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.
Never heard of the “One Drive”! I will definitely suggest it to kids. If it something they can access at school and at home, that’s perfect!
I have two little brothers that are going back to school, this post is so helpful, definitely I’m going to share it with my mom. Thanks you 😀
One Note is something that I have yet to appreciate. I have used it several times in the past years, but I think I have not used it for what its purpose should be. I like how a lot of establishments and people are seeing the value of going digital to save on paper & printing costs.
these are all great tips! With my daughter getting ready to attend High school I’m sure some of these programs and apps will come in handy!
I haven’t heard of One Note but i use Open Office (Office Online) and I love it. I recommend it to everyone.
I’ve a couple of additional hard drives to stop working without any warning, so I love the idea of the One Drive.
Why not use free tools instead of paying for licensed software like Microsoft suite? I think there are now several applications that are open-source which also are great.
Great post. I love the free version of Office Online, and One Drive will certainly be useful for me.
I think Microsoft should also develop tools and software that is free and accessible to the needy individuals as long as it is for the sake of education.
Good point, Kath. Be sure to check out Office Online which is free on the web to everyone. Also, OneNote and OneDrive are free to use!
Very useful post. I use Evernote which sounds similar to One Note and it’s a great tool.