In the video below, Anthony Salcito (Microsoft VP for Education), talks about the fact that when people come to Microsoft, they come to take on new challenges. The goal to have an impact in education is one of our biggest challenges and is something that is core to the business.
To help every student realіze theіr full potential, educators across the sector all seek to better-engage their students. To assist with that goal, we must empower every teacher with the tools and resources to understand and engage every student at their own pace, in the right place, and in a way that allows them to achieve their greatest potential. Only then are we creating the right foundation for success, moving forward.
With this in mind, we believe that resources such as Leaning Suite can help make a real difference in helping students achieve their full potential.
So what is Learning Suite? Learning Suite is a free set of innovative applications that, when combined with the power of Microsoft Windows and Office, creates a robust, flexible and collaborative learning environment for both students and teachers.
While we are really proud of Learning Suite directly, the power of this free resource is in the applications, themselves. The full range is show below:
With 25 free applications offered within Learning Suite, there are a range of powerful, yet fun, tools to aid creativity, make collaboration easier, create more engaging classroom experiences and ultimately make studying more effective.
For the purpose of this post, though, I wanted to focus the attention on 2 amazing apps. Not only are these some of my personal favourites, they also help demonstrate the breath of the apps currently available.
WorldWide Telescope (WWT) enables you to explore the universe, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world and combining it with 3D navigation. Impressive stuff!
Users are able to pan around outer space and zoom as far into any one area as the data will allow. Images are taken from the Hubble Space Telescope and approximately ten earth-bound telescopes.
The TED Talk video below offers a great overview of WorldWide Telescope.
WorldWide Telescope now brings viewers the largest and clearest image of the night sky ever produced and offers a unique opportunity to provide inspiring and engaging classroom experiences. For real impact, try projecting Worldwide telescope onto the ceiling of your classroom and have students lie down, look up and experience a virtual stargazing session.
Photosynth is a fantastic application, and a core part of Learning Suite, that analyses digital photographs and generates a three-dimensional model of the photos.
Great for classroom projects, Photosynth allows you to take a bunch of photos of the same scene or object and automagically stitch them all together into one big interactive 3D viewing experience that you can share with anyone on the web.
View the synth below for an example of the power of Photosynth. This could be ideal for your institutions next geography field trip, for example!
How to get Learning Suite
Learning Suite is free to download via the Partners in Learning Network.