Next Generation Learning in Kent

Shibboleth and Athens - descending into middle earth?

This is a post for the purists! Shibboleth is the open standard for identity and access management. It promioses Single Sign-On to resources, and data security. If you want to know how it works, CLICK HERE. Athens on the other hand is the old system, familiar to Open University and HE students. There seems to be a 'bun-fight' going on with press releases from both providers, Eduserv and JISC about funding gateways between the two systems as part of the transition.

The fight is over the what seems to be a higher price being asked by Eduserv to set up the gateways than JISC were willing to pay. Mind you, there is the commercial position of asking an outgoing company to provide facilites to an incoming company for a low cost!

What does this mean for the average Joe in working in education? Not a lot unless you work in HE, and not at all if you work in a school. Its just interesting.

Technophobe Teachers?

The following is an opinion from Andrew Pinder, Chair of Becta in an extract from an article in the Times 7Jan 2008:

"State schools spent £1 billion on cutting-edge information technology last year but 80 per cent of them are failing to make full use of it, according to experts.

Pupils now handle equipment worth thousands of pounds, with some using laptops, interactive whiteboards or hand-held smartphones. The Government claims that Britain is a European leader in installing IT in the classroom.

However, Becta, the Government’s adviser on IT in schools, says that many teachers are intimidated by the equipment and struggle to cope, and that children have a better understanding of how it works.

Britain is one of the biggest spenders per head on technology in schools worldwide, according to Becta — formerly the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency — and the amount is growing each year. Yet Andrew Pinder, its chairman, said: 'We are achieving nothing like the impact that we should from this technology. We spend more than other countries but not enough schools are using technology effectively.'"

 I would love to hear your comments!
 

Comment on 'Innovation Blog' Post on Microsoft Open XML Formats

I have experienced the problem mentioned in Jamies post of receiving an MS Office 2007 document in the new *.docx format.

I know about Microsoft's Open XML format, which enables developers to create applications that use the Microsoft file format, but am not clear of the advantages in reality. Wouldn't it have been easier if the new format was the option rather than the other way round?

We are now in the position where we might receive a document we can't read without downloading and installing a 'compatibility pack' from Microsoft, (which is blocked on our networks anyway). We could of course just delete the files, and reply to the sender asking them to send it in a readable format, and I have now done this on two occasions. Is this aimed at driving up adoption of Word 2007? Its all rather tedious, and hard to justify.

Becta concluded in their recent report that that there is currently no reason to upgrade to 2007, as there are "no must have features". Home users are far less likely to have the latest Office products, if any at all.

Becta concludes:

"recognising the limitations regarding Microsoft’s implementation of the ODF
standard and the limited uptake of Microsoft’s new Office 2007 file format,
we recommend that in the short term users should continue to use the
older Microsoft binary formats (such as .doc)"

There are schools who may look at this and consider whether they want to continue to be hitched to Microsoft, and wonder if it is time to look to the open document formats of Open Office etc. This would be a shame, as Microsoft 'previous version' compatibility has been a powerful argument, and kept us all using it.

PS I would have posted my comment directly on The Innovation Blog, but they don't allow comments ... (I must admit I thought that one of the points of blogging was to allow dialogue and comment).

Intel pulls out of One Laptop Per Child Project.

It would seem that a 'philisophical difference' between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project has ended in divorce. It was well known that whilst Intel was on the board of the OLPC project, it was also touting its own solution, the Classmate as a rival. As previously posted this culminated in two seperate projects in a single area of Nigeria, one with OLPC, the other with Intel.

It is reported that the OLPC project asked Intel to end its charitable deployment of the Classmate in favour of rallying around the OLPC offering. Intel, it would seem prefers its own offering! I think both have value, but the quantity of devices shipped by OLPC is what ensures a low cost. I must admit I would love to see the developing countries have a concerted offer. I think there is greater value for Intel in working to support low price computers for education in developed countries like the UK (along the lines of the RM Asus Minibook).