Office 365 for Education is for the New Generation of Students and Educators
Education has come a long way from the traditional classroom setting. During the 90s when I started going to school, we just have to bring pencils, pens, papers, notebooks, and textbooks, and gadgets are a no-no (if you’re a 90s kid, then you would know Tamagotchi and how it got banned in schools). We are only allowed to access the computer in the laboratories during computer classes. Nowadays it’s pretty legal to bring your smartphones, tablets, and laptops in school. They are even essential in homework now, and teachers and students can now connect online.
And since the education system has adapted to the modern world and embraced technological advancements, there are now applications that are being designed to make life even easier for educators and students. Microsoft has Office 365 for Education which is a bundle that includes the necessary Office Online solutions such as Word, Excel, OneNote, and PowerPoint. The best thing about this is that the online version is free – all you need to do is to sign up using your valid school e-mail address, for example, @portalintegrators.edu. The other requirement is that you have to be of legal age and that you have an internet connection since the apps can only be accessed online. The paid version is the Office 365 for Education E5, which includes the desktop version of the apps.
Office 365 for Education makes it easier for students and educators to collaborate, plus it can also help save the environment by lessening the use of pen and papers. And you or your school’s IT admin can control permissions and access to keep the online learning environment safe and school-appropriate. The Office Online version includes the core apps that you would need in the classroom: Word, Excel, PowePoint, OneNote, and Outlook and the services included are OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and more. Probably the service that you and your students will utilize the most out of these is the Microsoft Teams.
We’ve already discussed in a previous blog post what Teams can do, but to summarize it, here’s basically what you and your students can do in Teams: chat in real time, share files with one person or one channel, and open the files within the channel. It is even better if the file formats are readable through the Office applications. Skype for Business can also be used if you want someone to give a talk to your class but could not be there physically. The example that Microsoft gave is that it can be a career day every day for your class, wherein guests can talk to your students about what they do over Skype.
If you’re an educator who is looking for ways to modernize your classroom experience and adapt to the times and be able to connect to your students more, then you should check Office 365 for Education out.
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