The digital collaboration and productivity platforms – Virtual School, teaching-learning, and Microsoft Teams – leaders in their respective segments, have come together to provide teachers and students with an integrated solution that allows them to take full advantage of the platforms’ potential.
Porto Editora’s Virtual School app was specifically developed to integrate Microsoft Teams for Education, the tool for communication, collaboration, co-editing and application integration that allows the creation of groups, namely classes, where teachers and students access with a secure identity, using credentials created and managed by the school.
In the Virtual School app, a class can be added to Microsoft Teams to follow their own learning dynamics. “It is a step with a significant impact on the daily lives of teachers and students”, says Rui Pacheco, director of the Multimedia Center of Grupo Porto Editora, “because it will simplify the work, streamline the relationship and communication between everyone, the management of tasks and moments of learning, synchronous or asynchronous”.
In practical terms, Microsoft Teams for Education allows you to simplify processes and workflows between teachers and students. Thus, in a Microsoft Teams class it is possible: interaction between teachers and students by chat, call or video meetings up to 50 students with access to the image simultaneously and in a virtual classroom; availability of information in the “Classroom Materials” and “School Notepad” folders; greater dialogue and sharing of information and content under the supervision of the teacher; use of the digital workflow “Jobs” to assess students and make the results available for consultation and support.
In addition to these advantages, Sandra Martinho, director for the area of Education and Philanthropy at Microsoft Portugal underlines that “the use of Microsoft Teams in Education allows the integration of several tools with the aim of simplifying the day-to-day school life of teachers and students. This partnership facilitates the learning path in any environment, whether it is merely remote or hybrid and reinforces the investment that Microsoft has been developing with the educational community in the adoption of technological tools that foster collaboration as a daily exercise of the skills of the century. XXI”.
With more than 15 years of experience, the Virtual School currently has about 800 thousand users and is the most used nationally between the 1st and 12th years of schooling. The partnership with Microsoft Teams will allow the creation of a single entry point in order to enhance the capabilities of the two tools, reinforce security levels and simplify the day-to-day activities of teachers and students.
Over the past year, Microsoft Portugal has reinforced its support for the educational community through the free availability of Office 365 for students and teachers, learning resources and initiatives for sharing good practices that aim at a better transition to distance learning. In view of the growing use of digital platforms, the addition of the Virtual School and Microsoft Teams will make it possible to reinforce support for the educational ecosystem.
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