Microsoft's education-focused 'Learning Tools' sees massive growth, but have you even heard of it?
Image Credit: Microsoft
Everyone knows nearly Microsoft'southward Office which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, One Note and other pop tools that represent the status quo for productivity. These Microsoft tools are then integral in concern that knowing how to use them is a prerequisite to getting hired for many jobs. They are just that powerful and accept a profound impact.
In a similar vein, Microsoft Learning Tools is a set of tools Microsoft developed just three years agone, integrated inside many of its products and other platforms and are having a significant impact in improving reading and writing for millions of students worldwide.
You may be wondering "what's Microsoft Learning Tools?" Well, because Microsoft began slipping this hackathon-birthed gem into its products only three years ago, many other people may be request that same question. In a nutshell, if you are a pupil, the parent of a student, an educator, an ambassador of a school district or anyone who cares about the impact of applied science on pedagogy Microsoft Learning Tools is for yous.
Microsoft Learning Tools is a ready of free tools "that implement proven techniques to improve reading and writing for people regardless of their age or ability." Educators that take implemented them in their classrooms and students that take used them testify to their effectiveness in improving reading comprehension, encouraging independent reading and their ease of use.
The fact that Learning Tools is gratis and integrated into Microsoft products is an nugget that saves cash-strapped schools from spending money on costly products to assistance students learn. Their seamless integration into the classroom as part of Word, OneNote and other products that all students utilize also precludes the stigmatization some students feel when using specialized tools to combat reading challenges like Dyslexia.
Learning Tools usage soared from 100K to 13M users in merely one twelvemonth.
Microsoft Learning Tools began as an add together-in for OneNote. Through its headline characteristic Immersive Reader, information technology provides students with visual and audio support in reading comprehension, breaking words into syllables, identifying parts of speech and more. In Microsoft Discussion Learning Tools can be easily accessed by selecting the View tab, choosing the Learning Tools button then selecting the Learning Tools tab to access the same (and additional) tools found in Learning Tools for Ane Notation. The ability to highlight text, have text read aloud, change groundwork colors, text size and more through Learning Tools is a valuable asset to struggling readers and thier educators.
As a testimony to Learning Tools' effectiveness it has seen explosive growth. In but one twelvemonth usage has soared from 100, 000 to thirteen million users and over 40 languages effectually the globe. This wildfire adoption reflects the profound need it addresses and how vital this, Microsoft's "best-kept secret," is to improving reading and writing skills for students of varying abilities, learning differences and fifty-fifty those who are gifted.
First a Hackathon then the world
Image Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft Learning Tools began as a hackathon project in 2022, winning with what was so a OneNote add-in focused on helping people with Dyslexia. It was birthed from a want by Microsoft'southward Windows Accessibility Lead Jeff Fiddling every bit an effort to build reading assistance tools directly into Microsoft technologies.
Petty said, "I merely got fixated on the fact that people don't talk about cognitive impairment a lot. They don't talk virtually the fact that it's hard for people to read and write."
Learning Tools headline feature, Immersive Reader was then pushed into as many Microsoft products and other platforms every bit possible. Educators and students all over the earth began experiencing information technology via OneNote Grade Notebooks.
Learning Tools has impacted more than than students, however. Older people who have never learned to read, lawyers navigating massive legal documents, and businesses using Microsoft teams with Immersive Reader are also benefiting from the tool.
The cat's near out of the bag
Microsoft Learning Tools is a simple but powerful fix of tools, that is easily navigated and is reflective of Microsoft's mission to incorporate products seamlessly into engineering rather than "tacking them on."
This seamless integration is ironically as well i of the drawbacks to Microsoft Learning Tools. Not to its effectiveness or importance simply to the product's visibility. Just equally my editor who works for a site that covers Microsoft didn't know what I was referring to when I pitched the story, many outside of the didactics sector to which Learning Tools is aggressively pushed may not know of it either. As integration with other Microsoft products like real-time translation are added its value to users increases and its visibility becomes fifty-fifty more important.
In add-on to the xiii one thousand thousand people using Learning Tools millions more with access to technology at home, at libraries and other venues may exist missing the benefits of Microsoft Learning Tools because the message hasn't even so reached their schools.
Perhaps on device "marketing" via Cortana or Windows tin exist leveraged to surface the benefits of Learning Tools as well every bit more traditional marketing to supplement the passionate efforts being put forth by Main Product Manager for Microsoft Education Mike Tholfsen and others.
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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsofts-learning-tools-100k-13m-users-may-be-its-best-kept-secret
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