 2
5	8	Uno
11	9	F1 2018
8	10	Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

As we noted above, it’s worth remembering that these digital charts do not currently feature all major publishers. Nintendo, Bethesda, and Konami are amongst the more notable absentees, while Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media, Microsoft, Milestone, Paradox Interactive, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Warner Bros all feature.

Would you like to see both physical and digital sales be combined for future charts? Are you as surprised as we are that Monopoly and Uno are in the top ten best-selling digital games in the country? Let us know in the comments below.

For four days in June, ISTE 2019 is the place where educator-tested strategies come together with proven resources for transforming learning and teaching. It’s the place for Microsoft to connect with the brightest EdTech leaders and organizations around the world. Microsoft is once again proud to be a Mission Sponsor for the largest annual education industry conference in the US!

Pre-Conference Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Teacher & Trainer Academies

MIE Teacher Academy – Convention Center, Room 203A

• Saturday, June 22 from 8:30 AM–3:30 PM

During this one-day teacher academy, you will have the opportunity to explore tools such as Office Online, OneNote Class Notebook, Microsoft Forms and Sway, with the goal of providing your students with learning experiences beyond the walls of your classroom.

MIE Minecraft Academy – Convention Center, Room 203A

• Sunday, June 23 from 8:30 AM–3:30 PM

During this one-day teacher academy, you’ll be introduced to Minecraft: Education Edition, learn to play the game and create curriculum and classroom resources you can take back to your students and continue your journey.

MIE 2-Day Trainer Academy – Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Meeting Rooms 302-304

• Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, June 23 from 8:30 AM–3:30 PM

Learn more about Microsoft’s hottest tools and resources to empower your staff and students to achieve more! Take an immersive deep dive into Microsoft Teams in Office 365, including uses for staff, Professional Learning Communities and classes.

Microsoft Keynotes: Spotlight on Solutions Sessions – Convention Center, Room 201BC

Digital Transformation in Education

• Monday, June 24 from 10:30 AM–11:30 AM
• Speaker: Anthony Salcito, VP WW Education, Microsoft

Digital Transformation is not simply about technology. It requires that we re-imagine the future of education and embrace a way of bringing together people, data, and processes to build deeper relationships and create more valuable experiences for today’s students. Join us to learn how.

The Emotion of Data: A Roadmap to Student-Centered Learning

• Tuesday, June 25 from 1:45 PM–2:45 PM
• Speaker: Barbara Holzapfel, GM WW EDU Marketing

Personalized learning helps students develop future-ready social-emotional and academic skills, but what is the best path to personalized learning at scale? Join us as representatives from Florida’s St. Lucie school district and Microsoft Education leaders share how data analytics provides the model for success. (Presentation and panel discussion.)

Conference Breakout Sessions: Convention Center, Room 203B

• Monday, June 24–Wednesday, June 26

During the conference, Microsoft will deliver several 50-minute, role-specific sessions focused on the biggest trends in EdTech.

Date	Time	Title	Primary Audience
Monday, 6/24	8:00 AM	Power in your pocket—three mobile apps that will empower	Educator
Monday, 6/24	9:00 AM	Meeting the diverse needs of learners	School Leader
Monday, 6/24	10:00 AM	Meeting the needs of Generation Z	Educator
Monday, 6/24	11:00 AM	Going rogue with Microsoft—complete with tips and tricks	Educator
Monday, 6/24	12:00 PM	Mixed reality: New places and spaces for learning	Educator
Monday, 6/24	1:00 PM	Organizational management using Teams for school, IT and district leaders	School Leader
Monday, 6/24	2:00 PM	OneNote for lesson planning, rubric design and organization	Educator
Monday, 6/24	3:00 PM	Tucson Unified SD transformed their security with Windows 10 and Office 365	School Leader
Monday, 6/24	4:00 PM	Building self-awareness through immersive digital experiences	Educator
Monday, 6/24	5:00 PM	How Microsoft Teams is transforming learning at the district-wide level	School Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	10:00 AM	Going rogue with Microsoft—complete with tips and tricks	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	11:00 AM	How one teacher affected a district’s digital technology strategy	School Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	12:00 PM	Transforming Collier County Schools with Microsoft Teams	School Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	1:00 PM	Digital assessment with Forms	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	2:00 PM	Organizational management using Teams for school, IT and district leaders	School Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	3:00 PM	Increasing accessibility and fostering inclusive classrooms	ALL
Tuesday, 6/25	4:00 PM	OneNote Class Notebook, a teacher’s best friend	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	5:00 PM	Impacting student achievement by combining Microsoft Imagine Academy (MSIA) and industry certifications	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	8:00 AM	Use Azure VDI and multi-user Windows 10 to equitably deliver STEAM software	Technology Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	9:00 AM	Easy school-wide data collection with Forms	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	10:00 AM	Going rogue with Microsoft—complete with tips and tricks	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	11:00 AM	Leading transformation: An administrator’s pathway to success with the education transformation framework	School Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	12:00 PM	Organizational management using Teams for school, IT and district leaders	School Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	1:00 PM	Microsoft accessibility tools and the special educator: a love story	Educator

Hands-on Learning Lab: Convention Center, Room 203A

• Monday, June 24–Wednesday, June 26

Classroom learning with 50-minute interactive sessions where you will get hands-on experience leveraging technology to work on real-world scenarios (devices will be provided).

Date	Time	Title	Primary Audience
Monday, 6/24	8:00 AM–8:50 AM	How OneNote Class Notebook can personalize learning in the classroom	Educator
Monday, 6/24	9:00 AM–9:50 AM	Helping students grow through rich feedback with Assignments and Quizzes in Teams	Educator
Monday, 6/24	10:00 AM–10:50 AM	Create your own video with Windows 10 and share your ISTE experience	Educator
Monday, 6/24	11:00 AM–11:50 AM	Limitless learning with Minecraft: Education Edition	Educator
Monday, 6/24	12:00 PM–12:50 PM	Empathy in action: Build your collaborative project with Skype in the Classroom	Educator
Monday, 6/24	1:00 PM–1:50 PM	Pixel perfect: Student ideas come alive with Minecraft: Education Edition design activities	Educator
Monday, 6/24	2:00 PM–2:50 PM	Teams 101: Overview of Teams and how faculty, staff and students benefit	Educator
Monday, 6/24	3:00 PM–3:50 PM	Get your collab on with Office Web Apps!	Educator
Monday, 6/24	4:00 PM–4:50 PM	Coding with Minecraft: Education Edition	Educator
Monday, 6/24	5:00 PM–5:50 PM	Ready to rethink your classroom tech? Microsoft Surface is changing the game	Technology Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	10:00 AM–10:50 AM	Beginning coders can learn block-based to JavaScript with MakeCode Arcade	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	11:00 AM–11:50 AM	Empowering student-centered learning with Microsoft Surface	School Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	12:00 PM–12:50 PM	App Smash with Teams: Maximizing your EdTech tools inside Teams	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	1:00 PM–1:50 PM	Limitless learning with Minecraft: Education Edition	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	2:00 PM–2:50 PM	Get your collab on with Office Web Apps!	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	3:00 PM–4:50 PM	Leading forward into education transformation	School Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	5:00 PM–5:50 PM	Get hands-on with Microsoft’s Intune for Education	Technology Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	8:00 AM–8:50 AM	How Microsoft Teams supports district-wide collaboration	School Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	9:00 AM–9:50 AM	Limitless learning with Microsoft: Education Edition	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	10:00 AM–10:50 AM	Coding with Minecraft: Education Edition	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	11:00 AM–11:50 AM	How OneNote Class Notebook can personalize learning in the classroom	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	12:00 PM–12:50 PM	Improve flipped learning and communications with video	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	1:00 PM–1:50 PM	Global learning in the 21st century classroom with Skype, Flipgrid and OneNote	Educator

Live Learning Theater: Booth 2900

• Monday, June 24–Wednesday, June 26

Visit us in booth 2900 to learn more about student-centered learning tools including 20-minute spotlight sessions featuring productivity and accessibility, hands-on STEM experiences, demos, and more!

Date	Time	Title	Primary Audience
Monday, 6/24	10:00 AM–10:20 AM	Communicating successfully with non-English speaking guardians and students using Microsoft Translator	Educator
Monday, 6/24	10:30 AM–10:50 AM	Digital citizenship and SEL with Minecraft: Education Edition	Educator
Monday, 6/24	11:00 AM–11:20 AM	What’s new with Skype in the Classroom	Educator
Monday, 6/24	11:30 AM–11:50 AM	Microsoft Teams templates for school principals building leadership	School Leader
Monday, 6/24	12:00 PM–12:20 PM	Start your day with Office.com	Educator
Monday, 6/24	12:30 PM–12:50 PM	Broadcast to students and teachers at scale with Teams, Stream and Yammer	Educator
Monday, 6/24	1:00 PM–1:20 PM	Build inclusive classrooms with Microsoft Education	Educator
Monday, 6/24	1:30 PM–1:50 PM	Sparking 21st century learning in your classroom	School Leader
Monday, 6/24	2:00 PM–2:20 PM	Helping students achieve workforce readiness	Educator
Monday, 6/24	2:30 PM–2:50 PM	Expand your PLN and become an MIE	Educator
Monday, 6/24	3:00 PM–3:20 PM	Saving time and assessing better with Microsoft Forms	Educator
Monday, 6/24	3:30 PM–3:50 PM	Personalizing learning with the OneNote Class Notebook	Educator
Monday, 6/24	4:00 PM–4:20 PM	Get to know Minecraft: Education Edition with Code Builder	Educator
Monday, 6/24	4:30 PM–4:50 PM	Tucson Unified’s implementation of the MIE program for professional learning	School Leader
Monday, 6/24	5:00 PM–5:20 PM	Shift to Windows 10 with offers and deployment best practices	Technology Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	10:00 AM–10:20 AM	Amplifying each student’s unique voice within Teams	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	10:30 AM–10:50 AM	Digital citizenship and SEL with Minecraft: Education Edition	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	11:00 AM–11:20 AM	Empowering global voice with Flipgrid and Skype in the Classroom	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	11:30 AM–11:50 AM	Professional development through the all-new Microsoft Educator Center	Technology Leader
Tuesday, 6/25	12:00 PM–12:20 PM	Develop student creative agency through the power of video	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	12:30 PM–12:50 PM	Empowering students and educators to increase student discourse through Microsoft Teams	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	1:00 PM–1:20 PM	Inclusive classroom in Teams: Managing instruction and assignments for different learning types	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	1:30 PM–1:50 PM	Using Microsoft tools at Google schools	ALL
Tuesday, 6/25	2:00 PM–2:20 PM	Get to know Minecraft: Education Edition	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	2:30 PM–2:50 PM	Personalizing learning with the OneNote Class Notebook	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	3:00 PM–3:20 PM	OneNote, Open Up Resources and OER: Meeting the needs of all students	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	3:30 PM–3:50 PM	Saving time and assessing better with Microsoft Forms	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	4:00 PM–4:20 PM	The Microsoft I did not know about	Educator
Tuesday, 6/25	4:30 PM–4:50 PM	Managing iOS devices with Intune for Education	Technology Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	10:00 AM–10:20 AM	Delivering personalized learning for students with devices starting at $199	Technology Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	10:30 AM–10:50 AM	Drive greater engagement and professional development with your faculty using Teams	School Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	11:00 AM–11:20 AM	Personalizing learning with the OneNote Class Notebook	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	11:30 AM–11:50 AM	The Microsoft I did not know about	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	12:00 PM–12:20 PM	Cloud-connected Office 101	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	12:30 PM–12:50 PM	Using Intune for Education to manage Windows devices	Technology Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	1:00 PM–1:20 PM	Expand your PLN and become and MIE	School Leader
Wednesday, 6/26	1:30 PM–1:50 PM	Get to know Minecraft: Education Edition with Code Builder	Educator
Wednesday, 6/26	2:00 PM–2:20 PM	Saving time and assessing better with Microsoft Forms	Educator

Additional Microsoft Sessions

eSports for Education: Everything you wanted to know – Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Salon L*

• Sunday, June 23 | Sessions at 8:30 AM–10:30 AM, 10:45 AM–12:45 PM and 1:00 PM–3:00 PM

Target Roles: Educators, Leaders

In this session, you will hear from educators who are using eSports as part of their curriculum, as part of a sports program or as part of a school club/competition. There will also be organizations that help drive eSports and you will witness a real-time eSports competition. If you’ve been curious about how eSports works and how it can enhance the educational experience, this session will give you the resources and insights you need to get started.

* Salon L is located on level 5 and can be accessed via the escalators.

  

MakeCode Day – Convention Center, Room 203B

• Sunday, 6/23 from 9:00 AM–4:00 PM

Open to teachers, parent and students—Microsoft MakeCode is an open source platform for creating engaging computer science learning experiences that support a progression path into real-world programming. Microsoft will be bringing MakeCode to ISTE this year, so you can get hands-on and learn how to code in real time with no experience needed! As an educator, you will also see how some schools and educators are creating inclusive, engaging learning experiences with Microsoft MakeCode.

 

Pre-Day Partner Event – Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Salon K*

• Sunday, June 23 from 10:30 AM–3:00 PM

Microsoft is focused on driving innovation to improve learning outcomes, transform classroom time and enable affordable, easy to manage technology, and is empowering its partners to do the same. In this session, you’ll hear directly from partners who are leveraging the Microsoft Education Platform to:

• Transform modern classroom through turn-key solutions that streamline delivery of technology and facilitate learning.
• Deliver rich, immersive content for instruction, assignments and assessment.
• Enable students to unleash their creativity and develop STEAM skills.

Come learn about the latest innovations in Microsoft Education and how our partners are leveraging the Microsoft Education Platform to achieve more.

* Salon K is located on level 5 and can be accessed via the escalators.

Focus on what matters

• Monday, June 24-Wednesday, June 26 starting at 9:30 AM and running until the Expo Hall closes

Target Roles: Educators, Leaders

Every half hour, join us in the Building Skills area of our booth (#2900) as we uncover how Microsoft tools help support inclusive classrooms, build 21st century skills and amplify student voice.

 

Partner Solution Showcase – Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Salon K*

• Monday, June 24–Tuesday, June 25 from 9:30 AM–3:15 PM

Join Microsoft at our Solution Showcase sessions and hear about some of the most impactful examples of Digital Transformation in Education. These sessions are your opportunity to meet fellow practitioners and hear first-hand global experiences, trends and observations from the Microsoft Worldwide Education leadership team.

* Salon K is located on level 5 and can be accessed via the escalators.

 

Hack the Classroom

• Tuesday, June 25 from 6:15 PM–7:30 PM

Target Roles: Educators, Leaders

Join us on Tuesday, starting at 6:15 PM, at aka.ms/hacktheclassroom

Microsoft in Education is bringing back its largest free online digital event for educators & school leaders worldwide to Hack the Classroom! Streamed live on Facebook, Hack the Classroom is devoted to the changemakers in education and the passionate innovators in student-centered learning. Join us and learn from the educators who are integrating technology in order to better connect with students, and to support them as they become active and engaged learners. These passionate educators will generously share their techniques and philosophies for creating better student outcomes during the event:

• Jessica Tozzi, I Promise School (Ohio, US) shares how her school is empowering students through a focus social-emotional learning.​
• Samantha Skubal, J. Sterling Morton District (Illinois, US) shows how she is providing real-world future-ready experiences through their Technology Internship Program. ​
• Luis Oliveira. Middletown H.S. (Rhode Island, US) demonstrates how he is supporting autonomous learning for English Language Learners through Immersive Reader and Flipgrid​
• Jen Padernal, De La Salle University Night College (Philippines) provides her top tips for engaging students through a virtual classroom in Microsoft Teams. ​
• Toney Jackson, Nellie K. Parker Elementary School, (New Jersey, US) closes out the event again with another original work of poetry that will leave you inspired!​

Become a Microsoft Innovative Educator

Receive an HTC participant badge and receive 500 points on our Educator Community. Once you’ve earned 1,000 points, you become a certified Microsoft Innovative Educator!

You can RSVP to the Facebook Live event here!