Thanks to a new offering through its OneNote note-taking product, Microsoft could make “my dog ate my homework” a thing of the past.
The company unveiled the new OneNote Class Notebook Creator app today, which allows educators to build and deploy notebooks to students in their classes using Microsoft’s note taking software and Office 365. Teachers can create one managed notebook that they can use to review and leave feedback on a student’s work, and couple that with a content library that contains relevant class resources.
In addition, the service also includes a shared collaboration space where students can go to discuss and work together on topics related to the class. The service is free to those educators who have Office 365, but schools that don’t use Microsoft’s subscription-based productivity software will be left out. Here’s a video that shows how it all works:
Today’s announcement comes after a number of other updates to OneNote, including support for handwriting notes into a notebook. Microsoft has made a number of updates to OneNote this year to appeal to a wider audience, including releasing it as a free app for Windows, the Mac, iPad and Android tablets.
This is a move by Microsoft to make its software and hardware more appealing to educators at a time when many schools are choosing to turn away from Windows and towards Chromebooks or iPads. Right now, educators have more choices when it comes to what electronic devices they use in their classrooms than ever before, so Microsoft needs to keep innovating to address teacher needs.
