These Back To School Tech Tips may make your back to school a little easier. Kids are digital (and education is moving that way too). Homework saved on the cloud. Group projects done remotely from the kitchen table. Web searches rather than library investigation. It’s a fact…technology is needed for school…
Back To School Tech Tips
- One device to rule them all. Consider one device to be your student laptop, tablet, research tool, organizer, and entertainment unit.
- Common area. I like to keep our school tech in the dining room so that it is used in a common area. This way, I can supervise (not in a helicopter parent sort of way – more like – hey, do you need any help?).
- Encourage kids to use office programs. It’s a life lesson in a school zone. I use Word all the time for work. And I encourage my kids to get to know it for their homework and projects.
- To the cloud my friends. Encourage kids to save and organize their pictures and documents on the cloud that way they can access it from home and school (no more I forgot my project at home).
You might be interested in my Microsoft Surface Pro Review on YouTube. I highly recommend it as a work and student device…just look at how you can use it ->
Thinner and lighter than ever, Microsoft’s Surface 3 is the perfect option for work, play and everything in-between. Powerful, productive and portable, the Surface 3 does all the things you love on a tablet like watching videos, playing mobile games or connecting with friends. But when you add the pen and keyboard, the Surface 3 turns into a fully functional laptop. Highlight digital textbooks and makes notes in the margins, develop essays and presentations, take notes in class or even record lectures and seamlessly save them to OneDrive – the Surface 3 does it all.
Microsoft Office for FREE!
If a child or post-secondary student is enrolled in a district school board or individual school which has purchased Microsoft Office for use by its faculty and staff, they are eligible to access Office from their schools through the Office for Students program. Log-on to Microsoft.ca/FreeOffice to check eligibility and download Office.
And the best part about it, is it’s not just for school! Students can download Office on up to five PCs and Macs, iPads, Android tablets, iPhones or Android phones for use at home and in the classroom.
What it includes:
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- OneNote
- Access
- Publisher
- 1TB of storage on OneDrive
- Office Online for in-browser editing
My son just got a new laptop for back to school. He is going into middle school and needs one now!
Office great whether you’re in school or just need to get down to business. I use it all the time.
Great Tips! We don’t need a new computer yet for school, but when we do I love reading these reviews it helps us make the right decision for our family.
Awesome tips! I am going to check it out for my daughter and more than it is free, thanks! 😀
These are definitely some good ideas to get the kids off to a good start. I’m all for incorporating technology into education.
Heck yes to the common area computer usage! Definitely will be a must in my household when we have kids.
My ids need a new laptop/tablet this back to school season. This one looks great!!
Kids need laptops in school these days? Holy Moly! I thought we just needed one for the whole family to do homework on or something. Wow, times have changed!
I am happy for the advancement of technology, although I wish they would not give up on learning handwriting (specially cursive) and love for real books. For me, having to hold a book in my hands is a wonderful feeling!
These are great tips. We are not in need of a new laptop, too, but I will keep this in mind.
It’s hard to keep up with all the advances in technology that students need to know. These are all great tips, especially having a common area for kids to use their laptop.
What great back to school tech tips to share today! To cloud your friends is the best thing one can ever do, and there is always so much to keep up with re technology!
The school where my kids goes uses Google Drive for their stuff. It makes it easier to access their accounts and see what they need to do.
Great tips. My daughter’s school uses tablets to teach them. They got some amazing educational apps, my daughter learnt so much already.
Those are really great tips! I still have to explore the cloud some more. I’ve heard and read about it, but I have to read and explore more to understand it fully.
These are really great tips!! My school uses google drive for everything and I love it as well.
Wonderful tips! Im a Mac user and I love Office for everything really!
These are great tips. I like my kids to use electronics in the common areas so that I can do random spot checks and help when needed. My husband would love to have a surface pro.
Office is such a great tool for kids to learn, especially early on. It will help them so much as they grow!
Love these tips for back to school. Especially the cloud tip! I need to do that more myself. I have SO much stuff stored on my phone and other devices that I need to cloud up – and give myself some more space.
I’m clouding more and more (and even using the cloud as a back up for my oh-my-gosh-if-I-ever-lose-these-files-I’m-toast files)
My daughter is teaching me things in PowerPoint now
I like google drive as well
We do common areas for most tech: computers, tablets, phones.
With the new windows 10 update – I don’t need a new laptop either – the upgrade makes old new for me 😉
I still love to turn a book page too
My daughter’s high school tech use amazes me – from research to presentations to homework to talking with her teachers
Great right?!
Kiddo is 10, going in to the 5th grade; which starts middle school here. She does have a lab class this year, but computers are right in the room and they all share. She’ll have a few research projects to do during the year, so we’ll help her with those. For now, we still monitor her when she gets online.
Man, I remember when going to school was more simple than it is anymore. My two oldest (15 and 12) both have laptops. My oldest does all her schooling online at home, and my middle schooler is always needing to do things for school on the computer.
These are great tech tips. We just bought everything my Daughter will need for her first year away at college.
I just bought a laptop for my Daughter. We made sure it would work for all her College needs.
I have the MS Surface Pro 2 AND I LOVE it! It has replaced my bulky laptop for business trips and since I edit a lot of photos even on the go I added a portable travel mouse to mine to make life easier, and I definitely have MS Office on all my devices to make editing documents or working on presentations even while traveling so much easier! I love all things tech/techie!
Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly
These are wonderful tips! Technology has definitely come a long, long way since I’ve attended school. I miss those days of doing research at the library. 🙂
These are some great tips! I can’t believe kiddos these days have laptops! My daughter has an iPad… And ughh….. Lol
Great tips! Technology is definitely a must for school. My younger kids have been using Microsoft Office for years – they know it better than I do! Haha
good tip on using cloud services, but make sure to impart the importance of using a strong password and not to use a public pc
These are great tips! I’ll have to share with my little brother when he’s back at school
I agree teaching and learning about cloud, I use it in my travels all the time
Thanks for the tips
Thanks for tips. There are so many choices.
we certainly need a new computer, ours keeps klunking out . What kind should I get?