#109 Useful Microsoft in Education posts this week

MIE Experts are part of an exclusive Microsoft program created to recognize global educator visionaries who are using technology to improve teaching and learning. Outstanding MIE Experts from South Africa and Lesotho are selected to attend Education Exchange (E2) events both locally and internationally; they participate in webinars to boost their own skills; they feature in case studies, blogposts and webinars; and they are part of a local and international community of teachers who share ideas and best practices.

YouthSpark Live, is a global community enabling young people to collaborate, inspire and support each other while using technology to spark change. YouthSpark events give learners an opportunity to get together to share ideas for using technology.

On Friday 23 June 2017, over 260 learners, in nine venues, in eight provinces participated in a YouthSpark Live event. The first part of the event involved a panel of IT professionals talking about how they got into the IT industry. This panel discussion took place at Brescia House School, which hosted the Gauteng event, but learners from eight other venues were able to watch the session via Skype broadcast.

Sivile Primary has its challenges in limited ICT resources as well as limited internet connectivity r but this doesn’t hold back Amandla. He likes to share his knowledge with other teachers. “I initiate both formal and informal trainings and coaching sessions. My hands, heart, and head are always open to help and assist whenever help is needed.” He learns how to use these by doing the courses provided by the Microsoft Educator Community. He has found OneNote to be his most effective and favourite tool. “Ï like to use OneNote because it can include different forms of media such as text, videos, audios and images, and it can be used collaboratively as well.”

On 29 and 30 May 2017, the Education Exchange (E2) Africa Forum bought together almost sixty MIE Experts and representatives of Microsoft Schools for two days of hands-on learning, networking, and trying out some of the latest Microsoft tools at the Microsoft offices in Bryanston. Thirty one Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts who have shown commitment to online learning and networking were invited to attend the Forum, including two MIE Experts from Kenya, one from Rwanda and one from Ghana. Representatives from Microsoft Schools also enjoyed the opportunity to network from with teachers, school leaders and ICT coordinators from other schools to see more ways of using Office 365 enhance teaching and learning.

Part of the free Office 365 for Education (and the fee-based Microsoft Office 365), OneNote opens quickly and allows students to take notes with a keyboard, stylus, or finger. Notes can be text, images, drawings, pictures, audio recordings, videos, PDFs, even captured webpages. OneNote can even tape lectures and then search the recording for keywords. If students get a handout or worksheet, they can add it to a note page by snapping its picture with the free add-on Office Lens, saving it as both an image and text. Notes can be organized into notebooks, pages, subpages, sections, and tabs. For example, a notebook entitled “Math Classes” can have subpages for each class you teach, and then sections/tabs for each topic or student. These can be shared with colleagues or students (even those who don’t have OneNote). Work is synced across all devices with apps available for iOS, Android, and tablets.

OneNote's audio recording feature links your notes to specific points in the recording. Here's how it works.. But recording audio with OneNote on Windows has a special advantage. Not only is the audio recorded, but the program tracks your concurrent note-taking with time stamps during the recording process. This means you can jump to a specific point in a lecture or meeting recording just by selecting a certain paragraph in your notes. It’s a fantastic way to go over your notes point-by-point to make adjustments, add more information, and so on.

A digitally skilled workforce is vital for the future of the economy and the prosperity of the UK. With an estimated 100,000 new coding jobs expected to be in existence in the UK by 2020, ensuring that today’s young learners are being adequately encouraged and supported in taking up STEM subjects is hugely important if there are to be enough appropriately skilled graduates and school leavers to fill those jobs.

It’s easy to create and transform primitive 3D shapes in Paint 3D. Learn how. Get Paint 3D (Available on the Windows 10 Creators Update): https://www.microso...

Rebuilt from the ground up, the new Skype vastly improves the ways you can connect with your favorite people and, of course, chatting is front and center.

OneNote is the Great Organizer of Microsoft programs, ready to take almost any kind of content and make it available across multiple platforms. Here's how to get started. OneNote is the best Microsoft program you’re probably not using. For me, it's become the online home for much of my work: article drafts, interview transcripts, even random thoughts about how to re-organize the home office.

I love that I can take it with me basically anywhere. OneNote is baked right into the company’s own Surface devices, and there are apps for iOS, Android, MacOS, and support for Apple Watch and Android Wear. It’s not easy to build an app that serves so many different purposes and works well across platforms, but OneNote mostly pulls it off. Another upside to OneNote is that the development pace is pretty rapid. Expect regular servings of bug fixes and feature enhancements.