EdTech Leader Gaggle Expands Integration with Microsoft

Bloomington, IL (June 29, 2014) – Gaggle announced today that it now offers integration with Microsoft OneDrive, providing school districts using Office 365 an added layer of safety with Gaggle’s proprietary filtering and human monitoring service. In addition, school districts that use Gaggle for email archiving can now choose to archive Office Online documents.

“Microsoft continues to play a very important role in helping schools modernize their communications and productivity infrastructure,” said Gaggle CEO and founder Jeff Patterson. “We want to fully support those districts that choose Microsoft by providing them our filtering and monitoring capabilities to keep their students safe both inside and outside of the classroom.”

The expanded collaboration will give teachers and students using Gaggle’s Collaboration Tools the option to create, edit and share Office Online documents within Gaggle’s Digital Lockers and Assignment Drop Boxes. Gaggle also plans to integrate Yammer, Microsoft’s enterprise social network, and Microsoft Lync, its video conferencing and instant messaging service, all during the 2014-15 school year.

“Gaggle provides valuable services that ensure students use Microsoft Office 365 in a safe and appropriate manner,” said Cameron Evans, Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft Corp. “Whether students are posting documents to OneDrive storage, co-authoring their papers in Office Online from any major browser, or holding video chats with social discussion groups in Office 365, Gaggle will provide the monitoring and filtering of these modern instructional experiences.”

The latest announcement is part of Gaggle’s new Unity Partner Program. “We designed our partner program to provide a unified integration solution that will save any school district or partner a lot of time and money,” said Gaggle COO Brett Woudenberg. “We want to partner with any student information system, professional learning software, online curriculum provider, and other tools to increase district-wide adoption of educational technology.”