Microsoft’s Yammer Enterprise invites schools on board

Educational institutions across New Zealand now have free access to Microsoft’s networking platform, Yammer Enterprise.

Yammer Enterprise offers schools a sophisticated version of the social networking platform. Within a school’s internal online environment, Yammer Enterprise provides seamless, open sharing and cross collaboration opportunities.

Microsoft says its Yammer Enterprise for schools is “a transformational technology which has changed the way students and staff work. It promotes sharing ideas, thoughts, finding information and asking questions to innovate and collaborate.”

The service is being offered as an extension to the free Office 365 for Education plan. Up until now, Office 365 offered only Yammer Basic to New Zealand educational institutions.

Opportunities to utilise Yammer Enterprise within the educational environment are plentiful. The platform can be used for tasks such as making school announcements and keeping in contact with Alumni students.

It can also provide a platform for external communications and collaborations with researchers, companies and other educational institutions.Teachers and students of Auckland’s Avondale College are already realising how Yammer can play a vital role within the school environment.

The school is using the platform as part of its Innovation Programme, helping students to get used to collaboration as a key part of their learning process.

“Yammer is fundamental for how we transition practitioner and student behaviour from old paradigm education into a new paradigm of creativity, with agile, project-based learning processes,” Paul McClean, Information Technology teacher, says.

“We are looking forward to Yammer Enterprise, as a more advanced tool for communication, student and practitioner support, event coordination and success profiling, to forming an integral role with our ongoing Innovation Programme.”

For more information visit http://blogs.technet.com/b/nzedu/archive/2014/07/10/yammer-enterprise-now-included-in-office-365-education-plans.aspx