Microsoft launched Microsoft 365 Education package at this years Innovation Africa event in Mozambique. Also signed up a new Education country partner.
MOU Signing between Microsoft Education and the Ministry of Education in Mozambique at Innovation Africa 2017. ?: @MicrosoftAfrica
At Innovation Africa 2017 conference held in Maputo, Mozambique Microsoft introduced the recently announced Microsoft 365 Package for education. The event brings together ministries and industry partners from across African continent in the fields of ICT, education and innovation.
Microsoft 365 Education is a technology solution built for education. It comes as a bundled package of Office 365, Windows 10, Intune for Education, Minecraft Education Edition and Enterprise Mobility + Security all in a single cloud based package.
Microsoft also partnered with the ministry of education in Mozambique.
Making it the 20th education partner country in Africa. Microsoft says they are committed to empowering the next generation of workers in Mozambique by helping building skills and providing access to technology. As part of the agreement Microsoft will provide technology solutions, training, devices and more delivered by Microsoft partners in the country.
So what does Microsoft want to achieve with the Microsoft 365 Education package in Africa?
Microsoft says;
“the aim of Microsoft 365 Education is to get schools up and running faster through simplified acquisition and deployment. This eliminates wasted time and delivers new capabilities to teachers and students to help them learn and work in new ways.
We know that schools want simple to purchase, simple to manage, secure and efficient systems. Microsoft 365 Education is designed to deliver on that need.
Millions of teachers and students are already using Office 365 for Education to communicate and collaborate with each other every day. With Microsoft 365 Education, we are providing a complete solution for schools in a single purchase that is a less expensive option than purchasing the same products individually. It’s also part of our drive to simplify and modernize our licensing programs.” – Mark East, Microsoft Regional Leader for Education in Europe Middle East and Africa.
The new Microsoft 365 Education package unlocks three major achievements, these include;
Unlocking creativity in each student with immersive and engaging apps like Minecraft: Education Edition. Enhance independence and efficiency for students of all abilities using intelligent tools built into Office apps
Promoting teamwork with a single hub for classes using Microsoft Teams. Make it easier to work together in real-time with co-authoring in Office, while providing a universal toolkit to connect, share and communicate
Providing a simple, safe experience for everyone while managing users, data and devices in a single dashboard. Protect identity, apps, data and devices with intelligent security
For more information on Microsoft 365 Education read more about it here
From Left: Mark East, Warren La Fleur at the Microsoft booth answering questions ?: @MicrosoftAfrica
Microsoft leads Education panel session on Investing in ICT’s for Digital Skills
At the innovation Africa conference, Microsoft’s Regional Education Manager, Warren La Fleur chaired a panel session on Investing in ICT’s for Digital Skills. Speaking as chair he said;
Digital Transformation is changing many important functional elements of societies, businesses and governments. Jobs and lifestyles are changing and our future generation of leaders and citizens need to be given the skills necessary.
Educators are training children on systems that they were trained on and this is not providing students with adequate skills. The challenge therefore is to create two systems.
Educators be able to retrain themselves by up-skilling in a way that aligns to becoming more digitally capable.
Offer a curriculum for students that unlocks foundational skills such as creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.
The Outcome – they will be able to function in tech driven world, doing jobs that will become vastly different from what they currently are.
We partnered with the Ministry of Education in Rwanda, through its Partners in Learning program. We helped teachers and schools improve students’ experiences and skills through technology. To date, the program has benefitted more than 1.3 million students in sub-Saharan Africa.
This just shows that we believe in the power of technology to harness the potential of educators and students in learning environments.
We believe in the transformative power of technology in education to create social and economic opportunities. Immersive learning, enabled by technology, improves experiences and education outcomes for teachers and learners.
More and better education, combined with early access to the tools and skills used in the workplace are proven to help create healthier communities, economies and workers.
Microsoft’s investments in education continue under various programs including the 4Afrika and YouthSpark initiaives. Through the 4Afrika initiative, Microsoft has already upskilled over 800,000 Africans.
This just shows that we believe in the power of tech to harness the potential of educators and students in learning environments.
Katherine made Nigeria and Africa proud at the just ended 2017 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship
With about 560,000 competitors from 122 countries, Katherine competed in the Microsoft Office global competition. The competition tests and awards students skills in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Is there a competition in Word, Excel and Power point? Apparently yes! and it’s been going on for 16 years. It goes to show there are more ways these programs are used in ordinary day activities. You best maybe use Microsoft Excel for your invoices and Word for your curriculum vitae, uh? lol. There’s more, like using Excel for data computations, analysis and visualizations, etc, etc.
Eta Katherine was 3rd finalist in the Microsoft Word 2016 category. Winning a cash price of $ 1,500, a medal of achievement and a winners certificate. She competed with 156 finalists in the final round of 2017 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship in Anaheim, USA. In the concluding round, finalist participate in unique project-based tests. Demonstrating their ability to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations for the information presented in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
“We are proud to support the MOS World Championship and grateful to meet young people from all parts of the world. Who have discovered the power of Microsoft Office skills for productivity and employability.” – Anneleen Vaandrager – Microsoft Senior Director Education Industry
How to Participate in the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship ?
The competition is opened to students aged 13 to 22. There are three Microsoft Office categories Word, Excel and Power Point of either 2016 or 2013 tracks.
Students must take a qualifying Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification exam from an accredited learning institution. In other cases, national or regional competitions are held to determine representatives. Selected finalists then compete in the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship.
Regional participation and availability varies by country. Further details can be obtained by contacting a local Certiport Solution Provider or MOSchampionship@pearson.com .
Winners of the tracks get a cash price of $ 7,000, a medal of achievement, trophy, winners certificate and prizes from Microsoft. Second place finalist get $ 3,500, a medal of achievement and winners certificate.
Here is a list of 2017 wining finalist from all categories and tracks.
Microsoft Nigeria hosted bloggers from Nigeria to an interactive session on Empowering Digital Transformation.
The bloggers meetup event was to bring a familiarization of service solutions offered by Microsoft and the new updates coming with the Creators Update to the bloggers.
Digital Transformation is simply doing things differently and with ease.
The Creators Update is the next major update to the Microsoft Windows operating system. The Update is scheduled to start arriving first on new devices and then to the older devices from April 11th 2017. Also Microsoft has said that you can use the Microsoft Update Assistant to manually initiate the update from April 5th 2017. For Windows 10 Mobile devices the creators Update will start rolling out from the 25th of April.
The Creators Update will begin to roll out on April 11th. Like with the Anniversary Update we delivered last August, this update for Windows will proceed in phases.
For the those of you who are eager to get the Creators Update right away, you will be able to initiate the update manually, starting on April 5th, via Update Assistant. This option is intended for advanced users on devices running a licensed version of Windows 10.
We’ll iterate this process over a period of several months until all compatible devices running Windows 10 worldwide are offered the Creators Update. Windows Phone will follow the same phased approach, with rollout scheduled to begin April 25.
At the event Microsoft Nigeria shared updated statistics of Windows 10 since it’s launch.
There are currently over 400 million monthly active devices.
Over 135 Billion hours spent on Windows 10
Cortana has been asked over 5 Billion questions with over 1 Million daily queries.
10 Million of streamed Xbox one games to Windows 10 PCs.
On digital transformation and how Microsoft technology can help you achieve more, there was a presentation on what’s a digital business? Addressing bloggers on the topic there was an elaboration on How is the business being digitally transformed and How is the business model being digitally transformed. Speaking on the four pillars of Digital Transformation:
GNPC in a bid to keep employees productive and connected on the go have chosen Microsoft’s Office 365. But this deployment has to happen without any kind of interruptions to service delivery, as such they turned to Microsoft Fast Track and Microsoft Premier Services Support to help with migration.
Godfred Ofori-Som, IT manager of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), talks about the decision to use Microsoft Office 365, the adoption and migration process in a blog post.
In our bid to ensure that our employees stay constantly connected and equipped to work everywhere, including in the field, we decided to invest in a robust IT structure and in tools that support on-the-go connectivity. This is crucial to support timely communication internally as well as mission-critical email with partners, customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders.
Godfred talks about how the they were already using some Microsoft services like Windows server, Windows OS and had a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. So based on that trust choosing office 365 was top and came natural to accomplish what they were looking for. Finding out about Microsoft’s Security support for hybrid and on premises deployments gave them a boost.
Our first step was to convince our management team that security and reliability wouldn’t be an issue. Once we established that Microsoft security capabilities are fully supported in hybrid and on-premises deployments alike, everyone was on board
The IT team had a challenge when it came to hybrid migration as they hadn’t deployed anything like this. Microsoft Fast Track and Microsoft Premier Services Support came in handy and helped assess their IT infrastructure and environment, and created an adoption.
We worked with Microsoft Premier Services Support, and together, FastTrack and Premier not only helped us deploy Office 365, but also developed a high-level view—a cloud strategy for the whole business. This included providing advice on how to migrate our other apps over time and get the most out of the capabilities and components of Office 365.
Microsoft FastTrack includes resources, tools and experts that help you rollout Office 365. The Microsoft FastTrack team believe a successful Office 365 rollout focuses on driving adoption and helping everyone understand the benefits of working in a new way.
Microsoft Premier Support services provides continuous hands-on assistance and immediate escalation for urgent issues, which speeds resolution and helps you keep your mission-critical systems up and running.
With the help of these Microsoft products and services, GNPC has moved their apps to the cloud.
Our employees are already changing the way they work. Managers can now share data with each other and access it even while they’re traveling—a new best practice—rather than store data on their computers. Employee communication and engagement have also been improved. Employees can connect on Yammer by posting photos, videos and more. Our Corporate Affairs department shares quick updates with staff on Yammer, which further drives collaboration among the teams within the business.
The ZEPTO UmiTab 10.1″ 2 in 1 device has seen some more interest from the public. So I received one and took it for a spin so I can answer properly questions asked.
I received the Cyan colored ZEPTO UmiTab 10 device running Windows 10. I decided to upgrade it to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update(AU) for better performance. The Windows 10 AU definitely has a lot of bug fixes and improvements to battery life etc., etc. seem only fair.
We earlier did a specifications post on the ZEPTO UmiTab and you can check it out if you want to know what powers it.
It sits in a class of its own. It’s not a high end nor is it a low-end device. I believe it’s just perfect for the kind of customers it’ll attract. I see students and workers who need a PC for browsing, taking notes, watching movies and playing music.
The ZEPTO UmiTab 10 surely has some pro’s and con’s and i’ll dig a bit into it.
DESIGN
It certainly has a nice feel to it. It’s a detachable two in one device. Good thing the soft keyboard which doubles as a cover comes included. It’s easy to attach and detach. It has the Microsoft Surface magnetic clip thing. only I think the Surface clicks in and holds more solidly and firmly. But so far as it sits on a steady surface like a table, you need not worry.
At 550 grams it doesn’t feel heavy. You can carry it in hand as you would your notepad or diary, only this ends up being more powerful.
Performance
Sporting a Quad-core Intel Baytrail T-Z3735 processor with 2GB RAM and 32GB ROM means light work can be done. If you are a video and photo editing person, these aren’t the specifications that excite you. It works well-browsing websites and having quite a number of tabs open. Video and Music play works well. Using the installed Office 365 Home package that comes preinstalled is hustle free and effective.
Hardware There are a number of helpful hardware features that comes in the device. There’s the SIM card slot on the side, that allows for data connections. The data connection is pretty straight forward and very easy to set up and use.
Folks have asked if it can be used for making calls? Well unfortunately it doesn’t. The device doesn’t fall in the Mobile classification 8″ and below. So if you search for the Microsoft Phone from the app store you won’t find it. or it’ll show and tell you non-compatible device.
A mini HDMI, USB, Headphone and MicroSD card slot can be found on the side of the ZEPTO UmiTab 10. The available MicroSD card slot can help with expanding your storage space. It’s on the side, as a result, it is easy to pull and plugin. I used a micro USB OTG in the USB slot to access the contents on my phone. There’s also the option of connecting any USB device via an OTG, don’t know if it comes in the box. Didn’t get one but i’ll check and update.
Sound, Mic, Camera, Speakers
Having a 2 or 5MP camera isn’t a luxury in today’s world where some phones have bigger and better. However, I think it’s enough to get the light things like a video call out of the way. Well unless of course, you want HD. But then you pay more for those than this :). The 2MP front camera has face detection and the back 5MP seems quite decent with autofocus.
The Microphone wasn’t very loud in my test playbacks. Speakers were just okay for music and video. I’ll say not the best compared to sophisticated devices on the market.
Battery Life
Battery life is estimated to be between 6 to 8 hours. I experienced something around 5 and 6 hours. But battery lives are always subject to use. I one time during a video playback had around 10 hours estimated.
What I think:
It’s great value for money.
The soft keyboard didn’t quite hit it for me. it’ll take some getting use to. Gestures on the trackpad aren’t great. Maybe a firmware fix might come in handy.
The internal memory of 32 GB is just too small. You’ll have about 7GB of storage left to use. This is where the MicroSD card slot comes in.
It’s not lappable. More of either detach and use as a tablet or dock it on a table for effective use
The PC’s come in red, cyan/blue, black, gray and pink colors.
If there’s something you’ll like to know that I didn’t touch on. Or have you used or owned one and experienced it differently? Kindly share with us in the comments.
Acquisition, mise à jour ou des questions sur le nouveau Windows 10 et Office 2016? Venez leur découvrir à un rendez-vous aujourd’hui à Agence Prestige au Point E à Dakar, Senegal à partir de 0900h à 11h30.
OUMOU Informatique en partenariat avec Microsoft Africa organisent une journée portes-ouvertes, entrée libre, afin de vous présenter les innovations technologiques Microsoft Windows 10 et Office 2016.
L’événement aura lieu aujourd’hui le Jeudi 28 Janvier 2016, De 09h à 11h A L’Agence Prestige, De Oumou Leader Distribution Equipement Au POINT E.
Pour La Grande Découverte de Nouvelles Technologies Microsoft Windows 10 et Office 2016, Ainsi que Office 365, En partenariat avec Microsoft Africa, vous Aurez L’opportunité De Bénéficier Des Mises à Jour Gratuites de Windows10.
Des Solutions Devices à Vos Problèmes Matériaux et Equipements Informatique, De Même que Des Offres Spéciales et de Nombreux Cadeaux à Bénéficier.
Alors, des questions sur le nouveau Windows et Office 2016 ? Envie de faire votre mise à jour et/ou acquérir Windows 10 et/ou Office 2016 ? Ou Profiter de nos offres sur les Devices?
Si un ou toute vos réponse sont oui, aller à cette événement et profiter de l’opportunité
Oumou informatique : Créée en 2005, la société OUMOU INFORMATIQUE s’est donnée pour mission d’accompagner les particuliers et les entreprises dans leurs évolutions informatiques.
