8 Free Tools for Teachers from Microsoft

Microsoft has been doing its share recently in the free software category. Here are some of its free products and add-ons that maybe useful for teachers. 
  1. Interactive Classroom – lets teachers insert polling questions into PowerPoint presentations
  2. Microsoft Mathematics – a graphing calculator that plots in 2D and 3D, step-by-step equation solving, and useful tools to help students with math and science studies.
  3. Mouse Mischief –   a PowerPoint add-on that enables teachers to create and insert questions, polls, and drawing activity slides into PowerPoint lessons.
  4. Movie Maker (Windows Live) – creates movies and slide shows from photos and videos.
  5. Photostory – turns photos into digital slide shows.
  6. PhotoSynth – generates a three dimensional model of digital photos and a point cloud of a photographed object.
  7. Worldwide Telescope – enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world.
  8. SkyDrive – stores and shares files, and photos up to 5GB.

Microsoft Mathematics is now available for free

Microsoft Mathematics, a computer algebra system developed by Microsoft Corporation, is now available for free  download.

Among others, Microsoft Mathematics has the following tools:

  • Equation Solver. Provides step-by-step solutions to solve equations.
  • Triangle Solver which can be used to investigate and solve problems about triangles.
  • Unit Converter which converts measurements from one unit to another.
  • Grapher which can plot 2d or 3d graphs in the Cartesian plane/space
  • Ink Handwriting Support, which supports handwriting for Tablet PCs.

Aside from these features, Microsoft Mathematics just like a scientific calculator. It can compute trigonometric functions, perform matrix operations, and perform basic statistical computations and many more.

For help and tutorials, you may want to read  the Microsoft Mathematics step-by-step tutorial and Teachers’ Guide.

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