If you’re a school that is needing some help deploying Microsoft Student Data Sync (SDS) then you can apply for one on one support for a limited time here:
I posted some additional resources if you want to DIY that you can access here. SDS is being used increasingly across a range of Microsoft tool sets and will enable you to synchronise data with the recently announced Intune For Education.
This week Microsoft has released some major announcements at the annual BETT Show in London. You can read the full announcements on the official blog here, however the one that caught my attention the most was Intune For Education:
For me, this is a key solution for schools to consider to simplify the management of Windows 10 devices, particularly for those schools that may not have dedicated ICT staff. The things that impressed me were:
For super quick deployment there is free access to the “Schools Setup PC App” that creates a USB key to quickly configure common settings on a new device with a single key press – no need to get it on the wireless network first!These features represent a significant leap forward with technology offerings for managing Windows 10 devices in education. To learn more, check out Microsoft Education.
Update: A couple more videos showing how Intune for Education can be used, along with the benefits of Digital Inking:
Microsoft Classroom
A number of schools are exploring how they can use the Microsoft Classroom platform to integrate with their teaching and assessment as they are already using Microsoft OneNote Classroom Notebooks.
UPDATE: I’ve found this dedicated blog on how teachers can use Microsoft Classroom – could be a good starting point:
http://microsoftclassroomguru.com/
To get a good understanding of what School Data Sync and Classroom actually are, then this is probably a good high level overview to start with. Thiis is a slightly more technical description in an Office Mix
I’ve pulled together some useful resources to assist teachers getting started:
Here is one example of a school using SDS and Office365 to support improved learning outcomes:
Students playing Minecraft Education Edition
UPDATE 2: Nikkie Lang, from Opaheke Primary School, has published a fantastic blog that shows the process from a school’s perspective from start to finish. This is well worth reading by clicking here.
UPDATE: Since making this blog I’ve come across an authoritative step by step guide on TechNet that you can view here. I do encourage you to check that out as well. It shows how to assign licenses purchased from:
Unsurprisingly, more schools are exploring Minecraft Education Edition as an easy way to managing licensing for students, and developers are already creating and sharing new Minecraft worlds for the Education Edition.
The homepage of Minecraft Education Edition is the best place to start for those new to using Minecraft for their students, but if you’re interested in how to buy / manage licenses (including assigning/reclaiming) then I’ve made a step by step guide for you below.
UPDATE: Schools in NZ can purchase licences from Datacom via the MoE School agreement (this is recommended). If you’ve not purchased any licenses already (&you want to get them directly from the MBSW) then select “Buy” and you will be presented with pricing and quantities. You will need to pay via credit card to purchase these. Step through the purchase process to complete your licensing procurement. REMEMBER: you can assign/reclaim these licenses between students so you may not need to buy one license for every student in your school (see below for how to manage this process).When mentioning Office365, people still confuse what it means and ask “oh you mean Microsoft Word?”
The Office365 solution is made up of a number of different products and solutions and the above six minute introduction video does a great high level overview of these. This would be a useful video to share with staff or show at a professional learning session to help reinforce that Office365 means more than the traditional Word/PowerPoint/Excel combo!
A great blog post on LinkedIn that highlights why Office365 is more than just “Office online” was authored by Kirsty McGrath and can be read here. She created a great infographic to highlight the features here:
Kirsty McGrath’s Office365 Infographic – see the full blog post at the link above.
Screen shot of updates to OneNote Online
Another major release from the Microsoft Education team this morning, focusing on more updates for OneNote Class Notebooks, the popular Learning Tools as well as adding some fun with stickers for teachers to motivate students with.
Read the official announcement here.
The summary updates include (my observations in italics):
I’ll be exploring these updates in more detail in the coming weeks and post back any nice features I see.
Embedded content with stickers being displayed
One of the biggest challenges to using any data analytics tool is keeping the data fresh and up to date with the minimum of effort. When you’re getting serious, you usually opt for the ETL process and data warehousing of some sort, but for the smaller users who do not have access to high level technical skills, what are the best options to use?
Enter: PowerBI Data Gateway
This product has undergone a few name changes over the last year or so (Personal Gateway, Enterprise Gateway etc) but now it is nice and simple and consolidated into one tool which you can use on your own laptop/desktop or install on your server to keep your data synchronised with PowerBi:
With the on-premises gateways, you can keep your data fresh by connecting to your on-premises data sources without the need to move the data. Query large datasets and benefit from your existing investments. The gateways provide the flexibility you need to meet individual needs, and the needs of your organization.
Why is this a game changer for schools? Well many schools will be storing their data in simple Excel or CSV documents, perhaps even an Access database and will be making regular changes and updates to these files. In other products, users would need to re-import the modified file back into the data tool analysis tool to refresh the data set and visualise the changes.
Here is a tutorial showing you how you can set this up in 5 minutes:
A couple of things to note:
This is an awesome way to keep things simple for schools and assists them in avoiding the dreaded manual reloading of data.
