It's all about edU : Tools

Thinking about the Learning Continuum with disrupters like H1N1

rgode@microsoft.com — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:41:01 GMT

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!

Education Innovation – Microsoft Education Labs

rgode@microsoft.com — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:26:02 GMT

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

Exciting news in the world of (classroom) movie making!

rgode@microsoft.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:51:00 GMT

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!

Expanding your LiveMeeting Investment

rgode@microsoft.com — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:37:27 GMT

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.