Upcoming CollabCast with Poly: Finding the Right Meeting Solution for your Workspace

by Scott Muniz | Sep 14, 2020 | Uncategorized

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

All of our work spaces are in the midst of drastic change. Whether you’re coming back to the office, working from home, planning for the future of collaboration, or some combination, there is a best practice out there for you and your organization. On Wednesday, October 14th, at 12 Noon EST, we are teaming up with Poly to deliver a CollabCast with Sam Brown, focused on finding the right meeting solutions for your workspaces.

Agenda:

• Finding the right solution for every workspace
• Microsoft Teams Solutions for
  • Mobile Workers
  • Phones for Desk/Office Workers
  • Small, Medium and Large Room Solutions
• Poly Promotions to get you and your customers to Native Teams
• Live Q&A

Presenters:

• John Famolari, Microsoft Solutions Architect, Poly

• Briana Mateo, Microsoft Alliances Manager, Poly

Event details:

• Click here to join the live event on Wednesday, October 14th at 12 Noon EST

OR

• Click here to download the .ics file and add the invite to your calendar

Pete and I will be your producers. Bring your questions and we look forward to seeing you there!

Sam Brown, Microsoft Teams Technical Specialist

Pete Anello, Senior Microsoft Teams Technical Specialist

[Guest Blog] My rocky road to programming

by Scott Muniz | Sep 14, 2020 | Uncategorized

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

This article by Humans of IT Student Ambassador Dustin Thompson, a Computer Science senior from the University of Central Florida is part of our Student Ambassador Spotlight series in the lead-up to Microsoft Ignite. Dustin shares about his unconventional journey into computer science and offers some advice and encouragement to students that may be going through similar circumstances.

To say that my path to becoming a computer scientist was straightforward would be a lie. In fact, I didn’t even understand what a logarithm was going into college. Let’s rewind the clocks a couple of decades.

Rough Start

I was born to a mother that really wants to see me succeed. During the formative years of my life, she spent a lot of energy reading with me, teaching me Russian, and shuffling me to piano lessons and baseball practice. However, things quickly took a much rougher turn and as a developing kid, I did not take this change in direction well. The situation at home got hectic – I started rebelling, and before you know it, I was cutting class about as often as I would be failing assignments and tests. Needless to say, I was not a good kid. To add to my unconventional background, I studied theater growing up, not programming. I went to arts schools from 6th to 12th grade. My big plan was to graduate, move to L.A., and live life as a bohemian artist in hopes of making it in Hollywood. When I saw how that worked out for a friend of mine who got his GED and tried to make an early start, I got scared straight. But what does a guy who graduates in the bottom 10% of his class do at that point?

Crossroads

“No way I’m considering the military,” I thought. After some research, I discovered that community colleges did not often require specific GPA requirements. The inevitable choice for me was to go back to school and take a stab at college. I remember on the ride home from orientation, feeling lost, scared, yet oddly inspired – I was thinking back on my early days when I was a productive young boy. I thought about how much I loved science, music, and other fruitful subjects growing up. I thought that if I’m going to do this, I might as well go all the way and major in something STEM-related, just like my 7-year-old self would’ve wanted. Well, after a slow, slow two and a half years, I finally managed to get into the University of Central Florida’s CECS department. The shock of transferring was painful. On top of financial and lifestyle burdens, I felt so demotivated by how little I knew and how ridiculous my background was compared to my peers. All around me, fellow students had years of experience in tech whereas I wasn’t even capable of printing Hello World to the screen yet.

It wasn’t until after a year at UCF that I finally started to come out of my shell.

I took some professors that changed my life and indirectly introduced me to some lifelong friends. They showed me how to be proactive, how to apply the skills I learn in class, and how to find opportunities. Because of them, I started landing interviews and going to events. I attended my first hackathon at HackGT 6.

(HackGT 6)

I wrote an interpreter from scratch in Python at that event. This was two semesters after first learning how to code.

The purpose of all that was to illustrate a point repeated so often that it’s often regarded as background noise: Success isn’t a straight line. I mean, if you told me back in high school that I’d end up playing around with C++ graphics libraries in my free time, I’d proudly display the C++ I managed to pull off on my math quiz that day. Don’t think that just because you didn’t get the head start that many others around you got, you’re destined for failure or even just mediocrity. I hope to be able to convey this message through the Microsoft Humans of IT program this year.

Some Advice

Get involved. You can’t simply rely on luck to get where you want. Join a club at your university or start one if you’re feeling ambitious! Participate in events held by universities and companies such as hackathons like OpenHack (see more: https://openhack.microsoft.com/ & https://mlh.io/seasons/na-2020/events) and conferences like Microsoft Ignite (see more: https://myignite.microsoft.com/home). Try to explore your passions as well. Are you taking a bunch of discrete math courses but are really curious about how AI works? Find an AI club at your school or try to get a head start on learning via the Internet. The world is your oyster so make use of it. Believe me, you’ll surprise yourself – just as I was surprised by my own journey.

#HumansofIT
#StudentAmbassador
#KeepOnKeepingOn

Live From The Monastery Thanks To Microsoft Teams

by Scott Muniz | Sep 14, 2020 | Uncategorized

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Zar Ni Tyn faced an issue all too common for teachers at this moment: how can one teach without a classroom?

In addition to this challenge, though, Zar faced a problem very much unique to him: how can one teach Buddhist monks virtually when they have never experienced remote education?

Perhaps surprisingly, the answer to both questions is Microsoft Teams. 

Zar is currently based in Myanmar and volunteering to teach computing at the Sitagu Buddhist Academy. The academy is one of the Southeast Asian country’s most regarded educational institutions in providing undergraduate and graduate-level training in Buddhist studies. 

So, The Office Apps & Services MVP has been educating monks and nuns in Office 365 and Microsoft 365 as part of their Diploma in Computing.

But then came the coronavirus. After one year of teaching as per usual in Thanlyin, a major port city located across Bago River from the city of Yangon, Zar was forced to rethink his entire educational approach.

Students could no longer freely travel between their home and the academy, and nor could those who live with their family in other regions or countries stay in the city. Thus, Zar needed to bring his 250 students online with Microsoft Teams. The catch? None of them had previously used Microsoft Teams.

Zar – a Microsoft Certified Trainer – put his teaching skills to the test as he connected his students from across the country and introduced them to the platform. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Zar’s classes to successfully move from the real world to the virtual world.

“Now we are teaching from Microsoft Teams and the students are very happy,” Zar says.

“It’s interesting because some of the monks did not attend normal high school and yet they can use Microsoft Teams. This is a unique feature to point out: Microsoft Teams is so simple that anyone can use it!”

The transition has been relatively seamless, Zar says, and he reiterates how happy his students are to connect with the world. “I am very proud, actually, because I have been able to modify my teaching method using Microsoft Teams. It is different but so far we are managing it easily!”

Zar, who also teaches at Thanlyin Technological University, adds that many people in Myanmar during this pandemic are using and engaging with Microsoft 365 Education.

For more information on Zar, check out his Twitter @zar_tyn