Today’s post was written by Mike Tholfsen, program manager for the OneNote team. We are pleased to announce the inaugural entry for the OneNote in Education blog!  With the growing momentum of OneNote in education, we wanted to start this blog ...read more

By Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education

It's officially the season of giving, and Microsoft is giving in a big way to teachers and students around the globe. I'm pleased to announce that the popular Office 365 ProPlus Benefit is now available worldwide to all students and educators. This means that any eligible organization - anywhere in the world - can provide an Office 365 ProPlus subscription at no extra cost for all students, faculty and staff.

Today's announcement is the latest expansion of the Office 365 ProPlus benefit, an evolution of last year's popular "Student Advantage" program, which was created to address the very real needs of our fast-changing global economy. Office 365 ProPlus includes all of the familiar (and professional-grade) Office applications like Word, PowerPoint and OneNote. The program also includes Office Online and 1TB of storage on OneDrive for Business, enough to support all of the productivity - and creativity - 21^st century learning can unleash, all in a safe and secure environment.

Office 365 is the productivity tool for the world of education, matching the anywhere, anytime learning environments of today. The program offers students and teachers throughout the world access to the same set of gold-standard productivity tools and services used by Fortune 500 companies everywhere. And Microsoft believes that by making Office more available where it's needed most (like we recently did in Thailand, where Office 365 is helping to create massive repositories of knowledge that can be accessed and shared by every student nationwide), we are furthering our mission to help everyone on the planet do more and achieve more. By helping students, faculty and staff throughout the world be more productive, we're helping them focus on what really matters: the business of learning.

That's the reason why Cognita Schools Asia, a leading international independent schools group operating in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam including their flagship school Stamford American International School has chosen Office 365 to enable its teachers and staff to collaborate and communicate more seamlessly in and across campuses to facilitate better learning outcomes for students through Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and Lync.

Brian Rogove, Chief Executive, Cognita Asia, said: "Cognita Asia has a clear vision of providing the highest level of quality in teaching and learning excellence for our students in Asia Pacific. Our schools are constantly innovating to enable our teachers, staff and students to stay ahead in a world where technology has radically changed the way we communicate. That's why we are excited to be now on Office 365 to enhance the way we teach, communicate and collaborate across our network of schools."

Extending the Office 365 ProPlus benefit to teachers and staff ensures that educators now have access to the latest version of Office across all their devices. It also means that teachers are using the same technology and features as their students, and allows them access to all their Office documents both at school and at home. With the program, educators can access full Office on up to five PCs or Macs and can unlock the editing capabilities of Office apps for iPad.

They can also take advantage of great Office apps and add-ins like Office Mix to record and publish class lectures. With tools like Lync, classrooms around the world can communicate and collaborate instantaneously. With OneNote, teachers can share lesson plans, class notes, photos, and ideas on any device, accessible from anywhere. And all of these tools meet Microsoft's rigorous standards for security and our unwavering commitment to protecting the privacy of young people. (Read here how we're demonstrating that commitment in South Korea.)

Microsoft is proud to reinvent tools that make the most of the moments that matter -- at home, at work and in school. We're even more proud that we can share this gift with resource-strapped schools in diverse communities around the world. For teachers, school leaders and students alike, Office 365 ProPlus expands the very potential of education. And perhaps more important, it provides a solid foundation in the skills that 21^st century employers need, paving the way for an opportunity-filled future for today's young people.

- Anthony

Every student brings his or her own unique experiences, talents, and challenges into the classroom, including those students with special education needs. December 2nd marks Special Education Day in the U.S. - because each child's learning style is different, teachers must strive to support their students' unique learning styles while balancing the demands of larger classrooms, standardized testing and changing curricula. With this in mind, we're sharing stories of teachers and educators who are using technology in inventive ways to instruct students with a variety of learning styles and disabilities in recognition of Special Education Day.

Instructing Students with Disabilities

Meet Robin Lowell, a distance learning teacher who mathematics to her students who are blind or visually impaired students across the Washington-Oregon border. Lowell devised a way to use Microsoft Lync and Yammer to improve learning for her students. This video shows how teachers and math students at the Washington State School for the Blind use Lync and Yammer to connect with Lowell, who lives 180 miles from the school:

Learn what inspired Michio Inaba, a deaf teacher at Osaka's Ikuno School for the deaf, to use Microsoft products like Surface and OneNote to encourage the true potential of his students.

Flexibility to Choose a Stylus, Touch, Mouse or Keyboard

Windows 8 lets a student adjust their devices to make learning more personalized, aligning with each student's natural learning style or special education needs. Windows personalizes learning options enable students to access the curriculum in their own way, according to their abilities and needs. That flexibility means that students can use Windows 8 tablets in whichever mode works best for them: touch, stylus, mouse, or keyboard.

For students who learn best by writing, Windows 8 tablets feature powerful handwriting recognition and a stylus input. See how the easy-to-use, ink-to-text feature works in the classroom. Educator Sonja Delafosse, an instructional technology coordinator, demonstrates how:

Ways to Assess Student Progress

Personalized learning is most effective when teachers can accurately assess how each student is progressing - and Windows 8 makes that possible. Using apps like the innovative Record Voice & Pen for Windows 8, teachers can gain valuable insights on their students' comprehension. Teachers can literally hear what their students are thinking, and then see that thought process visually on screen:

Special Education Apps for Windows

There are also many education apps for Windows that enable students of all abilities to learn in a way that works best for them. For example, with Skitch Touch for Windows 8, teachers can authentically assess student progress, while learners can record and save their individual learning process:

Here are a few more special education apps designed for students with disabilities:

• Tap to Talk gives a non-verbal child or adult a voice by turning any Windows 8 device into an affordable augmentative and alternative communication device. Tap a picture, TapToTalk speaks aloud.

• Visolve is assistive software for people with color blindness. Visolve for Modern UI can apply some color transformations, and simulations to an image taken by camera, saved in the file, or copied in clipboard.

• Talkingtiles is an assistive care app that can be used for communication, learning, daily living and social skills for individuals with a special need, disability, or a behavioral health disorder.

• Windows Eyes. To make learning even easier for students with visual impairments, Microsoft and GW Micro have partnered to provide a free screen reader called Windows Eyes.

Flexible Teaching

For educators, Windows 8 and Office open up a world of flexible teaching possibilities - from distance learning with Lync and Yammer, to instant messaging (IM), to moving around inside and outside the classroom. The right technology allows a student to work at their own pace in a way that traditional textbook-and-chalkboard approaches simply can't. When students are equipped with a durable, lightweight and portable device, teachers can bring curriculum to life with project-based learning that is rooted in real-world scenarios that prepare students of all abilities for the future.

More information:

• Windows

• Education Apps for Windows

• Office

• Windows Personalization and Accessibility

Education reform in Europe - especially the Nordic countries -- has produced impressive results for years, with case studies and PISA scores to prove it. So when these reformers get together to talk about the future of education, it's a discussion worth listening to. Last month, Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb hosted the Northern Future Forum. He was joined by prime ministers of the UK, the Nordic countries and the Baltic States, along with business leaders and global education experts, to discuss new ways to address common challenges.

Our own Kati Tiainen, director of business development for Microsoft Education, moderated some of that discussion as well as led a session on the The Future of Teacher Training - Bridging the Gap." Following the session Kati was able to present the outcomes to the prime ministers.

Her take-aways? Transforming higher education is of huge importance, and it must help connect learning to work/life needs. At the same time, the teaching profession must adapt to the needs of today's digital natives with better training and a greater focus on digital learning. Here are some of the highlights from the Forum:

Higher education must be transformed.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the critical need for universities to be more entrepreneurial, and to serve the needs of an increasing number of students who require a higher level of education to succeed in the 21^st century workforce. Like Stubb, Cameron emphasized the importance of teaching coding to today's young people.

Education and technology are transforming the economies of Northern Europe.
State Secretary Olli-Pekka Heinonen, representing Prime Minister Stubb, noted the importance of tearing down the barriers between education institutions and the workplace, while closing the gap between traditional and digital learning. Prime Minister Stubb committed to advancing learning digitalization, as well as making coding an important part of 21^st century learning.

The teaching profession must be viewed in a new way.
Denmark's Minister for Higher Education and Science, Sofie Carsten Nielsen, representing Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, noted that teacher education must be made more attractive, and at the same time, be reshaped to support the needs of digital natives.

Education must lead nations to the future.
Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg talked about the need for innovation at scale. She noted the critical role teachers play in this effort, and the need to improve both teacher quality and readiness for innovation. Like her counterparts, Solberg believes that government - and specifically prime ministers - must take the lead in affecting real change.

Microsoft is proud to play a role in powerful discussions such as these, influencing and leading educational transformation on a global scale.

Almost everyone remembers taking an exam on paper, filling in your multiple-choice answer selection in the oval bubbles with a No. 2 pencil. Ah, the good old days. Before the widespread availability of personal technology we did most of our learning (and teaching) with the most advanced technologies available - paper and pencil. While definitely tried and true, paper and pencil don't enable the level of adaptation to the learning needs and abilities of students that can be unlocked with the technology that's available to us today. Students today are experiencing digital learning and also the digitization of educational assessments.

Over the past four years, we have seen a dramatic increase in technology spending for teaching, learning, and assessment. Good, bad, or indifferent, online educational assessments are driving much of the educational technology in our classrooms. The tests themselves are an evolutionary step forward for students, teachers and school districts. The test questions can adapt to the student's performance against previous questions offering more or less challenge to tap into a student's depth of knowledge. Online assessments also feature rich media, animations and simulations that are interactive for students to demonstrate applied knowledge versus just answering simple multiple-choice questions.

While the testing medium has changed, and the content is enhanced, the process still requires that testing materials have a secure chain-of-custody from beginning to end. But because schools have adopted a mix of consumer-grade and enterprise-grade technologies, many face two primary challenges: (1) delivering secure, online assessments and (2) obtaining low-costs devices so to facilitate the assessments.

Delivering secure, online assessments

Windows devices, MacBooks, iPads, Chromebooks, Android tablets, Linux devices and virtual machines have all been brought into the mix to deliver secure online assessments. But regardless of device, educators face the challenge of building the test delivery system and implementing the exam on locked-down devices that were created to be open for consumer-use scenarios versus online assessments.

All of the major operating system companies and device manufacturers have taken measures to bolster the ability to secure devices for online assessments. The two largest testing consortia in the U.S.-Partnership for Advancing Readiness for College and Career and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia have taken steps to ensure that the security of these assessments can't be breached deliberately or inadvertently. Breaches can invalidate the test submission or allow students to cheat by remotely accessing the test. As a result, I am confident that today we can conduct online assessments securely and economically.

Obtaining low-cost devices

The other main challenge schools face is purchasing devices that are within their budgets. Before a student can take an online test, she will first need a capable device. While there are many devices at a variety of price points, they are not all equally ready for online assessment. Add the fact that online assessments typically only last for approximately five days of the 180-day school year and that students need to use the device for other learning, so the devices serve dual and potentially conflicting purposes. In our view, the device must meet the requirements for secure, online assessments and be equally suited for the teaching and learning that precedes and comes after assessments.

The Microsoft K-12 Education Advisory Group, consisting of school leaders from around the U.S., has shared feedback that students also have expectations of the devices they use for assessments. For example, students expect when they touch the screen to make a selection, that their testing device actually has a touchscreen; students who are familiar with using a mouse and keyboard want those peripherals available; and one in five students require assistive technologies for learning and assessments. These students have devices that they have relied upon for years. They need them to just work, no matter the testing environment. In a nutshell, students and teachers have high expectations for a low-cost device.

In February, Microsoft stood with President Obama to launch the ConnectED Initiative, which is jump-starting learning technology across our nation's K-12 schools. Since then, the education technology market has seen wave after wave of highly capable, low-cost Windows devices for education. As the cost of a device dropped below that of a set of textbooks (which usually costs between $400 and 700/per pupil/per annum,) schools have been increasing spending in preparation for the spring 2015 assessment window. Today, there are many great devices that can be purchased for less than a set of textbooks, and the price of Windows devices continue to fall.

In fact, we are starting to see the single unit price of a Windows device reach the volume purchase price of just a year ago. This means that families now have purchasing parity with the institutions their child attends. In a household of three or more children, buying any mobile device for every child can become expensive without some support. But with Windows device options that cost the same or less than a graphic calculator or a set of textbooks they've become significantly more affordable.

Why does the price of the device for families matter at all?

Until now, institutions needed to own and manage the devices that were used for instruction and assessment. As a result, growth has been slow in getting enough devices for each of the 50 million students in our public schools today. Now, if school districts want to pursue a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) approach to teaching and learning with technology, they need the devices to be affordable and secure for assessments.

Historically, BYOD meant schools and students could not use a family-owned device for secure, online assessments. If the device was not managed by the institution, how could they ensure it was secure before and throughout the duration of the assessment? Moreover, how could you return that device control back to the student immediately at the end of the assessment?

Solving this problem required some breakthrough thinking and creative questions between Microsoft, our partners AssistX, Pearson Education and the American Institutes for Research (AIR). As a result of these organizations working together, today there is a secure way for devices to be used for any assessment scenario - no matter if the devices are supplied by the school or brought to school by the student.

As the sun sets on the No. 2 pencil and paper testing methods, we've seen great progress in making online assessments secure and available for all. There's more work to be done to keep up with the new innovations hitting the classroom every day, so this is definitely a journey. But right now I'm confident that the necessary steps are in progress to make online assessments a practical and mainstream part of learning.