Six Heads Are Better Than One

Encouraging and empowering teamwork in Education with Microsoft Collaborative Tools

When we were children, collaborating on a school project usually meant gathering around a piece of paper, pencils in hand, tongues probably sticking out of the corner of our mouths, wishing that we’d been partnered with one of the brainy kids. Someone would eventually be nominated as ‘writer’, someone else as ‘drawer’, and then the most opinionated would hold court, ordaining proceedings in the vein of a miniature dictator. Inter-school collaboration was rare and fragmented. International collaboration almost unheard of.

The developing technology of the last 20 years has brought about no end of changes to the ways in which schools operate, but few provide a more startling contrast than the means of collaboration. Continuing our run down of Microsoft’s educational offerings, today we’re looking at the ways in which our favourite manufacturer’s educational app store could help make teamwork easier in an educational environment, especially when working on a Microsoft Surface.

It’s Not What You’ve Got but the Way That You Use it

… Making the most of Microsoft Learning Tools for Education

Have you ever stopped and properly looked at all the tools that your computer can offer you? Not just the obvious Office and web browsers, or even the games beyond Solitaire – who doesn’t like the odd sneaky game of Solitaire? – but at SketchBook and Drawboard, Maps and StickyNotes, not to mention the wealth within the MS app store. If you haven’t – and we’d be willing to bet that you haven’t – then how can you expect your customers to? And if they don’t look, how can they know what Microsoft has to offer?

We always get questions about how Surface devices fit in with education, over the next few weeks and months we’ll be looking at some of the best tools currently available for your customers, starting with MS learning tools.

Take your cloud business to the next level on the 12th of October

By Katy Maley

The date has been set …… The 12th of October:

The world of Cloud is growing at an expanding rate and it is hard to keep up with all the new products and demands thrown at us daily. How do we Migrate? What is GDPR? Is our system safe? These are all questions resellers are asking our team of experts on a daily basis.

Our Nebula programme is all around enablement, education and ensuring you have the right solutions to showcase to your customers. Nebula has been running for two years successfully, and this year it’s my turn to run the event. After many cappuccinos and meetings, I’ve put together an agenda that promises a great day – I hope you agree.

Coming Up for Air – All You Need to Know About Surface in Education

 ‘Our aim is to empower every student on the planet to achieve more.’ Steve Beswick, Business Development Director – Education Industry, Microsoft.

That, in a nutshell, is what Surface in Education is all about.

Anyone who has paid attention to Microsoft over the years will be aware of the company’s long-term commitment to education. Right from the days of Bill Gates, Microsoft has invested in education; it’s one of the key tenets at the heart of the business. Consequently, as a reseller, if you’re looking to expand your target market, the education sector is the ideal area to set your sights, because Microsoft – and Westcoast – are already prepared to help you. 

Keep learning with Hewlett Packard Enterprise

By Dave Anthony

This year marks a decade in the existence of the smartphone. This period has revolutionised our relationship to information. Our expectation in our private lives is for whatever information we want, where ever and whenever we want it. This expectation has become a demand, one that hardware and software vendors have responded to, providing ever greater tools for living and enjoyment.

This demand is spreading into all aspects of our lives. Accessibility and flexibility is becoming the norm at work. The anticipation by 2020 is that more people will be connecting wirelessly than by wire in business. Not only does this mean that hardware needs to be of a higher performance and feature level to meet this increased data requirement, but the server, storage and networking infrastructure needs significantly more advanced levels of security to safeguard this new way of working.

Westcoast Mentors help students win their place in the Champions of Enterprise Grand Final

By Sian Walsh

Source: ebpwb.co.uk

In September 2016 Westcoast were given the opportunity to mentor students from local community schools as they took part in the West Berkshire Champions of Enterprise competition. Throughout the autumn more than 400 sixth form students from five secondary schools took part in this exceptional competition. They were joined by volunteer mentors from 12 companies and each mentor was tasked with inspiring and advising a team of students while giving up 150 hours of their time for the project.