Ensure your school leadership team is across the opportunity afforded by new technologies, by hosting a complimentary Microsoft in Education seminar. Find out more information by visiting our website.
Your end-to-end solution begins here.
To book a Microsoft in Education seminar at your school or for more information, please email nzeducation@microsoft.com.
With Student Advantage, your school can enable all your students to have the full Microsoft Office software for personal use, at no additional licensing cost*.
This is a benefit of the Ministry of Education’s agreement with Microsoft, where every state and integrated school in New Zealand is eligible to get Office 365 ProPlus software for your students.
Find out what your next steps are to take up this fantastic benefit here!
*Datacom may charge an administration fee, for further details please contact Datacom at nzschool@datacom.co.nz.
Microsoft offers free professional development for faculty and staff, on-demand courses on teaching with technology, and provides rich resources in the online Microsoft Educator Network. To learn more, visit: mseducatornetwork.com.
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It’s been only 10 weeks since Sway Preview was launched, and there's already been over one million unique visitors to Sway.com and over 175,000 requests to join, and those numbers grow by thousands daily. On the back of this demand, Sway Preview is now open to everybody - with no waitlist!
The Sway team is asking educators for their help in shaping the future of the app! Many educators with access to Sway Preview are loving the opportunity to transform presentations and bring ideas to life in a new and exciting way. If you want to test out Sway Preview go here. Once you've checked it out, we'd love for you to tell us your thoughts through the User Voice forum and see what other people have said. Your suggestions will help improve Sway and grow the app.
Recent improvements to the app include:
If you want to read about all of these enhancements in more depth, check out this Sway blog post.
Sway is being adopted by the Microsoft Innovative Educators network across New Zealand who are using the app to create engaging and innovative presentations that can be used in classrooms in the new year. Check out the MIE Minute Newsletter which is now on Sway and see how the app can be used!
There are some amazing Sway presentations emerging - click on the images below and check them out!
We're very pleased to announce that Sir George Seymour College, Travel Careers & Training and the Southern Institute of Technology have joined the list of New Zealand institutions providing Office to their students for free. There are now 20 tertiary institutions across New Zealand which are providing the Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus benefit to their students free of charge! What does this mean? The latest version of the full Office productivity suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote are available for offline and online use to best prepare you for class. As long as you’re a current student at an eligible institution that has activated the service, you’ll be able to use this software for free.
Don’t forget, you’ll need your tertiary institution account login and password to sign in and take up this benefit. Did we miss out your tertiary institution? Ask your institution’s IT department about getting Office for free. We’ll keep you updated and provide direct links to other institutions that are providing this exciting benefit in future blog posts.
Microsoft is very excited to announce the latest step taken to reinforce Microsoft Azure's position as the most trusted cloud service provider!
Microsoft Azure has just become the only cloud service provider to be certified against ISO 27018. What does this mean? ISO 27018 is a standard which requires cloud service providers to adhere to six key conditions to ensure the protection and privacy of customer's data:
This is a major achievement for Microsoft Azure! It complements Azure's amazing features to provide the best possible cloud service to customers. And, certification against ISO 27018 provides further assurance about the reliability and security of Microsoft Azure for existing customers and those looking to join the cloud storage movement. To find out more about Microsoft Azure, go here!
How does this impact the education sector? Universities across New Zealand are striving to create successful academic research environments. Microsoft Azure delivers the flexibility, speed, security, and responsiveness post-doctoral and graduate student researchers need to achieve an even higher level of productivity and innovation. Research data requires vast, reliable, secure storage. Microsoft Azure makes storing massive amounts of data feasible and cost-effective as it provides the ability to increase storage when needed, and scale it back down when not in use. The Microsoft Azure platform takes care of infrastructure setup, network connections, data collection and storage, freeing researchers to focus on the work that really matters! And now, with Azure's certification against ISO 27018, researchers can have peace of mind that their data and information is well-looked after and secure!
There is unlimited potential for educators to improve students' learning experiences using the latest Microsoft technologies such as OneNote and Office Mix. Design engaging lessons? Improve collaboration? Get your message across in a new way? Captivate students' imaginations? All of these common goals can be achieved by using technology more effectively in the classroom! However, as educators it can often be difficult keeping up with the latest technologies and tools available. These products have the potential to improve the quality of your classroom experience, but how do you incorporate them into your lessons?
To make it easier to harness the power of technology in the classroom, Microsoft have created a series of 2-minute Quick Tip Videos that show educators how to use Microsoft products in their classroom. These videos help educators to uncover the true potential of the technologies they are already using.
Whether you are finding it difficult coming to grips with the latest classroom technologies, or you've heard about the cool things Microsoft products can do and want to know how to use them in your own classroom, these videos will be a useful starting point. They provide handy hints and tips to show you how to maximise the full potential of Microsoft's latest classroom technologies. Check them out here, and start using these fantastic ideas in your classroom!
There are now 17 tertiary institutions across New Zealand which are providing Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus to their students free of charge!
What does this mean? The latest version of the full Office productivity suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote are available for offline and online use to best prepare you for class. As long as you’re a current student at an eligible institution that has activated the service, you’ll be able to use this software for free.
Don’t forget, you’ll need your tertiary institution account login and password to sign in and take up this benefit.
Did we miss out your tertiary institution? Ask your institution’s IT department about getting Office for free. We’ll keep you updated and provide direct links to other institutions that are providing this exciting benefit in future blog posts.
Students often find creative writing a challenge, right? Not anymore! Using OneNote and other tools, a child can extend their imagination and surprise themselves with their own creativity. OneNote provides a new way to draw the best out of your class!
Mr Dekker, a teacher at St. Andrew's College, gave his Year 6 students the task of creating "Pick a Path" stories using OneNote, and illustrating their creations in Minecraft or Paint.Net. Along the way, Mr Dekker's class were able to read each other's stories and give feedback to their classmates. The result? Students that were fully engaged in a writing task which is often found very difficult.
Take a look at Harry who used Minecraft to improve the quality and creativity of his story. Harry was able to use his imagined world to reflect on his writing and make changes where he thought they were needed.
Mr Dekker's class were already competent OneNote users, however the "Pick a Path" stories posed a new way of using the tool which presented an exciting challenge for the class. To read the full story from St Andrew's College, go here.
The creativity of students is astounding, but sometimes it takes tools like OneNote to help them reach their full potential!
Here at Microsoft NZ we are thrilled to hear about this exciting use of OneNote in an everyday New Zealand classroom. Got a story like this that you want to share? Then email us at nzeducation@microsoft.com.
Want to learn more about how to set up OneNote in your classroom? Check out this awesome link - Getting Started with the OneNote Class Notebook Creator: A Walkthrough for Teachers
Spread the word to your friends!
Share that you may be eligible to get Office for free through your school/tertiary institution for a chance to win a Surface!
Use Vine, Instagram or Twitter and the hashtag #GetOffice365Contest to let your fellow students know that they may be eligible to get Office 365 for free. When you share you will be entered for a chance to win a Surface Pro 3! One lucky winner each week from now through until December 30th will win. See below for how to enter or read the Official Rules. School students can enter too, as long as they are 13 years or older.
How to enter:
You can enter by sharing on Twitter, Instagram or Vine.
1. Share a video, photo or short statement on Twitter, Instagram or Vine encouraging others to see if they can Get Office 365 for free from their institution (by checking if your institution's name is listed above or asking your school/institution).
2. Include the hashtag #GetOffice365Contest and a hashtag with the name of your school/tertiary institution.
3. Include the link to the GetOffice365Contest page at aka.ms/yikrv1
4. Follow @Office on the social channel you use to share your entry.
Again, we're very excited to announce the latest additions of Massey University and Western Institute of Technology, which are now too are providing Office to their students for free.
As we've posted over the last few weeks, the below listed tertiary institutions are providing Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus to every student free of charge - and now Massey University and Western Institute of Technology - Taranaki have joined the list!
What does this mean again? The latest version of the full Office productivity suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote are available for offline and online use to best prepare you for class. As long as you’re a current student at an eligible institution that has activated the service, you’ll be able to use this software for free.
Install on up to 5 compatible PCs and Macs, plus 5 tablets (including iPad!)
Sync across all your devices with OneDrive
Gain valuable skills on the world’s most popular productivity software
Use the same programmes as your lecturers and tutors to ensure full file fidelity
If you are enrolled at an eligible tertiary institution that has activated the service, you can download the software by signing in to Office 365 using your institution login and password. If you’re a student at one of the below tertiary institutions, simply click on the corresponding link and follow the instructions. If your institution isn’t listed below but has activated this service, you can visit this link and sign in using your institution login and password.