Last week the Education team hosted a SharePoint Showcase Event at Microsoft in Reading. The idea was to present a different partner solution for SharePoint every 12 minutes! A bit like speed dating. The format seemed to be popular, at least from the feedback we got on the day! With 23 partner presentations there was inevitably a great variety of solutions to see and if a particular presentation wasn't particularly relevant, the next one would be along shortly.

For those of you that couldn't attend the partner presentations are gradually being posted on a SkyDrive at:

http://cid-2fbbe67743d5177d.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/SharePoint%20Showcase%20May%202008?uc=6

Enjoy, as many of them are walkthroughs and screenshots of actual products.

We’ve just announced that Office 2007 will get native support for ODF with the release of Office 2007 Service Pack 2, early next year.

You can already save files from Office 2007 in 20 different formats – of which, my favourite three are:

• Office Open XML – which is the new standard format for Office 2007 files, and the one I use most often because it automatically understands all the fancy new stuff in Office 2007 – like SmartArt & the improved picture formatting in PowerPoint.
  
• Office 2003 format – which I use to share files with people using older versions of Office. And some people can’t read these files because their desktop Windows is so locked down that they can’t install the Office update, which is a free download for Office 2000/XP/2003 to open these files.
  
• PDF – just a couple of times, I’ve saved documents in PDF format – mainly Word documents. Whilst I know other people who publish their PowerPoint presentations as PDFs, I don’t do it. It’s more open to share the native PowerPoint files so that you can use & modify them yourself. It’s always a bit frustrating when somebody else’s brilliant slide is only available as a PDF image…

There’s already a convertor to convert files between Open XML and ODF – we’ve worked with the SourceForge.net community to make this available. And a free plug-in for Office 2007 which adds the “Save as PDF” option to the menu.

What’s been announced today is that the Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will have native support for Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1, PDF & XML Paper Specifications (XPS), when it is released in the first half of 2009.

This is all part of working more closely with the interoperability groups who are working on interoperability between document file formats – like the DAISY format for accessible publishing (DAISY blog post)– and with organisations like the Interop Vendor Alliance (website).

I guess you’re asking yourself what this means? Well, if you'’re keen to use ODF, you’ll get a menu item next year that will add “Save as ODF” (and until then they can use the other ways above). But as most common Office applications – eg Open Office & Google Apps - already support .doc format, it’s probably not need it in many circumstances. Perhaps when sharing files with international colleagues?

There’s more detail of this announcement on our PressPass site

A while ago I wrote about the announcement of the work that Microsoft were doing to develop a DAISY XML translator. The DAISY Consortium was set up to help those with visual impairment (or ‘print disabilities’) to access digital content easily, and enhance their use of the materials. We’ve been working with DAISY to develop a Word plug-in which allows Open XML documents to be translated into DAISY XML, which has become a globally accepted standard for digital talking books – for example, it’s used by the RNIB’s Talking Book Service.

DAISY stands for Digital Accessible Information System, which lets you work with digital content in many ways, synchronising audio with display output, generating braille versions, or allowing text to speech conversion.

The free Word Add-In has now been released, and adds a “Save as DAISY XML” option to the Word menu. The convertor is released as an open source project, and can be downloaded from the Open XML Community site. The beauty of this software is that it makes a specialist facility available within the core of Office – offering a broader reach for solutions that help visually impaired learners. It makes it easier for all staff in a college to be able to prepare materials in a way that could be used by all learners.

The Save as Daisy XML function works with Word 2007, Word 2003 and Word XP.

A few years ago, you couldn’t go to an education conference without hearing all about learning styles (Auditory, Visual, Tactual, Kinesthetic & Verbal). Now it’s as though it never happened – conferences are all talking about personalisation, policy and practitioners. Even though it’s no longer trendy, there are plenty of people still working on improving learner engagement in education through developing a better understanding of the influence of learning styles, and how they can be exploited.

If you’re interested in learning styles, it is definitely worth a read – with some excellent background on learning styles (based on the Dunn and Dunn model) , along with an analysis of how tools in Office can help a student. It also refers to www.learningstyles.net, where you can take a personal Learning Style assessment

I learnt something about my own learning style (and why I learn in that way) from the booklet. For example

Some people learn best when they have new and difficult information presented to them step by step
in a logical sequence; they are called analytics.

Others (most people) learn best when they have new and difficult information presented in large
chunks on the basis of which they can then investigate the details themselves; they are called globals.

Finally, there is a group of people, called the integrated, who do not prefer one way rather than the
other; they can approach new and difficult information both analytically and globally.

I’m clearly a ‘global’ – I really like investigating and coming to my own conclusion, because then I feel more of an investment in the result. As I continued through the guide, it made even more sense.

• “The leading principle for globals is F&C: Fun and Color”
    Well, I like F&C, even though I’m bad at choosing colours
  
• “…they often like to work with mind mapping (sometimes combined with text boxes) rather than step by step tables”
    That describes me to perfection. I really hate flowcharts!

You can download the booklet from here

We’re running a seminar in London, in partnership with Oxford Computer Group, on 12th June. It’s an opportunity to learn about solutions for identity and access management, messaging, collaboration, and how you can enhance existing technology investments.

During the day we’ll provide an overview of Microsoft’s Live@edu services and how these can easily be integrated with your existing infrastructure using Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007. We will then demonstrate how to use this platform for identity and access management, showing how to implement a rich identity lifecycle management solution that works with Live@edu and your existing in-house systems.

When and Where?

12 June 2008 - Microsoft London, 100 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5JL

Agenda

Registration

To register for this free seminar please email Simon Farrell, v-sifar@microsoft.com, with your details, including a telephone number.

Tribal's ebs, a web-based student record and management system, is capable of managing the entire student lifecycle, from course marketing to examinations and timetables. And it’s currently used by more than 150 learning providers. You might be familiar with ebs, and some of the other systems that are there to help manage student records in colleges. But do you know how they are created?

But the case study also makes an interesting insight into Tribal’s relationship with their customers, and the way that benefited Sussex Downs College, one of them.

Tracey Adams, Management Information Officer at Sussex Downs College, says in the case study:

EBS worked well as the basis of our management information system. But when we heard that Tribal was planning to upgrade the timetabling component, we were able to get involved at the early stages of development as part of its early adopter programme. It was very useful to have the ear of the developers during this process and to be able to make suggestions as the product was being developed. We could tell them how the product was being used and what might be the requirements.

And as a result, the resulting upgrade to ebs meant that:

• Staff immediately see clashes in scheduling and manage timetables easily.
• Tutors access exam, course, and student timetables, and track attendance records.
• Tutors and administrators interact with a graphically appealing system that is more user friendly.

You can read more about the project on our worldwide case studies website

You can’t have failed to miss the offer we’ve been running for students and staff who have an email address that ends in .ac.uk – Office Ultimate 2007 for £38.95 – on www.theultimatesteal.co.uk

But you may have missed the looming deadline – it closes on Wednesday night next week – so there are just five days to go

We’ve seen a rush of people mentioning it on blogs and forums suddenly, because it appears many students still haven’t heard of the offer. And we’ve also seen a burst of traffic from universities which have just announced the offer for the first time to their students. Is this something that you want to tell your students and staff about?

If you do want to tell your students & staff , then this post gives you some words & images.

Of the universities that have promoted it to their students (including Bristol – Kent – Stirling – Queens University Belfast Salford – QMU Edinburgh – Bradford – Middlesex – Loughborough) my favourite two are:

• Homerton College – on what’s an obviously student-centric IT page. It’s worth looking at as a good practice example of moving away from a dull, corporate look to student communications!
• Derby – who used the lovely countdown clock one of my colleagues created.

www.theultimatesteal.co.uk

If you join the MSDN blog community, using the "Join" link at the top right of the page, you get a couple of nice extra features.

One is that you get the chance to comment on any of the blog articles. It's not because I want to know who you are -  unless you tell me in your public profile, I can't see that info anyway - but to prevent 'comment spam', which is a direct equivalent of emal spam, where thousands of comments are dumped onto the blog redirecting readers to amazing, once-in-a-lifetime offers...

The second reason to join the community, is if you want to subscribe to this blog by email, to get new articles into your inbox whenever they are published.

To sign up for email alerts, use this page, and you'll start receiving new posts as soon as they are published.

(And you can still subscribe to this blog through your RSS reader, using the RSS 2.0 link at the top of the page.)

The market for ultra-low-cost laptops is continuing to move forwards. At the point when the Asus EeePC/Asus RM miniBook were released, it created a buzz in education. Basically it was easy to see how it would be possible to imagine that every student could have a device, which is cheap, light and small enough for them to have available all of the time.

Over time in the UK, we've seen the ratio between students and computers improve. Although, in colleges the latest Becta reports said that the numbers are going the wrong way - according to 2005/6 FERL/Becta Survey there are 4.5 students per computer, down from 4.1 students per computer in 2002. In most colleges this has been through adding more fixed computers - ie take the students to the computers, not the reverse.

When you've got a laptop that costs less than £250, suddenly it seems possible to make a huge leap - to providing a laptop for every full-time student, and through that changing the delivery model of resources. But the first miniBook release was only the thin end of the wedge. What's happened since then?

RM miniBook

The miniBook is a small format, 0.9KG laptop with a 7" 800x480 screen, with a battery life of 2-3 hours.

RM launched the first Windows XP version of the RM miniBook/Asus EeePC in January (with a higher specification - 8Gb storage and 1Gb RAM - and a higher price - £269).

Last month they launched the lower-cost Windows XP miniBook, at £225 (with 4GB solid-state hard drive, and 512MB of RAM).

Read the specifications and other details here

HP 2133 miniNote from RM

RM have now launched the HP 2133 miniNote, a higher specification notebook, running Windows XP Pro/Windows Vista Business, with a 8.9" screen running at 1280x768 and weighing in at 1.3Kg (1.5Kg with a 4 hour battery), which costs £385.

Intel's new Atom processor

At the Intel Developer Forum, in Shanghai, there was a lot of focus on the new Atom processor, a new chip that helps to reduce power consumption, and is a building block for low-cost, ultra-portable devices. There were some new designs on display there - one from MSI got a lot of coverage (see right), because it was claimed to have a 6-hour battery life and a 10-inch screen.

And there's more coming...

It's clear that we're still in the early days of lower cost, more portable laptops, and we'll see more product launches over the next few months. In fact, by the time we get to the summer holidays, the choice for laptops for individual students is going to be even bigger. So now's the time to be thinking about your strategy for the future, and considering how that will allow you to take your college provision forward.

So what does this all mean?

In the past, it's been unlikely that the majority of colleges would be able to, or want to, give a laptop to every one of their students. It wasn't just because of cost, but also because of size and weight, as well as battery life. The new laptops are reducing size and weight, and some are even addressing the battery life issue.

I think by this time next year, it will be possible to have a strategy of reducing the number of PCs fixed to desks, and rapidly getting to a 1:1 PC:Student ratio. And if you can do that, how would it change your learning model? And what contribution could that make to achievement by your students?

Colleges are having to adapt to changes in the way workforce training is funded by the Govern ment, to ensure that they get certified in the Training Quality Standard (TQS) .  The TQS will have a major impact on colleges, as you could be in direct competition for funding with private sector training organisations, with funding decided by how well you are perceived to serve the employer community. 

To achieve TQS certification, colleges you have to prove that you're responsive, high-quality providers, responding to employers within set time frames and keeping accurate records of all interactions with them.  One way that this can easily be achieved is with a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in place. To help you with your planning for this, we're running a seminar in partnership with Morse and Barnfield College at our office in Reading on 21st May.

Barnfield College is a remarkable sucess story.  Rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, it is one of the best performing colleges in the UK in terms of its students’ achievements.  Teresa Frith, Director of Business Development at Barnfield College, will be presenting at the seminar, sharing how they have used CRM to help with their employer relationship management.

At the AOC Conference this week, there's been a lot of talk about changes needed to meet the continually rising expectations of students - and so the work that Barnfield have done with their CRM for student relationship management will be interesting too.

Even better, we've packed it all in to an that agenda runs from 11:30-3:3, so you've got time to get to here and away without ruining your home life!

The seminar's free, it's on Wednesday 21^st May 2008 at the Microsoft Campus in Reading and you can register now at www.morse.com/fe

I'll see you there (yes, I'm on the agenda too - but don't let that put you off!)