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Microsoft iOS Apps on Your iPad

by Miguel Guhlin August 22, 2018

written by Miguel Guhlin

“We are an Office 365 school district. Our superintendent just bought iPads. I’m coming from a G Suite for EDU background. How hard is it to use Microsoft apps on the iPad?” asked Virginia, a district instructional technology coordinator in a Texas school district. Like Virginia, I remember early difficulties with using Google Suites for Education on the iPad. Students could create work, but how would they get it off the device? With Microsoft iOS apps, those difficulties aren’t present. Let’s explore the OneDrive workflow on iOS devices.

What OneDrive looks like on an iPad. Note that Scan, Upload, Take a Photo or Video options. These allow you to create and/or save content straight to OneDrive. This saves space on your iPad.

Where to Start

One mistake often made when working with Microsoft apps is not starting with the OneDrive app. The Microsoft OneDrive app serves as a username and password clearinghouse for all the other Microsoft apps on iOS. For example, while you can attempt to open the OneNote app and access your digital notebooks, you may find this workflow easier:

Open OneDrive app.
Navigate to the notebook you want to open.
Open it.

The OneDrive app, after verifying your username and password, will open the appropriate Microsoft app (OneNote in this example). In a few moments, the OneNote notebook you selected will begin to synchronize (or save a copy) to your device. From that point forward, you can open OneNote instead of going to OneDrive to access the notebook. If you should close the notebook or remove it from OneNote on your iOS device, you can always re-open it via OneDrive.

Let’s take a moment to explore other documents and Microsoft apps.

Microsoft OneDrive

Folks may see OneDrive as only cloud storage (like Dropbox or Google Drive), but OneDrive can do much more. Some examples of how it can be used in the classroom include:

Showcasing student work
Sharing student work as examples via a OneDrive link
Creating web-based documents that are shared online
Enabling students to start work at home/school and then finish it on the go
Collaborating on the same document

One important idea to keep in mind is Create your initial version of a file using OneDrive, including OneNote notebooks. In the web version of OneDrive, you are able to create all sorts of documents, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Excel Survey, Visio drawing, and link.

Since OneDrive functions as a username and password keeper for other Microsoft apps, you want to make sure to choose the correct account to use. If you are using OneDrive (and Microsoft apps) as part of your work, choose OneDrive for Business. If you are using OneDrive with a free Microsoft account (think “personal”), then choose OneDrive.

One benefit of OneDrive that is often overlooked involves how it handles photos and videos. In the iOS version, you are able to take a photo or create a video that saves directly to OneDrive. Learn more about iPad possibilities with OneDrive. Read more about OneDrive, as well as see free online courses in the Microsoft Education Community (MEC).

What Microsoft Apps Are Available on the iPad?

Now that you have some background about OneDrive, you’re ready to dive into the other Microsoft apps. Some of the apps you can get on the iPad include Excel, Office 365 Admin, Office Lens, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Sway, Teams, Visio Viewer, and Word. Get them via email or a text message to your phone.

My Favorite Microsoft Apps

Hands down, my top Microsoft apps for iPad include the following:

OneDrive – Store tons of resources online in OneDrive. Use it to access and open any documents stored on iOS. OneDrive’s ability to save video recordings direct to cloud storage, bypassing the limited storage on my iPad, make it a must-have app. Learn more.
Office Lens – Need to digitize a whiteboard diagram or capture a digital copy of a picture? Then Office Lens makes that easier. For iOS users, you have the added bonus of a built-in optical character recognition (OCR) combined with Immersive Reader. That means your students can scan a page of text and then Office Lens can read it to them. You can snap a picture of a page of text, then convert that image to editable PowerPoint or Word file. Wow! Learn more.
Outlook – Looking for a great email program that works with all email services (e.g. G Suite, Gmail, Yahoo, Office 365), not just Microsoft? Then Outlook is your email program. Learn more.
OneNote – This is a must-have notes app on any device. The ability to draw with various color pens and insert audio, images, files, links, and more are beautifully executed. Learn more.
Teams – The latest version of Teams boasts many features for free. The EDU version makes access to assignments, files, notes, and OneNote Class or Staff Notebooks a click away. You can even blend Flipgrid topics into the available tabs. You can create channels within a Teams’ space to organize adults or students. Learn more.

Office Lens and Immersive Reader in Action

Shown below, you will see use of Office Lens to scan a news article for use in Immersive Reader. The latter component can read the scanned document to the student:

Description: Office Lens can send a scanned page of text, including newsprint, to any of the options shown in the image above. Send it to Immersive Reader, and Office Lens will read the text to you.

Description: Ignoring illegible characters, consider the quality of the newsprint. In this screenshot, Immersive reader is reading the text aloud.

Microsoft iOS Apps

Now that you’ve had a chance to get answers to your question, what are your preferred Microsoft apps on iOS?

August 22, 2018 0 comment

MS Office Goes Chrome, er, Android

by Miguel Guhlin December 9, 2017

written by Miguel Guhlin

Like many Chromebook educators, I often find myself interacting with Microsoft Office documents in a less than satisfactory way. Fortunately, that experience is about to undergo an upgrade.

Mission Possible: Android Apps on Chromebooks

As Dr. Bruce Ellis reported in his March 2017 blog entry, Running Android Apps on Chromebook, future Chromebooks will run Android apps.

According to the Chromium Projects, starting this year, all Chromebooks that become available are supposed to work with Android. Even if you don’t see your Chromebook on the list, it will still receive updates until its Google-determined end-of-life, which should be about five years after it debuted.

The ability to load Android apps on your Chromebook enables access to a host of Android apps for education. These apps expand the Chromebook’s viability for younger grades and students (source). Teachers will also have access to many Android apps, as well as specially-designed cloud apps. These include Adobe Creative Cloud apps (such as Photoshop Mix, Lightroom Mobile, Illustrator Draw, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Comp CC, and Creative Cloud Mobile).

Furthermore, one more inducement for some educators and students exists. That is the ability of Chromebooks to run the MS Office Android apps.

MS Office Goes Chrome via Android

Research (via Chrome Unboxed) revealed in November 2017 that MS Office Android apps are working on the following Chromebooks:

Microsoft reports that they “…are partnering with Google to deliver the best experience for Chromebook users and plan to make the apps available on all compatible devices by general availability” (source).

Windows Programs on Chromebooks

If Android isn’t enough for you on your Chromebook, you may want to give another product a try. In my early days as a veteran GNU/Linux and Macintosh user, I often found myself trying to run Windows programs. Those experiments involved WINE (Wine is NOT an Emulator), as well as tools like Codeweavers’ Crossover product. Not familiar with Crossover? Here is a quick overview from their website:

Don’t let dual-booting or a virtual machine slow you down. CrossOver will open your Windows software. Launch Windows productivity software, utility programs and games natively. CrossOver doesn’t have the overhead of the Windows operating system like a virtual machine, which means that Windows programs run at native speed, games play at full fps and you don’t need to purchase a Windows license.

After trying Crossover in various situations, I can say it worked…barely. Now, Crossover is available for Chrome OS:

The CrossOver Chrome OS beta will let you run Windows software on Intel-based Chromebooks and Android tablets. Seamlessly run full-featured Windows software that is not available in the Google Play store alongside mobile apps. Run Windows utility software like Quicken and Microsoft Office, or DirectX games, like Wizard101. Games from your steam library will run with CrossOver Android at native speeds. Get rid of remote sessions and multiple devices! With CrossOver Android you’ll only need one device to run your Windows programs and mobile apps. Watch the video.

In most situations, running Crossover for the lone district administrator or campus staff member was not worth the trouble. You just have to spend the money on a computer that is not under-powered.

Ready to Try?

If you’re ready to give it a try, you have two options for exploring Microsoft Office 365 on your compatible Chromebook. For the occasional user, a Chromebook running Android versions of MS Office may be the solution.

December 9, 2017 0 comment

Microsoft Tips and Tricks

Steps to a Tech-Powered Classroom with Office 365: Part 2

by Miguel Guhlin July 7, 2016

written by Miguel Guhlin

Note: This is part 2 of a two-part series on Ten Steps to a Tech-Powered Classroom with Microsoft. Read Part 1 here.

6. Digitize your print documents.

Tired of dealing with paper? Your students are as well! Take advantage of MS Office Lens app (available on Android, iOS, and later this summer, Windows) to digitize documents and go paperless with OneNote. You simply start the app, take pictures of the paper, and it organizes it into pictures or a PDF file or enables you to save it to OneNote for easy sharing with students. Or alternatively, use the built-in capture of OneNote app on your mobile device of choice. Make it a goal to digitize your documents during the summer and avoid the time sink during the school year. Once you have a digital copy, you can easily annotate (draw/write on it) in OneNote.

7. Convert your multiple choice assessments to paperless Microsoft Forms or Excel Online Surveys.

Did you know that Microsoft Forms features an assessment component? Students submit responses to an online assessment and Forms takes care of scoring it for you. Watch this video for a quick introduction to Microsoft Forms.

8. Explore MIE Expert videos to fuel your learning and spur classroom innovation.

You have access to a global cadre of Microsoft Innovative Educators and Experts, all eager to coach you on how to transform teaching and learning in your classroom. This means you are not alone in blazing a trail in your teaching, learning, and leading environment. Our children are learning directly from YouTube, so why not get inspired in the same way to make your classroom learning environment even more engaging than it is now? For example, you can see tutorial videos for MS Sway, Office 365 in the Classroom, OneNote Class Notebook, and many more.

9. Manipulate Portable Document Format (PDF) files to save paper.

Office Are you accessing materials from Lead4ward and other online PDF documents? Instead of printing everything, you can quickly split PDFs, printing only what you need. Use the no-cost PDFSAM Basic.

After you split PDF files, you can insert them into your OneNote Class Notebook’s Content Library as a file printout. This means you can then distribute those PDFs to students, and then they can use their Surface or iOS tablet device to fill things in by interacting with the PDF.

10. Create Podcasts with OneNote audio recordings on your mobile device.

Are you doing awesome things in your classroom? If you and your students are learning, then the answer is “YES!” Why not record audio into a OneNote, describing a picture or screenshot of a student artifact?Then,students, parents, and others can access that OneNote Online to listen to student reflections about that artifact.

Teaching in a Microsoft-empowered classroom can be much more than just being about the technology. It really is about the transformations your students can accomplish with information, converting it into knowledge that is useful and meaningful to them.

Note: This blog entry was inspired by Tom Mullaney’s blog entry at Sustainable Teaching, Ten Things You Can Do This Summer To Prepare for Teaching in a 1:1 Classroom with Chromebooks. Thanks, Tom!

July 7, 2016 0 comment

Microsoft Tips and Tricks

Steps to a Tech-Powered Classroom with Office 365: Part 1

by Miguel Guhlin July 6, 2016

written by Miguel Guhlin

“What’s Office 365?” asked a second grade teacher last week at a casual meeting. “My district is moving from what we have now to that.” The transition, of course, was from MS Exchange and web-based email to Office 365. For the school district, moving to Office 365 will result in much greater efficiency and functionality than they have ever enjoyed. But that means this large urban school district has a lot of professional learning to engage in.

If you are a teacher in a district that is launching Office 365 in August, you have some time to get ready. Take these ten steps (five in this blog entry, five more in the sequel) to ensure you are successful in supporting blended learning opportunities that the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires.

1. Ask your administration for a MS Surface tablet or Windows 10 computer to use this summer.

The Windows 10 operating system boasts many powerful features, among them access for educators to a free Office 365 account. That means you can start learning how to use Microsoft Classroom, OneNote 2016, and Class Notebook tools, which are easy ways to blend learning in your classroom. You can find a wealth of resources online, and, of course, TCEA is offering one-day Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) professional development sessions around the state of Texas at no charge.

2. Become a Microsoft Innovative Educator.

View online

If you want to successfully use blended technology into classroom learning, the TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) training sets you up with the tools and skills you will need. This process (watch this overview video of how to become an MIE Expert) involves you getting a free Office 365 account, which comes with free copies of MS Office 365 Online and OneNote 2016 for Windows (OneNote works on all mobile devices as a program you install or via the web with OneNote Online). You will also get access to Microsoft Education, a website with free professional learning activities that are 100% online. Register for this free training today!

Listen to this podcast by Jeffrey Bradbury (@TeacherCast).

3. Create a OneDrive and Docs.com account.

When working with students and colleagues, you will need to be able to create and share content online. Office 365 grants you free access to Word Online, Powerpoint Online, and Excel Online, as well as OneNote Online and one terabyte of cloud storage in OneDrive. This enables you to share and collaborate with students and colleagues (e.g. teachers working on lesson plans). Once you have completed the MIE training, you will be able to easily interact with content online for creation and sharing.

What’s more, with Docs.com, you can easily share documents (e.g. books, newsletters, presentations) you create (e.g. Word, Powerpoint, OneNote, Excel, Newsletters) with others. Listen to this podcast featuring Dr. Tom Grissom on using Docs.com (http://docs.com/mguhlin).

4. Get to know Microsoft Classroom.

View video

Need a quick overview of Microsoft Classroom? Watch this short video about how a school in Spain is using Microsoft Classroom. Then ask yourself how are you doing this in your classroom?

As you can see, MS Classroom provides an actual environment where you can interact with your students online. What’s more, through the use of tools like OneNote Class Notebook, you can create a Content Library to which you can add class learning resources. Students can then copy items from the Content Library to their OneNote notebook, where they can begin interacting with documents. Microsoft Classroom comes with a Class Notebook built-in, and you can see the main components of a Class Notebook in the image below. Office

5. Learn from the experts.

“An expert is someone who isn’t afraid to share how they mess things up while they are learning.” That’s my personal definition of what an expert is. While there are many people you can learn from online, consider adding these individuals to your professional learning network (PLN). What’s more, take advantage of TCEA resources listed below. In addition to following the Twitter hashtag, which does not require a Twitter account, #MIEExpert, you can also add these folks to your PLN:

Robyn Hrivnatz @RobynHrivnatz

Mike Tholfsen ‏@mtholfsen

OneNote Central ‏@OneNoteC

@OneNoteEDU ‏@OneNoteEDU

Pip Cleaves ‏@pipcleaves

Anne Mirtschin ‏@murcha

Jennifer Mitchell ‏@jenemitchell

And, of course, follow @mguhlin on Twitter, as well as check out the TCEA Connect! OneNote Online notebook where I share my learning experiences. You will also want to follow the #tceamie hashtag online.

Be sure to come back to read the second part of this blog entry, sharing five more steps you can take!

Note: This blog entry was inspired by Tom Mullaney’s blog entry at Sustainable Teaching, Ten Things You Can Do This Summer To Prepare for Teaching in a 1:1 Classroom with Chromebooks. Thanks, Tom!

July 6, 2016 0 comment

Leadership Microsoft Tips and Tricks Professional Learning

Learner? Leader? Innovator? Attend the FREE MIE Academy!

by Miguel Guhlin June 9, 2016

written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you a…learner? Teacher? Leader? Innovator? Take advantage of the no-cost TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) academies taking place throughout Texas over the next few months. TCEA and Microsoft have partnered to make these professional learning opportunities available to anyone, member or non-member, FREE! Find a location near you at the list appearing at the bottom of this blog entry.

What is the TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educator Academy?

The newly re-designed TCEA MIE one-day academies provide participants with specific instructions and suggestions for blending technology into the classroom curriculum. Some of the topics include:

Create narrated slideshows, digital stories, and information-rich slideshows that enhance teaching, learning, and leading.
Organize classroom lessons for students that allow them anytime, anywhere access to embedded videos and content, great for flipped learning opportunities.
Develop web-based forms to capture real data from respondents and then aggregate data for analysis.
Connect with educators, students, and others via international connections using tools like Skype.
Explore a wealth of lesson plans and ideas that help you meet ESSA expectations for blended learning using technology.
Learn how to create resources and easily share them with others via the web.

Attendees will have the opportunity to craft powerful conversations about learning in a hyper-connected world, as well as receive hands-on practice and modeling with Office 365 for Education tools like OneNote, Docs.com, Sway, Office Mix, and Office Forms.

Note: Did you know that when you attend the TCEA MIE one-day academy, you receive access to a OneNote Notebook, which you can read on any device, chock-full of curated content, video tutorials, articles, and more?

But wait, there’s even more! AFTER the TCEA MIE session, you will have the opportunity to join the TCEA MIE Diigo Community, an online group open to all regardless of whether you are a TCEA member or not.

And, if that wasn’t enough, you are also invited to participate in the upcoming TCEA MIE SkypeChats that will begin in August 2016 with special guests. In the meantime, join the TCEA MIE SkypeChat and get access to sneak previews of audio interviews with MIE practitioners.

Opportunities to Take Your MIE Innovation to a Whole New Level

Session Date	City	Location	Registration Link
7/18/2016	Abilene	Region 14 Education Service Center	Register
8/2/2016	Killeen	Killeen ISD Career Center	Register
8/4/2016	Lumberton	Lumberton Performing Arts Center	Register
8/8/2016	Austin	TCEA Conference Center	Register
8/19/2016	Kilgore	Region 7 Educational Service Center	Register
9/9/2016	Arlington	University of Texas at Arlington, College of Education	Register
9/19/2016	Pittsburg	Region 8 Educational Service Center	Register
9/23/2016	Edinburg	Region 1 Educational Service Center	Register
9/28/2016	Victoria	Region 3 Educational Service Center	Register

June 9, 2016 1 comment