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Getting Started with Office 365 and Windows – Victoria’s (@VictoriaTheTech) Favorite Microsoft Educator Center Courses

Getting Started with Office 365 and Windows – Victoria’s (@VictoriaTheTech) Favorite Microsoft Educator Center Courses

Guest Post by Victoria Thompson @VictoriaTheTech

Hello, everyone! In my last blog post I mentioned that I would be speaking about my favorite courses on the Microsoft Educator Center (or the MEC, for short). We’re going to kick it off with #5: Getting Started with Office 365 and Windows.

In the Microsoft Educator Center there are courses, which are typically one-off e-learning courses, and learning pathways, which are a string of courses together. Because there are four courses here, this is defined as a learning pathway. This is a newer learning pathway in the MEC, published in October 2020.

This is a great introductory course for folks who are interested in learning more about Office 365 for education—especially if your school is a “hybrid” school (uses multiple platforms). Personally, at the first school that I worked at, we had a Microsoft license but some teachers preferred to use Google. They were shocked at how much Microsoft had to offer and I often gave advice on how to use Office 365. This course would have been perfect for them!

Specifically, the course goes over four different tools: OneNote, Windows 10 for Education, Microsoft Forms, and Microsoft Teams. These tools allow you to build a collaborative classroom where your learners work together and utilize technology for personalized learning. They also allow for you as an educator to create lessons and activities that are personalized for your students—Microsoft has a great selection of learning tools.

Via their website, it is recommended that once you complete this learning path, that the “Level up with Office 365 and Windows” learning path should be next to expand on your knowledge of Office 365 and Windows 10.

From start to finish it should take you about four hours to complete; however, I’ve found that if you are semi-familiar with Microsoft products it will take you a shorter amount of time to complete.

Next time we’ll be talking about an exciting course on empowering young people to take action!

About The Author

Victoria Thompson is a STEM Integration Transformation Coach at Technology Access Foundation–a nonprofit leader redefining STEM education in public schools–and a consultant for Ignite EdTech. She has been in education for five years and began her journey teaching fifth and sixth grade math and science in Summerville, SC. After completing her masters degree in curriculum and instruction she moved to the Seattle, WA area in 2018, where her career has pivoted to focusing on STEM integration in schools, K-12 mathematics instruction with research on decolonizing mathematics curriculum for teachers and learners, creating inclusive math environments, and using technology to bridge equity gaps in math education. She has presented at ISTE, ImpactEducation, CUE, and DigCitSummit on topics such as creating inclusive math classrooms, culturally responsive STEM education, and equity in educational technology.

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