Github Student Developer Pack includes Visual Studio and Dreamspark

´´´ Microsoft Joins the Student Developer Pack Hi there @zeusly,

Happy New Year from the folks at GitHub Education.

To help you get your semester underway, we have some exciting announcements about the Student Developer Pack, events that are on our radar, an opportunity to get an hour of programming mentorship for free, and ways to shine a light on how GitHub is being used in your classes.

backpack illustration New to the Pack: Microsoft DreamSpark with Visual Studio

Today we’re making the first addition to the Student Developer Pack since launch: Microsoft DreamSpark with Visual Studio. You can download Visual Studio now and sign up for access to Microsoft’s own student developer program, DreamSpark.

With DreamSpark, students have access to a suite of great Microsoft resources including software like Microsoft SQL Server, the ability to publish apps and games for Windows and Xbox with a Windows Store Developer account, and online training materials, all for free.

To download Visual Studio and get access to DreamSpark, head on over to your Student Developer Pack.

A Free Hour of Code Mentoring

Brought to you by the folks who created hack.summit(), hack.pledge() is a network of 4,000 developers offering an hour of free online coding mentorship to students like you.

Sign up for your hour of support at hackpledge.org.

We want to hear from your teachers

We love hearing all the ways GitHub is being used in education. Be it teams of high school students competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition, a professor teaching computer science at UC Berkeley, or researchers working on open source.

We’re on the lookout for interesting ways GitHub is being used for teaching, and could use your help getting in touch with teachers. If any of your courses are using GitHub, tell your teachers that we want to hear from them. Heck, we might even feature your story on the GitHub Education website.

Teachers: tell us your story

Upcoming GitHub Education Events Visiting Dev Academy Mon Feb 16, 2015, Wellington, New Zealand @johndbritton will be there. Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Wed Mar 4, 2015 to Sat Mar 7, 2015, Kansas City, MO @johndbritton, @davideg, @jordanmccullough will be there. Taiwan Campus Tour Fri Mar 13, 2015 to Tue Mar 31, 2015, Taiwan @johndbritton, @muan will be there.

See more upcoming events at education.github.com/events. Cheers, John Britton Education Liaison, GitHub education@github.com ´´´

It really depend on how poorly you choose which real world you want to live in.