What's New in Microsoft EDU, BETT 2025 Edition
Welcome to our update for Microsoft Education and our special Bett 2025 edition! The Bett conference takes place in London during the week of January 22th - January 24th, and Microsoft Education has a bunch of exciting updates to share! Check out official Bett News blog here, and our full Bett schedule and session times, be sure to check out our Microsoft EDU Bett 2025 guide. January 2025 topics: New Learning app for Copilot+ PC M365 Copilot Chat M365 Copilot updates for Educators and Students Learning Accelerators Teams Minecraft EDU OneNote 1. Project Spark, a new learning app for Copilot+ PCs Last year, Microsoft introduced Copilot+ PCs; a groundbreaking category of Windows PCs designed for AI. These are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built, featuring powerful silicon capable of over 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second), all-day battery life, and access to advanced AI models. Copilot+ PCs unlock capabilities you won’t find on any other PC. At Bett, we’re excited to announce Project Spark, a new free AI-enhanced learning app coming later this year to Copilot+ PCs. Via the power of AI Spark empowers educators to create interactive, personalized lessons quickly and with no-cost. Whether using their own materials or leveraging trusted resources available in the app, it makes teachers’ day-to-day easier by cutting the manual work and tech knowledge needed for content creation, and enables educators to provide active, meaningful, personalized and engaging learning experiences for their students. Project Spark is built on trusted partnerships with leading organizations: OpenStax: Harness the power of the world’s largest publisher of open educational resources (OER) and a leader in interactive learning technology, based at Rice University, to generate lessons tailored to your needs. NASA, Figma and Minecraft Education: Explore ready-to-learn interactive lessons that inspire creativity, curiosity, and next-level engagement both in the classroom and beyond. Kahoot!: Effortlessly create personalized, interactive Kahoot! games with on-device AI, to engage your classroom with fun and effective learning experiences. Project Spark brings learning value to the entire Windows classroom; while lesson generation is only available on Copilot+ PC devices, anyone with a Modern PC can use the extensive ready-to-learn lesson library or any lesson created by their colleagues to share with students, and students can play lessons on any Windows device. Grounded in learning science and developed with responsible AI principles in mind, Project Spark is the first educational solution natively built for Copilot+ PCs, harnessing on-device AI (NPUs) to elevate teaching and learning and ensures lessons are not only impactful but also inclusive, engaging, and safe. With Project Spark, we’re taking the next step in transforming classrooms, enabling educators to create meaningful learning experiences powered by cutting-edge technology. 2. M365 Copilot Chat updates Our vision is for everyone to have access to a Copilot and for educational experiences to be transformed with agents. Education institutions from Auburn University to Northern Ireland Education Authority are already saving time and improving learning outcomes with Copilot. Today, we’re introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 education customers. Copilot Chat includes: Free, secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o Agents accessible right in the chat and priced on a metered basis IT controls, including enterprise data protection and agent management It’s the chat experience you can use every day—powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and designed to be safe and secure. It offers foundational capabilities of the Copilot Control System, including enterprise data protection and agent management. Moving forward, institutions will have a mix of Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot, our best-in-class offering. Try Copilot Chat today at m365copilot.com and learn more in the announcement blog. 3. M365 Copilot for Educators and Students updates AI Suggested Feedback for Educators The new Suggested Feedback feature helps educators streamline their feedback process by combining student work with the selected rubric or initial teacher-provided comments. Using AI, it generates updated, summarized feedback that aligns with student performance and expectations. Teachers remain in full control, with the ability to review and edit suggestions before returning feedback to students. This ensures that feedback remains personal, accurate, and reflective of the teacher’s expertise while saving valuable time. When: Entering private preview in Q1 2025 for M365 Copilot subscribers Education agents On top of the wide range of pre-built agents from Microsoft, teaching and learning agents will be available in the coming months. Eligible students are proactively prompted with questions to engage them in the learning process and provide tailored coaching on specific subjects or assignments. Educators receive the support of an instructional designer with responses grounded in pedagogical expertise and educational standards. When: Microsoft agents in private preview for M365 Copilot subscribers. Register here. One of our partners, Clever, the global identity platform for education, understands the importance of connected data to maximize educational value and insights. Clever's agent, currently in private preview, helps teachers generate customized lesson plans by incorporating applications their districts already use. Districts interested in piloting the Clever agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot with their teachers can express interest here. When: Clever’s agent is in private preview for M365 Copilot subscribers. Register here. We will also be releasing open-source agents designed to facilitate interactions between educators, learners, and their course materials within learning management systems such as Canvas LMS, part of the Instructure Learning Platform, and Moodle LMSTM. Institutions will be able to download, customize, and deploy them to address their specific needs and get the most out of their investments. When: Canvas agent entering private preview in Q1 2025 for M365 Copilot subscribers. When: Moodle agent entering private preview in Q2 2025 for M365 Copilot subscribers. The word Moodle and associated Moodle logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Moodle Pty Ltd or its related affiliates. 4. Learning Accelerator updates Math Progress at general availability We’re pleased to announce Math Progress, a new Learning Accelerator, is now generally available in Microsoft Teams for Education for all supported languages. Math Progress streamlines assignment creation and provides student performance insights to help educators identify course trends at the individual or class level. And it’s easy to keep students on track by addressing mistakes or common misconceptions to accelerate learning. As a powerful formative assessment tool, Math Progress simplifies lesson planning by providing educators with activities and quizzes designed on math concepts that students are prepared to learn. When: Available globally now Speaker Progress updates We are so excited to announce some incredible updates to Speaker Progress, our Learning Accelerator that helps students build confidence in their presentation and public speaking skills with real-time coaching and feedback. AI Transcript Feedback in Speaker Progress We are bringing generative AI to Speaker Progress with our new AI Transcript Feedback feature. Educators can choose to enable AI feedback, select a speech type, and evaluation criteria. Student speeches will then receive summary feedback and in line notes to help students improve the content and qualitative aspects of their presentations. The educator is fully in control and must review AI Feedback before it is shared with students. When: Spring 2025 More languages in Speaker Progress More languages are now available in Speaker Progress, including Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish and Danish. More languages including French, German, and Dutch are in progress as well. Keep checking back regularly as we are adding new languages to Speaker Progress every month! When: Available globally now! PowerPoint Sharing in Speaker Progress Our top user ask is now here! Students can now upload PowerPoints and present them in Speaker Progress. They’ll be able to share their PowerPoints while getting real-time feedback from Speaker Progress. Students can upload a PowerPoint from OneDrive or their device and then allow screen sharing to access this experience. When: Available globally now! Moodle and D2L Brightspace support Learning Accelerators via LTI The Teams Assignments LTI tool brings Learning Accelerators directly into your LMS! In addition to Canvas, Schoology and Blackboard integration which are generally available today, Teams Assignments LTI integration is now in preview with Moodle, and D2L Brightspace, and we will open up self-onboarding for additional partners shortly. To keep up to date with LMS integrations, and to receive preview invitations, please sign up at: https://aka.ms/LMSPreview. For deployment instructions for your LMS, please visit: https://aka.ms/LTIAdminDocs When: Moodle and D2L in preview now, Canvas and Schoology - available globally. Reading Coach at general availability The standalone Reading Coach standalone app is now Generally Available in multiple languages, and with new engagement features. Reading Coach is a FREE reading fluency application that provides personalized, engaging practice. It can be used in the classroom or home with a Microsoft account as a Windows application or on the web that can be accessed from any web connected device, including Chromebooks, iPads and any browser-enabled device. You can check out a detailed demo video here. Reading in multiple languages Add your own content in 80+ languages include 14 different English dialects. Reading Coach will listen to you read in the language of your choice, note mispronunciations and coach you on challenging words. Readers can also create stories using AI in 14 languages. Like in English, the stories have multiple chapters and learners can pick their own path through the story. Find it easily Users will be able to find Reading Coach more easily at www.microsoft365.com alongside the rest of the M365 applications when logged in as a consumer or Entra ID education user. Reading streaks and progress over time Earn Reading 3-day, 5-day and 7-day streaks to earn rewards in Reading Coach. Readers can also see their progress over a week, 30-days and all-time through an easy-to-read dashboard made usable for learners of all ages. When: Available globally now Formatted feedback support We're excited to introduce Formatted Feedback for Teams Assignments, offering enhanced options for feedback to your students! Now, you can provide detailed and visually engaging feedback with support for bold, italic, underline, bullet points, font color, highlights, and even emojis (Windows + . shortcut). With up to 10,000 characters of space, teachers have plenty of room to give comprehensive feedback. Need more space? Switch to Expanded View for a larger text input, making it easier than ever to craft detailed responses. When: Available Now Refreshed grid view experience Microsoft Teams for Education now has a new refreshed grid view, wherein you will directly be able to get to your assignments or classwork for your classes in grid view. This feature will make it easier and faster for you to get to your assignments, classwork or channels. When: Generally Available Class team templates Education users of Microsoft Teams admin center will now be able to create team templates for their organization. A team template in Microsoft Teams is a definition of a team's structure designed around a business need or project. As an admin, you can use templates to easily deploy consistent teams across your organization. With templates, your users can quickly create rich collaboration spaces with predefined settings, channels, and apps. EDU IT admins will now have an option to add a new template on top of existing default templates for Education. While creating the template, users will have 3 options to choose as a starting point Create a new template to create from scratch Use an existing team as a template to use one of your existing teams as a starting point Start with an existing template to using existing template as a starting pointA screenshot of a computer 3. Next, user will be required to add basic details for the template like name, description and locale. 4. Once created, these templates should start showing up for Teachers & Students on Teams while creating classes/teams. If you wish to limit the access, you can use template policies which is a Teams premium feature. 5. Lastly, users can customize the channels & apps for the template and save it.A screenshot of a computer When: Available now Rename General channel Up until now, every team in Microsoft Teams had a default General channel. All team members are part of this channel, and it can’t be archived or deleted. We’ve heard from users that they wanted the option to retitle this channel to something more meaningful. So, we made it happen! The General channel can now be renamed by the team’s owners. It will then show up in alphabetical order like other channels in the teams and channels lists for all members. When: Available now 6. Minecraft EDU updates Try Lesson Crafter, now in Preview, a new tool to help educators create Minecraft lesson plans to fit their classroom. Minecraft Education is also expanding its AI skills program with a new student credentialing pathway offered through Prodigy Learning. 7. OneNote Updates Pick any color with the new Eyedropper tool in OneNote With the new Eyedropper tool in OneNote, you can easily choose a color from any image, shape, or inked notes found in the app. The tool also allows you to build your own personalized set of pens in the drawing toolbox. When: Available now New ink pens We have added two new pens to your Draw tab in OneNote on Windows: Fountain Pen and Brush Pen. Also, we have updated pen icons, bringing a new refreshed and coherent look across your favorite productivity apps. When: Available now And finally, just to recap all the news we have for you this month, here’s a quick review of all the features that are generally available or are rolling out now: Project Spark, a new learning app for Copilot+ PCs M365 Copilot Chat M365 Copilot for Educators and students Learning Accelerator updates Math Progress at general availability Speaker Progress updates LTI integration with Moodle Reading Coach at general availability General Teams Updates AI Feedback and grading expanded dialog New grid layout updates Rename the General channel Unified calendar with Outlook Minecraft EDU updates OneNote updates Ink eyedropper New ink pens Have any feedback to share with us? As always, we'd love to hear it! Mike Tholfsen Group Product Manager Microsoft EducationReading Coach, the AI-powered fluency practice tool, is now generally available in 81 languages
This month's post was written by Anoo Padte, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Education. Reading Coach blog topics Improve learners' literacy skills with AI-powered Reading Coach What's New Multiple languages supported Reading Streaks and progress data over 30 days and all-time Zero touch deployment How to get started. Reading Coach, Microsoft’s free AI-powered tool provides personalized and engaging reading practice at school and home. It is now generally available in 81 languages through zero-touch deployment. Reading Coach can be used in the classroom or at home with a Microsoft 365 account for Windows, or from any browser-enabled device, including Surface, Surface Pro, Chromebook, or iPad. With a wealth of new enhancements to accelerate literacy, Reading Coach makes reading practice personalized, and engaging for learners of all ages. Improve learners’ literacy skills with AI-powered Reading Coach Reading Coach offers a range of features designed to build engagement and improve literacy for learners of all ages, including: AI-powered features: Reading Coach uses AI to generate stories that provide instant feedback on pronunciation, improve reading fluency, and help learners practice reading content that matches their abilities and interests. Personalized learning: Reading Coach provides personalized and engaging reading practice, detecting challenging words and offering targeted practice to help learners improve their fluency. Inclusive design: Reading Coach is designed to be inclusive and support emerging readers and learners with dyslexia. Built-in support from Immersive Reader makes reading enjoyable for all learners. Engagement and motivation: Reading Coach motivates learners to earn achievements, unlock new story elements as they read, and pick their own path through stories, driving continuous engagement. Learners can also track progress over time, and review reading accuracy insights, time spent reading, and other helpful metrics. What’s new Multiple languages supported The user experience is now available in 81 languages, making Reading Coach accessible to native speakers of all those languages. Learners can add their own content in up to 81 languages. Learners can create AI-powered stories in 14 languages. Picking their own path through each chapter, learners go on an adventure through three or five chapter stories. 14 different English dialects are supported to recognize pronunciations across the globe. See the list of languages supported here. Reading Coach listens to readers in the language of their choice, notes mispronunciations, and coaches them on challenging words. Reading Streaks and progress data over 30 days and all-time To keep learners motivated, Reading Coach offers encouragement through digital badges and rewards. Readers can now earn streak badges for completing three, five, and seven days of reading. As readers progress, Reading Coach displays their growth in a dashboard that they can easily understand. They’ll see information on reading time, accuracy rate, and mispronunciations, as well as goals to reach the next achievement. Learners can also track their growth over a week, a 30-day period, and all-time with summary statistics: Total reading days and time Stories started and completed Average accuracy and words per minute Badges earned and characters unlocked Zero-touch deployment No action is needed to enable Reading Coach, as it’s already enabled in Microsoft 365 through zero-touch deployment. Microsoft Education M365 school and home users can find Reading Coach already pinned and ready to go at www.microsoft365.com once they login. To get started: 1. Go to https://coach.microsoft.com.A computer screen shot of a computer 2. Click the Get started button. 3. Sign in with your Microsoft 365 school or personal account 4. Explore, practice, and enjoy!Unleash the power and fun of learning with colorful Microsoft Education Quick Guides
Heather Aird’s Microsoft Education Quick Guides instantly catch the eye with their vibrant colors and engaging design. Gone are the days of dull, text-heavy manuals. These visually stunning guides are a breath of fresh air in the world of educational resources.
