Microsoft has dominated the software industry since the early 1980’s and made Bill Gates one of the richest men in the world but it’s days in the sun may be numbered?
Like many educators I returned to school this year to find Microsoft Office 2007 installed on the computers my students were issued. The latest version of Office looks and feels very different from its predecessors without adding any obvious new features of value. I find it less intuitive and more difficult to work with. My situation was not good.
My first challenge was to get Office 2007 installed on my computer so I could do demonstrations in a general education course on computing. Faculty computers were not scheduled to be updated. Yes someone was asleep at the wheel! Assertiveness paid off though and I met my class the next morning with the poorly designed upgrade. However, my long-term dissatisfaction with the school’s lack of software revision management was joined by a growing dissatisfaction in Office 2007.
I often wonder why Microsoft insists on making software for the masses that is too complicated for the common man to use? There lies it’s Achilles’ heel.
Google has, I believe, a better alternative. Google Documents freely provides the basic functions of word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics to everyone on the Web. Their solutions are Web applications you can run on any computer connected to the Internet. They simply run in your web browser.
Here’s a dirty little industry secret. The vast majority of users only use about 10% of the functionality of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The remaining features are there for a vocal minority of power users who rarely use them anyway. So why complicate matters by including features most of us will never use? Intimidation?
Google’s software focuses on the sweet spots of functionality where the vast majority of people get their work done. The menus are sleeker and intuitive. You can easily find what you need to do and the software works more efficiently because the code is simpler. Simpler code means fewer software failures!
This is a good deal! You can get your work done without making Bill Gates any richer. Did I forget to mention you can work with files in Microsoft formats too. This means your work is compatible with all the poor suckers still running Microsoft Office!
The best part of Google Documents is the new features they got right!
First, your files are always safe because they are stored on Google’s servers which means you can access them anywhere you can connect to the Web. So you don’t have to carry the luggable laptop around the airport anymore! More importantly though is the fact your files are regularly backed up and kept safe by professional system administrators.
Second, you can actually collaborate on project files with no version control issues! I was blown away when I tested this feature.
The following podcast will show you how to get started using Google Documents.
It seems Google is leaving Microsoft in its software engineering dust!
I am a Star Trek junkie like so many people of my generation. This is not a bad thing though as the series provides some remarkable role models. Captain James T. Kirk and Lean Luc Picard offer great examples of leadership. No one better exemplifies living logically than Spock. My favorite Star Trek character though is Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott. It is he who served me well as a role model in my personal journey through engineering leadership. Any success I may have had is due to the wonderful people who worked on my teams and this role model. I had the distinct pleasure of telling James Doohan how important his character was to my own career once.
My favorite Star Trek scene is from the feature film The Search for Spock. Scotty is on the bridge as the Enterprise NC-1701 is stolen. The Excelsior tries to pursue her but fails to engage transwarp speed. Scotty proudly remarks “the more they overtake the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain.” This is so true.
Listen to David Pogue as he talks about the current state of computer technology and the need for simplicity in design.
Why is it so many new products fail to satisfy the needs of their users? Engineers talk to other engineers too much and to real people far too infrequently. Its easy to get out of touch. The real joy of the work is in seeing the joy your work brings to your customers but who takes time and care to notice? Darn few!
Apple Corporation has had wild successes doing just what the competition didn’t anticipate. When competitors notice Apple’s success they move to emulate it but Apple has moved onto the next innovation by then. They can’t keep up. Apple’s secret is a witch’s brew of imagination and observation. They watch real people doing what comes naturally to them. Voodoo has brought us wildly colored computers because someone noticed people decorating their computers to distinguish them from every other computer in their environments. Black magic brought the iPod because Apple engineers noticed so many people were jogging with a walkman strapped to them. Again and again Apple innovates while the pack emulates.
That’s not the only secret of Apple’s success. The other is keeping design simple. David Pogue gave some excellent examples of that in his talk.
Movies Found Online (www.moviesfoundonline.com) offers an array of programming including classic film and documentaries. They also feature public domain programs. I enjoyed watching the 1922 version of Nosferatu. This is a film I’ve always been curious about but still hadn’t seen. Now I have and it didn’t cost me a cent. It was odd watching a silent film though.
Some other titles I plan to check out include The Great Train Robbery, The Lost World, and Bluebeard. I also want to explored their 9/11 and Iraq documentaries. Looks like I’ll be spending a lot of time online this weekend!
This site doesn’t provide for expanding the video to full screen, at least Nosferatu didn’t show that option. But it may be the best collection of classic films online.
We have every right to expect much from the Discovery Channel. They’ve brought high quality educational programming into our living rooms for years. We consider them a leader in educational programming. To be honest its the reason I wouldn’t settle for the basic cable television package. So I was shocked when I took a look at their web programming and found it to be too little and too inflexible.
The first step to viewing nirvana is to surf to discovery.com. You’ll see the “Video” option among the drop down navigation menus. You will be presented with a menu of about 19 choices. “Watch Full Episodes” is at the top of the list which will take you to a page where you can download a viewer. There are installation instructions for the the PC and Mac. I noticed them after clicking to install on my Mac but everything worked flawlessly. You’ll also see about 4 shows listed at the far right of the page. BIG DEAL!
You’ll also have problems resizing the player window and maintaining access to its controls. They want to hide and the size of web page elements are awkwardly absolute.
I don’t like the proprietary player. It works fine but so do all the others installed on my computer. Why should I have a player taking up precious hard disk space just to watch the Discovery Channel? The biggest disappointment is the player’s total lack of sharing and embedding capacities. This means you will not be able to include a link to the program in your web course. BOO! HISS! We can only hope the advertisers can force Discovery to expand its reach and their effectiveness by adding these important extensions.
The 4 full episodes I could view were Meerkat Manor,Project Earth, Smash Lab, and Flip that House. The only one that interested me was Project Earth. It only had 2 episodes available Wrapping Greenland and Engineering the Future. I enjoyed it but it left me wanting more.
It was hard to believe this organization had done such a poor job so I decided to have a look at shows listed outside of the full episodes. “Perhaps the folks at the Discovery Channel just didn’t understand the all of the shows should be listed under full episodes?”, I pondered.
I clicked on Deadliest Catch and caught a Swiffer advertisement followed by less than 2 minutes of the program. This was followed by another Swiffer ad followed by a 2:30 segment. It became obvious this cycle would continue until we ran out of segments. To add insult to injury the video was made available through a first-generation video player.
The Discovery Channel doesn’t understand to use the web yet. Its too bad because they have some of the best footage in the industry just waiting to be made available to web viewers and online learners.
Last week I talked about the free web casting being done at hulu.com. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to check that out. I’m very impressed they have all of the Highlander episodes. I’ve been trying to collect those on dvd but now I can watch them for free.
There’s more than one sheriff in town! Fancast is also providing on demand web broadcasting of television programs and feature films. Fancast programming is also funded by advertising so its free to us. The programming is a little different than hulu giving us more selections in viewing. I was so enthralled with the Jericho series I watched the whole thing. I also enjoyed watching the remake of the Planet of the Apes.
Unfortunately I did not see an option for getting the embed code to include programming on a web page but if you know HTML you can cut and paste the link into you page as a hyperlink.
If you have one or more favorite blogs or web sites that you like to read this is for you. You can have new information come to you rather then having to go out to each of your favorite web sites looking for it. Watch this creative explanation from the folks at In Plain English to learn more.
I like the way the people at In Plain English put these short informative podcasts together. The production is minimalistic yet highly effective. Each program focuses on one topic. They provide information in a simple straight-forward manner. The narrator has a sense of excitement and wonder in his voice. This is podcasting to emulate!
September 14, 2008
So how might an educator use RSS as a teaching tool?
Virtually every field has it’s share of professional journals and news sources on the World Wide Web. Most of these sites offer RSS feeds you can add to your web site or online course so your students can read related news stories. This makes the learning experience more timely and provides a handy springboard into lively conversations. I’d love to see this implemented in a political science course during the current election!
I just discovered something exciting in the area of education and entertainment. It goes by the unlikely name of hulu and it allows you to watch television programs and movies on demand over the World Wide Web. You can even embed a link to a show as I have for the original episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
This site offers television shows organized by genre. Some of the choices are classics while many are new. My favorites are the SciFi and Fantasy, Technology, and Travel and Nature. The movies seems consistent with what you would find broadcast on cable tv. The big difference is there is no subscription price. The programs include limited and brief commercial announcements but nothing compared with what you will find on regular tv. I also like being able to start and pause the program whenever I wish.
You ought to surf out to www.hulu.com and check it out for yourself.
Perhaps the days of subscribing to cable are numbered!
It has word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics. So does Microsoft Office. Yes, but you have to buy Microsoft Office not to mention all of the upgrades. Google docs is free! But that isn’t the only reason to consider using it. Watch.
Documents are securely saved on Google’s server and you can access them from any computer capable of connecting to the Internet. No more lost files. No more lame excuses. The dog cannot eat anyone’s homework. Imagine having your files available anytime and anywhere. But that’s not all.
Students can collaborate with each other. Collaborators can actually watch while a document is being updated. Rough drafts can be submitted and recommendations made in real time. This makes feedback immediate and motivate students through peer pressure.
I teach a general education course for college freshman that uses Microsoft Office to teach word processing, spreadsheeting, and presentation graphics and I’m considering using Google docs instead. It can give my students all of the functionality they need without confusing beginners with complex menu structures. However, what they learn will easily transfer to a Microsoft Office or open source office suite such as NeoOffice.
I recommend exploring this software and what it has to offer you and your students too.
Its up to you. Believe it or not you have the power to shape the future for yourself and your children. Will it be easy? No. It will require hours of study, tons of imagination, patience, and a desire to know what makes things tick but if you like solving problems then you’ll love it. Computer Science feels like the adventure of a lifetime.
Computer scientists are working on the next generation of electronic devices today. They are helping find cures to fatal diseases. Several are involved in making the world more secure. Many others are involved in making each electronic device we use more powerful and efficient. Computer scientists today are involved in virtually every problem and challenge facing mankind. This is a profession where you can really have a positive influence on the future.
Get empowered. Become a computer scientist.
How do you get started? Call your nearest college and talk to a professor of computer science. If you don’t have one near you leave me a comment here with your email address. I’ll get back to you.
