Back to School Tech on a Budget
1. Get Office 365 University: $79.99 USD for a four-year subscription
At just $1.67 per month, college and university students can’t afford not to get Office 365 University. Get the latest Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook) for two devices, including PCs, Macs, iPads, or Windows tablets. A subscription also includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and 60 minutes of Skype PC-to-phone world calling per month.
2. Download OneNote: Free app for most popular computers, tablets, and phones and on the web
This year, make OneNote the single place for all your notes and information. With this digital notebook you can type, handwrite, paste and insert class notes and research anywhere, and organize them in notebooks and sections that are automatically saved and searchable. Additionally, it’s easy to share and collaborate with classmates for team projects and group assignments.
3. Keep it in OneDrive: Free app for most popular computers, tablets, and phones and on the web
Here are five reasons to cross that USB-drive off your shopping list and use OneDrive: 1) You get 15 GB of cloud storage for free; 2) You can’t lose OneDrive; 3) You can easily store and share photos, videos, documents, and more; 4) You can access OneDrive on any device; 5) You get 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage with an Office 365 Home or University subscription. 1 TB is the equivalent to approximately 50,000 trees made into paper and printed. That’s a lot of trees!
4. Use Office Online: Free on the web
Who said nothing in life is free? Office Online offers free web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that let you create, view, edit, and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations and notes. The best part is, no one needs an Office 365 subscription to work together on a team projects. With Office Online, students can collaborate on group assignments more easily, and parents can share the carpool schedule without having to send bulky attachments.
5. Take the Acer Aspire Switch 10 to class: $379 USD
Not only does this device save you some serious cash, it’s the ultimate convertible of PCs. Rain or shine, it can be used in four modes – use it as a tablet, notebook or put it in tent mode to watch movies, or give a presentation. Not to mention, it’s compact and sleek so you can rest assured you got good looking device at a screaming deal.
Disclosure: As a Microsoft Windows Champion, I receive devices and services to use throughout the year.
I had never heard of office online. We just spent money to put Office on my son’s pc because open office was just not cutting it. Wish I would have known earlier could have been a cheaper alternative.
I did not know about Office Online! This is great for me, because I’ve been looking at upgrading my Office software but want to wait until they have a newer version for the Mac. Now at least I can still sort of use it!
That is a great tech list…isn’t it amazing how technology is being incorporated into classrooms?
Another thing people should look into is StudyBlue. It’s a flashcard app for smartphones and computers. They have a paid version and a free version. The paid version makes up flashcards tailored to your class and also lets you customize your own flashcards. The free version lets you make your own flashcards, but you can’t customize them other than adding a photo.
I use office online and I absolutely love it!
Back to school costs can really add up! It’s good to know that there are deals available on the things today’s students need most.
it’s amazing how far technology has come and how it’s benefiting student’s to learn. thanks for sharing