EDUCAUSE | Microsoft Vista

Window's Meeting Place - Educational Review

jeffvand — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:54:33 -0600

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about some of the new features available in Vista for Education. Today I finally found some time to test out one of those features, Window's Meeting Place. This article reviews the features, pro's, con's and possible educational uses of the program.

Features:

Users - A complete list of users is shown on the right hand side
Note - Double click on a user and send them a note. (Note: does not function like a chat screen... only one way.)
Share your entire desktop or just one program with the whole meeting - each participant can share their desktop too, but only one at a time. You can also give control of your desktop to any participant!
Attach "Handouts" - The rest of the meeting can open a copy and edit a local copy (will not affect the original).
Ability to connect directly with a projector with an IP address (not shown above).

Set-up: Setting up a meeting or joining one was super easy!!

Start up Window's Meeting Space
Click Start New Meeting (or join a meeting already in progress - shown on sign in screen)
Give your meeting a name and a password and hit the little arrow button.

After you have started the meeting you can invite others via e-mail. The invitation will include a small attachment that the participants only need to double click to join. You can also invite people directly if they are in the local network. They just accept the invitation and join in. Nice! Pro's:

Easy and fast to set up a meeting and connect with other's around you.
Works both in an online environment or just connecting computers together where there is no network connection.
Great way to share files with a class in real time.
You can't beat the collaboration ability! The response in instantaneous! No lag.
FREE! Need I say more!

Con's:

Only supports up to 10 people at a time.
No voice support, so another option (Skype... Skypecast?) would have to be employed for those not in the same room.
No integrated Chat options... although the note is a beginning.
When sharing program the content on everyone else's computer goes blank when you navigate away from the shared program.

Educational Uses:

The best and most obvious use would be in a classroom. If you had a small class and you wanted to share a presentation, but didn't have a projector you could just all meet there and present. Not only could you present, you could share documents and the whole class could share content they found with each other! Great for a lab class!
Document Collaboration. Have you ever tried to huddle around one monitor as several people tried to edit a document. Just log into the meeting room and edit the document together. (Con, only one person can have control of the mouse, but all could see it).
Small Group Projects. Have students inside of a class set up their own meetings and collaborate on a project.
Remote Assistance. Although this is probably not what it is meant for, you could set up a meeting and send a student an invitation. They could then share their desktop and give you the control if they need help configuring something on their computer.
Remote Class. Although it would be hard without the audio integration, you could certainly set up a remote classroom and conference call (using Skype or another program).

I'm sure this is just the beginning. What other ideas do you have? How will you/have you used Microsoft Meeting Space?

Original Article: http://www.edutechie.com/2007/02/windows-meeting-place-educational-review/

5 Good Developments for Education in Window's Vista

jeffvand — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:56:38 -0600

This afternoon I went to a meeting of the techie minds here on campus to discuss the implementation of Vista. There were quite a few people that acted like the implementation of Vista was a terrible, but necessary evil. A lot of the discussion focused around the new Office 2007 suite. From a support standpoint I can see how this upgrade could be a nightmare. The changes in Office navigation are quite significant, especially for long time users of the suite, with little apparent added functionality.

On the other hand, I have been using Vista and the Office Suite for several months as my primary machine and have not had any significant problems. I left the meeting trying to reconcile my experience with what I had just witnessed. I decided I was going to look for what was different/good about the upgrade.

All I.T. people tell you Vista is more secure, and it does have a multitude of security features that make it more safe, but an every day educator cares more about it working and functioning that how safe it is. I decided to look at specifically at how the upgrade to Vista helps us out as educators? What specific traits does it have that would be make it advantageous for us to upgrade to Vista? What added functionality will help me educate better? Here is my list:

Organization

There is no question that the biggest reason to upgrade has to be the added search capabilities. Since installing Vista on my machine I no longer use the cumbersome start menu to get to programs. I just click start and type in the program I want.

Microsoft (taking a lesson from Google Desktop) has now created an indexed catalog of your computer so you have instant search results that include inside of documents. Great for finding that paper you wrote 5 years ago.

Instant Information

Vista has a built in Gadget and Sidebar Engine that let's you add little modules to your desktop with real-time updating information about ANYTHING. Time, Stocks, Calendar's, anything! Yahoo and Google both have these already, but they take up a lot of resources and slow down your machine.
In an awesome move Vista has added native RSS feed capabilities to Outlook and their integrated Gadget's. As I discussed in an earlier post, this added feature is a must have for any educator who needs to keep up on current events and happenings!

Collaboration

Collaboration is a must have as a good educator. As educators we often need to share files with students or colleagues as we work on programs. If we are not comfortable using an online program like Google Docs then Vista gives us the added capability of sharing a folder in public space.
Vista has a new 'Meeting Space' feature that allows users to create a space for up to 10 users to meet and collaborate in real time. I have not been able to test it out yet, but a software like this would be great for meeting with your class or between students working on a project.

Backup

There are added protections to help you not lose data. You can read about them all here in detail, but my favorite is the windows backup and previous versions of documents that are available should you accidentally change something you didn't mean to.

Multimedia

Vista has added functionality to the photo manager, media player, movie maker and media center. As video becomes more and more prevalent in education, users will need ways to edit those easily.

This is just a short list of some of the improvements Microsoft has made to their windows platform. You can read a whole lot more on their Vista website if you have interest.

Disclaimer:
I realize that most of these additions are already available on through second hand software or on the Mac. (There has even been discussion about Microsoft just copying Mac's.) That being said, there is something to be said about integrated technology. 90% of our campus used Windows, so it is going to happen.

Homework:
What other added functionality do you see as benefiting the academic community?

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Original Article: (http://www.edutechie.com/2007/01/5-good-developments-for-education-in-windows-vista/)
Technorati Tags: microsoft vista, office 2007, microsoft education

Convert or Traitor?

smiltenb — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:40:10 -0600

I have never used a mac. In fact, I’m the person who once sat in front of a mac and couldn’t figure out how to turn the thing on. (I was in college at the time and wound up typing my paper on an electric typewriter). But I work at an art school and there are lots of people who use macs. In our technology office we have dedicated pc and mac technicians and there has always been a (mostly) friendly debate over which system is best. I’ve never concerned myself too much with the dialog since many of the administrative applications that I work with don’t run (or don’t run well) on macs.

And then apple had to go and start building machines with intel chips.

I got caught up in the hype. I was intrigued by the murmurings around the office about how well the new macs were running XP. I was un-nerved by the increase in the number of requests from staff and faculty to get macs instead of pcs.

And then Vista was released.

So in the interest of evaluating Vista and seeing how our administrative applications run on the new OS, I now have a dual boot MacBook (running Vista and OS X). For the past week I’ve been configuring Vista and loading applications on to the new machine so that I can run it side by side with my XP machine. Our wicked smart mac tech Joe Jordan was so thoughtful to make the default os Windows, so it wasn’t until last night that I decided to see what happened when I booted up to the mac partition. It was interesting, but I wasn’t that impressed – Vista is a lot closer to the mac look and feel than any other Microsoft OS so it didn’t seem all that different.

And then today I had a short tutorial with Joe. I feel in love. I realized that the mac seemed so unimpressive to me because it really is that simple – and oh! how elegant. I’ve realized how accustomed I am too bad layout and poor labeling. I realized how many pc-based applications (not just Microsoft) are overly complex and clunky with little regard for usability. Until today I had just accepted that it was reasonable to have to repair applications and have a computer lock up because a device was unplugged. And with my discovery of the mac I now have a whole new set of expectations for computing experiences.

I don’t think I can realistically make the switch to 100% mac – enough of our software packages don’t seem to work and I still miss the pc keyboard. However, I’ve had a few surprises that make me really wish I could make the change:

Palm hasn’t released updates to it’s sync routines for Office 2007 (using mac’s Entourage, I was able to synch with my Treo with Exchange in seconds)
Software vendor MindManager will let me swap my pc license to a mac license for free provided I complete the “letter of destruction” that they sent to me
I can work via wireless in my office on the mac but not on my pc
Vista runs wonderfully on the mac

I do think we’re going to see more and more mac users at my institution -- and I would not be surprised to see this happen in liberal arts colleges as well. The impact of a shift like this would not be insignificant (think of staffing, skill sets, training, application development, software licensing…). For the moment I’m going to continue to spend time “evaluating” so that I can understand the options and make informed decisions.

Microsoft Vista and Trusted Computing

StuartYeates — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:02:30 -0600

Much ink has been spilt about the new security measures in the upcoming Windows Vista. Whether you love them or loathe them, they'll almost certainly result in a more secure operating system, fewer malware and hopefully less spam from infected boxes. What you won't hear much about is trusted computing, which was set to be the next big thing in security.

Trusted computing is a scheme to create a secure, protected zone within computers which they can then use check the security of the rest of the system. In principal the scheme by the trusted computing group is a great idea but many people foresee problems. The early plans for Vista included extensive use of trusted computing, but as time has gone on, these have been whittled away and only one service in Vista uses it, the so-call BitLocker

Why?

Well, unlike many of the security features that will ship with Vista, Trusted Computing is going to be very hard to bolt-on to existing programs. Much of the software that may eventually use Trusted Computing will have to be re-written from the ground up. The cynic in me says that the most likely software to be released first is going to be Digital Rights Management and other software that prevents users from making full use of their computers.

Personally I'm not sure that even Trusted Computing is going to work for securing Windows-class operating systems. I'm personally a fan of the UNIX-style layered security, where you have multiple layers of security, each separated from each other and each robust should the others fail. Steps such as: ensuring that every user and demon (service in windows-lingo) runs as a separate identity with minimal rights; enforced file permissions; firewalls; the X11 security model; ssh remote connections; gpg-signing of software and binary releases; PAM; SE Linux; etc. Taken separately, none of these are stronger than Vista security is going to be, but taken together they represent a formidable defence against malware and malcontents alike.

cheers, stuart

Vista EULA

StuartYeates — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 08:14:05 -0600

Another iteration of the Microsoft Vista EULA has been released. The previous version caused uproar among hardware enthusiasts, by placing extra burdens on those who frequently upgrade their hardware. This version eases those burdens somewhat, but still contains:

Before you use the software under a license, you must assign that license to one device (physical hardware system). That device is the "licensed device." A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate device.

The "hardware partition" clause has two effects. Firstly it requires that each virtual machine has a separate licence, and secondly it prevents you from installing Vista on two hard drives on the same machine.

You may only obtain updates or upgrades for the software from Microsoft or authorized sources.

This gem of a clause prevents you from applying third party patches to fix bugs if Microsoft is being slow to fix bugs being actively exploited.

Microsoft and the European Commission agree on Vista

StuartYeates — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:42:23 -0500

Microsoft appears to have made some comprises in Vista that will keep the European Commision happy. It's not bundling Windows Media player (at least not in Europe), it's allowing existing security vendors to compete with the Vista security system and it's submitting XPS (a potential PDF killer introduced after Microsoft fell out with Adobe) to a standards body.

The EC issued a statement saying:

The European Commission has been informed of Microsoft’s intention to deliver its Vista operating system worldwide, with no delay in Europe.

The Commission has not given a "green light" to Microsoft to deliver Vista because, as the Commission has consistently stated, Microsoft must shoulder its own responsibilities to ensure that Vista is fully compliant with EC Treaty competition rules and in particular with the principles laid down in the March 2004 Commission anti-trust decision concerning Microsoft (see IP/04/382 and MEMO/04/70).

In line with the Commission's obligations under the EC Treaty and its practice, the Commission will closely monitor the effects of Vista in the market and, in particular, examine any complaints concerning Vista on their own merits.

Sources: cnet and the Guardian.

Vista to cost US $449

StuartYeates — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:05:56 -0500

Microsoft Canada accidently released the price of Windows Vista: US $449 for the full version.

Of course, that's just the licencing cost for the software and doesn't include the eye-watering cost of new hardware that meets the mininum specification to run full Vista.

Thanks to the register.

Vista to support IPv6 natively

StuartYeates — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 09:50:15 -0500

Vista, the next version of Microsoft Windows, is going to support IPv6 natively. IPv6 is the next-generation of Internet Protocol, which adds a swathe of enhancements to the more widespread IPv4 which has been used in previous versions.

IPv6 has a number of features to make autoconfiguration (when the computer works out all it needs to know about the network by looking at the network itself, rather than from endless dialog boxes) easier; multicast (when a single computer broadcasts a single stream of data to many other computers) more efficient; routing faster and the whole lot significantly more secure.

IPv6 is widely seen as key to allowing very large numbers of devices to connect to the Internet simultaneously. Whereas previously IPv4 supports 4.3×10^9 (4.3 billion) simultaneous connections, IPv6 supports 3.4×10^38 addresses: billions of addresses per person.

A research version of the IPv6 ``stack'' for windows has been kicking around for at least six years, and appears to be stable and interoperable, so it seems unlikely to be cut from Vista. While the stack implements IPSec (the optional security module of IPv6), it is not clear whether it is likely to be widely used in windows environments.

Microsoft to get "Principles"

StuartYeates — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 04:39:43 -0500

In a significant media blitz, Microsoft have announced that they are going to abide by 12 principles to "promote competition." These new principles will apply to the new Microsoft Vista and subsequent releases. Unfortunately, what they forget to mention is that in a significant number of the markets in which they operate, they're already required to do many of these things by law. Take for example:

5. Business terms. Microsoft will not retaliate against any computer manufacturer that supports non-Microsoft software.

This is the law in the US (a law that Microsoft was convicted of breaking). It is the law in the EU (which Microsoft has been found not to be in compliance with and ordered into compliance).

So what Microsoft is saying, is that from some point in the future (and we all know how IT deadlines slip) Microsoft is going to comply with the law for all new software...

Presumably, until then they intend to operate illegally and fleece schools. I've never lived in the US, so I have no idea whether this is standard business practice, but it's not in the EU, which is probably why the EC is fining Microsoft several hundred million dollars.

Vista to be better tested?

StuartYeates — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 03:05:26 -0500

MSN is carrying an interview with Bill Gates about the latest delays to Vista. In it he says:

"We got to get this absolutely right," Gates said. "If the feedback from the beta tests shows it is not ready for prime time, I'd be glad to delay it."

There is a glimmer of hope here. If Microsoft really is paying more attention to the beta testers, fixing more bugs and getting a faster turn around time on the bug fixes, then there is a chance that Vista will be substantially more stable than previous releases. On the other hand, this could be all spin, who can tell from an organisation with that big a PR budget?

Dapper vs Vista?

StuartYeates — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:48:42 -0500

Now that the hoopla around the Windows Vista Beta 2 has died down, I've been thinking about the comparisons between Vista and Dapper (the latest version of Ubuntu).

For those of you who have heard Linux advocacy before, I can assure you that Dapper will not do everything your current desktop does, in 1/10th of the memory at twice the speed while bringing peace to the Middle East. What it will do is install easily, give you real choice about how your desktop looks (gnome (default) or kde (via the "kde" metapackage)), a choice of office suites (OpenOffice AbiWord or the commercial StarOffice (from Sun)). Dapper comes with astounding minimum hardware specs, but if you don't see a link between hardware and performance, I've got a bridge you may be interested in.

Dapper also has the marketplace advantage of shipping now (order your free hardcopy(s) from shipit, or download a CD image if you have broadband of better), whereas Vista might ship in October or December, by which time the NEXT version of Ubuntu will be about ready (don't worry, upgrades are free and reportedly relatively painless). Ubuntu also ships for all platforms, languages and regions simultaneously. Windows 2003 for Compute Cluster Server has just been released, and the time lag for minority languages (think Spanish, Chinese, Welsh, etc) is routinely months or years in the release cycle.

I'm not saying that Dapper is for everyone, and I've got to confess that I've not yet moved (from Debian) because I'm waiting for some local configuration updates, but it seems to me that a significant number of people are likely to test the Linux waters between now and when Vista is released.