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The World Partner Conference kicks off in Los Angeles next month, and in the build up to it, we’ve just announced the results of the Microsoft Partner of Year Awards for 2011. It’s a tough race, with over 3,000 companies entering from over 100 countries – and the judging process is tough on the entrants.
Here’s the criteria that the entries are judged on for the Education Partner of Year Award:
It’s amazing that a small specialist Australian company, Janison, in Coffs Harbour, NSW, made it to the three finalists for the Education Partner of Year. Of course, it’s a real shame that they didn’t win the award, to add to their bookshelf of other awards for the ESSA Online Science Assessment project.
The winner that pipped Janison to the post was Desire2Learn, a Canadian-based global company who produce a learning management system that’s a competitor to Blackboard and Moodle (and a company that we work closely with here in Australia too).
Here’s the blurb from the site on the winner, Desire2Learn:
Desire2Learn is recognized as a global eLearning solution provider with the most complete, scalable and adaptable suite of enterprise software products and services to power any institution’s learning infrastructure. All solutions are customized to reflect each school’s unique learning methodologies and branding needs. Desire2Learn currently has over 500 clients worldwide across Schools, Colleges, Higher Education, State Departments of Education, as well as government, corporate and healthcare organisations. The scalability of their solution and global presence provides Desire2Learn with the ability to connect schools and provide a borderless environment in which to teach and learn, today more than 6 million learners reap the benefits of Desire2Learn’s applications. The Desire2Learn Environment is a complete web-based suite of easy-to-use tools and functionality built exclusively on Microsoft Windows and SQL Server. Other Microsoft technologies integrated, or soon to be integrated, in their products include: Live@edu, Windows Phone 7, Lync, Office 365, and SharePoint.
If you’re planning to extend e-learning in your school/TAFE/university, then you’ve now got two of the world’s best partners here to work with you in Australia.
See information on the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards Read more on this blog about the Desire2Learn Learning Management System Find out more about Janison’s ESSA project
See information on the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards
Read more on this blog about the Desire2Learn Learning Management System
Find out more about Janison’s ESSA project
PS As I wrote this, I discovered I’d not already written about the Janison project on this blog – so expect me to rectify that over the next few days
Whoops – despite me talking about this project frequently, I forgot to put anything on the blog…which came to light when I was writing about Janison being a finalist in the Microsoft Partner Awards. So let me put it right
Last year Janison worked with the New South Wales Department of Education and Training to move their Essential Secondary Science Assessment (a compulsory test for Year 8 students) online – reducing the amount of paperwork flying around, and the consequent marking and delays caused in issuing results.
From an education point of view, it’s an interesting project because they managed to create a new level of interactivity within the tests – allowing students to change the parameters of experiments, and getting immediate feedback. It’s a big jump forward from multiple-choice quizzes.
And from a technology point of view, it’s noteworthy because of the way that Cloud services were used to deliver the test to students – which dramatically reduced the cost of delivering the test. In the pilot project in 2010, 30,000 students from 650 schools took the test online, all in a single day – and using Cloud-based ICT made it possible.
Janison, the partner that built the online ESSA testing system, used the Windows Azure Cloud system to deliver the test, with Azure delivering the interactive content to the students, as well as storing the students individual answers (and streaming those answers back to a on-premise data server too). Students taking the test didn’t see any of this – they just worked their way through a set of multimedia, animated virtual assessments, whilst staff used a web portal to administer the system.
Although all of this would have been possible using a conventional infrastructure, the use of the Windows Azure Cloud reduced the cost – making it 100 times less expensive. In the old model, the system would have needed banks of dedicated servers, which would only be heavily used on one day a year (but would have to have the capacity for hundreds of thousands of students for that one day!). With the Cloud model, what Janison could do was simply use the elastic capacity of the Cloud, and increase the number of servers they were using in the Microsoft datacentre (perhaps in a case of overcaution, using 300 servers on the day). And because they could just switch it on and off like a lightswitch, they only paid for the hours they were using them. This meant the hosting costs fell from hundreds of thousands of dollars (for physical servers) to just $500.
And, for the developers it allowed them to use their existing development methodology and tools, according Wayne Houlden, Janison’s CEO
Without the Cloud, then it’s unlikely the project would have ever got off the ground, or would have taken years to get moving, because of the prohibitive cost, and the inflexibility of a traditional computing project.
Of course, successful IT projects never grab the headlines like unsuccessful ones, but the Sydney Morning Herald’s article on ESSA testing described it with no shortage of praise:
The trial…heralds a new era of online assessment destined to transform how students are examined…
…The overwhelmingly positive feedback from students, who are asked to complete a short survey at the end of the exam, and teachers has already filtered out to education authorities worldwide.
And there’s been widespread recognition for the project, as it won the Australian Excellence in eGovernment Award 2011 for Applications Development, and is a finalist in the Telstra Business Awards at the beginning of July. (And was a finalist in the worldwide Microsoft Partner Awards).
Visit the Janison website to learn more
I was watching deaf people using their mobile phones to communicate via video sharing this week, (during ‘An Idiot Abroad’ Karl Pilkington got sent to Cairo, and ended up in a KFC run by deaf staff).
And then today, I was sent a link to this video from Generation-e, who have been helping the Vicdeaf team to improve communications between their staff and stakeholders. The video demonstrates how Microsoft Lync enables deaf colleagues to collaborate and communicate, with both instant messaging and video calling enabling more interactive, and clearer communication.
From August, the licence for Lync is being included within the main Client Access Licence (CAL) that our education customers use in Australia – which means that customers who are on subscription licences (School Agreement, Campus Agreement, or the new EES or OVS-ES) will automatically be licensed for parts of Lync. So the example that you see above is more feasible in education establishments across Australia – not just in specialist organisations for the deaf.
Read other case studies on Microsoft Lync in education
The agenda for the Microsoft Australia Partner Conference (APC) has been published, and it’s pretty comprehensive.
There’s a wide choice of tracks available, and they break down into three different types
Download the full detail of the APC 2011 Track Sessions here
Find out more about APC 2011, and how to register
Don’t forget if you’re a Gold or Silver Competency Partner, then you get your first ticket free, saving you up to $1,496.
Part One of a series - and a bit like chapters in a book, chapter one doesn’t tell the whole story, but gets the journey started!
For years we have been collecting data on students. In the beginning, it was data created and collated by individual teachers - in students’ own workbooks and teacher markbooks. And then in early student information systems, we started to collect information on statutory tests, and then increasingly in-school tests. But still, in most schools, data is distributed across lots of different places - information is stored in students’ own workbooks, teachers’ markbooks, teacher spreadsheets, the student information system and in other databases (sometimes held at a teacher or department level, sometimes at school level). Oh, and then there’s the data aggregated and held outside of the school by curriculum authorities, state education departments, and assessment agencies.
But having collected all of that information in different places, and different ways, we haven’t yet reached the stage of using the data to consistently support learning for individual students. Of course, there are some shining examples of where it is being used, but the key word in the sentence is ‘consistently’ - all of the data, connected and used in every school to support learning.
So, the million dollar question is, as John Davitt put it:
Compare the experience of collecting and collating data in supermarkets to the story above. As consumers, we’ve been conditioned by the big supermarkets to share our data, and supermarkets have built central mechanisms to collect and use the data. There’s even a benefit paid for sharing your data. Here’s how it works:
The data that’s collected is potentially massive - and insightful. Everything from what paper you read, to what meat you buy for your BBQ. And by linking that to external data sources, they can go one step further - what products do customers buy when the temperature gets over 30⁰. Where do you live, shop and fuel your car?
Which results in retailers being able to collect and collate enough individual information to help them improve their business, through things such as:
And some of this then results in a further incentive for the customers - like offers related to switching brands, or finding that the shop doesn’t run out of your favourite ice cream for the BBQ on a hot weekend (okay, there’s some things that still need working on!)
But is it right to compare what is happening with consumer shopping data to what could be happening in education? In some ways it’s an unfair comparison, as the scale is massively different - supermarkets are dealing with millions of customers, and so they can afford to invest the time and money in building big data models. And there’s a commercial imperative to improve, which results in more revenue and profit - it’s not a fixed budget, so investment in improvements pays back with extra cash.
And there’s also a much more centralised system - for both customer management and data - that results in all of that useful data being seen and used at headquarters, rather than at branch level.
In education, only some data is shared with the ‘HQ’ - state or nationally - for example, statutory test data, like NAPLAN results. Whereas a lot of it is created and stored by the school. Or just by a teacher for their own use.
And finally, the money spent on improvements doesn’t necessarily generate more budget for the school.
Although direct comparisons are unfair, there are some lessons learnt by retailers that might be useful
If you consider how you use data in your school/TAFE/university, are there frustrations about data use that could be overcome by applying one or more of the retail lessons?
In my experience, the ‘benefit’ test is a key omission - eg are you asking teachers to supply data, without ensuring that they receive a benefit for it? (Or worse, do they think that sharing data just gives ‘management’ another stick to beat them with?). And reducing friction is also key - eg if a teacher currently stores their markbook in an Excel spreadsheet, can you read the data from there, instead of making them change?
As I said at the beginning, this is Chapter One. I’m going to come back to this whole subject in a couple of days, but for now, let me leave you with a question to think about (and comment on below?):
What are the other lessons we can learn from retailers’ use of data? Positive and negative?
Recently, I’ve highlighted quite a few case studies of education customers moving to the Microsoft Cloud. And generally, I hit ‘delete’ when I get sent case studies of commercial customers (after all, they aren’t like typical education customers, are they?). But I liked the first three paragraphs of this case study article on CIO.com.au, which drew me in:
Some CIOs understandably treat the consumerisation of IT as a plague — a disease that must be stamped out, lest it subvert the standard operating environment they fought so hard to implement.
For Coca-Cola Amatil’s CIO, however, the consumer world is the inspiration for his next steps in the enterprise.
“Historically, we take the collaborative tools that typically start outside of the enterprise and we figure out how to bring them into the enterprise,” Barry Simpson says. “But by the time we’ve done that, we’ve taken out most of the usable features — all the things that made it great in the home market. Then we try and figure out how to connect back out again. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
With 15,000 employees to serve in Australia, Barry had the challenges of managing large capital spikes of investment and of continuing to meet users’ rising expectations. Oh, and keeping the 69 mail servers running. In many ways, it’s not that different to an education customer. Except that he didn’t have access to the free Live@edu service, so had to choose the commercial equivalent (BPOS) – and make the investment decision of whether to invest in a cloud subscription or an on-premise service.
Read the full Coca-Cola case study on CIO.com.au
I just came across a great little free toolkit - the Microsoft Lync Adoption and Training Kit - which is a set of utilities and add-ins for Lync to give it increased capabilities - in addition to the instant messenger, video chat, phone calls and conference calling systems.
There's 'IM an expert' that allows you to search for people with specialist skills within your organisation (something that would probably be really helpful for HE researchers). But the one that struck me as really useful in education is the Conversation Translator, which does exactly that - two people can have a chat where they both type and see responses in their own language - and the Conversation Translator sits in the middle translating from one to the other - in a choice of 35 languages.
You could have students in Australia chatting to students in France - and build their confidence using the Conversation Translator, before weaning them off it as their language skills grow.
Learn More about the Lync Adoption and Training Kit
I've written before about Windows MultiPoint Server and the theoretical cost savings identified by Forrester.
The idea with Windows MultiPoint Server is quite easy to explain - you basically have a group of screens/keyboard/mice connected to a single computer - and each users gets a full Windows 7 desktop. And you save on hardware, electricity and management costs.
Now I can point you to more detailed real-life case studies from schools using the system.
In India, the Gulzar Group of Institutes has used it to reduce the cost of rolling out 120 stations in one big computer lab. Their original plan, to deploy 120 desktop computers, would have cost them $60,000, but using MultiPoint they reduced this to $36,000. As Gurkirat Singh, the Executive Director for Gulzar Group of Institutes, said at the time:
They other savings they made were in power usage - saving over $10,000 a year - and reduced the number of technicians needed to support the system by 50%. Overall, the case study points to a saving in the first year of over $40,000.
On another continent, Gashora Girls Academy in Rwanda has used the latest version - Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 - to provide access to students who didn't have classroom computers. They were aiming to increase availability of IT , without making it too complicated to be managed by classroom teachers. And they also needed to keep a lid on their power costs, due to the high costs of electricity in Africa. They setup 36 workstations, and as Kimberley Mecham, the Technical Advisor to the Academy, said:
“Some of these girls have never even seen a computer before. Through Windows MultiPoint Server, they can experience the most current software and technology.
With Windows MultiPoint Server, we can provide cost-effective access to technology, and this is the kind of thing that really changes a whole community.
In addition to saving hardware costs, they have made significant savings on power - especially important when a kilowatt hour of electricity costs 22 cents. Their original plan, of 36 desktop computers, would have been costing $149 a month to run - whereas their new system costs just $29 a month - reducing power costs by 80%
There's also a video case study of the use of Windows MultiPoint Server at Tri-Center Schools in Iowa, that shows how they used the system to connect 20 old computers to a single server - and use that to get their desktop experience up to date for their students.
Read the full case study on the Gulzar Group of Institutes in India Read the full case study on the Gashora Girls Academy in Rwanda
Find out more about Windows MultiPoint Server 2011
The Australian Government has set a series of eight Digital Economy Goals - which are being used to drive the economy and public planning forward. They relate to use of technology at home, in business, in health, in government and in education.
The Digital Economy Goal for Education is quite audacious:
Taken literally it means learners will be able to choose to learn online from their own school, TAFE or university.
Now, if you're used to reading Government targets you'll spot the get out clause, which is that the institutions have to have the facilities to offer it - it doesn't actually set the target that they must offer it. But let's ignore that for the moment.
There are two parties to this target:
I would guess that most institutions have a way of making some learning resources available online today - but do they all have a roadmap that gets them to the point of delivering a full traditional course by online virtual means?
And if you are in a school, TAFE or university, do you feel accountable for the goal?
FYI here are all of the Australian Government Digital Economy Goals. The goals are that by 2020:
The Microsoft Australia Partner Conference (APC) is on from 23 - 25 August 2011 in the Gold Coast, where there will be the chance to connect up with over 200 Microsoft experts, 850 other partners and to hear from some inspiring speakers. And it’s also where we’ll announce the winners of the Microsoft Australia Partner Awards, including the Microsoft Australia Education Partner Award 2011.
All Microsoft Partners with a Gold and Silver competency get one complimentary ticket, and there’s an early bird ticket offer of $1,346 if you book before Friday 8 July (which saves $150 off the usual price).
For education partners, there are plenty of opportunities to gain special insight:
Nearer the time, I’ll be able to help you book individual meetings, or find suitable people from other partner organisations that you want to meet up with. For now though, your priority should be to book yourself in…
Learn More and Register