Google for Education has been used in the Division for years as a tool for students to collaborate in real time, and for staff to get information and assignments to/from students. The extensions and add-ons have made it work extremely well for many division staff members, and now that people have moved into it, they struggle to imagine teaching any other way than daily using Google's Education Suite. The ease of use of their Sites and Classroom for hosting materials, plus the formative assessment information and activities available through Google Forms makes them easy to use, and quite accessible. We have already provided many Google training videos, so visit our Google Features and Accessibility Features pages to access them.

Microsoft Education was used in the Division long before Google, but many teachers moved away from it mainly because of the lack of synchronous tools, especially for student collaboration and student-teacher assignment hosting. Now, Microsoft is going aggressively after the education market, and they have synchronicity handled, finally, plus they have that big bonus of the more advanced Microsoft tools. They won't be the answer for everyone, but their accessibility tools like integrated Office Lens and Immersive Reader in OneNote and Word alone make them a force, and something to consider for your course delivery! If you're looking for training, the CustomGuide training emailed to you on March 21st is optional but meant to help you to hone your own Microsoft skills in the Windows 10 environment. We are also creating Microsoft training videos, so visit the Microsoft Features page to view them.