By Jen Heckel
April 30th, 2015

The basic idea is that if you purchase a subscription to these services, you gain access to all your office products 24 hours a day, 365 days a year whether you are on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. You do not have to actually be at school to access the tools or information you may need. Think "multiple devices, multiple locations = same access".

Microsoft offers several different service bundles using the term "Office 365", so many people get confused as to what Office 365 really offers. In the education field, Office 365 is essentially a cloud version of the old Microsoft Office Suite, which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook.

Office 365 is free for qualifying institutions (Education E1 plan). For free, staff and students can get access to online versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. In addition, each user will get 1TB of data storage, 50GB inbox in outlook, online meeting capabilities using Microsoft Lync, and intranet capabilities using Microsoft Sharepoint.

Some new features in Word 2013 include a read feature that takes away the distractions of the toolbar and makes it look more like a newspaper article on a tablet. There is also an object zoom feature that allows you to double click on any image or chart in a paper, and the object will then resize to fit the whole page for easier viewing. You can insert videos easily into your document, and it will allow you to view the video right in the word document itself instead of switching to a browser view.

Probably the most beneficial new tool as far as education goes is the new ability to save and share documents with coworkers in the cloud, which allows for greater collaboration. A new feature called "Simple Markup" allows a clean view of your document while showing the indicators that the document has been changed in some way. People can comment on your document, and you can even reply to those comments to improve communication.

Another feature that relates to the education field is the ability to open and edit PDF files right in Word. No longer do organizations have to rely on Adobe to view PDF's.

For many people Outlook is the most frequently used Office application. This is where we manage our email, our calendar our contacts and our to-do’s – basically our life! Every single improvement to the application that can save us a minute or two add up to valuable time saved during a year.

One of the biggest improvements Microsoft made to Outlook 2013 is the increased speed and stability. Also, another improvement that is noticeable is a better looking inbox. Microsoft actually took the time to research how to best find and read emails in your inbox, and then changed their interface according to their research.

Sharepoint 2013 is a cloud based program that basically puts together the intranet, content management, and document management. Its specialty is the fact that is allows for collaboration and easy organization of documents for everyone who has access to the materials.

SharePoint is often used to store and track electronic documents or images of paper documents. It is usually also capable of keeping track of the different versions created by different users. SharePoint also provides the benefit of a central location for storing and collaborating on documents, which can significantly reduce emails and duplicated work in an organization.

Many people in general feel a natural reluctance to giving up physical possession of their files and documents and trusting the cloud. Saving your 'stuff' on premise (ie: desktop computer or server in the building) gives you a sense of security and control.

One must keep in mind, though, that anything connected to the web is vulnerable to attacks. Also, any data centers can be destroyed by disasters such as overheating, flooding, or fires.

The big difference between cloud and onsite data centers is that cloud service providers expend vastly greater resources in their efforts at securing the information they host then most people or even businesses could do themselves. Saving your data in the cloud makes it much more secure for many of the same reasons that saving money in the bank is safer than hiding it in your mattress.

Also, for added security, Microsoft differenciates business, educational, and personal servers. That adds an extra layer of protection in the cloud.

Microsoft's main competitor is Google. At looking through research, the expert consensus shows that Microsoft's cloud based productivity and collaboration suite beats Google's offerings in a few key areas, some of which relate directly to education and student's futures.

First, Microsoft 365 plays better with other apps. Google wants everyone you work with to be on Google as well, while Microsoft will work across some barriers.

Secondly, Microsoft is much better when it comes to security and compliance standards such as HIPAA.

Third, the business world runs on Microsoft. Most major companies look for understanding of Microsoft products when hiring. By sticking with Microsoft services, you are better preparing the students for the workforce of the future.

The question is, how does this benefit teachers, specially teachers at CCA?

The key word here is accessibility. Teachers need ways to easily access the knowledge and tools necessary for true 21st century learning. In addition, teachers need ways to communicate easily, not only with students and parents, but with fellow coworkers and administrators.

What Microsoft 365 can do for teachers is offer the Office suite "on demand", which means this Microsoft service, and the products that go with it, are always available and basically follow teachers where they go.

To go deeper into the technical side of things, Microsoft 365 also allows comprehensive control and data management. Simply put, with Office 365 Education, data loss protection, data retention, deployment and day-to-day management become more effective and cost-efficient.

Finally, Microsoft throughout the years has proven itself to be dedicated to the field of education. Their main goal is to allow all teachers and students the ability to have transformative tools at their fingertips. By providing Microsoft 365 software for free to qualifying institutes, they are preparing young minds with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the 21st century using a platform embraced by universities, businesses, and governments around the world.