Monthly Archives: February 2023

Not able to attend Bett 2023? Meet us virtually!

For schools and MATS unable to attend this year’s Bett show, we’re giving people the opportunity to meet with us virtually in March.

Bett is one of the key events in the EdTech calendar – bringing tens of thousands of educators to London’s ExCeL Exhibition Centre each year.

However, we know not everyone can make it down to the capital in person.

That’s why we’re offering the chance for school and trust leaders to book a virtual meeting with us ahead of the event.

Book your virtual meeting with us today.

If you are planning on heading down to London on the 29-31 March – great! We’ll also be attending Bett for the entire three days on Stand SF16.

You can still book a pre-Bett meeting with us to get the conversation started about Microsoft Teams and SharePoint for your school or trust.

Book your pre-Bett show meeting with us today.

Meet us at the world’s leading EdTech event of the year

Cloud Design Box is attending Bett 2023 – which returns to the ExCeL London from 29 – 31 March, bringing together educators from across the world.

Expected to welcome over 30,000 attendees and 600 EdTech providers, Bett is the world’s leading EdTech exhibition, showcasing all the latest cutting-edge education products and services.

You can find us at Stand SF16 – next to our partner company SalamanderSoft – where you’ll be able to meet members of our team and talk one-to-one about your Microsoft Teams and SharePoint needs.

We know many people will want to plan their visit ahead of time and avoid queues, so we’ve opened meeting slots for you to book a meeting with us at a time that suits you.

Unable to attend this year’s Bett show?

We’ve got you covered. We’re hosting a series of virtual Bett meetings in the weeks running up to the event.

Find out about our pre-Bett show conversations here.

“Bett show is a key event in our calendar every year. It’s an extremely busy but exciting week for the whole team. It gives us the unique opportunity of catching up with our partner companies and speaking to schools and trusts about the challenges they face in an increasingly digital world,” enthuses Tony Phillips, Founder of Cloud Design Box.

“It’s brilliant talking to schools and trusts face-to-face and seeing those ‘ah-ha!’ moments when we demonstrate how our product can help them overcome the problems taking up a lot of their time and budgets,” our Customer Success Manager Joanne Harkin-Arro adds.

We’re also taking part in the EdTech Trail, ran every year by The Association of Network Managers in Education (The ANME). Visit our stand and get your stamp to be in with the chance of winning a Ring Stick Up Camera and the £50 Amazon Voucher main prize.

Bett 2023 takes place at the ExCeL London on 29-31 March – Register your place here and reserve a meeting slot with Cloud Design Box here.

Get reading and language support in Microsoft’s Immersive Reader | SEND Pathways Series

Immersive Reader is built into many Microsoft apps and is brilliant for offering additional reading support to students. The tool offers many different features, including the ability to change font sizes and colours, read aloud passages and translate text into other languages, making it excellent for supporting SEND and EAL students inside and outside the classroom.

How to set up Immersive Reader.

Immersive Reader is available across a wide range of Microsoft apps, and setting it up is straightforward, but it differs depending on the app you’re using. Look out for the Immersive Reader symbol when you’re next using a Microsoft App.

Here’s an overview of how you can access Immersive Reader when next using a Microsoft App.

Microsoft Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc).

Select View in the top navigation bar and select Immersive Reader.

In Teams posts.

Hover over the message or post in Teams and select the three dots (…). Then tap Immersive Reader.

In Assignments.

Select the Immersive Reader symbol at the top of the page.

Class Notebook.

Select View in the top navigation bar and select Immersive Reader.

What are the best features of Immersive Reader for students?

Read aloud.

Choosing Read aloud will read your text out loud, allowing you to pause at any time. You can choose which voice style you wish to hear, and you can even speed up or slow down the speed of speech. There’s also an option to just read one word aloud.

Changing text size, font and colour.

You can edit the Text preferences in Immersive Reader, including the size, font and colour to make it easier to read. Simply use the slider to increase and decrease the font size and select which font and colour you wish to use. Also, within Text preferences, you can increase the spaces between characters, making it easier to read. This does not affect the original document’s formatting; it’s like your very own digital filter over the screen to assist you with reading.

Line focus.

Switching on Line Focus allows you to view the text one line at a time. This removes distractions and can help break down large bodies of text into manageable chunks. You can view one line at a time or increase it to three or five.

Syllable breakdown.

Using Syllable breakdown breaks down the words into syllables, which is useful when reading something out loud and working on pronunciation.

Grammar assistance.

The Grammar options in Immersive Reader allow you to highlight certain types of words. For example, Adjectives, Nouns, Adverbs and Verbs. You can even pick the highlight colours. Simply toggle on/off the options to identify the words in the text.

Picture Dictionary.

Immersive Reader’s Picture Dictionary is an excellent tool for quickly understanding the meanings of words. Simply click on a word, and a pop-up appears with an image to describe what the word could mean. Picture Dictionary is not always available on every word, but it is on those words that can be easily illustrated.

Translate.

With Immersive Reader, you can translate text into over 120 languages, with the option to translate the whole document or just one word. A great feature to support EAL students with learning and all students during language lessons.

Found this helpful? Share this guide with your colleagues and students.

3 Microsoft Teams For Education Tools for supporting EAL Students

Microsoft 365 for Education has a number of excellent tools that can help support students who use English as an additional language (EAL). This quick guide gives you an overview of our three favourite tools you can use to break down language barriers in the classroom.

Live translate conversations with Microsoft Translator.

The Microsoft Translator app is a free app that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store on any mobile device. With many different features and tools, the app is excellent for working with EAL students and opening up conversations who face language barriers in the classroom.

This guide shows how teachers and students can use the Microsoft Translator app on their mobile devices.

The translator app also has some extra features to support users with translation and learning:

Select the speaker icon to read the phrase aloud again.
Change the speed of the translation. For example, 0.75x for it to be read out slowly.
Pin a phrase and save it to refer back to later.
Share the recording and transcript in an email or via Teams.

Generate live captions for your lessons with Microsoft Translator.

The Microsoft Translator app in Class Notebook allows students to capture a transcript of what the teacher is saying during a lesson, which can help support EAL students to translate what is being said during lessons and make note-taking a lot easier.

The Live Captions can be set up to appear on the side of Class Notebook, allowing students to follow along and take notes as the lesson progresses.

This guide shows you how to set up live captions for your lessons with the Translator App.

Students have the ability to:

Pause the transcript when needed. The transcript will then catch up with the teacher when played again.
Change the text size of the transcript.
Highlight parts of the transcript in various colours.

The transcript is saved in the student’s Class Notebook under Transcripts when the lesson is finished. The transcript shows any highlights made and is timestamped.

Immersive Reader.

Take a look at this guide, which shows you everything you can do with Immersive Reader.

Two features in Immersive Reader are particularly helpful for EAL students.

The Picture Dictionary is an excellent tool for quickly understanding the meanings of words. Simply click on a word, and a pop-up appears with an image to describe what the word could mean. Picture Dictionary is not always available on every word, but it is on those words that can be easily illustrated.

Picture Dictionary Immersive Reader

Translate options in Immersive Reader

Found this helpful? Share this guide with your colleagues and students.

How to schedule an assignment for the future

Scheduling assignments to automatically post to students at a later date allows teachers to plan ahead and save time. This quick guide shows you how to schedule your assignments in Microsoft Teams for Education in a few easy steps.

Scheduling assignments for later.

First, you need to create a new assignment in Teams.

Head to the class you want to assign work to and select Assignments.
Select Create and then Assignment.
Fill out the usual details – the assignment title, description, attachments etc.
To schedule for later, scroll down to the Date due section.

5. Select Edit under the Date due box. This opens the Edit assignment timeline window.

6. Tick Schedule to assign in the future.

7. Select the Post date and time.

8. You can also select a due date and close date in this window.

9. Select Done.

10. Once your assignment is ready, hit Schedule. It will then automatically post to students at your selected date and time.

Scheduling assignments for later in Teams is particularly handy when reusing assignments for your classes. Here’s a guide on recycling and reusing your old assignments for new classes.

Found this helpful? Share this guide with your colleagues.

How to reuse assignments in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams now lets you reuse old assignments for your current classes. This is excellent news as it not only helps teachers save time but also offers consistency with your assignments each year.

Reusing assignments is really simple, and you can edit assignments and change them as much as you like to suit your current class.

When you’ve spent time creating an excellent assignment for your students, it makes sense to reuse it for future year groups. And now Microsoft has made it easier than ever.

This guide shows you how to reuse assignments in Microsoft Teams.

How to reuse Microsoft Teams Assignments

First, start by selecting the class you wish to reassign your assignment to.

Select Create and then From Existing. This opens up all the assignments you have created as a teacher, categorised by class (even the ones you have archived).

2. Scroll and find the class you assigned the original assignment to. You can also use the search bar at the top of the window.

3. Select the assignment you wish to reassign and select Next. This may take a few moments, especially if your assignment has multiple attachments.

4. Once loaded, you’re able to make changes to the assignment. For example, deleting/attaching documents and editing points values and rubrics.

5. Select a due date and click Assign to assign it to your chosen class.

Tip: You can schedule the assignment for later. Simply select Edit under the Date due box. This opens up the Edit assignment timeline window. From here, you can schedule to assign in the future. Please read our full guide on how to schedule assignments for the future.