If you’d like some step by step guidance on how to set up System Centre Configuration Manager 2012, you need look no further than this helpful eBook by Neil Hodgkinson.
Neil is a Network Administrator at Twynham School has been hard at work over the last few months writing the eBook. It is now available at no cost on his blog Technodge.
On Neil’s blog you will also find the start of his next series of eBooks, which is around the subject of application virtualisation using Microsoft App-V5.
You can download the eBooks at http://www.technodge.co.uk/nodge/technodge-ebooks/
This week’s roundup of posts -
Get started using OneNote
How to add a video to a PowerPoint presentation
Microsoft UK Education upcoming live webcasts
Kodu student activity: editing your world
Controlling access on your child’s Windows Phone
Supporting numeracy with Kinect Sports
Evidence that students do better with a PC at home
Virtualisation in your school: Installation
Originally posted on Windows Blog
If you’re a student, it’s the same routine every day. You gather everything you need—your notebook for class, binder full of handouts, readings or homework assignments, textbooks, laptop, smartphone and maybe even your tablet. And of course your power adapters. Then you stuff it all into your backpack—everything you think you might need throughout the day—because you may not be back home until it’s time for bed.
Surely, there must be a better way to have everything you might need without hauling it around with you everywhere you go.
Well, there is. With SkyDrive, you get a “cloud backpack” where you can store, create and access all of your documents, notes, photos or files from anywhere. Our new SkyDrive at School page shows how anyone can get started with a cloud backpack, but we wanted to share a few extra tips to help you go “all in.”
OneNote 2010 is a powerful note-taking application that’s great for school. With OneNote, you can organize your notes by your classes, instantly search through them, draw graphs or diagrams, and even record your lectures. If you’re not using OneNote yet, check out these tips on the OneNote Blog to get started.
To make OneNote even more useful for you, connect it to SkyDrive and try these suggestions:
By saving your notebook on SkyDrive, you can access it from any computer (even a Mac!) using the OneNote Web App. You can also study on-the-go since OneNote is also available on pretty much every mobile device.
To save your OneNote notebook to SkyDrive, just click File and then Share to save it on the web.
Whether for class or a research project, you can send printouts, screenshots or web clippings right to OneNote to stay organized.
Find a helpful website for your research paper? Just highlight what you want from Internet Explorer and right click Send to OneNote 2010 to insert it into your notebook. You can send a whole webpage, a paragraph or image. OneNote will even show where you copied the content from so you can easily cite and reference it later.
Have a PDF or some other file from your professor? You can Print directly to your OneNote notebook and save it next to your notes from the same lecture.
To take a snapshot of anything on your screen, press Windows + S on your keyboard. You can also drop and drag an entire file into OneNote from your desktop.
By default, OneNote always asks where you want new notes to go. You can set a default preference by clicking File, Options, and then Send to OneNote. If you select a notebook that’s synced to SkyDrive, you can rest assured that anything you send to OneNote will be available anywhere, automatically.
With all of your notes in the cloud, you can easily share them with your friends and classmates. From SkyDrive.com, just right click your notebook and select Share.
If you want, you can even give them access to your notebook so that they can add their own notes. Now everyone can work together in the same notebook, and studying for finals just got a little easier.
Odds are, you’re either working on an important project right now or will be shortly. Well, SkyDrive can help keep you more organized and make sure that you’re never without the files that you need.
When you install SkyDrive for Windows or Mac, you get a SkyDrive folder on your computer. Everything you save or copy there is automatically synced to your SkyDrive. So move your spreadsheets, downloaded articles, and everything else you’ve gathered. No matter what happens to your computer, you can easily get to your stuff from any web browser.
SkyDrive does more than store your files. It also works with free Office Web Apps so you can view, edit and print from any web browser.
If you’re working on a Word document on your laptop at the library and your battery dies, you can easily pick up right where you left off just by logging into SkyDrive.com at the computer lab. If you get inspired on the bus ride back home, you can update your document using the Office Hub on your Windows Phone. You can rest assured that your formatting remains intact.
Any changes you make will be waiting to sync when you plug in your computer back at your dorm room.
What’s more, SkyDrive also keeps track of the various versions of your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. So don’t worry about renaming your files V1, V2… V14a. Just work in the documents saved in your SkyDrive folder and SkyDrive will take care of the rest.
You’ve been there before. You’re at the computer lab ready to print out your paper and you forgot your USB drive. Or you’re away from your computer and you realize you didn’t email your TA your homework assignment. Or maybe you’ve just met someone at a company you’d like to work for and you want to send them your résumé, but you won’t be home for hours.
These aren’t a problem anymore. Even if you forget to put something in your SkyDrive folder—or never thought you’d need it there—you can still access it from any computer. SkyDrive for Windows lets you fetch any file on your personal computer (as long as it’s online) from SkyDrive.com.
Once you find that paper to print, you can click Copy to SkyDrive and use Word Web App to view, print and share.
From handouts to class readings, old notes or recent assignments, you have so much paper to carry around and keep organized. Why not scan and upload everything to SkyDrive?
Use a smartphone app like Handyscan for Windows Phone (shown below) or Docscan for iPhone to create PDF versions of all of your handouts, homework, or even lecture notes from your friends. You can save the files directly to SkyDrive and they’ll be synced across your devices.
If you want to do more – like add comments or keep scans alongside class notes, you can import PDFs and other files into OneNote.
USB drives are easily left behind. Emailing yourself documents makes it easy to lose track of the latest version or crowds your inbox.
With SkyDrive, you can access everything, all around campus, from any web browser. You can also use the SkyDrive app for Windows Phone, iPhone and iPad, or Android apps—no matter where you are.
While we hope these tips are helpful, we know it will take some time before everyone upgrades to a “cloud backpack”. Here are a few ways you can help:
If you are a teacher, share class materials or class notes directly using SkyDrive. You can also provide feedback on assignments and papers through shared documents.
If you are a developer, use our APIs to integrate SkyDrive into applications that students use and love.
And if you are a student, what tips did we miss? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter how you’re using a cloud backpack today. We can help spread the word!
Originally posted on Windows Phone Blog
There’s a new poll out hinting that many people flocking to Windows Phone and handsets like the new Nokia Lumia 900 are former Apple and Android owners.
If you are a proud new Lumia owner—or just new to Windows Phone period—then you’ll probably want to check out the fun and handy story Nokia ran on its official blog today: 10 things you never knew your Lumia could do. It covers everything from saving battery power to finding a good nearby pub (always high on my list of priorities).
And if you did recently just pick up your first Windows Phone, I also highly recommend checking out our Tips +Tricks site—plus this giant list of tips. Guaranteed you’ll find something that makes you go wow.
Windows Azure, Windows 8, Devices and Open Source - The Microsoft Cloud Day on June 22nd at the Vue Cinema in Fulham, London is a free conference for public sector developers where you can find out more about the latest innovations in Microsoft technology for the cloud and open source.
If you are building or considering building applications for the cloud, our one-day conference will provide invaluable insights and information on our latest innovations.
There are four tracks in the Microsoft Cloud Day agenda:
Registration for the Microsoft Cloud Day on June 22nd, 11:30-18:30 is free for developers and IT professionals from the Public Sector.
You can find out more and register to attend the Microsoft Cloud Day here:
http://azureconference2012.eventbrite.com/
Registration code for Public Sector developers and IT professionals: CG150SAMSMQ
Taken from our Playful Learning: Computer Games in Education eBook by Ollie Bray (available to view and download below)
What are contextual hubs? I like science fiction but I have to admit never really been into Star Trek. However, I do once remember watching a television program on the history of the original Star Trek series. I found it really interesting because the program inferred that although it was a Star Trek series about space travel its equal purpose was to help its viewers understand moral issues. For example, I found it fascinating that the first ever-televised inter-racial kiss took place on an original episode of Star Trek.
You’re probably wondering what my point is here. But I think that this basic idea of the ‘Star Trek Principle,’ which I often refer to when working with teachers is an important one. Basically, you are watching / doing one thing but learning about something else.
Computer games can be used in the classroom with similar principles. The learning does not come from the game itself but the game becomes a context for what the learning will be about. The gaming environment becomes a stimulating contextual hub.
Contextual hubs are sometimes described as types of thematic learning tasks. While this is true in part, contextual hub learning activities normally involve recurring game play throughout the unit of work and the learners often adopt roles as the characters of the game to create a more immersive and contextual experience.
The important thing is that the game provides the engagement and the ‘hook for learning’ but the teacher provides the direction, the coaching and the structure where required. In a similar way that the original series of Star Trek ‘hooked’ many with the romance of space travel but the actual learning was provided by the scriptwriter and producer.
Professor James Paul Gee’s explanation on Learning in Semiotic Domains9 provides a more academically robust description as to why this type of learning is so powerful.
Kinect™ Adventures! Kinect Adventures is a good example of a game for Kinect for Xbox 360® that can be used as a contextual hub. The key here is thinking about what the game is about, rather than what the game does. The game is about adventure, exploration, teamwork and discovery.
Your class project / unit of work will therefore be about adventure, exploration, teamwork and discovery. Remember, when using games in this context, the game is the ‘hook’ and provides the stimulus for the learning. How could you link your standardised curriculum to these four words?
The diagram below shows some of the possible ways that Kinect Adventures(adventure, exploration, teamwork and discovery) could be linked to some curriculum activities.
The secret of contextual hub projects is that there should be no specific pathway through the learning activities. Although, obviously, some activities and tasks will be progressive.
Teachers in collaboration with their students can decide on the content of the scheme of work by picking from lists of possible activities and adding their own ideas to create a rich learning experience that is unique and appropriate for their individual needs, class and school.
You can view and download the full eBook below.
How students can develop an advertising campaign using Kinect Sports
Contextual hubs for learning–gaming in education
10 things you didn’t know your Nokia Lumia could do
Take a guided tour of System Centre 2012 and the Microsoft private cloud
Webinar: Intro to OneNote
Instructional Writing with Kinect Sports
Six Tips to Make SkyDrive your Cloud Backpack
The common language of games
Virtualisation in your school: deciding on hardware
Microsoft Certified Trainers Explain MCSE
Welcome to Office Tip Classics - a series of one-minute videos where you'll get to see clips of film classics and learn a tip about Office 2010. In this episode, school tough-guy Marty has a hard time keeping his cool after losing the class presentation contest.
His teacher tries to cheer him up, explaining how to add a video to his PowerPoint presentation. Maybe he won't be such a sore loser next time.
Originally posted on the Microsoft PowerPoint blog
Back in March at Internet Explorer's Badger Palooza event at the 2012 SXSW Interactive festival Microsoft unveiled an arcade machine running Internet Explorer 9 featuring an HTML5 game based on the popular animated short film “Marshmallow People” from FilmCow. It was so popular, we’ve made the game, developed by Bradley and Montgomery, available for everyone – be sure to check out Marshmallow People: Bored to Death
Bored To Death is an arcade style brawler intended as a throwback to arcade games of the past and powered by JavaScript and HTML5.. The game has our bored Marshmallow people running around the playing environment trying to keep themselves from literally being bored to death. Even cooler, a second player can join the game on the same physical keyboard. For those interested in the arcade setup, we’ll be taking the Marshmallow People on the road at events around the US over the coming months to give developers a chance to get hands on with the arcade.
For developers interested in the JavaScript and HTML5 behind the game, the team created an in depth Behind the Tech page that discusses some of the challenges the team faced and how they overcame them. We also just launched BuildNewGames.com which provides a lot of great content on how developers can harness HTML5 for web gaming. Check it out and let us know what you think!
Kinect Sports is highly intuitive. This means the actions in the game resemble many that occur in real life. The game also provides a useful tutorial before you start playing each sport which re-caps what you have to do to in order to succeed.
Imagine that these tutorials were not there and you had to explain to another person how to succeed in one of the games.
Activity In this activity, we are going to challenge learners to write a piece of instructional writing that explains to another person (who has never played Kinect Sports before), how to play one of the games. This activity is a lot more challenging than it sounds and leaners will need to spend some time playing Kinect Sports and then breaking the components and actions down within the game.
The hardest sports to describe are Football and Beach Volleyball. So it might be worth picking some of other sports in the game to describe as a first attempt. You can also make the challenge for learners harder or easier by stating if the person they are describing the game to has played the real version of the sport before. Learners need to be very familiar with at least one of the games within Kinect Sports. This will include playing the game and watching other people play the game.
Kinect Sports also provides a really good opportunity for learners to carry out some virtual sports journalism.
To find out more about using Xbox 360 and Kinect Sports in the classroom you can view and download our eBook below.