Microsoft Education Community - great, free resource for teachers

The Microsoft Education Community is a great, free resource for teachers. It has free web courses on using Microsoft tools and on best practices for using technology in education. There are discussion groups, resources and training tools available. You can earn badges and certifications through the site also.

The site is easy to navigate and has some excellent resources. The training goes from the basics of using email, to Office 365 to new products like Sway. It also includes 21st Century Learning, Accessibility and more. Teachers share resources here, as well as providing support and feedback to each other. There are even some great virtual field trips.

Check it out!


Related:

Microsoft Education Resources, including Office 365

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Microsoft Education Resources, including Office 365

Microsoft has a lot of Education resources for IT, Educators and Students. Here are some of them that I have found useful.

Microsoft for Education Resources

• CDW-G Microsoft for Education Site: https://www.cdwg.com/content/brands/microsoft/microsoft-for-k12-education.aspx
• Microsoft for Education Site: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/default.aspx
• Microsoft Partners in Learning: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/school-leaders/create-innovative-schools/default.aspx resources to guide school leaders as they transform schools with a vision to empower students to achieve more. - includes why go MS, etc. 
• Microsoft Education Site for Educators - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/educators/default.aspx?Search=true
• Training and PD Site https://education.microsoft.com/gettrained
• Lesson Plans https://education.microsoft.com/findalesson/lessonplans
• Microsoft in the Classroom Learning Path https://education.microsoft.com/Learning/LearningPrograms/Detail/439
• Microsoft Innovative Schools Toolkit: http://www.is-toolkit.com/ “The Innovative Schools Toolkit is an accessible and practical guide for you and your school community to begin the journey of innovation. It is intended to be a starting point rather than a complete solution and it offers a process that can be customized based on your unique needs.”
• Microsoft in Education Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_in_education/ 
• Microsoft Educator Community: https://education.microsoft.com/ 
• Microsoft Education Products: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/default.aspx 

Office 365 Training Resources

• O365 training https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/office365-training.aspx
• IT pros training https://mva.microsoft.com/product-training/office-365#!lang=1033
• O365 Guides http://labs.officeignite.com/Office%20365%20Guides.htm
• Office Training Center https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-Training-Center-b8f02f81-ec85-4493-a39b-4c48e6bc4bfb
• Microsoft Partner Support Channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MSPartnerTech
• TechSoupVideo YouTube playlist Office 365 Tutorials https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRCtupIatuLnRLY8wggT1z4e-IuG1aqUu
• Office 365 and Sharepoint Users group on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1926983/profile

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Free alternatives to Microsoft Access, including a web based one

Access is Microsoft's well known data base tool. However, it only comes in the higher priced versions of Office and many people don't use Office at all. Here are two alternatives:






1. Grubba - free, web based, easy to use database app. Useful for Chromebook users and others looking for a web based solution. There is also a growing community of users and tutorial videos and support. There are pre-made templates to help you get started too. There are a lot of features, so take a look.

2. OpenOffice / LibreOffice Base - OpenOffice and LibreOffice are free alternatives to Microsoft Office and both have a database tool called Base. It is easy to use, with a lot of great features and support and training resources, including an excellent manual. It also can work with SQL and Access files.
http://www.libreoffice.org/discover/base/
https://www.openoffice.org/

I've used LibreOffice for years and love it and prefer it over OpenOffice.

Related:

LibreOffice - free office suite software

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

Google Announces some great new features for Apps!

Google just announced some great new features for Google Apps that make it even more useful and powerful. Schools, like ours, that use Google Apps for Education will be very pleased with these updates and new features.

Google Apps Admins can now restore a user's Google Drive files from the past 25 days. This is great for one someone deletes a file by mistake. https://support.google.com/a/answer/6052340

Google Drive: huge changes here.

• Document and image viewing is improved
• there are now dedicated desktop home pages for Docs, Sheets and Slides for easier access
• you can now edit (and save as) Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in Docs, Sheets and Slides on both Chrome and Chrome OS (Chromebooks). This is really great for schools that still have Office files they need to access (like us). https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6049100
• Google Docs, Sheets and Slides mobile apps for Android and iOS now include Word, Excel and PowerPoint editing. 
• Google Drive app is now more powerful, faster, and redesigned.

 These are some great features that make Google Apps even more powerful, useful, and easy to use.

For more info:
http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/ (click on Wednesday, June 25th)

Learn where menu and toolbar commands are in Office 2010 and related products

I just recently posted an article with Free Computer Training Resources and another one with a Collection of free training resources for Windows, Office, Google Apps, and more as I've been collecting resources for our staff, faculty, and students.

I just found another great resource on Microsoft Office. We are transitioning from Office 2003 to Office 2010 and, as many of you know, there are major menu changes in terms of where commands are located.

Microsoft has a great site that has tutorials and interactive guides to find where the commands are in Office  2010 products. It is easy to use and the interactive guide walks you through finding specific commands.

One caveat - it uses Silverlight so you have to use Internet Explorer to access the interactive guides.

This is a great resource to share with anyone learning Office 2010.

Collection of free training resources for Windows, Office, Google Apps, and more

I was putting together a list of free training resources and decided to share it with everyone. If you have some good ones, please share them in the comments.

Free Training Resources

Windows and Office

http://etc.usf.edu/techease/win/ - great help with Windows and Windows applications

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training-FX101782702.aspx - free help and training from Microsoft on their products. Scroll to bottom for older versions. 

http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/guides/Pages/index.aspx - lots of great resources and tips for teachers. 

Google Apps for Education

Great resources on learning Google Apps and using Google Apps in the classroom.

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/training.html

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/educator-resources.html

http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home

http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/google.htm

https://sites.google.com/a/googleapps.com/k12-guide-to-going-google/pd

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/04/google-for-educators-resources-for.html

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/google-for-educators_22.html

Chromebooks (see Google Apps also)

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/training.html

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/chromebooks.html

Misc. EdTech Resources

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2012/06/10-technology-skills-every-educator.html - list of tech skills for educators and resources to learn them.

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com 

http://www.mobilenations.com/ - Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone/Mobile, and webOS resources, help, tips, and more.

http://web2012.discoveryeducation.com/ - Great resource from Discovery Education on educational technology.

http://h30411.www3.hp.com/Welcome HP Teacher Experience Exchange - tips, lesson plans, tech help, and more. 

http://www.180techtips.com/ one tech tip for each school day each year.

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/ great tips on all kinds of technology

Google Docs can import old Office Formats, but exports them as new format

Google Docs will no longer export files into the old Microsoft Office Formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt). Instead, it will download the files as .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx. You can also still download files in .odt, .rtf, .pdf. .txt formats. This will also affect Google Apps accounts. (And Google Drive since that's where everyone's Docs are going.

You can still import these older Office file formats, but if you then export them, they will export in the new formats. This may cause a little bit of an issue with some users, including schools still stuck in Windows XP and Office 2003 or earlier.

There is a workaround though - install the free compatibility plugin from Microsoft so you can open the modern Office file types. I've already done this because I have Windows 7 at home and receive a lot of files from people using the newer version of Office. Without this plugin, I wouldn't be able to even open any of these files. This is something everyone should have done by now, especially with more and more people using the newer versions of Office.

Other options are to use Google Docs instead of Office, convert Office files to Docs files when uploading (which is what I usually do), or keep the Office files in a service like Dropbox or Sugarsync (which is what I do for files that I don't want to risk having formatting losses when being converted).

All of the options are free and only take a few minutes to implement.

I see a lot of people complaining at the beginning, but it really isn't as big a deal as many news outlets are making it out to be.

Microsoft Office 365 for Education now available for Free

Microsoft 365 is an online version of Microsoft's well known Office suite. Office 365 for Education is free for schools and is already being used by many public school districts and colleges.

Office 365 is cloud based and includes Microsoft Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online.

This is Microsoft's answer to Google Apps for Education. It can be a good option for schools that are heavily invested in Microsoft apps as there would be almost no learning curve or training required. It includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Email, Calendars, web sites, and much more, including the ability to collaborate online with others and even run an online course.

You can find more information about features here. (including deployment guides and training)

You can go here to register: http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/products/Pages/office-365-for-education.aspx

Related:

Free Teacher Guides from Microsoft - great resources

Microsoft Surface - Windows 8 Tablet/PC - announced

Why I Use Google's Products as an Educator

Google for Education Resources

InstallFree Nexus - us MS Office or LibreOffice on any device through the cloud

InstallFree Nexus is an application I just learned about that allows you to use different applications on any device you want, while optimizing for that device. You can use Microsoft Office or LibreOffice on an iPad, Android Tablet, Chromebook or any device with a web browser. You can view and edit documents that you have stored in Dropbox, Google Drive, Office 365 and others and even access web apps that are written in Flash, Silverlight or Java. InstallFree Nexus makes it possible to use rich web applications written in Flash, Silverlight and Java on any device. All you need is a browser.



It's cloud based platform that allows you real-time access to these apps. It uses HTML 4 and 5 to work.

It is currently in public beta and will be going to full production this summer. There will be free and paid versions. 

The free version will be called InstallFree Nexus Basic and will include the following functionality:

• The full LibreOffice application suite for creating and editing documents from any device or browser.
• Full-fidelity viewing for Microsoft Office documents.
• Seamless integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, SharePoint, Office 365 and other storage services.

The paid version will be called InstallFree Nexus Premium and will include the following functionality:

• All the capabilities available in Nexus Basic
• Microsoft Office 2010 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher) subscription license:
• $4.99 per month / $49.99 per year for academic users (students, teachers, etc.)
• $19.99 per month / $199.99 per year for standard users

This is a very useful application that schools could use to make it easier for students and faculty to use certain applications. This makes things platform/OS agnostic and would allow everyone access to these apps and resources and would be especially useful in a BYOT/BYOD environment. It would also eliminate the need to install certain applications on devices. LibreOffice is an excellent free app that does everything that MS Office does. With LibreOffice and InstallFree Nexus, schools can eliminate the need for Microsoft Office licenses. 

Rndr enables any browser to render plugins like Java that may not be compatible with the device. This is very useful for the Chromebooks. 

Take a look:  http://www.installfree.com/ 

All of there products are available in the Chrome Web Store at the following links:
- Nexus with Microsoft Office: http://goo.gl/grC0j
- Nexus with LibreOffice: http://goo.gl/zmttd
- Rndr: http://goo.gl/SkqRC

Microsoft Announces Office Plug-In for Moodle

Info I received about Microsoft announcing an Add-in for Moodle:

As teachers look to simplify and reduce the time spent on planning and administrative tasks in order to spend more time teaching, truly integrated solutions are few and far between. Two of the most widely-used technologies in classrooms today are Microsoft Office and the learning management system, Moodle. However, using these solutions together in an integrated fashion has typically required teachers to go through a significant number of steps to perform basic tasks.

Today, we are announcing the Microsoft Office Add-in for Moodle . This new add-in provides teachers with an easy, time-saving solution for finding, opening and saving Office documents housed in Moodle, and allows documents stored in Moodle to be opened from Office without multiple and sometimes complicated steps. For example, teachers will have “Open to Moodle” and “Save to Moodle” as options directly from their Office menu button. The Microsoft Office Add-in for Moodle is free and available for download today at www.educationlabs.com.

A handful of K-12 schools and universities have already had the opportunity to experiment with the new add-in. Elisabeth Kraus, Associate Director for Curriculum of Extended Education at Northwest University, shared her thoughts with us:

“We’re always having to move quickly to get things done and even when every class is different – different syllabus, different curriculum and different student needs to name a few. Any quick and easy technology like the simplicity of this add-in are helpful, and especially when it requires little to no training.”

The Microsoft Office Add-in for Moodle is the latest innovation from Microsoft’s Education incubation group called Education Labs. Education Labs was formed in July 2009 to quickly create prototypes of new tools and applications to showcase how Microsoft technologies can meet the needs of teachers and students in the classroom. The Office Add-in for Moodle is one of several free tools created by Education Labs to help teachers use technology to meet students’ needs and become even more efficient in their classrooms.

We have two video demos of the Office Add-in for Moodle available here; there is one that provides an overview of the tool, and another that shows the “before add-in”/”after add-in” experience. News about the Office Add-in for Moodle is also featured on the Microsoft Blog.

Also released today is a white paper that guides IT administrators on how to set up SharePoint Server as the file system for Moodle. IT pros can save the day by recovering accidentally deleted files or restore previous versions of overwritten files. It also allows for a great search feature, so a teacher can use SharePoint search to search for files across all of their Moodles. To download the white paper, click here.

This could prove very useful to Moodle users who also use Microsoft products.

(I am not compensated by Microsoft in any way for this post.)