As an online educator, Microsoft Teams builds a collaborative classroom where teachers and students communicate virtually in real-time. Live video chats, screen sharing, file sharing is all possible through Microsoft Teams. Teachers can organize class content, lessons, projects into sub-categories. OneNote Class Notebook makes online collaboration even easier as teachers can provide feedback to shared documents. In one platform, a teacher can send messages, make announcements, and create a strong rapport with students.

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One of the biggest challenges with online education is the creation of a sense of class community. This sense of community is important to learning experiences as students need familiarity and confidence to participate in active learning. I am a firm believer in putting students above course content. In my mind, mutual rapport and respect increase meaningful learning. Together, students and teachers can grow and learn with one another. Microsoft Teams create a positive class identity by regular engagement (team chats, announcements, Q&A live stream) and student involvement (emoji reactions to postings, group messages, class polls).

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Teachers can create individual teams for each respective class. Within one Team, announcements can be made and individual students can be notified via "@username" which is similar to a tap on the shoulder. This would work well to build a stronger communication channel and feed. Students can also be asked to participate in live polls and complete learning progress forms. These forms are directly synced to OneDrive and responses can be downloaded as an Excel document. These learning progress forms can be used for both formative and summative assessments. In fact, students can even scan QR codes on their mobile devices to assess these forms through the Microsoft Teams app. 

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Microsoft 365 Education A1 plan is free for users with a valid school email address. This is especially important to me personally as I am drawn to social ventures where social goodness and business success go hand in hand. Given my education and commerce background, I view social ventures such as Microsoft Teams, which comes with the Microsoft 365 plan, having the capacity to sustain continued service to the community without having to rely on donations. Microsoft also offers qualified nonprofits with a recognized charitable status, depending on the size of non-profits, different types of Microsoft 365 Business plans free, or at a reduced rate. 

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Microsoft does a great job of providing free tutorials, seminars, and training courses for teachers. The free virtual teacher training workshops provide remote teaching tips, student engagement strategies, and other useful learning tools. Furthermore, the Microsoft Global Social Entrepreneurship Program supports local startups by offering free access to Microsoft technologies and Go-To-Market resources to help make the world a better place.

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All in all, social entrepreneurship is a personal passion of mine. Creativity and innovation can be developed by supporting social entrepreneurship in the community. In particular, I am interested in developing a better understanding of combining the market model of profitability with a social mission. 

 

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