Microsoft Education
US Specialist Team Blog

Expanding your LiveMeeting Investment

2009-03-26T01:37:45Z

Whether your school has made an investment in the Live Meeting service hosted by Microsoft, or if you utilize the Web Conferencing capabilities of Live Meeting on premise, you are probably realizing great cost-savings and efficiency benefits from the business and classroom application of this product.

As you start to explore extended applications of conferencing media, you know that having access to on-demand recordings is useful for those who can’t attend meetings live. Recordings, however, require a wired connection and also require a relatively linear viewing experience. If you want to parse, mash up or splice these recordings for any number of reasons, including posting for podcasts to mobile phones or portable media players, then you need to check out the following tools to add to your media toolkit:

Recording Converter for Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007
Download: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/livemeeting/HA103550661033.aspx
Info: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101215971033.aspx

Expression Encoder 2
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Overview.aspx?key=encoder

The first tool, which is a free download (which includes a command line and a GUI option) effectively give you a way to extract the HFP (High Fidelity Presentation) format of Live Meeting recordings and dump them to a more traditional video file format. Once in this mode, you can utilize any media encoder or manipulation tool, including Expression Encoder, to further whittle down, combine or tweak you media for additional productions venues.

Although Encoder is not a free tool, it has a number of useful features for the aspiring video-to-web publisher, including Silverlight compatibility as well as scripting and batch processing for high volume shops.

Check out these Live Meeting “add-ons” to see if you can get more value out of your web-conferencing investment today.

Windows Hied Conference – 2009 Edition

2009-03-17T00:21:03Z

For the 3rd time in about 4 years, the US Education vertical is hosting around 100 IT Pros from universities all around the country (and the world) in Redmond for a three day conference. This is organized by a committee from the Windows HIED listsrv hosted by Stanford University and has a focus on NOT being a sales event, rather a chance for administrators in higher education to interface directly with product teams in Redmond and listen in on technical presentations regarding infrastructure focused solutions.

Even if you are not a subscriber of the listsrv but you are a technical resource from a college or university, you are welcome to join us! If you are curious about the technical focus, see the agenda posted to the HIED wiki. You must be willing to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement form as some of the content is “next version” planning information. The official invite details are below. Hope to see you there!

Technorati Tags: Higher Education,conference,IT administrators

Background

Working in conjunction with Windows-Hied listsrv representatives, Microsoft Education is pleased to host the 5^th Windows Hied Conference at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA, March 30^th – April 1^st, 2009.

Conference Goals

As has always been the case for this event, it is NOT a sales or marketing event. Attendees generally have deep technical background in both Microsoft as well as UNIX/Linux operating systems. Presentation responsibilities are being split by Microsoft and customer attendees and focus the following primary goals:

Provide highly relevant product and solution discussion as well as tips and tricks for better evaluating, deploying, integrating, administering, supporting and simplifying Microsoft solutions in the higher education environment
Illicit product input and feedback to ensure product teams understand the needs of the HED customer base
Learn of unique challenges and successes of Microsoft product deployment from customer presentation sessions
Provide an informal venue to discuss additional issues and topics
Increase the trust and confidence of customer attendees in deploying and supporting Microsoft solutions
Provide Microsoft product teams an opportunity to talk to a focused and strategic group of knowledgeable HED customers

Event Logistics

Dates: March 30^th – April 1^st, 2009
Location: Microsoft Campus, Building 37
Presentations: Mix of Microsoft and customer presentations: 300-400 level technical drill down (~60-90 min each)
Customer Attendees: ~100
Conference Hotels:
- Residence Inn - http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/SEARD?groupCode=mwhmwha&app=resvlink&fromDate=3/29/09&toDate=4/1/09
- Marriott Redmond Town Center - http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/seamc?groupCode=mihmiha&app=resvlink&fromDate=3/29/09&toDate=4/2/09
Cost 150$
Agenda located Here
Registration Page located Here

NOTE - This event is limited to administrators from education. To ensure adequate capacity, please do not register unless you are an administrator from a school/university. We cannot guarantee refunds for those who register from other industries.

And the examples of MAV usage in EDU just keep coming...

2008-07-02T17:42:59Z

It seems that ever since we acquired Softricity and made this application virtualization technology available via the MDOP subscription, it has really taken off like wildfire in EDU. Below are a few recent case studies and news articles that have been published around its usage at Kent SD in Washington State and Fairfax CSD in the DC area:

And I can certainly attest to the several other implementations across both HED and K12 institutions as well - I have seen first hand the impact this technology has had on under-staffed and under-budgeted institutions. MAV is certainly a game-changing technology IMHO.

With MAV 4.5 just around the corner as well as the former Kidaro technology (see blog post below this one - Session II video - about 50% through the stream!) looking to soon be part of our virtualization story, I see nothing but more goodness to come!

Technorati Tags: MEDV, MAV, Softgrid, Kidaro, AppVirt

Recorded MSFT Sessions from LABMAN Conference

2008-06-26T21:57:36Z

Earlier this month, Michael Greene and I (Kevin Sullivan) attended and presented at the Lab Management Conference which was held this year at Minnesota State University. We conducted two sessions at this conference. In the first session, Michael and I discussed the current state of MSFT virtualization technologies in general. In the second session, we focused on the immediate roadmap of things to come - again, focused on virtual technologies. Clicking on the below will take you to our recorded sessions - the 'bad' news is that these will require the QuickTime plug-in as they are in QT format but if you are interested in things like W08 Terminsal Services, Hyper-V, SoftGrid (now MAV), System Center, and this new thing we are calling MEDV (formerly Kidaro), especially in terms of how it can all come together to better manage EDU lab environments and service delivery to students in general, it may be worth a look!

Each session is about 60 minutes long. I know that in a previous post I had hinted that I would talk specifically about Kidaro and show what I could - I did this during Session II - start about 50% of the way into Session II to skip directly to MEDV/Kidaro stuff!

Enjoy!

Microsoft Producer – Back by popular request!!!

2008-06-10T21:23:27Z

Microsoft Producer is a product heavily used across both schools and universities. We have heard consistent feedback that this tool needed to be carried forward for Office 2007. Did you think your feedback went in to the abyss? No! This is an example of your feedback directly impacting decisions at Microsoft. Producer is now in beta for PowerPoint 2007!!!

To get access visit http://connect.microsoft.com

What is Producer 2007? Producer 2007 makes it easy to capture and synchronize audio, video, slides and images—creating engaging rich media presentations. Capture, synchronize, and publish audio, video, slides, and images to create rich media presentations viewable in a browser.

Windows Server 2008 Step by Step GUIDES

2008-06-02T15:00:00Z

I see our friend Keith has already beat me to this but I want to make sure this information is easy to find. There is a large directory of “step by step” guides for Windows Server 2008. Out of those I access regularly, I highly recommend the Server Core guide and the Customizing TS Web Access guide.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=518d870c-fa3e-4f6a-97f5-acaf31de6dce&DisplayLang=en#filelist

This serves as a nice compliment to the Windows Vista step by step guides that include some overlap, such as managing roaming user data.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=311f4be8-9983-4ab0-9685-f1bfec1e7d62&displaylang=en&tm

TEACHERs Inspired by a STUDENT? Win 1000$ for your classroom.

2008-05-29T20:01:36Z

Do you know a teacher with an inspiring story about an inspiring student? Invite them to participate in the Microsoft Inspired Teachers campaign to win resources for their classroom!

Tell us about the last time a student sparked inspiration in your classroom with an amazing discovery or creative solution. Once you post your story online, your peers will be able to read and rate it. If they select your story as the most inspirational, your school may win a $1,000 gift card you can use for classroom supplies. And, you and your inspiring student may win a Dell personal computer loaded with Microsoft® educational software.

Inspired teachers are rewarded here. We hope you'll be one of them!

The winning teacher and student may win a new PC loaded with great Microsoft educational software including: Microsoft Student 2008, Microsoft OneNote®, and Microsoft Office 2007.

Is this thing on?? - A word from the EDU MGMT Ninja

2008-05-23T16:47:32Z

OK - so my real name is not 'EDU MGMT NINJA' - it's Kevin Sullivan. I always wanted to be called a ninja of something...

Hello all - so hopefully I will type fast enough to be official post #2 on our new blog!

Some of you may know me from my 'MGMT in EDU' blog found here (yes, I know I have 10's of fans out there). Fear not - I will continue on with this blog as well as add contributions to this one and of course link back and forth between them so you won't miss a beat of what is sure to be riveting information concerning the use of Microsoft Management products within US EDU!

Speaking of pertinent 'MGMT in EDU' information, my counterpart Michael Greene and I plan to attend and present the upcoming LABMAN conference June 2 - 4. You can read our session detail and bios here. If you can attend, come on up and say hi - we also plan to have a booth presence. We are also thinking of recording our sessions - if this works out, watch this space for the link to our presentations if you cannot attend. I will say that I am working very hard to get the OK to demonstrate a certain technology during 'Session II' that is brand new and I think will really change the way we look at desktop and application deployment and management. I will give you a hint: its former name starts with a 'K' and ends with an 'O'...

Finally, along the right are some Zune cards - mine is kev1244 - I hope my musical tastes does not scare anyone!

Who 'Ya Gonna Call?

2008-05-23T11:02:29Z

As the career classification of "pre-sales system engineering" goes, I'd argue that there is nary a larger challenge than that of a Microsoft Technology or Solution Specialist working in the Education Vertical. I'll admit - I'm biased - I happen to manage the highly trained and motivated engineers that make up the US Education Specialist Team Unit (STU), all of whom, on the average weekday, can identify more with a three letter airport code than their home five digit zip code. But for sake of this inaugural/introductory posting, I thought I'd share with you some little known facts about our business that may incite awe and appreciation for this hardworking crew.

There are over 4000 institutes of higher education (HED) and 16000 K12 school districts in the US serving 18 million and 49 million students, respectively, shepherded through the learning maze by 1.2 million and 3.4 million teachers, respectively
In HED, 74% of students have a computer, 98% have a cell phone, and 100% have demands and requirements for computing that are completely different that when you and I were in college (ok, at least when I was in college)
In K12, 54% of students have access to a computer, 63% have a cell phone (grades 7-12) and almost three quarters of them had access to a computer since they were 4 years old
There are 5 sales teams, including 50 Academic Account Managers, 14 Inside Sales Specialists and 20 Account Technology Specialists that we (attempt) to support when the need arises for our expertise
Academic pricing of Microsoft software averages 25% of full commercial pricing, not counting the software we provide free of charge to non-profits as donations and to student developers via programs like DreamSpark
In the US, sales of Microsoft academic-priced software makes up about 4% of total software revenue, but about 30% of software licenses
The concept of "Academic Freedom" is alive and well in the classroom, providing faculty what sometimes seems to be free reign over technology, platform and utilization choices, much to the chagrin of campus IT staff

To be sure, the humble employees of Microsoft who serve US Education customers take all this in stride, as we are guided by a principle mission: "Empower people to realize their social and economic potential by enabling access to quality education experiences for all through technology." As altruistic as that may sound, it's a refreshing twist on traditional hard core technology sales the keeps at least me, if not the entire team, invigorated in our jobs.

What, exactly, is a Specialist Team Unit?

Every sales district, vertical and subsidiary at Microsoft has a STU, both in the US and internationally, and the specialists therein typically focus on or have unique training and expertise in one of Microsoft's many product areas - groupings we call "workloads". Our Education STU team goal, then, is to provide pre-sales engineering support to the account teams that directly manage our customer relationships, in their pursuit of IT (Business of Schools), classroom (Teaching and Learning) and student lifestyle solutions. In English, that means we provide technical and solutions expertise to sales teams whose customers require additional briefings, technical detail or proof of concept assistance with the Microsoft solutions they're evaluating for purchase. Sometimes that support is virtual, via phone, email, blogging, podcasting and Live Meeting, but you'll frequently see us navigating the concourses, rail terminals and highways across the US to support customer software evaluations in person on the customer's site.

Given some of the statistics I mention above, as well as our national scope, and relatively small size (we'll have 20 team members in July of 2008), I've put forth the following challenge to the team:

"How can we stretch our value and efficiency further, everyday, using the tools we are promoting and selling everyday?"

This blog site, and the links you'll see to the individual team members blogs, will attempt to answer at least part of that question. You'll see us venturing into pod/web/screen-casting more so than in the past as well. And ultimately, we'll be attempting to anticipate, dissect and answer your common questions on how Microsoft technology can be used to solve, enhance and enrich the three areas I mention above - the Business of Schools, Teaching and Learning, and Student Lifestyle.

The title of this post, then, is more rhetorical in nature because I should be asking "Who 'ya gonna RSS?" or "Who 'ya gonna search on?" Regardless of which question you pose, we look forward to serving you. My blog site, by the way, is http://blogs.technet.com/rgode; it will naturally be less technical and therefore more theoretical, touching on some of the strategies and tactics that education customers might find interesting from a futures and/or high level approach.

Thanks for reading - hope to see you back again soon.

- Rod Gode, Specialist Team Unit Director, US Education

Microsoft Education US Specialist Team Blog