How to create accessible Microsoft Office files — from The Chronicle by Cory Bohon

Whenever you are creating content for mass consumption (be it students, co-workers, or the Web), you should consider the accessibility of what you are creating. For example, if your content has audio, have you created a transcript or captions so that deaf people can access it? If your content has important visual information, have you formatted this information in a way that is compatible with the assistive technology used by people who are blind or have low vision?

GoTo Meeting, Centra, Wimba, and other web conferencing solutions…be afraid, be very afraid — from Kaplan EduNeering by Karl Kapp

Excerpt:

PowerPoint is slowly starting to broaden its capabilities and will, I predict, soon infringe on some well known software applications in the field of e-learning such as…web conferencing tools (and others).

This video is one of the first inroads PowerPoint is making into the Web Conferencing software and I don’t think they are going to stop here.

Will it be PowerPoint 2014 with full capabilities and robust conferencing, when will they announce a more robust authoring capability? Will PowerPoint ever be SCORM compliant…..?

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Apple U / Cisco U / Google U / Microsoft U — from Inside Higher Ed by Joshua Kim
10 Ideas and Reasons for an Apple, Cisco, Google and Microsoft University…

From DSC:
I always appreciate Joshua Kim’s innovative, creative, outside-the-box thinking.

The best of BETT 2011

The best of BETT 2011 — from computing.co.uk

From DSC:
This item includes announcements from Dell, Capita, Microsoft, Wyse, Centra Stage and others.

Audio feedback: A how-to guide — from JISC

Summary
This document provides a simple step-by-step guide to creating and embedding audio feedback using Microsoft Word 2000 and 2007, the most common format for student text works. There is also a mention of embedding audio in PDFs, which is discussed at the end of this document, with a link to the appropriate Adobe online resource.

Introduction
Audio feedback is becoming an increasingly common method of delivering high quality feedback to students in a non-text based manner. Our document Audio Feedback discusses the merits of this approach based on research and technologies available in this field.

Before embarking on recording digital files for students, you should read our advice on Audio Feedback and specifically the section What technical knowledge do I need to know?, as it contains information regarding structuring feedback, and some technical pointers for creating digital audio files.

A significant point worth noting here is the management of digital files. Appropriate file naming, directory structuring and file storage should be carefully considered and adhered to when you are making extensive numbers of digital files.

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The future of Microsoft Windows Azure: Platform as a service — from arstechnica.com by Peter Bright

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At PDC yesterday, Microsoft unveiled its roadmap for the Windows Azure cloud computing platform. Moving beyond mere Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), the company is positioning Windows Azure as a Platform-as-a-Service offering: a comprehensive set of development tools, services, and management systems to allow developers to concentrate on creating available, scalable applications.

Over the next 12-18 months, a raft of new functionality will be rolled out to Windows Azure customers. These features will both make it easier to move existing applications into the cloud, and enhance the services available to cloud-hosted applications.

Microsoft moves Office to the cloud

Microsoft’s visionary heads out the door — from CNN.com

Also see:

Bill Gates’s successor at Microsoft to retire — Reuters.com
“Ozzie leaving highlights that Microsoft has been kind of lost in the woods ever since Bill Gates left,” said Toan Tran, an analyst at Morningstar. “They let Google solve search, they let Apple figure out smartphones, and Apple is in the process of figuring out non-Windows PC devices with the iPad.”
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Accessibility Guide from Microsoft

— resource from Luca Lorenzini’s blog

Keep your students engaged with Interrobang! — from Microsoft’s Anthony Salcito

Microsoft Office 2010 hits store shelves — from arstechnica.com by Emil Protalinski |

Microsoft Office 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010 [hit store shelves yesterday, 6/14]. Office 2010 can be purchased from more than 35,000 retail stores worldwide, including directly from Office.com. The productivity suite hit RTM last month in 14 languages, with 10 currently available to consumers (94 will eventually be supported). Office 2010 is the first release that comes in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, all on one DVD.

Newly purchased PCs from major OEMs now come with the ad-supported Office Starter 2010 or a more full-featured version; in the next year alone, Microsoft expects more than 100 million PCs to ship with Office 2010 preloaded. Consumers can purchase four of the SKUs at retail, or they can upgrade to three of them via a Key Card purchase or download.

SKU Included applications Boxed price Key Card price
Home and Student Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote $149 $119
Home and Business Same as above, plus Outlook $279 $199
Standard Same as above, plus Publisher Volume Licensing Volume Licensing
Professional Same as above, plus Access $499 $349
Professional Academic Same as above $99 N/A
Professional Plus Same as above, plus SharePoint Workspace, InfoPath Volume Licensing Volume Licensing
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Dragon Dictation — a very helpful app

Last night, I had to work on an assignment for my online class. I was tired of typing and I didn’t want to be inside anymore (it was 7:30pm or so).

As I had my iPhone with me, I decided to try Dragon’s Dictation program (see here and here). I have to say…it was very easy-to-use, very convenient and a huge time-saver!

I simply tapped the screen to start recording my voice, and then tapped the screen again when I was done speaking. The application returned to me the text of what I had just said.  I was then able to email that text to myself and put it into my web page (later on) for my assignment for class.

Very helpful…very interesting.

Here are some example screenshots from Apple:

Dragon Dictation

  

Related to this is the ability to put audio feedback directly into a Word document — my thanks to Professor Julie Yonker at Calvin College for this insight and huge time-saver!

  

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