MS donates apps to Web educator

Microsoft has given its cloud-computing-based Live@edu and its Office Web Apps to a Norwegian learning management software company called It's Learning, states Mass High Tech.

It's Learning offers a software-as-a-service platform that teachers and students use in the classroom via a Web browser.

According to It's Learning, the Microsoft products will be available free to its two million user accounts within the next few months and future users will automatically have access to the new tools from within the It's Learning system.

Eclipse Computing Australia has acquired education software developer MXL Consolidated in an effort to grow its education portfolio, writes NetworkWorld.

MXL will be under Eclipse's EduPoint, its current integrated education management application, which uses enterprise resource planning solution Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Eclipse has retained MXL's key employees to provide support for existing clients and to implement new education software practices for Eclipse.

Future education contracts may require the inclusion of more netbooks and smartphones than laptops, if a survey by the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) is any guide, reports Computing.co.uk.

BESA surveyed 406 primary schools on pupils' use of IT at school and at home, to discover which technologies are considered best for pupils and which pupils themselves most enjoy.

“According to schools, laptops are the most popular computer type among children, followed by desktop PCs. However, by 2015, educators feel this will be replaced by a move towards netbooks and smartphones,” says Ray Barker, director at BESA.