Microsoft Releases Four New Academic Products

Microsoft Corp.Microsoft Student 2006 (www.microsoft.com/education)has releasedfour new academic-specificproducts, all availablein time for thenew school year:Learning Essentialsfor MicrosoftOffice, MicrosoftShared ComputerToolkit for WindowsXP, MicrosoftStudent 2006,and MicrosoftEncarta AcademicOnline. Learning Essentials,which runs atop any version ofOffice XP or 2003, gives studentsand teachers a customized Officeenvironment with tools to helpthem start and complete assignmentsmore effectively and intuitively.The Shared ComputerToolkit is a powerful combinationof software tools and documentationthat help optimizeand reduce the total cost ofowning and operating WindowsXP-based computers in sharedenvironments such as schoollibraries and computer labs.Microsoft Student 2006 guidesjunior high and high schoolstudents throughthe learning processby offeringsubject-specifichomework tools,such as graphingcalculator softwareand the LearningEssentials program.Finally, Microsoft’sEncarta AcademicOnline gives everystudent one-click access toEncarta reference content inseven languages for 11 countries.All of the products,excluding the Toolkit, are availablefor Academic VolumeLicensing.

Featured

  • split-screen digital illustration of two AI-influenced classrooms

    What AI Gets Right and How It Will Be Used in the Year Ahead

    AI has tremendous potential to do good in education while honoring and upholding the essential role of teachers. However, its success will depend on how we choose to use it.

  • outline of a modern school building as glowing blue geometric shapes, surrounded by binary code streams, with golden orbs and lines representing funding, set against a dark gray gradient with faint grid patterns

    FCC Cybersecurity Pilot Participants Selected

    The Federal Communications Commission has officially selected the participants for its Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot, the three-year program exploring the use of Universal Service funds to improve school and library defenses against cyber attacks.

  • SXSW EDU

    3 Opportunities to Get Hands-on with AI at SXSW EDU 2025

    This March 3-6 in Austin, TX, the SXSW EDU Conference & Festival celebrates its 15th year of exploring the most critical issues in education and providing a forum for creativity, innovation, and expression.

  • Two digital hands made of interconnected lines and nodes shaking hands firmly against a minimal technological background

    IBM to Acquire AI and Data Solutions Provider DataStax

    IBM has announced the planned acquisition AI and data solutions provider DataStax, in a move aimed at enhancing its watsonx portfolio and advancing generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for enterprises.