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Microsoft offers free cloud-based Office software for schools
Free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, eMail, and conferencing aim to compete with Google Apps for Education
With the announcement, Microsoft could strike a blow against Google, which has offered a similar suite of free online tools for schools.
In a back-to-school move that could be the large company equivalent of distinguishing who has the cooler Trapper Keeper, Microsoft has released a free version of Office 365 for education, a cloud-based suite of tools that includes Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, as well as Exchange Online for eMail, SharePoint Online for collaborating, and more—rivaling Google’s education cloud.
Office 365, which Microsoft introduced last year, now is available free of charge to students, teachers, and faculty, the company said. Upgraded packages are available for a fee, including unlimited eMail storage, archiving, and hosted voice mail support.
With the announcement, Microsoft likely aims to strike a blow against Google, which has offered a similar suite of free online tools for schools. Google Apps for Education have been adopted statewide in Oregon, Iowa, and Colorado, among other states, as a means of enabling students and teachers to share documents and collaborate on projects online.
According to Anthony Salcito, vice president of education for Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Sector business, whom eSchool News interviewed during the 2012 International Society for Technology in Education conference in San Diego, Office 365 is building off of Live@edu as the “next evolution” to provide a better experience for communication, collaboration, and productivity.
“We’re combining the security and richness of Microsoft with what the cloud can do natively,” said Salcito in the interview. “The cloud and online learning are key trends and opportunities to transform education today, and as schools face shrinking budgets and the pressure to innovate, we’re offering enterprise-quality technology for free that will modernize teaching practices and help prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow.”
Live@edu, which also was free to schools, included access to Office Live Workspace, a service for storing and sharing documents online. Certain functionalities were tied to a browser plug-in called Silverlight, though, which reduced the portability of the service when compared to other providers.
To access Live@edu workspaces directly from Office applications, users had to install an Office Live Update. Files couldn’t be edited from within a workspace, but clicking on “edit” would open them up in Microsoft Office.
In comparison, Office 365 offers a more robust computing experience, Salcito said. Giving students access to many Office-grade tools free of charge will allow them to use the tools so many companies use today, he said—providing them a “leg up” in the job market.
7 Responses to Microsoft offers free cloud-based Office software for schools
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gyrhead
July 5, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Unfortunately, one of the biggest mobile platforms – the iPad – is not supported well with live.edu and Office 365.
donnaemuller
July 6, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Cloud-On — A great app for iPad that I have used recently (free) allows you to use Drop Box or Google Drive to share, edit and create Word, Powerpoint and Excel documents. It is amazingly close to the actual Microsoft office products.
pollockburke
July 5, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Can someone who has used both Office 365 AND Google Apps for Education share/compare the pros and cons of the two? I see that one con of Office 365 is it is not supported by iPad. What about collaboration features? Privacy features? DNS/domain management for the district? Subdomains? Compatibility with apps other than the Office Suite (such as Aviary and other apps available to GAFE users.) Thanks in advance for any information you may have.
BB
teraybar7751
July 6, 2012 at 2:06 pm
I currently have the Office 365 platform in use with my staff. We have a K-8 level program. Number of staff: 40.
It is a Collaboration Portal. We utilize it to have a central location for resources that we use on a regular basis. When a staff member needs to utilize various areas in our facility, they are able to reserve the space on line. Weekly bulletins are posted on our Collaboration Site. Our calendar is posted and available for updating by any staff member. District information links are also located on the portal.
This minimizes the amount of paper that is used, stored and discarded. The platform also provides a vehicle for the staff to communicate and provide input on decisions that occur in our building. The district is upgrading the computer operating system, and once this is completed the access at school will be enhanced. The possibilities are endless and only limited by the imagination of the user.
The goal for 2012-2013 is to increase the use by documenting intervention and acceleration plans for students. We also intend to increase the quality of work that students do while using technology. Our middle school age students will be provided a “my space” environment that will be safe and easily monitored by the teachers, parents, and administration. The outcome will be to create a collaborative portal for student to student interaction, student to teacher interaction, and school to school interaction.
In reference to the iPad, there is an application that allows the user to access their Office 365 site. At this moment in the development of our Collaboration Portal, we have not had any issues.
russeau
July 9, 2012 at 1:19 pm
To which app are you referring for the iPad? I looked in the app store and could not find anything related to Office 365.
Thanks!
radsach27
July 7, 2012 at 10:59 pm
How do you get this service?
tpeterson
July 9, 2012 at 8:17 pm
There’s a free app in the Apple App Store by Microsoft called “Microsoft Lync 2010 for iPad” which is specifically for connecting to a Lync or Office365 server from the iPod/iPad/iPhone. There are also several other apps that offer some compatibility and access to various Microsoft cloud-based services. I’ve been accessing our OWA and Sharepoint sites through the Safari Web browser on my iPad for quite a while. Search on “Office 365″ in the Apple App Store.
Mike Hacker wrote a pretty good blog post about using the iPad for accessing Microsoft services back in January. He provides a number of different options:
http://blog.mikehacker.net/2012/01/19/configuring-and-using-an-ipad-with-office-365/
Cheers,
Tom Peterson, Atomic Learning