Microsoft Education believes all students deserve equitable access to education. We take pride in touching all aspects of the learning experience with a wide variety of products to create safe and inclusive learning solutions designed to help everyone reach their highest potential.
Using AI, Microsoft Education has developed a new category of tools called Learning Accelerators which are widely available for all Microsoft 365 Education accounts. These tools are all found in Microsoft Teams for Education and have been created to empower educators to help students gain critical foundational and workplace skills. Learning Accelerators build on Microsoft’s dedication to providing schools with solutions, technologies, and education expertise to affect all learners' academic, social, and emotional growth.
These accelerators, along with Windows 11, deliver high-quality learning tools for students of all abilities; Microsoft 365 Education offers a suite of student-centered solutions that help create an equitable learning environment for all; Microsoft Teams lets students, faculty, educators, and staff meet, collaborate, create, and share resources; and our Learning Accelerators help students practice core subjects while gathering actionable insights for educators.
Because we have products to cover all an educator's needs, we could create solutions that work within our specific ecosystem, but that would limit what we can do and what we’ll be able to offer our customers in the future.
While we continue to innovate, we know others are doing the same, and we want to be ready to work with the best ideas to support teaching and learning, regardless of which company comes up with the idea first.
To ensure we are ready for innovations and that they will work with the exemplary products already making a difference in schools, Microsoft works with 1EdTech Consortium. 1EdTech’s standards help us do all we need to do to help support teaching and learning worldwide. It simplifies the process of integrating with our world-class partners; allows us to share information across courses, educators, and families; and makes those communications more secure to help protect student information.
That’s also why we continue our collaborations with 1EdTech members, help develop and recertify our products in updated standards, and always look for new ways to power learner potential. A 1EdTech membership is the key to shaping the future of technology in a way that benefits teaching and learning for all.
By working with 1EdTech standards, we can create our new solutions and easily bring in other apps and tools as they are created. We’re ready for the latest innovations and future technologies before they hit the market.
It also gives educators the flexibility to combine our solutions with others that fit their needs. We can collaborate across platforms to provide educators and students with the best possible education solutions.
1EdTech also allows us to be part of the conversation as the standards are created, building an ecosystem that works for everyone.
About the Author
Serena Sacks-Mandel
Ms. Sacks-Mandel is the Worldwide Chief Technology and Transformation Officer at Microsoft for the education industry. Before joining Microsoft, she was the Chief Information Officer at two unique, technically advanced large public school districts. She enabled student-centric teaching and learning, which resulted in significant improvements in student outcomes. Prior to pivoting to Education, she led innovation teams at IBM, Walt Disney World, and HMH and provided management consulting at many others. Serena has won numerous state, national, and global awards for leadership, vision, technical excellence, and her commitment to supporting women in technology.
