So, the time has come to make it official. As of last week I left my job as a secondary school teacher to join Microsoft as the first Deployment Specialist for their Live@Edu platform.

Why? What? Who? Where?

Well, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy teaching. I loved it, and I was at a fantastic school that I will remember fondly. One of the unfortunate things about teaching ICT at secondary school level was that my own knowledge was getting stagnated and out of date. I also felt that at this stage of my life, I wanted a different environment and a fresh set of challenges in my work life.

I still have a huge amount of passion for technology – and this is why the role I’m now in at Microsoft was the right choice for me. I’m working on post-sales, support and scalability for Live@Edu – a product that really makes use of some of the most cutting edge technology to help students work better and learn smarter.

I’m part of a fantastic team trying to help Universities and Colleges (and Schools in smaller numbers) make use of this free product as a solution to whole-campus messaging and collaboration. Imagine having access to Outlook in your browser, having your lectures in a calendar that synced up to your mobile and your PC seamlessly. Throw in file sharing, online storage space and messaging and you’re still only a tenth of the way into the potential that Live@Edu holds.

The Open Bracket will still be a source of general tech ramblings – and I fully intend to review non-MS products as well as some of the great technology that my new employers make.

Wish me luck!