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A few months ago, Microsoft added a new question type in Microsoft Forms.  It is the File Upload.  This enables you to ask respondents to upload files like screenshots, PowerPoints, Word documents or even audio or video recordings as their response.  Welcome to Day 97 of 365 Ideas for Office 365– file upload in Forms. Google, I mean Microsoft Forms I’ll go ahead and start with “It’s about time”.  Google Forms had this feature a couple years before Microsoft figured this one out.  It used to be when I’d have a conversation about the two platforms, we’d all agree Google Forms had so many moreRead More →

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Unmatched commitment to accessibility is what sets Microsoft Office and their other educational programs and apps apart. Today’s obscure topic is how the Alt key unlocks accessibility features across the Microsoft Office apps. Day 96 of 365 Ideas for Office 365 is the Alt key. Universal Design for Learning Accessibility is an interesting thing.  The idea of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is to provide helps for everybody (make them universally available), not just for individuals with more apparent disabilities.  Sometimes our needs are related to a permanent or temporary disability, but some idea that are created for a specific group of people helps theRead More →

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Did you know there is a Whiteboard app in Windows 10? Whiteboard is our topic for Day 92 of 365 Ideas for Office 365. The Whiteboard Windows 10 app is designed for collaboration.  When you open Whiteboard, you start with a blank canvas.  Since it is an open canvas, all of the items can be placed absolutely anywhere.  Once placed, you can also click and drag to move them or resize them. Digital Inking in Whiteboard It include digital inking tools, which offers an array of drawing tools.  If you place the ruler on the screen, you can make straight lines, or just have studentsRead More →

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Table of Contents are easy to create in Word.  So is making them clickable.  Welcome to Day 85 of 365 Ideas for Office 365.  Clickable Table of Contents.  Yesterday we showed you how to add visual structure and accessibility to your Word documents by utilizing the Heading Style to create collapsible menus in Microsoft Word.  An interactive Table of Contents is another way to achieve these goals. Purpose of Clickable Table of Contents Like yesterday’s topic, adding a table of contents to a Word document makes it much easier to both create and navigate longer documents but also to make any length document more accessible. Read More →

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Okay, it doesn’t sound like the sexiest topic possible.  But collapsible headings are really handy when you have a longer document, and add accessibility to any length document.  Welcome (at last) to Day 84 of 365 Ideas for Office 365– collapsible menus in Word. Why Use Collapsible Headings Besides making it easier to create longer documents, collapsible headings make it easier to navigate documents.  Consider your students with IEPs that say “reduce visual clutter” or have trouble with organization or following multi-step directions.  Imagine them having all the content or instructions, yet only needing to see one piece at a time- the part they areRead More →

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So far we have checked out how staff can use Microsoft Planner collaboratively and how students can use Planner individually, so today, Day 72 of 365 Ideas for Office 365, it makes sense to show how students can use Planner collaboratively. To see how to get students into Planner, see my previous article on students using Planner.  The steps are mostly the same whether students are working on a long-term research project individually or if they are working on a group project. Microsoft Planner for Individual Projects For simply a long-term project, the student should create a new plan in Microsoft Planner just for thatRead More →

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Planner is a project management app that is part of Office 365.  That means it is integrated in other Office 365 like Outlook and Microsoft Teams. Welcome to Day 71 of 365 Ideas for Office 365- Using Planner with students.  Last time we explored ways that staff can utilize Planner for projects that require collaboration and assigning tasks. Students can use Planner in an entirely different way, as more of a to-do list with lots of extra features.  To start using Planer with students first show them where to find it. Finding Planner As with all Office 365 apps, they can start in OneDrive andRead More →

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OK, so it already was global. But suddenly you’ll be seeing it in so many new places, that Day 60 of 365 Ideas for Office 365 has to be about ImmersiveReader updates! ImmersiveReader in Minecraft EE This spring I was showing Minecraft Education Edition to the MOI (Materials of Instruction) committee as they were deciding whether or not to add it to our approved list of apps.  I was pointing out the ways students can express what they’ve learned with the various types of signs.  Someone from our Special Education office asked if there was any text to speech.  Great question.  At the time, theRead More →

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Welcome to Day 56 of 365 Ideas for Office 365, where today we will be looking at Sway’s accessibility features, as well as other settings.  Sway was designed through and through for accessibility and differentiation.  We have previously considered the fundamental advantage of using artificial intelligence for the design features, leaving students to focus on the content. We also have looked at utilizing either the built-in templates or the ability to create from a topic with an AI-designed outline to scaffold support for students needing help with structure or just getting started. Then we discussed the advantages of having students start writing and creating inRead More →

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Today is sort of a catch-all of things in Sway we haven’t happened to hit over the last week.  We will start with Word Transform, which is a lot like the WordSway we examined yesterday.  From there we will dive into the Design Button.  Welcome to Day 55 of 365 Ideas for Office 365, which is Officially about Word Transform. Review So yesterday we considered the benefits of keeping students working in Word long enough to ensure they have sufficient content that is well-written before allowing them to import their Word document into Sway using the Start from a document buttons on Sway.  Students canRead More →