#128 Useful Microsoft in Education posts this week

Microsoft Paint has evolved - introducing Paint 3D. Here are some highlights of the amazing new features that have been added.
Get Paint 3D (Available on the Windows 10 Creators Update):

We work closely with the educator community to provide a library of lesson plans that can help apply Minecraft: Education Edition to a variety of teaching and curriculum needs. These lesson plans are available in the Class Resources area of the website, and we’ll continue to add more in the months ahead.

The latest release of Sway for Windows 10, available in the Windows Store, now matches the full richness of the Sway.com web experience. We built Sway for Windows 10 to automatically get the all the latest features and capabilities from Sway.com—ensuring that it is always up-to-date.

Microsoft's fall update to Windows 10 is out. Dubbed Fall Creators Update (aka Windows 10 Version 1709), this latest edition of Windows 10 brings a subtle design change and introduces a number of new features to improve Cortana, Edge and Photos. It also embraces mixed reality, makes Windows more secure and throws some emojis at you. Let's have a look.

Teachers these days are overwhelmed by curricular demands and testing, but we can’t let that stop us. When you’re dedicated to teaching children something positive and offering them hope for the future, something that encourages real action, you’re already taking the first, important steps to teaching the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

STEM is an acronym for the academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It is a term used to address education policies for the improvement of science and technology development in schools.

When was the last time you wrote an essay? When was the last time you read one other than for grading?Now think about the frequency with which you read online articles, blogs, social media posts or listen to podcasts that inspire you or provide new information and perspectives. When did you last watch YouTube to figure out how to do something complicated, from cross stitch to car repair? If you’re like me, you’ve done much of your reading and learning through some kind of digital publishing platform—because it’s easy, accessible and often free. Whether text, video or something else entirely, each of these mediums encompasses a form of writing.

You’d never know it by seeing how effortlessly she projects polynomials from a tablet to the monitor at the front of her classroom, but Summer Winrotte began. You’d never know it by seeing how effortlessly she projects polynomials from a tablet to the monitor at the front of her classroom, but Summer Winrotte began teaching as an avowed traditionalist. “I can remember my first year of teaching, saying that I would never be paperless,” she says. As a math teacher, her college course work had to be done with longhand computations, not even a calculator. Summer didn’t see the value of using technology in the classroom.

Can a teacher set up an entire classroom of Windows 10 Creators Update PCs in one hour? Absolutely! With just five steps, two USBs and student data ready to import, teachers will be in the classroom and ready to teach by the first bell.

With many schools now shifting to allow BYOD (bring your own device) at school, combined with a general push for integrating more technology in the classroom, it’s obvious that students need to examine the consequences of their online activity–both good and bad. Here are five reasons why schools should take a lead by promoting digital and social media literacies curriculum, and promoting digital citizenship inside and outside of the classroom.