Andrew Balzer

Academy Learning Specialist. Empowering Educators to do more with technology. Office 365 🖇 Minecraft ⛏ Teacher 🙆‍♂️ Educator 👨‍🏫 Gamer 🎮 🤘🙏🙌

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Great to be featured on the T4L show representing @stem_T4L! Thanks to the amazing @JoachimCohen123 and the T4L team for generating informative resources for teachers far and wide while changing the face of NSW Education @lindalazenby_ @greentree_mark @DoE_STEM

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Copilot Cowork just got a serious upgrade: Projects are here. 🚀

📁 Organise work into dedicated projects
🧠 Keep context together
📝 Give each project its own instructions
📦 Find task outputs in one place

Less context switching. More context that sticks.

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Big upgrade for Teams Events. 🚀

👥 1,000 people across 100 breakout rooms
🎯 Smaller, focused sessions inside larger events
🎛️ Choose who gets access to production controls
🟢 Keep the green room with the right crew

Great updates in this space.

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Copilot Studio agents just levelled up. 🤖

🪪 Their own identity 
🧠 Memory across interactions 
⚡ Triggers from events and schedules 
🔄 Work across multiple surfaces
Agents aren’t just waiting for a chat anymore. They can remember, react and get work moving.

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

#Copilot in Outlook is getting more personal. 👀

✍️ Draft emails in your style
🧠 Learn how you normally write
📧 Make AI-generated emails sound more like you

Small feature. Very useful upgrade.
#Outlook #M365

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

SharePoint used to be about helping people find information. 👀

Now it also needs to help Copilot understand it and agents use it.

Microsoft’s new Team Knowledge Bases show where this is heading: SharePoint becoming the context layer for AI. 🤖
👇

📎 https://t.co/t1mkJdsVjm

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

🚀 M365 Copilot Chat is getting Skills👏

👤 Create and share Skills
🧠 Automatic or explicit invocation
🛡️ Centralised IT governance
🔄 Works across Copilot Chat + Cowork
🧑‍💻 Developer extensibility
🔐 Enterprise controls

Reusable expertise, built into Copilot.

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Big upgrade for Teams Events. 🚀

👥 1,000 people across 100 breakout rooms
🎯 Smaller, focused sessions inside larger events
🎛️ Choose who gets access to production controls
🟢 Keep the green room with the right crew

Great updates in this space.

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

🚀 PowerPoint Copilot: Record a Skill is coming!

Record a PowerPoint workflow once, then turn it into a reusable Copilot skill for next time. ➰

🔴 Record
♻️ Reuse
⚡ Automate repeat tasks
🎯 Keep workflows consistent

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Agents are becoming easier to discover in Microsoft Teams. 👀

Start typing in Teams search and matching agents and apps can appear alongside your other results.
Less time figuring out where tools live. More time actually using them. 💯📣

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

@ImDoubleDelight Well…. 👀
Not everywhereeeee.

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Copilot in your car? 👀

🚗 Copilot on Apple CarPlay
📅 Catch up on your day
💬 Prep for upcoming meetings
🎙️ All while you’re on the move

Very cool innovations to keep you in the loop!
#Copilot #M365

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

🎨 Microsoft Planner just got a little more colourful.

Planner Premium now supports coloured buckets, making it much easier to visually organise different workstreams and quickly scan your board.

Small update. Big quality-of-life improvement.

📎https://t.co/JZxrLKsrap

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Sharing your best Copilot chats just got much easier.

You can now share either a full Copilot chat session or an individual response through a simple link. Recipients get a read-only view and can even continue the chat like it was their own. 🔗✨

📎 https://t.co/L4am7k87D2

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Cowork is moving further into automation. 👀

⏰ Scheduled tasks
⚡ Event-triggered tasks
🤖 One place to manage them

The old Scheduled tab is now Automations in Cowork! Great to have your recurring tasks act for you 🎁

🔗 https://t.co/L4am7k87D2

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

The next generation of Copilot Studio agents is here.

🚀 GitHub Copilot harness now GA
🧠 Advanced reasoning models
🔗 Connect tools, workflows and agents
📄 Better file and knowledge analysis
⚡ Built for autonomous business processes

📎 https://t.co/7f7OoVNxeB

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Microsoft 365 storage is getting more flexible. 📦

SharePoint Storage and OneDrive Storage are now in public preview, bringing pay-as-you-go capacity beyond your included storage.

Worth a look for IT admins 👇

📎 https://t.co/OzfFDpvzLR

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Copilot in PowerPoint is getting seriously powerful. 🚀

🎨 Brand Kit for your organisation’s visual identity
🧠 Skills for repeatable workflows
🔄 Create your own reusable Skills
🏢 Organisations can publish approved Skills

📎 https://t.co/5CA9aadhp4

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

Copilot in Word just got a seriously useful upgrade. 👀

Copilot can now include citations in AI-generated responses, making it easier to see where information came from and validate the output. 🙏

📎 https://t.co/PqVC1VbXoc

[Andrew Balzer @AlphaBalzer]

ICYMI: More model choice is landing in Microsoft Copilot. 💪

OpenAI GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5.5 are rolling out across Copilot, including Cowork, Copilot Studio and Microsoft 365 apps. 🧠

📎 https://t.co/qPfi7xRTr3

[exQUIZitely 🕹️ @exQUIZitely]

Exactly 37 years ago on October 3, 1989, a game was released that took the world by storm.

Prince of Persia (by Jordan Mechner) had such fluid and lifelike animations, that gamer-jaws were dropping left, right, and center. Rightfully so. But that alone wouldn’t have made the game such a massive hit and gaming-culture icon, I think.

Prince of Persia also popularized the “cinematic platformer” genre (Karateka, Mechner’s earlier game, introduced it, though on a much smaller scale), with its immersive atmosphere, deadly falls and traps, and a real sense of weight and physics in movement. Jumps and sword swings had to be timed precisely; mistiming felt punishing but realistic, and also far less cartoonish than typical platformers.

It wasn’t just a straight left-to-right platformer either. You had to go back and forth, open pathways through hidden mechanisms, and more. It always felt like it had some Indiana Jones moments with adventure and exploration elements.

The one-on-one duels were more tactical than button-mashy, again diverging from the arcade-style norm of other platformers. You had to read your opponent’s stance, parry, and strike at the right moment. Brains over brawn.

The sense of realism is ultimately what set it apart from the stereotypical platform genre of that era. Prince of Persia felt more “human,” had greater story depth, and made you think, not just react. You could argue that it paved the way for Another World, Flashback and other greats of the 90s.

Mechner is one of the very few true pioneers of gaming history.