As educators, we understand how important it is for you to find innovative ways to engage your students, enhance teaching methods, and simplify your workflow. To help equip you on your journey, we’re happy to share another selection of new updates from Microsoft Education, all designed to boost the success of you and your students.
We’ll spotlight some of the latest feature updates and capabilities to help you maximize student engagement, elevate your instruction, and streamline your tasks. We’ll also share events and professional development opportunities to help you build and advance your skills. Let’s dive in and see what’s new in Microsoft Education.
Simplify your workflow with new tools, features, and capabilities
1. Personalize learning with AI enhancements in Reading Progress
Reading Progress, a Learning Accelerator from Microsoft, tracks students’ reading skills, gives educators actionable insights quickly, and focuses students on specific areas for improvement. Two new features in Reading Progress are now generally available:
- Passage generation: Generate a passage directly in Reading Progress and leverage insights to personalize it based on the needs of your class and individual students. Select a topic, age, length, and language, and easily adjust the complexity of the passage once it has been generated.
- Comprehension questions generation: Generate comprehension questions based on a specific reading passage. Choose the number of questions and then review them, making any preferred edits, before publishing them to students.
Get started with Reading Progress in Microsoft Teams for Education. To learn more, check out our guide to Reading Progress and Reading Coach in Teams for educators.
2. Practice reading with AI-generated stories in Reading Coach
Reading Coach, another Learning Accelerator, provides personalized, engaging, consistent, and independent reading fluency practice by allowing learners to create unique AI-generated stories by choosing characters and settings from a curated collection of options. It’s available for free as a web app and a Windows app to use in the classroom or at home with a Microsoft account, and now with a Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory).
Get started with Reading Coach online, in any browser, or download the Windows app. Watch the video How to use new AI-powered Microsoft Reading Coach to learn more.
3. Collaborate in real-time with Microsoft Loop
Loop is a flexible, AI-powered collaboration app that can help you think, plan, and create together. Loop is now generally available to education customers and is part of the Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 plans, including Student Use Benefit. Designed for co-creation in real-time, Loop brings collaborators and ideas together in one place.
Try Loop today and enhance the co-creation experience with your students and colleagues.
4. Streamline form creation with Microsoft Copilot in Forms
Copilot in Forms is a new AI-powered tool in Microsoft Forms that helps you create surveys, polls, and other forms with ease. It can generate draft questions and suggestions based on your input, such as your topic, goal, or context. With Copilot in Forms, you can streamline your form creation process and get assistance crafting high-quality content, quickly.
Get started with Copilot in Forms and see how it can support you and your classroom.
5. Start your school’s AI journey with the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit
AI is igniting enthusiasm in classrooms, department meetings, board rooms, and administrative offices across the country. Microsoft recognizes that leveraging AI in education requires new kinds of support for leaders who are considering AI for their schools. That’s why we announced the release of the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit during Reimagine Education 2024.
Explore the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit and learn how to use this resource in the article Kickstart your school’s AI journey with the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit.
Stay ahead with professional development opportunities and events
6. Participate in the AI skills challenge for educators
Join the AI skills challenge for educators and spend a few hours on your professional development learning about the history of AI, large language models (LLMs), generative AI, how to create a prompt, and uses of AI in education. The challenge is active on Microsoft Learn from now until April 30, 2024. Learn with your fellow educators as you increase your understanding with easy-to-read instruction, staying up to date with the latest in classroom technology.
Join the AI skills challenge for educators and learn how to discover, interact, and create with AI and generative AI in education.
7. Check out the Flip AI for educators series
Flip offers free professional development training sessions that provide easy-to-follow instructions, best practices, and inspiration on various topics, including AI! Check out these events for ways you can use Copilot to enhance teaching and learning in your classrooms and school communities.
Catch up on the great AI for educators series events that have already happened, and register for upcoming Flip professional development events as well.
8. Join the Minecraft and ISTE Level Up Learning digital events
Dive deeper into the benefits of teaching with Minecraft with Level Up Learning, a digital event series from Minecraft Education and ISTE. Through a series of webinars spotlighting school systems around the world, educators and leaders can join a transformational journey into the integration of game-based learning and its impact on student outcomes.
Register for free for these upcoming Level Up Learning events:
- Connection, Leadership & Team-based Experiences through Esports on April 30, 2024
- STEM Literacy for all students on May 28, 2024
9. Explore Microsoft Copilot resources for education
Dive deeper into what Copilot can do with resources for education. Whether you’re an educator, IT professional, or parent/guardian, you’ll find helpful resources to get started using Copilot. Visit Copilot resources for education to dive in and learn more.
10. Discover AI literacy resources for educators
With developments in AI happening so quickly and new products and features launching all the time, it can be difficult to keep up. We want to equip you with the knowledge needed to navigate the world of AI. We’ve gathered some resources, activities, and training to help you get up to speed on all things AI, and how it can be useful in education.
Read the article Smart learning: AI resources every educator should know and discover ways to enhance your AI literacy.
Tap into new possibilities for innovation in education
11. Become an MIE Expert, Showcase School, or Incubator School for 2024-2025
The future is here, and it’s time to step into the spotlight as a beacon of educational innovation. The Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert and Showcase School nominations for the 2024-2025 academic year are opening soon and this is your opportunity to shine! Being part of these programs means more than just recognition. It’s about actively participating in a global movement that redefines education through technology.
Check out the article Become an MIE Expert, Showcase School, or Incubator School for 2024-2025 to learn how to nominate yourself and your school.
12. Plan your school’s move to Windows 11
Windows 10 will reach end of support (EOS) on October 14, 2025, less than two years from today. For nearly a decade, you’ve helped shape the learning experiences of countless students and educators with Windows 10. Thank you for being an integral part of our mission to enable equitable education for all.
We encourage you to transition to Windows 11 sooner than later, and we’re here to help you plan your move. Learn about the options you have to smoothly transition to Windows 11, including extended security updates for Windows 10 devices that may need more time to transition.
Whether you want to discover new ways to simplify your workflow, expand your learning around AI in education, or tap into possibilities for innovation at your school, Microsoft Education has new features and experiences for you to explore. Happy teaching!
