Microsoft unveils new educational products
MUSCAT: Microsoft Corporation has announced a set of educational products and services, including a new Windows experience—Windows 10 S—along with new experiences in Microsoft Teams for a modern collaborative classroom.
Windows 10 S is a new Windows experience streamlined for security and superior performance, according to a press release.
With Windows 10 S, applications that teachers and students download, will come from the Windows Store where they are first verified for security, and then locally they each run in a safe “container” to ensure that the Windows 10 S offers the power of full-featured applications, with experiences, such as the full version of Office 365, including all of the capabilities of Microsoft Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint, among others. With Windows 10 S, educators and students will have access to their favourite and most-used applications across STEM, learning tools, secure assessment tools, content publishers, interactive whiteboards and more.
Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 S also makes it easier than ever for students to organise research and manage school projects with the new Tab Preview Bar. With the support for Windows Ink in Microsoft Edge, students can make notes directly on a web page and share them with a classmate. Microsoft Edge is compatible with the sites educators and students frequently use.
Microsoft’s goal with Windows 10 S is to develop its open, vibrant partner-centric ecosystem. Device partners, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Samsung and Toshiba, will offer a range of new Windows 10 PCs for education today, starting at US$189. In the coming months, these partners will also offer a range of Windows 10 S devices, from powerful and affordable Windows Ink and touch PCs to beautiful premium devices.
Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint Online already allow students to co-author documents in real time.
Coming to the Microsoft Store for Education later this year, new classroom experiences in Microsoft Teams will take collaboration to a whole new level, and make Teams the digital hub for the classroom where teachers and students come to collaborate and learn. Together with OneNote Class Notebooks and new assignment and quiz experiences, teachers can easily distribute content, grade work and personalize learning, and communicate with students, parents and staff.
Teams also enable teachers to bring in rich and engaging content from the web, guest speakers and solutions from education partners, such as busuu, Canvas, Flipgrid and Kahoot!. Most im- portantly, Teams helps students develop the communication and collaboration skills they’ll need to be successful in the future.
Teachers in more than 100 countries are using Minecraft: Education Edition to promote creativity and collaboration in the classroom.
Minecraft has become a favourite resource with students and with educators, who are using it to teach digital citizenship, inspire creative problem-solving and enable student-centred explorations across the curriculum.
Microsoft is broadening the game’s appeal further with Code Builder for Minecraft: Education Edition.
This new feature is designed to inspire students to learn the basics and the power of coding by combining the open worlds of Minecraft with popular learn-tocode platforms, such as Tynker, ScratchX and a new open source platform from Microsoft called MakeCode.