Snow days, carpool conflicts, broken bones, learning disabilities, the flu, excessive heat, hurricanes, weapon threats, cyber-bullying, failed levies, family vacation… Any of these factors, and many others, could mean unintended missed school days and a disruption in the learning continuum, at a minimum. More importantly, it could mean stunted flow of federal dollars for attendance and instruction.
With the on-going threat of the pandemic-like H1N1 virus, schools are regularly grappling with attempting to keep some semblance of order and learning while minimizing learning downtime caused by recommendations to isolate potentially sick students.
Meanwhile, Web 2.0 advances have allowed schools to explore the potential of anywhere, anytime learning tools to enhance the learning environment well beyond the physical bounds of the school property and beyond the time bounds of school sessions. Communication, collaboration, alerts and content is becoming increasingly digital and ubiquitously accessible as 1-1 computing and home computer access spreads.
Microsoft is right there in the mix with solutions for schools. Most customers probably traditionally associate us with on-premise, central-IT sponsored projects involving SharePoint, Office Communications Server and Office – clearly our legacy and area of expertise. What many customers don’t realize is that we’re also in the business of Web 2.0-style immediacy – with free web tools directly relevant to educational needs.
Office Live Workspace fits the LEARNING CONTINUUM bill
Forget the branding, for a second and just think of this as a Classroom workspace – an accessible from any browser tool to store, share and collaborate on homework, handouts, presentations and projects. No – they don’t have to be Office documents – they can be of ANY file time; and no – you don’t have to be a Live@edu customer. Any teacher, student or administrator can setup and invite other peers, students or parents to participate and – POW – instant learning continuum tool! Check out the details here: http://www.microsoft.com/education/classworkspace/default.aspx
Don’t overlook our myriad other tools
More free web tools abound – all with high relevance for your classrooms.
1. Need to record a lecture or lesson for students who miss it? Check out Community Clips.
2. Need great multi-media software for assembling projects? Check out the new Windows Live Movie Maker.
3. Want to share documents and screen views with peers or students? Check out Shared View.
Who knew Microsoft is your quick and simple source for relevant classroom tools? Enjoy!
Have you followed the trend of Microsoft’s innovation in Education? It’s been an interesting path, for sure – especially if you trace the roots far enough back. You could almost put it into a 3-phased approach…
Phase 1 – Software
Surely you remember not-so-long bygone products like Encarta and perhaps even Class Server that focused on classroom enrichment and management. More recently we’ve dug in deeper to optimizing the learning experience with products like Learning Essentials – the Office add-on specifically designed for helping students and teachers work smarter; Math – everything you need to tackle math and science on your computer; and Semblio – a forthcoming set of tools for publishers and end-users for enriching content used in the classroom.
Phase 2 – Software+Services
In recognition of the power of the web, we’ve also started to play heavily in the cloud space – first by leveraging our consumer-oriented Live and OfficeLab or LiveLab tools for education enrichment (Community Clips, SharedView, MovieMaker) and then by formalizing email and collaboration tools into a centrally managed Live@edu offering for schools.
Phase 3 - 
Released in July, Microsoft’s Education Labs is a new web community designed to share the company’s latest innovations for the education community. Educationlabs features a growing collection of free, easy-to-deploy solutions specifically for teaching and learning, and serves as a forum for exchanging ideas that will inform Microsoft’s ongoing research and technology development for education.
A number of new innovations on Education Labs are slated for launch this fall. One launched and is available for download today (9/3) - Math Worksheet Generator; two others, Microsoft Folder-based Sites and Flashcards, will become available later this fall. Here’s a little detail about these cool little classroom apps.
Math Worksheet Generator – an application for educators to quickly create personalized math worksheets for an entire class or individual students.
- Eliminates the need to photocopy old worksheets or textbooks to find math problems
- Worksheets can be used for in-class or take-home assignments, tests, quizzes or materials for tutors
- Created in Word, which makes it easy to reformat, save and print
- Integrates with Microsoft Math 3.0
Microsoft Folder-Based Sites – helps educators create a Web site which automatically converts files such as Word documents, spreadsheets and PowerPoint decks into HTML files, allowing educators to easily store, organize and share their materials with their students online.
- Easy folder creation to organize and categorize documents via “drag-and-drop”
- Browser-viewable - no special applications are needed on students’ computers
- Ability to upload many files at once – a feature not typically supported by existing LMS offerings
Flashcards – an interactive application for educators and students to create flashcard decks or choose from a catalogue of digital flashcards featuring audio, text or pictures.
- Personalizes the studying experience for the student
- Uses a special algorithm to track how many times a student visits a card to help them know how they are progressing on a study subject
Oh yeah – did I mention all of these are FREE? Start enhancing your classroom environment today with innovative EducationLabs downloads and forums – http://www.educationlabs.com
We’re entering an exciting launch year – not the least of which is Windows 7 – a smooth, snappy operating system I’ve been enjoying on several business and personal computers for several months.
Quick sidebar: I made the mistake of loading Win7 on only one of my three children’s computers – which happened to be the oldest machine as well, a 5+ year old Dell tower. The other two children are constantly clamoring for me to upgrade their machines now as well, having felt slighted at me overlooking their "advanced" computing needs…
Back to the topic at hand. In the hoopla of Windows 7 launch, it’s important for our Education customers to keep their eye on some of the other announcements we’re making in the world of “Live”. I’d like to share a prime example with yesterday’s announcement of the global availability of the new Windows Live Movie Maker. With the new Windows Live Movie Maker, it’s easier than ever to turn videos and photos into great-looking movies and slideshows, using many popular camera types and file formats on the market today. With the proliferation of media and visualization use in the classroom, Movie Maker is more than just an effective tool for teachers to bring the benefits of multimedia to the classroom - it can help engage students and increase retention.
When we think about how students and teachers interact, one of the key enhancements that stands out is the sharing capability. Once a movie is complete, the collaboration and interaction can begin immediately and seamlessly – with other teachers, students or even friends and family across TV, PC or mobile device or by uploading them to video-sharing sites.
Teachers and students – anyone for that matter – can download the new Windows Live Movie Maker for free by going to download.live.com. Enjoy!
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.
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!
Background
Working in conjunction with Windows-Hied listsrv representatives, Microsoft Education is pleased to host the 5th Windows Hied Conference at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA, March 30th – April 1st, 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 30th – April 1st, 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:
- 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.
Microsoft’s vision of cloud computing is called, and being marketed as Software + Services. The original, more broadly accepted term, as you are likely aware, is Software as a Service. What’s the difference, if any? Should you care? Or is Microsoft just trying to re-invent or re-define the genre for our purposes – marketing, awareness or otherwise? Not only is this a key question in general, but it is almost more important for us as educators, administrators, students and those of us in the IT vendor world that serve those constituents. My goal of this blog post is to start opening the door on understanding – I can’t ask or expect much more given how the definition of this space is changing weekly, if not daily.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is defined quite well on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service. Note the keys here are “hosted” and “no local installation” which has clear and distinct benefits from a desktop management perspective – not only from a versioning and update perspective, but from a cross-platform support perspective as well (assuming web standards are utilized/optimized). You could go on and argue that costs are more manageable and predictable – a pay as you consume concept – and that much of the overhead of internal IT services, including helpdesk and support, can be alleviated. The risks, as also stated in the article, relate primarily to sustainability and redundancy, but also data protection and general security.
To be sure, Microsoft understands and embraces the concept of SaaS, as evidenced by our foray into all of our “Live” branded products – both for the consumer (http://get.live.com/) as well as for business (http://www.microsoft.com/softwareplusservices/). Where we augment the basic definition is around those areas above that are known or hypothesized weaknesses of SaaS. It may or may not surprise you that S+S is actually defined quite well on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%2BS – but to summarize in my own words: Software + Services takes the concept and power of cloud computing (Services) and magnifies its effect with the smart use of client side computing (Software).
Let’s take some examples:
1. Unified Communications: in the SaaS world, this could imply email, web conferencing, instant messaging and perhaps IP telephony all of which can be done via browser-based applications and consistent connectivity. When you add S+S to the UC workload, however, you start to add programs like Outlook, Office Communicator, Live Meeting and Windows Mobile, all of which are medium-to-heavy client applications that add (in my opinion) significant value to my daily routine, including the ability to work offline, work quickly with local data; operate, sort, filter, view and process email, media and documents on my mobile phone when I have a poor (or no) cell signal. Schools and campuses are approaching or already have 100% wireless and cellular coverage, which negates at least some of the basic advantages of the “Software” side of this equation, so then we need to look one step further at both the richness and flexibility of client-side software, for example the ability to manage calls, conferences and messages in an integrated fashion between my email and communicator client.
2. Classroom or Administrative Productivity: this category includes those applications that we think of as core – word processing, spreadsheets, presentation and perhaps note taking and graphics/desktop publishing/drawing. Open Office, Google and others have free or inexpensive options available in the SaaS world. Depending on needs, such options may be sufficient, especially if the ad-funded model of software development and support works for you. OneNote is a great example of very-education-relevant software that takes advantage of web interaction (synchronizing notebooks across the web) that has no match as a cloud-based service.
3. Companion Applications: where the Microsoft S+S message really starts to gel is the area of what I will call companion applications – all of which are free, btw. Some of these you may have heard of, some you may not have, but they start to connect the dots between our new and traditional worlds, specifically around Productivity Applications, but largely applicable to all areas.
Our cloud computing will continue to evolve – no doubt – as we push the envelope on S+S, both with traditional, for-fee software, as well as new-model free ad-funded or low cost companion or utility computing applications. Either way, you can trust that our experience in both enterprise computing as well as end-user application innovation will yield some pretty cool, pretty useful applications for education. Stay tuned to the PDC in late October 2008 for some exciting new announcements in this area!
So much hullabalu is afoot in the press these days regarding Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing and Web 2.0 that our own internal news service had to create a new RSS feed category just to optimally classify and keep tabs on the trends, stories and technologies claiming to be a part of the push. No doubt, many education organizations and companies are starting to evaluate the merits of hosted services, especially those considered "commodity", to offload the burden of management, maintenance, support and upgrades required by on-premise software. To go one step further, some customers have already ventured down that path, having deployed student email using Live@edu, utilizing Office Live Workspaces for project or team collaboration or Live Skydrive for sharing presentations, projects and files.
Perhaps one of the most compelling rationale for investigting and migrating certain "life and work functions" to the cloud is that in many cases they are free - including all the Live technologies cited above, as well as some of the more consumer-oriented social networking sites like Facebook and Live Spaces. "Free" tends to be looked at fromd different angles, depending on your lense and perspective, however; as an end user, you don't pay for a packaged piece of software or download, but you do have to endure the utilization of your web services as an advertising platform. Most tend to agree this is worth it, given the benefits and value of the experience, and advertisers are all to happy to supplement the large cost of raised floor, fat pipe, massive disk arrays, server management, personnel overhead and energy by providing you with the latest and greates mortgage refinancying deal, for example. While this might be acceptable for end users as consumers, the justification becomes a little muddled when students as organization users come in to play, especially minors and especially when advertising may present a conflict of interest for a university or school district. Further, enterprise services don't have an advertisement-subsidy option, so the subscription cost of cloud services must be weighed against traditional on-premise IT management - not necessarily an easily aligned ROI or TCO equation.
I'll take this thread one step further by posing this question: is it feasible to follow this hype cycle through to completion such that *all* desktop and on-premise functions could eventually and theoretically be hosted (and free?) That may eventually be a possibility, but step back for a moment and think about what you do on your PC everyday - connected or not. Think about the spreadsheets, documents and applications your run locally that could benefit from a more lively interface with cloud services - a Word document session that allows collaboration with a student that just has a browser; an interactive history simulation session running on your teach PC that allows realtime assessment inputs from student cell phones; a homework folder that simultaneous updates your instructor PC, your browser at home and your cell phone when assignments are posted. These scenarios, and many others like it that are more business and consumer oriented, are what embody the definition of what Microsoft calls Software + Services (link to interative web site explaining the premise in detail). The crux of the idea is that we believe in, and are massively investing in cloud services for both consumer and business alike, and see great value and productivity in a world where those services are optimized with the rich applications we use everyday on our increasingly powerful desktops. Not just a redefinition of SaaS, S+S takes the cloud services vision to completion - read more on the above web site and let me know what you think.
My favorite educationally relevant and intellectual article of this calendar year (and arguably for the past 12 months or more) is one that appeared in Educause Magazine in their Jan/Feb 2008 issue entitled Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0: access it directly here.
I recently presented to a customer audience during which I expanded on the many facets of the general concepts there-in and how I think the web and its myriad offerings as a search engine, platform and learning community tool are very relevant to where we (as educators and IT vendors) need to take next generation learning. In this post, I'll touch on a couple key facets of that talk.
The Long Tail
Chris Anderson, the editor in chief for WIRED Magazine, gained notoriety in Oct 2004 for his article, The Long Tail, which eventually became a published and well-respected Web 2.0 business book. The original research and article was designed to address the phenomenon of niche product sales and positioning on the web as compared with Brick & Mortar, but it has been extrapolated and studied extensively since then as a generally sound theory for explaining the rapidly expanding and successful niches - both commerce and social - that are abundant on the web.
This concept applies equally as well to both of the concepts of traditional teacher and traditional school as being limited in being able to address the rapidly growing interest in niche topics or communities that students may be interested in, or, more importantly, unique learning needs (read "individualized learning") that is required as classrooms grow larger and more diverse. "Long Tail" learning implies that students can utilize the power, breadth and depth of the Internet to supplement traditional learning, even discover highly specialized topics and communities that would otherwise not be available at all.
Dissecting Web 2.0 Components
After reading or skimming the EDUCAUSE article, you'll get a sense of the three areas of influence that the Internet has on learning. I attempt to break those areas down graphically below, such that we can start assigning web 2.0-type experiences somewhere in the continuum of interaction. While not exhaustive, this graphic and experiences helps provide educators and IT personnel a framework for what tools might impact specific needs for learning or web interaction.
For example, I place Search square in the center of the Venn, recognizing that traditional and new search (images, people, blogs, etc) provide a basis for any of the functions for which you may be attempting to utilize the Internet. Wikis, blogs and podcasts can be used equally as well for acquiring knowledge as a consumer, posting knowledge as an expert or aspiring learner, or socializing concepts and hypotheses as a virtual learner in a community.
Although not as categorically well-defined as some better-established Web 2.0 functions, the Internet as a Platform concept, in my mind, is one of the most exciting areas for broadening the scope of learning experiences. From terrestrial mapping and visualization experiences, to the exploration of molecules via scanning electron microscopes, to the exploration of the far reaches of space - the Internet is providing experiences once available only through field trips, movies or experts, but now well within reach of anyone with browser navigation skills. Expand this further to the growing popularity of virtual worlds, and you start to collide all three areas of function.
Microsoft Relevance?
But of course! Some of the most innovative experiences and tools available today are from the bitstreams of Microsoft coders - hard at work in Microsoft Research, or in our Office or Live Labs bunkers. If you have an afternoon to kill and want to explore some highly relevant tools that are just downright cool, try exploring the following:
Photosynth: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/
WorldWide Telescope: http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
Tafiti: http://tafiti.mslivelabs.com/
PopFly: http://www.popfly.com
Not only does each tool have education relevance, but more importantly, they're FREE. And when you look further across the spectrum of products - both cloud based and on premise - Microsoft actually does a pretty good job of connecting local software to Internet Service for a cohesive collaboration and learning solution. While I can't say it will be entirely evident to you just by reading this post, I can say that you should challenge your Microsoft sales representative to explain it to you - or just ping me directly... Inevitably I'll be recording the full presentation for broader consumption. Either way, I look forward to your feedback.
In college, I have to admit, I had a Mac. A Mac Plus with 2MB of RAM (I put the second 1 MB SIMM in myself) and a 40 MB (yes, megabyte) external hard drive that cost me an obscene amount of money - all I knew is I never again had to swap disks when playing Lode Runner or loading Word...
I digress. College was a great time - socially, musically, athletically, and most importantly, technically. It defined my passions and interest in the career I have now. I was fortunate to have a part time job in the UCSB Microcomputer lab (thanks Bill K) in which to explore, feed and enrich that interest.
Now all college students have an opportunity to experience that enrichment... talk about a cool job! If you're not a student in college, but know one (or have one), feel free to pass along the information, link and deadline!
About the Microsoft® Student Partners (MSP) Program
The Microsoft® Student Partners (MSP) Program recognizes top young minds from around the world who are passionate about technology and marketing. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop real world skills to help students succeed in their future career, to help others learn about technology and to connect with other like-minded students, all while having a ton of fun along the way!
MSPs are encouraged to share their passion and knowledge and to undertake a number of fun activities on campus such as hosting Xbox gaming tournaments, planning & marketing events, demoing new technologies, hosting Tech Talks with student developers, and blogging about their experiences & passions. In return MSPs get access to numerous benefits including Microsoft software, reference materials, and training, as well as privileged information about future opportunities. If you are passionate about technology or marketing, we want to hear from you!
To apply, US students should visit http://us.student-partners.com and submit an application by the 5/31/08 Deadline.
I've finally caught up with the trend and am today officially posting my first weblog. All I can say is "It's about time..." which sounds faintly reminiscent of what my mother-in-law said when I proposed to her daughter. There may be some interesting analogies between the blogging trend and marriage that I reserve the right to exploit later in this post.
First, the Formalities
The focus of this blog will inherit from my role and mission here at Microsoft, leading a team of technical and solution specialists who focus on the Education vertical: "Empower people to realize their social and economic potential by enabling access to quality education experiences for all through technology." As lofty as a goal as that may seem, I'm going to assume, at least for the time being, that every little point of light will help the cause.
We call this team of specialists that I manage, by the way, the Education Specialist Team Unit, or STU for short. Every sales district and subsidiary at Microsoft has one, 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 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 solutions. 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 opportunities in person.
Personally, I've been managing such resources at Microsoft, for US Education, for 5 years; and prior to that I was a Systems Engineer supporting Education and State & Local Government customers in the northern California area for 5 years. Beyond some early coding, training and project management work in my career, the bulk of my adult life has been spent in some pre-sales engineering or consulting capacity which most people recognize as an interesting skills mix of technology expertise and value translation.
Next, the Realities
Having worked in several verticals over the 20 years of my professional career (chemical manufacturing, high tech, public sector, defense contracting), Education customers provide an interesting mix of challenge and reward. While you could argue that education customers are technology laggards (especially when it comes to some of the desktop machines that are still in use), the opposite could just as easily be proved by observing the trends in mobility, wireless, social networking and high performance computing, for example. Regardless of your take, I personally enjoy both the challenges and rewards of daily interaction with education customers, attempting to address and solve their technology and process issues. Microsoft is a company with extensive resources and innovation to address many, but not all, of the said issues, and we usually have the wisdom to admit when we don't.
We are all ultimately products of our upbringing and education (genes and pre-dispositions notwithstanding) and with 3 school-age children of my own, I thrive on the opportunity to apply my work to life, and my life to work - it's not every job that allows you that luxury. As most Education Team members will tell you, however, it is getting increasing difficult to disconnect one from the other in this age of always on and connected. Will that make the future of teaching, learning, technology (and living) different than it is today? I have a premise and some ideas, but you'll have to tune in next time to read what they are. Until then - it's all about edU.
