Since 2005, Microsoft has made a component of the Microsoft Student package called Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office available for free to Microsoft Academic Volume Licensing customers and for download at the Microsoft website. Now in its second version, it is designed for use with Office XP, 2003, and 2007. The product is comprised of two components:
Learning Essentials for Students
This component brings together a collection of templates and tutorials relevant to students. Students will find templates and guidance on essays, reports, charts, and presentations. There are templates for goal setting, school timetables, and even applications for a job and college. The tutorials help students learn how to accomplish assignments and how to best use the features in Office programs.
Learning Essentials for Educators
The material included in this component are more tailored to help teachers incorporate technology in the classroom. The tutorials feature strategies to engage students in their learning and how-tos for Office programs. There are templates for lesson plans, blank graph and chart papers for students, grade books, attendance sheets, and more.
There are also several tools that integrate with Office, like toolbars that bring together useful items such as maths symbols and foreign language characters, a periodic table and a bibliography guide. The Project Assistance feature lives next to your Office programs and provides checklists that guide you through creating reports, speeches, and presentations. There is also a wizard that creates tests and quizzes from scratch quickly.
Perhaps the best feature of Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office is that it can customized with new templates and resources, effectively making it a repository for educational materials. This feature itself is a selling point and is better than browsing through school network drives just to find a specific template.
Overall, Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office is a nicely made software package that compliments well with students in their high school years. The engaging material benefits greatly to students and teachers and brings together the most useful tools in Microsoft Office in a convenient location. And best of all, it is all made available for free. You can download the current version at the Microsoft website.
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