After a very early start and a long train journey I arrived at University of York for a Eduserv Special Interest Group meeting with Microsoft. Attended by technology and learning representatives from FE and HE institutions from across the UK, the event was a chance to get up to date on what announcements Microsoft have made recently and how they affect education institutions in the UK.
It came as no great shock that the majority of the day was taken up talking about the cloud. Cloud hosting (Azure), cloud management (InTune), and cloud productivity (Office 365). However some surprises were revealed as Simon Ibbitt, Microsoft Higher Education Business Manager, and his colleagues introduced a few new initiatives and announcements:
Showcase Classroom:
Microsoft have created a "Showcase Classroom", showing how they think that a classroom or lecture room of the future should look. It showcases learning technology from multiple perspectives, from students to IT professionals. The classroom itself is in their London offices and they are open to groups of staff to go and visit. They'll also be taking the vision on the road in a number of road-show events later.
Linx Tablets:
Microsoft have apparently partnered with a Chinese tablet manufacturer to offer a number of VERY cheap Windows 8.x tablet devices to consumers and education. The Linx 7, Linx 8 and Linx 10 are (on paper at least) decent spec tablet devices aimed at the casual user (meetings, emails, web browsing), have a range of accessories including keyboards and cases, and currently come with a 12 month subscription to Office 365. What is remarkable about these devices is that the most expensive Linx 10 tablet, including the optional keyboard dock costs just £142+VAT !!
What their build quality and performance in real life is like, has yet to be seen, but the price alone has sparked a lot of interest. It's clear that Microsoft have the Google Chromebooks and iPads firmly in their sight and aim to make their low-end offerings hard to beat. I'm hoping to get an eval unit to try out very soon.
Office 365 Mobile, Student & Teacher Advantage, Friction-Free:
As outlined in my previous blog, Microsoft have taken an unusual step in make large chunks of their productivity products free to use - particularly in education. Office products for IOS and Android are now free, and the Student Advantage has allowed students to download a full version of Office on up to 5 devices for almost a year now. The new announcement was that faculty staff will also be entitled to the same Office freebies as students from the 1st December 2014, and that changes to the way that staff and students register for the scheme are also on the way, which Microsoft are calling "Friction-Free". Those changes will make it far easier for students and staff to self-register and download the software without the need (for the most part) to involve the University IT department. They will be able to manage their own licenses and add and remove them from devices as they see fit. With these new announcement we are hoping that Keele will now allow it's students and staff to participate in the scheme once the changes to registration are launched in the UK. Watch this space!
Microsoft and Moodle:
It seems Microsoft and Moodle have become pretty close just lately, with a few new announcements. Firstly the news that Moodle is now one of the many support platforms for their Azure cloud hosting solutions, meaning you can very quickly acquire and fire up a fully supported Moodle server using Azure cloud. Secondly, the news that Microsoft are now working with Moodle partners to look at new ways that Office 365 and Moodle can work seamlessly together. See the two blog posts below for more info:
Licensing Update:
There were a few new licensing announcements. Firstly the clarification that the MS Campus (EES) volume license covers institutions shared or owned devices only for faculty staff. Devices that are given to named individual students (even on "long term loans") or sold to staff for personal use, are not covered in terms of the software volume licenses.
Next came the news that Microsoft are about to simplify the way in which VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) licenses work. At the moment they are ridiculously confusing and can be very costly to license VDI for non-institution owned devices or even non-windows devices. They have promised that the new licensing structure for VDI will be a lot simpler and cheaper for education.
Next was the news that the current educational volume licenses (Campus, EES, Select, MOSA) will be replaced by a new agreement called the MPSA (Microsoft Products and Services Agreement) from April 2015. This is the agreement used for commercial markets, but it will be tailored in terms of discount and features to match the existing EES agreement. Along with normal software purchases the MPSA will also allow the purchase of Windows 8/10 Apps and even hardware devices via the volume license route.
Dynamics CRM Online:
There was a live demo of Microsoft's Dynamics CRM system tailored for University and Education that tracked student engagement from initial contact, right through to final offer. It included modules for marketing, recruitment events, assessment, review and offer related communications.
After a short closed meeting for members the date of the next meeting was indicated to be sometime in April/May 2015.
