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Microsoft to Embrace OpenID

TechCrunch is reporting that Microsoft (finally!) has seen the light and will begin rolling out the integration of OpenID into their network of cloud services. Sayeth the DasCrunch:

"Login standard OpenID has gotten a huge boost today from Microsoft, as the company has announced that users will soon be able to login to any OpenID site using their Windows Live IDs.

With over 400 million Windows Live accounts (many of which see frequent use on the Live’s Mail and Messenger services), the announcement is a massive win for OpenID. And Microsoft isn’t just supporting OpenID - the announcement goes as far as to call it the de facto login standard."

In other news, Yahoo! has announced that next week it will launch their open platform application. According to VentureBeat, the Yahoo! Application Platform (Y!AP) will "make Yahoo! more useful by giving third-party applications a way to plug into and link Yahoo services and user data."

Related Resources

• Azure: Microsoft's New Cloud Service
• Microsoft & Google to Join Open Content Movement
• Open Publishing: Oprah, Suze & Penguin
• On the Web, Even the Most Secretive Companies Eventually Embrace Openness

Microsoft to Fund Video Game Research

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that they would invest $1.5 million dollars in educational video game research. The investment is part of a larger, NYU led initiative to "to find scientific evidence that supports the use of games as a learning tool."

The games that are developed will be prototyped in several NYC schools. And while the games will be developed for use on the Xbox console, Microsoft is taking an open approach and has extended an invitation to other video game console makers to participate in the study.

Microsoft also announced a partnership with PBS to distribute digital content to the 12 million subscribers to Xbox Live. Also worth noting is that game maker Knowledge Adventure is bringing its Math Blaster game to Wii's WiiWare channel and the Xbox 360's Live Arcade. They are also working on designs for an iPhone version of the game. Given the mobile nature of today's kids, this seems like a great idea.

At the University of Michigan, a research team is looking into the potential that digital games have for teaching students concepts and skills. As part of their study, they have designed a web-based board game for teaching undergraduate students about Information Literacy Concepts and Skills. They chose a game for the task for many research-based reasons, but also because:

"Games can be with the student when an information expert cannot be. Games can be in the dorm room, at the coffee house, and anywhere else that the Internet can be accessed. Games are a way to bring information expertise to the users where they are already working."

All of this comes on the heels of a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that found that, when it comes to video games, "playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day."

Even more importantly, and defying stereotypes, the Pew Study found that  "game playing is also social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time."

Related Resources

• Japanese Schools Embrace Nintendo DS
• International Journal of Computer Game Research
• Stewart Butterfield on Games & Learning
• 2009 Game Developers Conference

Teens & Zune: It's Hip to Be Square?

The Piper-Jaffray survey on teen buying habits has some interesting tidbit on Microsoft's Zune music player. According to the Piper-Jaffray survey, Apple's share of the mp3 market among high school students increased to 84%, up from 80% a year ago.

Here are some other findings:

• 79% of teens who said they planned to buy a music player in the next 12 months said they expected to buy an iPod, up from 78 percent a year ago;

• Zune's share of the teen market is up as well -- to 3 percent, from 2 percent a year ago;

• 15% of teens surveyed who said they planned on buying a music player over the next year said they expected to buy a Zune. This is a 13% increase over last year.

• 85% of teens report downloading music to a PMP (portable media player)

So does the boost in the Zune's popularity mean that Apple and the iPod should start worrying? Uh, not anytime soon. Piper-Jaffray also reported:

"Apple's share is holding strong around 80%. Apple's dominance in the (portable music player) market remains largely unchecked, and it is clear to us that Apple has captured the "cool factor" among high school students across America."

So what to make of a teen with a Zune? Perhaps it's an anti-sheep thing? Or maybe, just maybe the Zune teens are the early adopters and the rest of us will soon (to Microsoft's delight) be following suit too.

Naw. I didn't think so.

Related Resources

• Zune player forum makes teen a fortune
• iPod dying? It's already dead
• I can't wait for the iPod to die

Atomic Learning: Microsoft Office 2008 Tutorials

Through September 10, 2008 Atomic Learning will offer a free series on Microsoft Office 2008 will be offered free of charge The free series, Office Suite 2008 - What’s New includes more than 30 short, show-and-tell movies that guide users through the new features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2008.

Topics include using SmartArt™ graphics, using Automators workflows, using compatibility mode, understanding the new XML file format, opening files from earlier versions and more.

The series is an important resource for schools and organizations planning to transition to Office Suite 2008. Schools and districts find Atomic Learning to be especially useful for professional development purposes and incorporating technology into curriculum.

Be sure to also check out the new Office Live Workspace, a free service from Microsoft that allows you to easily and privately share files online with students, colleagues or parents. This is an easy way to create an online hub for your classroom. You can also use one of the many free templates to easily create school calendars, tests & quizzes or electronic grade book.

Related Resources

• Office Live Workspace
• Atomic Learning
• Microsoft Education Resources for Teachers
• Yahoo! Back-to-School Guide 2008

Adobe, Acrobat & Buzzword

Today Adobe launched Acrobat.com a new suite of web-based services that includes, Buzzword, an online word processor that will--especially in the education 2.0 community--go head-to-head with Google Docs.

According to the Acrobat blog the new Acrobat Suite is comprised of three distinctive applications:

• Adobe Buzzword for creating and reviewing documents together.
• Adobe ConnectNow for holding full-fledged online web conferences/video conferencing with up to three people.
• The Acrobat.com organizer for sharing 5GB of files with others online, including the ability to convert 5 documents to PDF and embed your documents in blogs, wikis or other web pages.

Buzzword is compatible with MS Word and also allows you to export your document as a RTF, PDF or MS Word file. It also includes many features to allow for easy web-based collaboration such as real time editing, version control and a slick interface that allows you to easily insert and scale pictures in a Buzzword document.

One of the issues we faced on Yahoo! For Teachers was creating a rich text editor that was easy-to-use, compatible with MS Word and easily allowed users to insert and manipulate images in a document. I spent some time this afternoon playing around with Buzzword and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with what Adobe has put together.

One feature that I didn't see (and if anyone finds it, let me know) was a Creative Commons plug-in (similar to the one in MS Office) that automatically inserts a CC license into a Buzzword document. I feel that the inclusion of this type of plug-in would provide teachers with an opportunity to discuss copyright and digital literacy issues with their students. I also believe that a CC plug-in for Buzzword would provide a boost to the open educational resources (OER) movement.

As education continues to move towards the web, these types of collaborative tools will be increasingly important. It's clear that Adobe has spent a lot of thought into this product and the result is an impressive suite of free tools that will surely be popular within the education community. This type of virtual collaborative environment also appeals to the digital sensibilities of Gen Y students.

The Acrobat suite of tools are very impressive and just may well provide the first real peek into the 21st Century classroom.Side out: Adobe.

Game on.

Related Resources

• Acrobat Blog
• Google Apps
• Mash Up EDU: A New Digital Pedagogy

Across the Universe: Microsoft & WorldWide Telescope

Earlier this week Microsoft Research Labs released "WorldWide Telescope (WWT) -- a technology that combines feeds from satellites and telescopes all over the world and the heavens, and builds a comprehensive view of our universe (via)."

You can get a peek at the WorldWide Telescope in this video demo from TED. You can download WWT here and get busy touring the starry, starry skies above us. This is a great digital astronomy resource for science teachers and students alike and one that will get them engaged in science.

Related Resources

• WorldWide Telescope
• Watch Kids React to WWT
• What is WWT?
• WWT Tour

Mash it Up: Internet Explorer & del.icio.us

Earlier today the Yahoo! Search blog announced a new social bookmarks mash up between del.icio.us and Internet Explorer web browser. Here's the scoop:

"The del.icio.us team has announced an early beta release of the del.icio.us bookmarks extension for Internet Explorer.

The extension works on IE 6, IE 7 and IE 8 beta for both XP and Vista. Check out the del.icio.us blog for more background.

To download and discuss the Internet Explorer release, head over to the delicious-ie-extension group. The team is eager to hear your feedback, so be sure to share your thoughts."

Related Resources

• Yahoo! Search Blog
• del.icio.us
• Tech Toolbox: Getting Started with del.icio.us
• LearnHub > del.icio.us 101

Nielsen Mobile Report on Social Networking

Today Nielsen Mobile released a report that finds that social networking has gone mobile in a big way with the UK and US leading the way. Among the findings:

• U.K. leads Europe in mobile social networking.

• In the U.K., 1.7 percent of all mobile subscribers in the country, visited social networking websites on their mobile phones in the first quarter of 2008.

• In the U.S. 1.6 percent of all mobile subscribers (4.1 million in all) accessed social networks via their phones in December 2007.

• In the U.S., MySpace lead the mobile social networking trend with 2.8 million  unique mobile users in December 2007.

• Facebook is the second most popular mobile social network in the U.S. with 1.8 million unique  mobile users.

• MSN’s Windows Live Spaces led in Italy (154,000 unique mobile  users per month) and France (106,000).

The report also notes that “social  networking is already a global phenomenon, and going mobile is the next big  thing.” This is a trend that will have a significant impact in the world of online education and move us more and more towards mobile learning.

Students are already totally (un)wired, and so it's natural that they will expect to use their mobile phones, iPod Touch, or other mobile devices as a tool to facilitate learning and meet their "always on" learning styles.

Related Resources

• Nielsen Mobile > Social Networking Goes Mobile
• Learning 3.0: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile
• Gen Y: Mobile and Ready to Learn
• Wikipedia > MoSoSo

PBS & WIRED Science Student Video Contest

WIRED Science and PBS are sponsoring a "WIRED Science Student Video Contest" that is open to all students in grades 9-12 (contest is also open to home school students).

This is an opportunity for students to work with their teachers to create a video explaining a science concept, ideas on the future of science, or--well, anything else you think will help you snag the prize. Yes, there are prizes.

You can learn more about the contest, find the application form, along with all the details over on the WIRED Science Education page.

Don't forget that Jumpcut has free, easy-to-use video editing tools. And if you need a refresher on copyright, be sure to check out CreativeCommons or the Microsoft MyBytes for more information.

But hurry. Application and videos are due by April 1st, 2008. So hurry--get those creative juices flowing!

Related Resources

• WIRED Science Contest > Gallery
• Science Commons
• Twitter > WIRED Science

Atomic Learning: Google Docs Tutorials

Atomic Learning has just released a series of new tutorials on Google Docs. The series is free and available until 25 May, 2008.

Google Docs is a free Web-based word processing program that allows users to keep documents up-to-date and allows selected individuals to update files from their personal computers. Google Docs have gained popularity among educators and corporations for its convenience.

Personally, I find Google Docs a little awkward to use. Sure it makes sharing and collaboration easier, but I find it lacking in some of the more robust features found in Microsoft Word.

Microsoft has recently launched a new product called Office Live, which allows you to easily share files and collaborate with your colleagues via the web.

I've been using Office Live Beta for about a month, and although it needs some tweaks, I've really enjoyed being able to use the programs I already know, use and depend on (Word, Excel, Publisher). I'll post more on Office Live in the next couple days.

Related Links

• Atomic Learning
• Atomic Learning > Google Docs
• Video: Google Docs in Plain English
  
• Office Live
• Microsoft Word Tutorials

Survey: Microsoft Education & Digital Copyright

Microsoft has released the results of a study it conducted regarding teens, illegal downloads and copyright. Among the findings:

- American teenagers between 7th and 10th grades are less likely to illegally download content from the Internet when they know the laws for downloading and sharing content online;

- 49% of respondents said they are not familiar with the rules and guidelines for downloading images, literature, music, movies and software from the Internet;

- 11% said they understood the rules of copyright and illegal downloading of content "very well";

-  76% of boys and 68% of girls said that they would not continue after being told the rules to download or share content over the Internet without paying for it.

In conjunction with the findings of the survey, Microsoft Education has developed model curriculum and resources for educators to help them educate students on the issues around copyright, digital literacy and illegal downloading of content.

In addition they have created, MyBytes, a site where t/weens can learn more about copyright and "develop their own intellectual property and assign usage rights by mixing music online to create a custom riff that they can download as a ring tone."

I think it would also be interesting to survey teachers and see how well they understand "educational fair use" and other issues around copyright. My guess is that they are as confused about what digital content they are allowed to use as the rest of us.

Thankfully, organizations like Creative Commons are taking the lead on the copyright issue, providing a set of alternative licenses to traditional copyright while the lawyers and publishing/recording/movie industry figure it out for themselves.

Related Resources

• Microsoft > Teens Less Likely to Download Study
• MyBytes
• Teacher Guide to IP
• Yahoo! Teacher Document > Creative Commons 101

Microsoft & Google to Join The Open Content Movement

Microsoft announced this week that they will bring open copyright materials to the web via MSN Book Search. One of their first projects will be to digitize 25 million pages of content from The British Library.

As the national library of the United Kingdom, The British Library collection includes manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, as well as a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland.

In addition, Microsoft announced that it will join the Open Content Alliance (OCA). The Open Content Alliance is a collaborative effort of several organizations to build a permanent archive of text and multimedia content. The content archive will be available exclusively via Yahoo! Search.

In other open content news, Google launched its Google Print service. Students can use Google Print to access millions of pages from public domain books.

Taking a page from the iTunes playbook, Amazon via its Amazon Pages service will sell online access to just the pages you want to read. This will surely be a big hit with college students who only need one chapter from that $100 textbook!

Their other new service, Amazon Upgrade, will provide customers with a physical copy of a book along with online access to the complete text of the book.

This is a positive trend and one that will provide a wealth of educational materials for students and teachers around the globe.

These resources are especially valuable for students in rural areas and developing nations, who without open content texts, would be hard pressed to find comparable resources in their own libraries.