Microsoft Teams for Education is now one of the world’s biggest virtual classrooms, with more than 100 million students worldwide. Thousands of teachers rely on the platform to meet critical learning objectives, harnessing the power of technology to engage and delight their students.
To support teachers and administrative personnel, IT teams should suggest process improvements and applications that empower the learning process, including the use of third-party integrations.
Let’s take a closer look at the apps that can maximize Teams for your educators and ensure learning efficiency.
Microsoft Teams for Education apps: What to look for
There are now more than 700 apps in the Microsoft Teams store, which means sifting the wheat from the chaff is critical for the success of modern teaching paradigms.
The apps that you use in Teams should:
- Have a value that is equal to the cost
- Come with plenty of customer support
- Scale alongside growing teacher needs
- Be accessible to students, teachers, and parents
- Offer security for documents, data, and users
You might discover dozens of apps that potentially fit your use case. However, it's best to choose technology partners that support all-in-one functionality and one-stop-shop workflows, like Beedle does.
Exploring four Microsoft Teams for Education apps
Many Microsoft Teams for Education apps offer piecemealed solutions that address a single part of a much larger need. But Beedle provides full-service functionality for all users.
Let's see what this looks like in context.
Trello
Trello is an excellent option for teachers requiring extra planning support. This Microsoft Teams integration helps teachers track projects and schedule assignments using movable charts.
However, that's where Trello's functionality ends. Teachers will not be able to use the full app without paying for a premium plan, and they may need to create separate boards for individual classes. Additionally, there is no student-facing component, so collaboration will be limited to teacher-to-teacher only.
In contrast, Beedle enables teachers to create, track, and grade projects all from a single workflow, then integrate with Teams to form a seamless platform view.
AttendanceBot
Keeping track of online students can be difficult, a problem that AttendanceBot works hard to resolve. This integration works hand-in-hand with Microsoft Teams to take school attendance, track absences, and identify trends at the touch of a button.
But AttendanceBot falls short in that the app is expensive, doesn't integrate well with other tools, and offers only one function: taking attendance.
With Beedle, educators can implement school attendance functions with additional accessibility for parents. This ensures that students and their parents receive the greatest amount of information, which supports learning objectives throughout the year.
OneNote
OneNote is a native Microsoft program that enables teachers to create digital notebooks, share resources, and give feedback to students.
This is a great starting place for many educators, but it doesn't offer the comprehensive functionality or connectivity that other options do. For example, OneNote is not built for simultaneous collaboration, and the ability to search through notes is quite limited.
Beedle empowers teachers to use native journals for note-taking and then share those notebooks with other educators and students. All this happens on one platform, so users can avoid the added stress of managing multiple platforms for a single task.
Workbot
Due to the siloed and separate nature of Microsoft Teams apps, some teachers may be interested in combining all their workflows with Workbot. This tool enables other apps to be combined within teacher workspaces, helping to reduce idiosyncrasies between integrations.
Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect solution. Workbot doesn't cut down on the number of apps that you need to teach, but rather adds to the tech stack inflation that you're already struggling to manage. Furthermore, not all apps can be efficiently combined by Workbot, which may lead to additional problems later.
Each of these apps works fine by itself, but none are capable of combining all their functionalities into one place —except for Beedle. It’s a one-stop shop that requires no secondary automations and is the perfect solution for your school, students, and unique workflow.
Why Microsoft Teams for Education apps can’t compete with Beedle
No matter how you look at it, Beedle is the world’s most efficient app for teaching through Microsoft Teams. Thousands of five-star ratings and rave reviews prove that it’s not just a competitor but actually leads the pack.
Here’s why:
Beedle is an all-in-one solution for teaching and learning in Microsoft Teams, giving schools the power to leverage Teams for improved resource and lesson planning, class management, insight organization, and more!
If you’re in a Teams district or school and want to unlock the true potential of Microsoft Teams, contact our specialists to maximize the worth of your Microsoft Teams investment today!
