My colleague, Phil Allen, who's our resident educational-techie, has provided me with a document of links to really good SharePoint resources. Bless him, he wants to help you all find good stuff, but 7 pages of document, with each page containing long link lists! Phew, I think it might take a while working through that.
So I've done some of the hard work, and looked for the stuff that I think you might like. If you want the full list, then feel free to take a look
Ray's edited SharePoint link list
A nice easy start, with an introductory SharePoint Flash DemoWarmed up? How about installing a trial version of SharePoint 2007 Specific resources for education include the SharePoint Learning Kit (a free, community source toolset we've developed which helps you construct course structures for content delivery, and automate some of the teaching management process) We've developed SharePoint to be a vital component within the Microsoft Learning Gateway, and if you want to build one yourself, then you can find get the technical resources for Learning Gateway 2007, and join up with the Learning Gateway Community. And the final education piece are the Moodle web parts to help you integrate their virtual learning environment into your SharePoint 2007. And some final technical stuff - a technical 'deep dive' on SharePoint search and the TechNet Centre for SharePoint - a good point to start looking for all the other stuff!
A nice easy start, with an introductory SharePoint Flash DemoWarmed up? How about installing a trial version of SharePoint 2007
Specific resources for education include the SharePoint Learning Kit (a free, community source toolset we've developed which helps you construct course structures for content delivery, and automate some of the teaching management process)
We've developed SharePoint to be a vital component within the Microsoft Learning Gateway, and if you want to build one yourself, then you can find get the technical resources for Learning Gateway 2007, and join up with the Learning Gateway Community. And the final education piece are the Moodle web parts to help you integrate their virtual learning environment into your SharePoint 2007.
And some final technical stuff - a technical 'deep dive' on SharePoint search and the TechNet Centre for SharePoint - a good point to start looking for all the other stuff!
This may not seem all that interesting at face value but there are a LOT of people in higher education who have workstations that use public IP's. There is a secure way to connect to your machine remotely, for example if you need to access a set of files that you only want to store on your machine, or you need access to a file from on campus or from home. Michael Greene talks through the steps in his blog on how to setup your Windows Vista workstation to accept new incoming VPN connections. This was also available in Windows XP but you have to know where to look in Windows Vista to enable it.
Internet2 (the US networking consortium for the research and education community - akin to Janet in the UK) has just announced a Shibboleth collaboration project with Microsoft, to develop interoperability with the Windows CardSpace system.
Before we go any further, let's deal with the basics:
Shibboleth is a federated authentication architecture - it allows users to have one set of login credentials across different systems, rather than having to have loads of usernames and passwords. There is a fantastic video animation on the JISC website that puts this all into plain language Windows CardSpace is a user-based system which allows users to store their credentials and pass them across to systems at their choosing (an example is that you can store your different online identities in CardSpace, and pass them over to websites as appropriate - for example logging into a website, or providing credit card details)
Shibboleth is a federated authentication architecture - it allows users to have one set of login credentials across different systems, rather than having to have loads of usernames and passwords. There is a fantastic video animation on the JISC website that puts this all into plain language
Windows CardSpace is a user-based system which allows users to store their credentials and pass them across to systems at their choosing (an example is that you can store your different online identities in CardSpace, and pass them over to websites as appropriate - for example logging into a website, or providing credit card details)
The collaboration is described as "a very important step forward in creating a ubiquitous Internet identity layer" (hip, hip hooray from those of us that can't remember 642 different usernames and passwords, and as a result end up using our first cat's name as a password on too many websites).
This is really important in the world of higher education, where the need for identity management in intra-institution systems is almost as wide as the need for inter-institution ID management. And is becoming increasingly important across the rest of education, as the need grows to provide a single identity for students to be able to access learning resources in school, from home and anywhere else.
All of the details are provided on the Internet2 website
When I last wrote about the Moodle integration with SharePoint, it was only with SharePoint 2003.
The new web parts developed to help you to integrate Moodle into a Learning Gateway based on SharePoint 2007 have been released, and are now fully available on the CodePlex Moodle page, our "open source project hosting website". CodePlex is an initiative for 'communities'n building solutions using our technologies. You can download work from current projects, join existing project teams, or start your own new project. Although it is Microsoft that has kick started CodePlex, there are an increasing number of non-MS projects starting up.
Winvision, one of our partners in Higher Education, wrote to let me know about a free event that they are hosting in June, focusing on helping you to get more from SharePoint, and provide e-portfolio services for your students.
Winvision Event: New Digital Portfolio for Microsoft’s Office & SharePoint 2007 When: Thursday 21st of June 2007 Where: London, Royal College of Physicians, Jerwood Centre Time: 10.00-14.30 It’s a very exciting time for learning technologies! The 2007 release of Winvision Digital Portfolio is the first and only solution to deeply integrate with the new Microsoft Office & SharePoint System 2007 (MOSS 2007). Educational institutions worldwide are making the smart choice to integrate portfolio functionality into their Microsoft suite. By making the most of MOSS 2007 with the new Microsoft SharePoint Learning Kit and the Winvision Digital Portfolio you can now easily have a fresh, fully integrated Learning Environment. Content management, learning tools, communication & collaboration, assessment and reporting are all key features of this exciting new portfolio environment. Why continue to struggle with expensive, fragmented learning environments and standalone products when the integration with Microsoft SharePoint it is extremely easy to implement, functionally rich and student-centric? Winvision’s Digital Portfolio provides you with a real solution for competence-based education and delivers an effective personalized learning environment for your student community. Scalable, easy-to-use and with the possibility to support Individual Learning Plans, the student experience is greatly enhanced with our flexible and adaptable tools that will support them through their years of study and beyond. If you are looking for an alternative to the current course-centered and expensive VLE solutions on offer and you want a real solution that allows you to build a student-centric world, this is an event you must not miss! You will also have an opportunity to discuss how your existing valuable course content and data can easily be migrated without concern. On behalf of Winvision, we invite you to a highly informative morning presentation and demonstration of our digital portfolio and learning applications for Office 2007. You will certainly be impressed. Our event will take place on Thursday June 21 in Central London at the excellent conference facilities of the Royal College of Physicians, close to Regent’s Park. We look forward to you joining us as our guest. The agenda is as follows: 10.00 Arrival, Welcome & Coffee 10.30 Competence Based Learning and Technology – the current state of play 11.00 MOSS2007 as a new type of Virtual Learning Environment - Presentation 11.30 Coffee Break 11.45 MOSS2007 as a new type of Virtual Learning Environment - Demonstration 12.15 Winvision’s Digital Portfolio for SharePoint - Demonstration 13.00 Q&A 13.30 Close & lunch
Winvision Event: New Digital Portfolio for Microsoft’s Office & SharePoint 2007
It’s a very exciting time for learning technologies! The 2007 release of Winvision Digital Portfolio is the first and only solution to deeply integrate with the new Microsoft Office & SharePoint System 2007 (MOSS 2007). Educational institutions worldwide are making the smart choice to integrate portfolio functionality into their Microsoft suite. By making the most of MOSS 2007 with the new Microsoft SharePoint Learning Kit and the Winvision Digital Portfolio you can now easily have a fresh, fully integrated Learning Environment.
Content management, learning tools, communication & collaboration, assessment and reporting are all key features of this exciting new portfolio environment. Why continue to struggle with expensive, fragmented learning environments and standalone products when the integration with Microsoft SharePoint it is extremely easy to implement, functionally rich and student-centric?
Winvision’s Digital Portfolio provides you with a real solution for competence-based education and delivers an effective personalized learning environment for your student community. Scalable, easy-to-use and with the possibility to support Individual Learning Plans, the student experience is greatly enhanced with our flexible and adaptable tools that will support them through their years of study and beyond.
If you are looking for an alternative to the current course-centered and expensive VLE solutions on offer and you want a real solution that allows you to build a student-centric world, this is an event you must not miss! You will also have an opportunity to discuss how your existing valuable course content and data can easily be migrated without concern.
On behalf of Winvision, we invite you to a highly informative morning presentation and demonstration of our digital portfolio and learning applications for Office 2007. You will certainly be impressed. Our event will take place on Thursday June 21 in Central London at the excellent conference facilities of the Royal College of Physicians, close to Regent’s Park. We look forward to you joining us as our guest.
The agenda is as follows:
10.00 Arrival, Welcome & Coffee
10.30 Competence Based Learning and Technology – the current state of play
11.00 MOSS2007 as a new type of Virtual Learning Environment - Presentation
11.30 Coffee Break
11.45 MOSS2007 as a new type of Virtual Learning Environment - Demonstration
12.15 Winvision’s Digital Portfolio for SharePoint - Demonstration
13.00 Q&A
13.30 Close & lunch
Sign up here
My colleagues in Australia sent this posting last night with the summary:
SUMMARY
BroadMeadows has created an amazing environment for children to learn via multimodal experiences: Document creation, video production, Mobile devices for discovery, pairing with older students who model successful learning skills, and learning the “how” of functioning on a team. All of this is tied together with Office, Movie Maker, OneNote, SharePoint, and using Groove as the virtual teaming technology to pull it together.
http://blogs.technet.com/groove/archive/2007/05/22/broadmeadows-students-get-their-groove-on.aspx
Obviously this is schools but there's every reason to see university students using Groove to collaborate on rich projects and I'd love to learn of some examples in the UK where this is happening.
I've previously posted on another site about the potential for Groove in education and received positive response but the Broadmeadows experience shows just how simple Groove can make this. http://blogs.msdn.com/dominic/archive/2006/04/07/570785.aspx
Also, it's worth looking at what Durham Business School (University of Durham) is doing with Groove for distance learners in this video
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/business/launch2007/simplify.mspx
The MSP Programme is designed to help students get the most out of Microsoft tools and technologies, develop their skills and give them a head start in the world once they graduate and enter the IT industry. This year's deadline is 26th May, so if you have student's which this programme would interest, send them along to the MSP website quickly
Being an MSP is a privileged and honoured status for any student, and they get a whole host of opportunities and benefits from being part of the MSP programme including:
Current MSP's comments point out the value to them:
“The MSP Programme is suitable for anyone passionate about the use of technology, and also those who want the basis and credibility to promote that passion to others, through the support of Microsoft UK. It’s also great for those who want to develop a closer relationship with Microsoft, develop their own technical skills and also get stuck into a greater breath of technology.“Paul Kiddie - University of Birmingham "One of the best highlights I have got from being an MSP is that I get to be an official representative for Microsoft on-campus, which gives me greater access to resources to promote Microsoft. Also, the experience you get from being invited to some really cool Microsoft events such as the Designertopia conference."Darren Straight - University of Kent "The MSP programme is good for anyone willing to get out of the typical university routine and willing to make a difference in the campus by providing information to the students about different Microsoft programmes targeted towards academia."Nabeel Moghal - University of Greenwich "I've learned a lot from this programme, not only about Microsoft related technologies, but I’ve also developed my sales and presentation skills beyond belief, which will come in very useful when I graduate."Ian MacGillivray - Aston University "It’s a great CV piece! I've been applying for industrial placements for my sandwich year, and being an MSP has really been a talking point."Andrew Cooper - Nottingham Trent University
“The MSP Programme is suitable for anyone passionate about the use of technology, and also those who want the basis and credibility to promote that passion to others, through the support of Microsoft UK. It’s also great for those who want to develop a closer relationship with Microsoft, develop their own technical skills and also get stuck into a greater breath of technology.“Paul Kiddie - University of Birmingham
"One of the best highlights I have got from being an MSP is that I get to be an official representative for Microsoft on-campus, which gives me greater access to resources to promote Microsoft. Also, the experience you get from being invited to some really cool Microsoft events such as the Designertopia conference."Darren Straight - University of Kent
"The MSP programme is good for anyone willing to get out of the typical university routine and willing to make a difference in the campus by providing information to the students about different Microsoft programmes targeted towards academia."Nabeel Moghal - University of Greenwich
"I've learned a lot from this programme, not only about Microsoft related technologies, but I’ve also developed my sales and presentation skills beyond belief, which will come in very useful when I graduate."Ian MacGillivray - Aston University
"It’s a great CV piece! I've been applying for industrial placements for my sandwich year, and being an MSP has really been a talking point."Andrew Cooper - Nottingham Trent University
Next week the Open Grid Forum takes place in Manchester (7th-11th May). To quote their website:
"At OGF20, the global Grid community will gather to develop Grid standards, showcase real-world applications, discuss large-scale grid infrastructure techniques and applications, workshop Enterprise and eSciences best practices and present business case studies and solutions."
We're there, talking about some of our research which is designed to be supportive of emerging grid computing standards. If you can't make it to the conference, the slides and notes from the presentations are normally loaded up onto the web page for you to take a look at.
Unlike my colleague Dominic Watts, I won't be going, as I know the gap between my knowledge and the conference content - the only word I recognise on the slide behind Steven Newhouse at the last conference is "saga"- and I suspect it has nothing to do with the Over-50's.
I ran into somebody at a conference recently who'd started a project (or is it a business?) which is a really neat example of the world of Web 2.0 and how users can drive information. On this website, students can record their impressions of their university across a range of criteria. It's a very simple idea, but allows students to get their views heard. We're all aware that students are arriving at university with higher expectations, partly as a result of tuition fees, and so this is probably a trend that will continue. Talking to early technology adopters, one of their driving reasons is to ensure that students have a positive perspective on their university, and see it as "leading edge" in technology terms. So it's nice to see that IT is one of the rankings!
It's interesting to note that UEA is top of all of the rankings in every category at the moment. There is a little bit of 'fraud' prevention built into the website, so that only users in the university (ie with a university IP address) can vote, but I wonder if there's a "we love UEA campaign" going on...