Graph math equations with Ink math assistant in OneNote for Windows 10
As written on blogs.office.com
Last summer we introduced Ink math assistant in OneNote—a digital tutor that gives you step-by-step instructions on how to solve your handwritten math problems. Today, we are excited to announce that Ink math assistant can draw graphs of your equations, all within OneNote for Windows 10.
Now, when you write your math equations, the Ink math assistant quickly plots an interactive graph to help you visualize those difficult math concepts. You can zoom in and move the graph to observe intersection points or change values of parameters in your equations to better understand how each of them reflects on the graph. Finally, you can save a screenshot of the graph directly to your page to revisit it later.
Five steps to graph an equation in OneNote
Begin by writing your equation. For example: y=x+3 or y=sin(x)+cos(2x).
Next, use Lasso tool to select the equation and then, on the Draw tab, click the Math button.
From the drop-down menu in Math pane, select the option to Graph in 2D. You can play with the interactive graph of your equation—use a single finger to move the graph position or two fingers to change the zoom level.
Use + and – buttons to change the values of the parameters in your equation.
Finally, click the Insert on Page button to add a screenshot of the graph to your page.
Availability: Ink math assistant is available in OneNote for Windows 10, for Office 365 subscribers.
Microsoft creates a physical programming language inclusive of visually impaired children
These days, most kids get their first introduction to coding through simplified tools that let them drag and drop blocks of commands, creating programs that can do things like navigate mazes or speed through space.
A team of Microsoft researchers and designers in the company’s Cambridge, UK, lab is taking that concept one step further. The team has created what they are calling a physical programming language. It’s a way for kids to physically create code by connecting pods together to build programs.
The system, called Project Torino, is designed to make sure that kids who have visual impairments or other challenges can participate in coding classes along with all their classmates. But Cecily Morrison, one of the researchers working on the project, is hoping the system also will be appealing and useful for all learners, regardless of whether they have visual impairments or other challenges.
“One of our key design principles was inclusion. We didn’t want to isolate these kids again,” she said. “The idea was to create something that a whole mainstream class could use, and they could use together.”
The ultimate goal is even more ambitious: To get more kids with visual impairments and other challenges, such as dyslexia or autism, on the path to becoming software engineers and computer scientists.
“It’s clear that there’s a huge opportunity in professional computing jobs,” Morrison said. “This is a great career for a lot of kids who might have difficulty accessing other careers.”
A project like this can serve two goals: Technology companies say they are struggling with a “digital skills gap” that is leaving them without enough engineers and coders to meet their needs, and experts say it can be difficult for visually impaired people to find meaningful, accessible career paths.
The World Health Organization estimates that 285 million people worldwide are blind or visually impaired, and the vast majority of those people live in low-income settings. In the United Kingdom alone, the Royal National Institute of Blind People says only one in four working age adults who are blind or partially sighted are doing paid work.
Steve Tyler, head of solutions, strategy and planning for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which is working with Morrison on the project, said coding has often been thought of as a promising career path for people with visual impairments. In recent years, however, computer science has come to rely much more on pictorial, graphical and conceptual coding methods, making it harder for kids with visual impairments to get exposed to the field.
Tyler said systems like Project Torino could help provide that path.
“This, for us, was a core reason for running with a project like this and supporting it,” Tyler said.
Tyler, who has a background in education, also said there is currently a woeful lack of resources for visually impaired children who have an interest in coding or more generally are ready for an introduction to mathematical and strategic thinking. That’s a huge problem because a child’s first introduction to these concepts can be a make or break moment for whether they end up being interested in pursuing a career in those types of fields.
Traditionally, Tyler said teachers have used chess to teach those kinds of strategic concepts to visually impaired children.
“I see this project a little bit like that,” he said. “It brings to life, in a 21st century way, that kind of ability to teach children these new concepts.”
From left, Louisa Turtill, 9, and Khadijah Pinto Atkin, also 9, use Project Torino. The physical programming language is being designed with the help of children to make sure it is inclusive of their needs. Photo by Jonathan Banks.
The Microsoft team has spent the last year or so testing the system with a small group of about a dozen students. Nicolas Villar, a senior researcher in the UK lab who was instrumental in designing Project Torino, said one of the unexpected pleasures of the project is the opportunity to work with kids who have a very different way of experiencing the world.
For example, he said, the team originally made the pods all white, until the kids with limited vision told them that more colors would help them. And although in electronics there’s often a push to make things as small as possible, with this project they found the kids were more engaged when the pods were larger, in part because two kids working together would often both physically hold the pod and touch hands as part of that teamwork.
“We really honestly designed it with them. It was a collaboration,” Villar said of working with the group of kids. “We thought we were going to be doing something for them but we ended up designing with them.”
Now, they are working with RNIB to do an expanded beta trial of about 100 students. The researchers and the RNIB will be recruiting potential participants for the trial in mid-March at the VIEW conference for educators in the United Kingdom who work with visually impaired children.
For now, the beta is focused only on the UK, which has spearheaded a massive effort to get more kids interesting in coding. Eventually, they hope to make it more broadly available to teachers and students outside of the UK.
A lesson in computational thinking
Project Torino is geared toward kids age 7 to 11. Using the coding tools, students can do things like make songs, even incorporating silly noises, poetry and sounds they create themselves.
As they build their code, Morrison said they learn the kind of programming concepts that will lead to careers in computer science or related fields.
“It is very specifically about building up concepts that will enable them to become computer scientists, programmers, software engineers, computational thinkers,” she said. “It gives them that computational base to whatever direction they go, and a shared vocabulary about what computing is.”
Morrison and her colleagues also have created a curriculum for teachers who want to use Project Torino. She said the teachers do not need to have a computer science background to use the curriculum – in fact, they assume that most teachers will not have any expertise in coding.
The system also is designed to grow with kids. Once they have mastered the physical programming language, Morrison said they also have created an app that allows kids to transfer the coding they have done with the physical system into text-based code, and then use other assistive technologies to continue coding.
“We’re mapping a pathway from the physical to something that a professional software engineer could use,” she said.
How the modern librarian is guiding research in the online era
Teaching proper research methods is about so much more than enabling students to turn in the perfect paper. When done thoroughly, it imbues them with the ability to evaluate resources for credibility, avoid misleading misinformation and mount a cogent argument. Teaching students how to research is about empowering them to think critically, both in the classroom today and beyond.
“It all comes back to the purpose of school,” says Aron Early, research technology specialist at Sammamish High School in Bellevue, WA. “Not so much about content, but teaching kids how to learn. Like evaluating information and being a critical thinker.”
In many ways, the Internet has made research easier. In many others, however, it’s complicated the task of discerning verifiable, accurately sourced and cited material from the misinterpretations, half-truths and flat-out falsehoods that live online. A lengthy study by Stanford’s Graduate School of Education concluded in June 2016, found that even older students could stand to improve their skills in correctly identifying true stories online.
Meanwhile, the role of librarian continues to evolve in support of long-term learning. Research technology specialists are 21st century figures, standing at the nexus of technique, knowledge, community and social collaboration. For Aron, whose students in Washington have come to rely less on textbooks and more on the Internet, this means actively coaching them on ways to refine their information-gathering abilities, both in the classroom and the library.
Aron has also found help in Researcher, a tool within Microsoft Word that makes finding those credible sources simpler. With Researcher, anyone can search for and incorporate reliable sources and content, including properly formatted citations, all within a few clicks and without having to leave the document.
“It’s really bringing the library to the students and enabling them to be good researchers,” Aron says. “Being able to research sites, collect and curate your information all in one program is kind of amazing.”
Researcher displays source material found using Bing’s Knowledge Graph, which is tailored per a mix of algorithms, human oversight and measured criteria for what constitutes a “trusted” source. By vetting for sources that have an established history of accuracy and high level of online citations, Researcher can present a body of reference materials that includes national science and health centers, well-known encyclopedias, history databases and more.
In managing how sources are both gathered and displayed, Microsoft’s engineers consider Bing’s role in Researcher as a pro-active step, making good research quicker and less daunting.
“How do we get people to the good information and get them away from the bad information as quickly as possible?” asks Microsoft Researcher Engineer Douglas Taylor. Veracity, he says, and timeliness are the goals with Researcher. “We think the fact that people spend so much time learning, teaching and scrutinizing any website to see if it’s trustworthy is a problem worth solving.”
Aron adds that Researcher is not intended to replace the library for students, but rather to complement it. “As much as we are bringing the library to them digitally, we also want to make sure the library stays important in a student’s life,” he says. To that end, Bing and Researcher can point users to the nearest library for source material that isn’t yet digitized.
Ultimately, Aron views Researcher as a valuable teaching tool with the power to promote critical thinking among students and adult users alike. For more insights on research practices and other modern tools in education, you can follow Aron Early on Twitter.
Researcher, which is currently available to Office 365 subscribers, will continue to be updated with additional resource material over time. Students and teachers who haven’t already subscribed can download their free version of Office 365 with Word 2016* using a valid school email address. Researcher is also available as a mobile app for iOS and will make its way to other platforms and Office apps in the near future.
OneNote Class Notebook add-in now includes grade scales, improved LMS integration and sticker customization
First-grade teacher at the Ashton Elementary School, Rachel Montisano, said, “Now, with two clicks, I can send out all the tabs/pages I created or wanted to share with the students. Truly remarkable! Microsoft had just given me a tool that made me an even more effective teacher and gave me time back!”
Today’s updates for the Class Notebook add-in for OneNote desktop update include:
Grade scale support for Canvas and Skooler.
Skooler joins the OneNote add-in family.
Stickers—now includes the ability to customize.
Grade scale support for Canvas and Skooler
Last spring, we released Assignment and Grade integration for the OneNote Class Notebook. A top request from teachers and schools using Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Student Information Systems (SIS) has been to support additional assignment values beyond just 1-100 points. Many LMS and SIS have richer grade scales—such as custom points, letter grades, pass/fail, percentages—and teachers want to be able to have more flexibility in the assignments they create.
Today, we are releasing the initial updates to allow grade scale support, depending on the LMS or SIS being used. The first two partners that support grades scales are Canvas and Skooler. The Class Notebook add-in will support different grade scales, based on what the specific LMS or SIS supports.
In the example below, a teacher can choose a “Letter Grade” type when creating the assignment, and the assignment will be created in Canvas with that attribute. When the teacher goes to enter grades under the Review Student Work choice, a letter grade can be entered.
Example of grade scale support in Canvas.
Skooler joins the OneNote add-in family
Today, we welcome Skooler to the Class Notebook add-in family for assignment and grade support. Watch the Getting Started with Skooler video to learn more. As mentioned above, our Skooler integration will also add grade scale support.
Last month, we announced the arrival of stickers for OneNote Online and Windows 10. Today, the Class Notebook add-in for OneNote 2013 and OneNote 2016 for the desktop includes stickers, including the ability to customize them. To add a sticker to your page, check the Insert menu after you install the latest version of the add-in. We will release more sticker packs in the future—based on student and teacher feedback—so stay tuned!
Customizable stickers in OneNote desktop.
Since the school year started, we’ve been making improvements to the Class Notebook add-in for OneNote on the desktop. To update your OneNote Class Notebook add-in, just click the Update button on your toolbar to download and install the latest version. If you’ve never installed the Class Notebook add-in, you can get it from the OneNote Class Notebook website.
New Education Category in Visio Pro for Office 365
Years of research suggest students learn best when presented new material in diverse and interactive ways. Gone are the days of lecture-only classrooms; today, educators incorporate a variety of methods to boost learning outcomes. One of those methods, of course, is visual. We’re excited to announce new Microsoft and third-party templates for Visio Pro for Office 365 to help educators present information in highly visual and exciting ways, while helping students better engage across subjects.
New Education templates
Visio Pro for Office 365 is adding more than 20 education templates and sample diagrams that span core subjects, including algebra, trigonometry, chemistry, and physics. These tools bring subjects to life and boost comprehension. For example, in algebra, students can move pre-built shapes to better understand the Pythagorean theorem. Additionally, Visio’s latest offerings include templates and diagrams for curriculum planning, games, sports, hobbies, and music, giving institutions a breadth of solutions for driving a well-rounded education.
Interactive Learning
Visio shapes have customizable options that enable visuals to respond intelligently to changes in size and context. For example, teachers can use Visio’s smart shapes to illustrate trigonometry concepts by interacting with diagrams to change the underlying information in real time.
Here is another interactive way to learn about the Pythagorean theorem:
Powerful ecosystem
Now you can access third-party content directly from within Visio Pro for Office 365 for your specialized diagramming needs. For the initial launch, we will deliver access to eight templates and five sample diagrams from our trusted content partners. We’re also enabling even greater interactive learning with partner solutions for OneNote. Companies like GeoGebra, Desmos, and Quizlet now enable ready-made content that integrates with OneNote, helping students learn through hands-on visuals in the virtual notebooks they use every day.
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Four Microsoft Internships and Counting
Why One Student Returns to the Redmond Campus Every Summer Written by Lisa Walls as seen on blogs.microsoft.com
Though he’s not yet graduated from college, Zimraan H. is no stranger to the way Microsoft works. This university junior already has four internships with the company under his belt. Next June, he’ll be starting his fifth. “I’m pretty sure it’s breaking a record,” he laughs. Many students start a Microsoft internship with a general enthusiasm for technology but no specific area of interest in the field—however, Zimraan has always felt drawn to information security.
His interest started in high school, after a computer networking and security course. The technology class touched on router switch security—and Zimraan was hooked. “It caught my imagination because it was so real,” he says. “A lot of the stuff we had at home wasn’t secure.” Information security is a high-impact line of work, and Zimraan likes that he can “have a positive influence on it.”
Although it was a high school computer class that caught his interest, Zimraan has deepened his passion for information security on Microsoft’s Redmond campus. What keeps him coming back? He appreciates the company culture. He relishes the “awesome” projects he works on that “have an impact.” And, he loves how his “mentor, manager, and team members are always there” for him if he needs help. “They’ve been great to me,” he says.
“They keep supplying him with awesome projects and experiences, so he wants to come back and build on what he learned,” says Heidi Dowling, operations manager for the intern program. She and Zimraan grab lunch together every summer.
Dowling says the interns “bring such excitement to the company” that it’s palpable—over one thousand arrive on the Redmond campus every June. “I love having them here,” she says, “learning about what they’re working on, the awesome things they get to experience while they’re here—they have some amazing opportunities.” Interns aren’t relegated to performing inconsequential tasks. They work on real-world projects and “impact the business and the products that we’re shipping,” she says.
A Microsoft internship gives students a huge advantage. They have an opportunity to learn about and experience the company’s culture, and the team they’re working with has a chance to see them in action, both personally and professionally. “It’s like a 12-week interview while you’re here,” says Dowling.
But company internships aren’t just about work. Planned outings and social activities are as integral to a Microsoft internship experience as the time spent inside the campus buildings. Every summer, the company holds a big ‘Signature Event’ for student interns; last August, they attended an exclusive Ellie Goulding concert at the Seattle Center, where the singer’s strong lungs entertained the group. Every concert goer carried a Surface Book laptop home that night—Microsoft’s gift for all their hard work.
That event was a highlight of Zimraan’s summer. Another was a Microsoft-sponsored trip to Las Vegas, where he attended the ‘Black Hat USA’ security conference. During those four days, he “got to meet other industry leaders, learn about the bleeding edge in security technology, and see cutting edge hacks that will shape the future of security.”
Every internship has increased Zimraan’s knowledge of information security. He finds the field “a really cool place to be” and only sees it expanding. “It’s a crucial role,” he says. “You don’t think about your credit card or email being hacked until it happens.” He likes being one of the people who protects against a data security breach.
Last summer, his internship involved “improving cloud security” for Microsoft Azure. As part of the Information Security and Risk Management (ISRM) team, he worked in a Project Manager (PM) role to “develop features, track issues with bugs and get them resolved, and put more stuff into production.” He found the experience to be “a good challenge” as he was adding “a lot of PM skills” to his toolbox.
Zimraan enjoys PM work more than the developer side of engineering. He likes “working with so many different people to build something” and touching “every aspect of the project.”
“He did outstanding work,” says Don Nguyen, a security architect with ISRM, who mentored Zimraan for two years. “He impressed both me and our CISO.” Nguyen has watched Zimraan evolution from “high school kid” to college junior. “I hope to see him at Microsoft as a colleague,” he says.
Jeff Miller, a senior PM on the ISRM team and a former mentor to Zimraan, finds the student “extremely mature for where he is in his career path” and “very inclusive” as a team mate. He “makes sure everybody is brought into the project and things are communicated well.” That ability to “bring people together, define a team and keep people connected” is something Miller prizes in a colleague. And it’s Zimraan’s internships that have given Miller visibility into how his former mentee works with others. When he’s hiring talent, he says, “It’s something I look for in a manager.”
In a job market where the number of tech jobs outnumber the people who can fill them, Zimraan could work anywhere—but only one employer interests him. He wants to stay at Microsoft, where he’s had “so many opportunities to do great work.” He’s a very practical sort of person. “If I love what I do, and my team, and coming to work every day, then why would I leave?” he says.
The Internet of Things, the connection of devices (other than standard products such as computers and smartphones) to the Internet, is in the process of transforming numerous areas of our everyday lives. And while it might not seem like an obvious application of the IoT, education is on that list.
The Internet has deeply rooted itself into our schools, and e-learning has become common practice in the American school system. But the applications of the IoT in education are numerous, and the implications for this disruption are tremendous.
The rise of mobile technology and the IoT allows schools to improve the safety of their campuses, keep track of key resources, and enhance access to information. Teachers can even use this technology to create "smart lesson plans," rather than the traditional stoic plans of yesteryear.
Below, we've compiled a list of IoT education examples, including the uses of the IoT in higher education, the future of the Internet in education, and examples of companies that are using the IoT to enter the education space.
IoT in Higher Education
The IoT can begin disrupting the education process as early as kindergarten and can continue to do so through 12th grade, but perhaps the most profound effects occur in higher education.
Students, particularly in college, are increasingly moving away from paper books toward tablets and laptops. With all of the necessary information at their fingertips, students can now learn at their own pace and have a nearly identical educational experience in their homes and in the classroom.
And while this trend provides increased convenience for students, it also makes the teaching process more efficient for professors. The surge in connected technology means that instructors do not need to manually grade tests on paper or perform other routine tasks.
Instead, professors can focus on the actual, personal instruction that is most valuable to their students. Devices connected to the cloud allow professors to gather data on their students and then determine which ones need the most individual attention and care. These statistics also let teachers properly adjust their lesson plans for future classes.
Third grade students study on computers using online learning in the lab at Rocketship SI Se Puede, a charter, public elementary school, on February 18, 2014 in San Jose, California.
Outside of the classroom, universities can use connected devices to monitor their students, staff, and resources and equipment at a reduced operating cost, which saves everyone money. And these tracking capabilities should also lead to safer campuses. For example, students would be able to keep track of connected buses and adjust their schedules accordingly, which would prevent them from spending unnecessary time in potentially dangerous areas.
Future of the Internet in Education
As of 2015, 73% of all U.S. teenagers had access to a smartphone, according to Capterra. Nearly 100% of all U.S. public schools have Internet access. And 70% of middle school students and 75% of high school students use laptops for educational purposes.
With that foundation upon which to build, it's easy to see how the Internet of Things is poised to radically transform education as we know it. Capterra points out that 69% of students want to use their mobile devices more frequently in the classroom, and most of those students want to use them to automate tasks that they already do now, such as note-taking, schedule checking, and research.
As for the schools, the greatest benefits would be increased energy efficiency and reduced operating costs. New Richmond schools in Tipp City, Ohio are saving approximately $128,000 each year by using a web-based system that controls all mechanical equipment inside the buildings.
Furthermore, Greentech Media points out that investment in these "smart schools" usually pays off within two years. And this tech can even be installed into older buildings by attaching smart sensors and other devices to existing control panels.
And the savings continue as schools invest in reusable resources, such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. Capterra notes that an average school spends an average of $30,000 to $50,000 per year just on paper, but reusable tech would completely eliminate that cost.
As more schools adopt this technology, expect to see more "smart schools" pop up throughout the U.S. until they are the standard for American education.
Examples of Companies in the IoT for Education Space
The foremost example of a tech company that has invaded schools is SMART, which pioneered the world's first interactive whiteboard in 1991. SMART boards changed the way teachers and students interacted in the classroom by moving lessons away from the dusty chalkboards that dominated education for decades.
But SMART is far from the only company sinking its hooks into the U.S. school system. IPEVO has also manufactured a wireless interactive whiteboard that serves as an alternative to the SMART board, notes the Huffington Post.
Ideapaint, which creates dry-erase whiteboard paint, dove headlong into the IoT by developing an app called Bounce with the goal of bringing more of the educational experience online.
And IBM has announced that it would invest $3 billion into the IoT over the next few years, and a significant portion of that money will go toward education.
More to Learn
Approximately 50.4 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools as of Fall 2016, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That's a slight increase from the 50.3 million who attended in Fall 2015.
With figures like those, it's clear that the education system isn't going away anytime soon. And with that emphasis on the importance of education, it's equally important for the Internet of Things to improve the quality of that education.
But education is far from the only area of our lives that the IoT will transform. Transportation, energy, homes, healthcare, and more will all feel the touch of the IoT in the coming years.
That's why BI Intelligence has spent months creating the most exhaustive resource on not just education, but the entire IoT: The Internet of Things: Examining How The IoT Will Affect The World.
To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the IoT universe, choose one of these options:
Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT
The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of the IoT.
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Taking Office 365 to the College Campus
By Kelly Cronin
Before Office 365, I was using a $5 planner from Target, some Word documents, some Google Docs, a million Notes in my iPhone, and Five-Star Notebooks to take notes in class, stay "organized", and keep both my personal life and grades afloat. Although plenty of people had told me about cool note-taking tools, I was a stubborn college student that thought whatever I was doing was good enough. When I first started my internship with Managed Solution, I was taught how to use almost all of the Office 365 apps, which I never thought I would be using in my personal life. The more used to the apps I got, the more I realized how much they could help me outside of work too. Here's how Office 365 can be used for any college student looking to stay organized and productive:
Let's start with OneNote.
My boss was not exaggerating when she told me OneNote is life. I first used OneNote for school by keeping all my syllabi in one place. Before, I had to constantly re-download the syllabus for each class just to look at the class schedule, rules about assignments, and how to contact the professor. With OneNote, I keep all of this information in one place, both on my computer and my phone, so no matter where I am I can instantly check out the syllabus for any of my classes. OneNote lets you drag and drop files into a document, so you can click on the document, or you can choose to have the document uploaded as text, so you'll see exactly what comes from that document in your OneNote as text. I prefer to have both:
My study guides have gotten a major makeover thanks to OneNote. I re-type all my notes from class and any added points from lecture slides into OneNote to create the ultimate study guide, where I can easily bold, highlight, make tables, lists, and even add images into any of my notes. Since I can keep these in the same section as my other class notes and info, I don't have to keep track of a gazillion documents like with Google Drive. OneNote also has "tags" that can let me mark things as important, set up as a reminder, or create a check-box for a to-do list. The best part is while I'm walking over to my exam, I can pull up my study guide on my OneNote mobile app and do some last minute cramming.
Did I already mention you can take OneNote anywhere? When you need to print something, having a copy of your document wherever you go is pretty much every college student's life saver. For starters, almost none of us have an actual working printer (there are currently three broken printers sitting in my house), which I now consider a mythical creature at this point. This means we have to constantly send ourselves documents to print at the library right before class. When you already have a million things to do that week and you were up cramming all night for three exams, forgetting to send yourself your study guide is basically a given. Office 365 finally came up with the best solution to make sure your grades don't suffer from your brain overloads. OneNote can be accessed online with your Microsoft account. OneNote Online will automatically have all the notebooks and pages you have in your OneNote so you can access your notes and documents from any device. Instead of worrying about whether or not my file will open from my email, I have peace of mind knowing as long as I put something in my OneNote, I can access it from anywhere with OneNote Online.
Planner - Time to get organized.
Every college student knows the secrets to procrastination - pretend you're actually being productive even while putting off all of your assignments. One of the best is making lists of things you have to do (and then not actually do them until tomorrow). Planner in Office 365 gives you a simplified, satisfying way to keep up with all of your tasks. As the end of the semester gets busier and busier, I've been completely reliant on adding tasks into my Planner to make sure I keep track of absolutely every thing I have to do. To start, I set up different groups that organize what needs to be done:
As I create a new task, I can add notes about what needs to be done, set a date for when it needs to be done by, and make comments as I work on it. Adding details about all my tasks helps me look in one place and one place only for all I need to know about what to get done. For mass amounts of paperwork to fill out, I can add a checklist for each item, so I need what I've done already and how much more is left to do.
Ace presentations with Sway.
No matter what your major is, every semester you will create at least one presentation, typically with a group, to present to the class. Google slides are often the top choice for group projects, as just about everyone has a Gmail account to use and collaborate on the project with. But Google slides editing features are extremely limited. Minimal slide themes, limited font formatting options, and few visualization selections make each presentation seem almost, if not exactly, the same. Sway in Office 365 is an easy fix to sprucing up a presentation, and it is just as easy to use as Google slides or PowerPoint.
One of the best parts about Sway is it's complete customization. You can add different cards: Headers, Text, Image sliders, Image galleries (in multiple varieties), Videos, Tweets, Audio, and more. You can even embed a Sway within a Sway (yes that's Sway-ception). These can be grouped together by heading, so instead of having seven separate slides all relating to one topic, Sway can keep them all grouped together.
If you need a more eye catching color theme, or want to change the font and feel of the text throughout the presentation, use the Design feature:
Sway offers tutorials and guides on how to do just about anything the application has to offer. And since Sway can be used in Office 365 online, your presentation is automatically saved and can be accessed anywhere. Still not convinced? Check out one of my latest, interactive Sways:
Start getting professional on Word.
College isn't just about taking classes and passing exams (and beer pong). Starting your career often begins in college. With helpful professional templates on word, building a solid resume can be completely simplified. Choose from a variety of templates, from crisp and clean to creative and captivating. Inputting your information into the template is quick and easy, so you can worry more about what goes into your resume than how you need to format it.
If you're like me, you've probably applied to hundreds of part-time jobs and internships when you should be doing schoolwork. Needless to say, you need your resume on pretty much any device, whether it's to update your website link or to print from your friend's computer. When you use Word Online with Office 365, your work automatically saves as you make changes. This makes sure your documents don't get lost between sending yourself a million email attachments every time you switch devices. You can access your word files from anywhere, and make changes as needed. Update resumes and cover letters alike, without worrying about whether or not you've saved the latest version.
Making the most of Office 365.
Nobody says college will be easy, but Office 365 is here to help. When you start working on new classes, learn how to do your own laundry, and lose your voice at every Saturday football game, college can seem like a complete whirlwind. Use the Office 365 tools for education to keep track of everything going on in your life. Not only will you learn how to use tools for the modern workplace, Office 365 can help you stay on track to make sure college is the best four years of your life.
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Aron adds that Researcher is not intended to replace the library for students, but rather to complement it. “As much as we are bringing the library to them digitally, we also want to make sure the library stays important in a student’s life,” he says. To that end, Bing and Researcher can point users to the nearest library for source material that isn’t yet digitized.
