Microsoft explains Office 365 (video) Literacy and iPad Learning Apps. Making sense of Microsoft's subscription Office plan | Beyond Binary. SAN FRANCISCO--The 365 in Microsoft's new Office 365 may not represent the number of different versions, but there sure are a lot of different options for the new subscription Office suite. Small businesses, those with 25 or fewer employees, have it simplest, with a $6 per worker per month option that includes Office Web Apps, along with hosted versions of Exchange and SharePoint. Larger businesses can choose from products anywhere from $2 to $27 per person per month. At the low-end, businesses get hosted e-mail, while for $4 a month they can also get SharePoint.
A version comparable to the $6 small-business plan will cost larger outfits $16 per month per employee. The options that include the traditional desktop Office suite, in addition to the slimmed down Office Web Apps, start at $24 per worker per month. For options that include desktop Office, businesses can allow workers to install the suite on up to five machines--including their home PCs. Apps for Literacy Support. Ten more tidbits on Microsoft's new Office 365 cloud play. Microsoft launched its rebrand and refresh of its Business Productivity Online (BPOS), Live@Edu and Office Live Small Business services on October 19 and put them all under the "Office 365" umbrella. Microsoft also launched an early beta of the BPOS v2 services today and promised final delivery and more details in 2011. A look at Office 365 (screenshots) Here are a few additional tidbits about the coming new services that I've found around the Web and obtained from various Microsoft representatives: 1.
When do the BPOS v2 services -- the new Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online -- go live? A: Microsoft execs are saying 2011. 2. A: Office 365 includes a new SMB version of what's currently called BPOS; an enterprise version of BPOS v2; a new government version of BPOS (which is currently known as BPOS Federal); and a refresh of the student/education-focused Live@Edu offering. 3. A: Here's a list from Microsoft of all of the client-side prerequisites: 4. A: A few things: 5. 6. 7. 24 Educational iPad Apps for Kids in Reading & Writing. Preposition Builder | Teachers with Apps. Preposition Builder, by Mobile Education Store, is another feather in Kyle Tomson’s hat! This dedicated dad has been developing solid speech & language apps for quite some time and Preposition Builder moved him into the mainstream. This app is a wonderful learning tool for all kids at some point in their development.
We found this app especially helpful with ESL students, of all ages. During play, the student is presented with an image and must drag a preposition to complete a sentence about the image. ” The choices are: in – on – under, and the picture shows the cereal in the bowl, when the child puts the word on in the blank the picture changes and shows the cereal on the bowl. This app contains nine different sets of prepositions starting with in – on – under and ending with more abstract concepts of across – past – over and with – about – for.
We encourage all parents, teachers, and speech pathologist to jump on board with this app! Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 is a subscription-based online office and software plus services suite which offers access to various services and software built around the Microsoft Office platform. Serving as a successor to Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite, the service was originally designed to provide hosted e-mail, social networking and collaboration, and cloud storage to teams and businesses. As such, it first included hosted versions of Exchange, Lync, SharePoint, Office Web Apps, along with access to the Microsoft Office 2010 desktop applications on the Enterprise plan. With the release of Office 2013, Office 365 expanded to include new plans aimed at different types of businesses, along with new plans aimed at general consumers wanting to use the Office desktop software on a subscription basis.[1] After a beta testing process which began in October 2010, Office 365 was officially launched on June 28, 2011.[2] History[edit] Features[edit] Hosted services[edit] Office applications[edit]
Apps for Learning Grammar Skills. After having a discussion this week with a friend who is a teacher and mom, we realized that we didn’t know any great apps for practicing grammar skills. The discussion came about because her oldest daughter was struggling to understand the parts of speech. Her daughter really enjoys using her iPad so her mother thought if she could find some engaging apps, possibly in a game style format, that she could encourage her daughter to practice learning the parts of speech to help improve both her knowledge and her Language Arts grade.
After some research, I found some excellent apps for engaging kids in learning and improving grammar skills. Grammar Jammers Grammar Jammers, created by Pearson, is an app to help children to practice grammar skills. Grammar Games by Tap to Learn Grammar Games is another highly engaging grammar app for children in grades K-6. Painless Grammar Challenge Painless Grammar Challenge is a quiz and game based review app created by Barron’s. Grammar Dragon Education. Microsoft to launch Office 365 on June 28. Math Apps. Microsoft Pri0 | Microsoft to offer credit to those affected by Office 365 cloud outage this week. I'm out of the office today but in the meantime, here's a follow-up on the outage that affected some users of Microsoft cloud services Wednesday. The outage affected some Office 365 and SkyDrive users for several hours. Steven Gerri, general manager of Global Foundation Services at Microsoft had issued a statement Wednesday saying that: "At approximately 11:30am PDT, Microsoft became aware of a networking issue affecting customers of some Microsoft services hosted out of one of our North American data centers.
We worked to isolate the issue and we are beginning to see service restoration. We continue to investigate the root cause of this issue. " Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet reports today that Microsoft officials are attributing the Office 365 problems to "a networking interruption" in one of its North American datacenters. Further, she says, Microsoft sent out notes to affected users saying they will be provided with a credit equal to 25 percent of their monthly invoices. Mathematics with an iPad. Office 365 phone support for small businesses? No promises, Microsoft says. We recently asked businesses and schools using Google Apps to rate Google's customer support, and found that it often falls short of being business-worthy.
But Google is trying to change its reputation with 24/7 phone support to all Google Apps customers for any issue, which should theoretically alleviate some problems. So what about Google's cloud competition over at Microsoft? The folks at Redmond continually trumpet their enterprise experience and scoff at Google's supposedly immature products and support system. But at least on the one issue of phone support, Microsoft's policies prevent most customers from reaching technical support by phone. For professionals and small businesses, Microsoft states "There is no support by telephone on technical issues for Office 365, but there is telephone support for billing and subscription issues. " This means nine out of ten Office 365 customers get no telephone support at all for technical problems. In Office 365 support forums, some tales of woe. Great apps for all book lovers to explore! Zip! Zap! Zoom! My library is anything BUT quiet during our recess time.
Of course students are visiting and sharing about books they love. But they’ve also had a great time exploring iPads this year. Students read picture book apps, explore nonfiction book apps, and play math games to practice basic math facts. Do you have an iPad? The Monster at the End of This Book Callaway Digital Arts, 2011 Lovable, furry Grover gets kids giggling every time the read this book app. Press Here Chronicle Books, 2012 This app is an ingenious extension of Hervé Tullet’s book Press Here, which entranced kids, inviting them to interact pressing the yellow dots and watching what happened. Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Oceanhouse Media, 2010 Oceanhouse Media’s apps are developed with great thought and care of what will help new readers, often mimicking the way a parent or teacher would read with a child. Bats: Furry Fliers in the Night by Mary Kay Carson developed by Bookerella and StoryWorldwide, 2012 Leonard. Marc Andreessen On Skype Deal: “Microsoft Is Buying Something With A Real Head Of Steam”
Microsoft may have overpaid for Skype with its $8.5 billion all-cash offer, but it was bidding against a sure IPO. While $8.5 billion may look expensive now, it is a pre-emptive strike to take Skyoe off the table before an IPO. Microsoft’s bid had to be high enough to convince the company and its investors they were better off taking the Microsoft offer now. From what I can gather, there were nibbles by other suitors such as Google, but no other serious offers. Microsoft was bidding against the IPO.
The investors, which include Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, and Joltid, look like geniuses now. It was only 18 months ago that eBay sold Skype to the investor syndicate in a deal valuing Skype at $2.75 billion. Now Microsoft is buying the company for three times that much—an increase in value of $5.75 billion! Andreessen Horowitz, in particular, comes out smiling from this deal. $$$kype logo by Dirk Houbrechts. 5 Reasons Why Skype Will Be an Office Hit. Skype is just one of the many social tools Microsoft purchased to further their social reach. When Microsoft announced its acquisition of Skype, it marked another turning point for many early adopters who have known the simplicity and usefulness of the service since its first days of availability back in 2003.
What the acquisition also represents is the potential for greater adoption by business people. Of course that will depend on how Microsoft treats Skype. It will be integrated into the Microsoft suite for use as a sanctioned communications tool. Considering these two factors, we see five reasons for why Skype will be a hit in the business world. Skype is a Consumer Service The new generation of great enterprise services have a common thread. Skype and the Cloud Ted Schadler of Forester Research told CIO.com that he expects Microsoft to market Skype as a cloud service along with Windows Azure and Office 365.
Skype and Windows Phone Skype Developer Community Skype Video and Kinect. Special needs. TEDxSanAntonio - Alicia Arenas - Recognizing Glass Children. TEDxSanAntonio - Alicia Arenas - Recognizing Glass Children. Free Apps. Autism, Aspergers, ADHD. Apps To Support Literacy. Posted by Allanah King on September 17, 2011 This week I was asked to give a presentation to the Nelson Library Network Meeting focussing on iPad Apps to Support Literacy so we combined our usual after school Thursday workshop with the Library meeting. I managed to borrow/commandeer an iPad 2 because I wanted to display the iPad screen onto the data projector big screen as we were expecting quite a big turnout. I had to wipe the iPad’s apps that were already there to over-write it with my own own apps.
This went very smoothly as when I went to synch the iPad it led me to the option to RESTORE TO ORIGINAL SETTINGS on the opening screen. Once I had done that I re-synched it and everything, plus Facetime and Photobooth, were there where they should be. I divided the presentation into two parts - Consumption- looking at Literacy Apps that someone else has made and Creativity- looking at ways to create your own content on the iPad. Here are my hyperlinked notes of my apps that I shared. Reading & Writing Apps. Reading and Grammar Apps for Early Learners. There are some great apps available for little ones who are learning their alphabet or are actually learning to read and write.
Here are a couple that might work in your classroom. Super Why $4.49 AU The SUPER WHY app is a partnership with PBS and the producers of the preschool series SUPER WHY. The series is designed to help kids ages 3 to 6 with the critical skills that they need to learn to read! Students can play along with each of the main characters from the TV series while practicing the alphabet, rhyming, spelling, writing and reading. Super Duper! Super Why Alpha Boost:$1.99 AU Are you ready to “Alpha Boost” With over 120 party-themed words and five kinds of parties, “Alpha Boost!” Kids Write Text Types: $0.99 AU Kids Write Text Types is a tool to help teachers and students with writing.
Montessori Crosswords: $2.99 AU Word Wizard: $2.99 AU Word Wizard is a unique app that lets kids hear the sounds of letters and words using a talking movable alphabet. Rocket Speller: FREE. SimpleSort for SmartPhones (TODAY ONLY!) Today's Good Free App of the Day was developed by one of our page sponsors (HINT: please download this one!) , Kids and Beyond, who has made this app free today only for smartappsforkids.com fans! SimpleSort helps teach kids the basics of sorting and categorization in a cute and fun way. The iPhone version is free, meaning you'll have to x2 it to go full screen on the iPad, but my kids don't even notice that.
If your child notices the difference between iPhone and iPad HD graphics, you need to get that kid in some kind of advanced art class or something... From iTunes: The Clever Clouds have knocked over all their buckets and all the objects are mixed up! With bright colorful and visually stimulating art and animation, KidsAndBeyond's SimpleSort teaches children the important early math skills of sorting and categorization while at the same time appealing to their interests by providing them with relatable characters and recognizable objects to sort.
SimpleSort includes: iPad (FREE): U.S.