Windows 8 in Education eBook

Windows 8 in Education

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2 Contents

Contents

The Microsoft Brand Guidelines for Education | 27

the microsoft visual identity

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Chapter 1: IntroductionIncluding a note about the authors

Chapter 3: Windows 8 – The Network Manager’s Story

Chapter 2: Windows 8 – The Teacher’s Story

Chapter 4: Top Apps

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32This eBook is intended for informational purposes only. The views and information contained within it do not necessarily constitute official Microsoft information or reflect the views of Microsoft. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in the eBook, Microsoft cannot guarantee its accuracy or currency. Microsoft does not give any warranty as to the ownership of the copyright of any material forming part of this eBook and does not accept any liability for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential losses arising from the infringement of any third party rights in relation to any material in this eBook.

It became clear in the months before official launch that Windows 8 is regarded by the technology community as something more than an update of the world’s best known operating system. One look at that unique Start Screen, with its live tiles, so different, and yet so inviting, is enough to alert us to that. There’s no denying that the tablet revolution has had its influence here, and without doubt very many people will come to Windows 8 through touch screen devices. When they do, they may be surprised, especially if they’ve experienced other tablets, to find themselves in an environment that’s far more truly flexible and productive than they expected, driven by the proven, enterprise standard powerhouse of familiar Microsoft tools. The potential of Windows 8 for education seems limitless. The ideal of ‘anytime, anywhere learning’ is suddenly achievable. Using a tablet or a laptop for an assignment becomes as cool and inviting as catching up with the latest news on Facebook.

You’ll gather that this is a new product we’re very keen on, and anxious to tell educators about. Hence this eBook. Obviously it isn’t, and can’t be, the definitive handbook of Windows 8 in

education. What it can be, though, is an initial attempt, written by leading practitioners, at sharing some of the system’s main features, giving you just enough to make you want to try Windows 8 for yourself.

The eBook can get you started and inspire you. After that you’re on your own. Trust me, whoever you are – teacher, lecturer, network manager, principal, child, student, administrator or parent – you’ll use our book as a springboard to take off and come up with levels of experience far beyond anything we’ve described.

The eBook is in sections. One is for hands-on educators, teachers and lecturers, while another is directed at network managers, the people who will have to stay one step ahead and make sure that teachers and learners have the best Windows 8 experience. There’s also a section from Microsoft that covers ‘top Apps’. The Windows 8 Apps area is a key feature of Windows 8, and you’ll find quite a lot about them in various places in this eBook.

Finally, we include a section on App development with Windows 8. As we know, this is going to be a key feature for education. Young people are great App users, but they don’t want to leave it there. They’re increasingly keen to develop their own Apps, and the way it can be done with Windows 8, the Windows Store, and Microsoft development tools, offers them an absolutely unrivalled opportunity to be ahead of the game, alongside professional developers. Teachers are going to seize this aspect of Windows 8 in a way that has the potential to transform and re-energise ICT teaching in schools, colleges and universities.

We like to think that both audiences will read the whole eBook because there will be value for each in doing that. If time’s pressing, though, users can simply read the parts that they feel to be most relevant for them.

Gerald Haigh, Microsoft freelance writer.

3 Windows 8 in Education


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Introduction

Chapter 1: Introduction



Chapter 1: A note about the authors

4 Forward


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The Teaching and Learning section

The Network Manager’s section

Ollie Bray Ollie Bray is a highly experienced teacher and a qualified head teacher. He is currently a Deputy Head Teacher (Vice Principal) of a secondary school in the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland. Between 2009 and 2012 he was appointed as National Adviser for Emerging Technologies in Learning at Education Scotland, which is the government-funded agency in Scotland responsible for curriculum design, innovation, CPD and evaluation. Ollie’s wide experience and deep classroom-based understanding of teaching and learning, and of the place of technology in education, means he is in demand as a speaker and consultant both in the UK and internationally.

Alan Richards Alan Richards, author of the Network Manager’s section, is Information Systems Manager at West Hatch High School in Chigwell, Essex.

Alan is in demand as a generous and expert source of information about the application of technology to education. He carries the coveted Microsoft accolade of Most Valued Professional.




IntroductionFor far too long the educational technology debate has focused on the device, from processing power to screen resolution. But with the rise of Internet based tools and cloud computing, it will be the operating system and browser that truly have a real impact on learning. This is why I am so excited about the potential of Windows 8 in education.

In Windows 8, for the first time we have an operating system which is multi-layered and capable of running on a range of devices from traditional laptops to tablets. It is culturally relevant to young people, slick to use and integrates with some of the best of breed cloud productivity applications (including Microsoft Office 365 for education).

Combined with appropriate pedagogical processes, good leadership and sensible network management, perhaps we have finally reached a time in our short history where technology can have that transformative impact on young people and students that it deserves.

Let me guide you through the potential.

Ollie Bray www.olliebray.com

Chapter 2: Windows 8 - The teacher’s story

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www.olliebray.com

Relevant and personal


“ Windows 8 offers a little bit of everything for most people.”

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Good teachers know that if young people can see the relevance of what they are learning to their own lives and their own place in the world, then they are more likely to be interested and motivated to learn. Windows 8 responds to this by offering a little bit of everything for most people. For example it can be a fully working desktop operating system which runs powerful education and productivity Apps such as Microsoft Office. Or via the Start Screen experience, it provides a seamless gateway to the power of the Internet, cloud storage (via SkyDrive) and 1000’s of Windows 8 applications. It is highly personalised, slick and intuitive, and focuses on the user rather than the technology. In short, Windows 8 does all the hard work, allowing the learner to focus on learning and the teacher to focus on teaching.

Learning in practiceAs an introduction, show your learners how they can personalise Windows 8 and how its features will help them stay organised and support their learning between home and school or college.

The Lock Screen picture, which they see when they log on to their own device, provides learning opportunities covering digital photography and sourcing photographs (ownership, copyright, creative commons and safety). Reinforce that their Lock Screen picture should represent them as an individual, and that it is an important part of their digital footprint.

Using their Microsoft Account to sync settings and preferences across devices gives an ideal opportunity to speak about privacy with students, as some settings are not stored locally.


Any device, any time


For learners and teachers, one of the major attractions of Windows 8 is its seamless performance across a range of devices – tablets, ultrabooks, notebooks, the various hybrids and ‘all-in-ones’. Windows 8 offers the user a no-compromise, single sign-on experience across all these device types. So, a teacher could start lesson preparation on a staff room PC, then pick up their Windows 8 tablet to continue the same task on the train. Arriving home, they relinquish the tablet to a child with homework to do, and settle down to carry on their work on a family laptop. In each case they’ve encountered the familiar look, feel and efficiency of their own personalised version of Windows 8. This potential to move between devices without the distraction of changing operating systems is huge. Learners encounter, wherever they go, the same unified interface with a modern look and feel. The same familiarity will then extend into working life, where Windows is the global operating system of choice.

Learning in practiceYou are a student working on a project from home and you find a few really good websites that will help you with a project at school or college. Instead of scribbling down the URL you ‘pin them’ (favourites) to your Windows 8 Start Screen. The next day when you log on they are just there in your ‘pinned sites’. This level of usability and consistency is key to any successful digital tool.

You’re a student looking at a contemporary photograph of trench life in World War One, with the task of writing about the key features. ‘Snap Apps’ in Windows 8 enables you to look at the picture and make notes on a Word document next to it without having to switch between screens, which is time consuming and lacks the slickness that today’s students expect on their devices.

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Windows 8 in EducationChapter 2: Windows 8 - The teacher’s story

Education and productivity Apps


Windows 8 comes with a number of Apps as standard, but you can also download a growing selection of Apps from the Windows Store. Remember that as long as you have logged in, your Apps will follow you around to whichever device you use.

Key Apps that come built into Windows 8 include –

Internet Explorer 10 Internet Explorer 10 is a new browser, built for Windows 8, that is fast and fluid and perfect for touch.

People This helps you manage your contacts (and classes). It links duplicate contacts and also allows you to quickly see your contacts updates on Twitter and Facebook. For the educators building personal learning and support networks on services such as Twitter, this can be a great support for CPD.

Messaging Messaging provides a powerful unified communications tool that links seamlessly to Windows Live Messenger and Facebook, and offers teachers and lecturers an easy way to collaborate. Students, of course, will take to it like ducks to water!

Maps This is a highly efficient example of its type, proven in Bing Maps, and now with the additional seamless efficiency of Windows 8. As well as a geographical resource, Maps is a wonderful tool for enhancing stories that include journeys and adventures.

Weather This is a great looking App, with forecasts and statistics in graphics and figures against an atmospheric background. Wonderful for climate study and also for a wide range of data handling projects using Office tools within Windows 8.

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Education and productivity Apps


Learning in practice with Windows 8 AppsThere is such a rapidly growing selection of Windows 8 Apps in the Windows Store that it is difficult to keep up with all of the latest releases. This is where your students can provide real input.

Ask your class to research the available Windows 8 Apps and suggest how they might be used. Encourage students to think out the box. Quite often an App intended for one thing can be used in another way, so a shopping list planner becomes an organiser for a school show.

Form teams to research Windows 8 Apps that support curriculum areas, such as literacy, modern languages etc., and suggest they rate and review the Apps. Then allow teams to present their findings back to the class using appropriate methods. This provides young people with an authentic learning experience and a real life task.

Ask students, in teams, to identify a real-life problem and then design a Windows 8 style App to address it. If you have the skills and expertise within your school, students can then go on to build the App using Windows 8 Development tools, as described elsewhere in this eBook.

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Learning in practice with ‘Bing’The ‘Bing’ start page image is worthy of a discussion in its own right. In addition, it has hidden ‘hot-spots’ which form questions for your students. This Bing Start Page can be used in lots of ways, lesson starters or plenary activity for example, and to make students more aware of global events.

Other features include Social Search (www.bing.com/social) which lets you search for #-tags. Bing then geo-locates them on a Map. This makes an effective tool to gather public opinion about an event or issue such as the Olympics or a natural disaster.

Another Bing feature is the ability to search for video by source (this includes news channels such as the BBC) and then filter by ‘most recent’. This is a great way to beam real-time news footage into your classroom.

Within the App Bar at the bottom of the screen there are two important buttons –

The ‘Pin Button’ Use this on websites that you want to come back to regularly. Because you can sign into Windows 8 on any Windows 8 machine, your ‘Pinned’ sites will follow you from device to device. Getting students to ‘pin’ sites is important to help young people make links and save time between school and home.

The ‘Wrench’ Icon Explore the various features within the ‘Wrench’ to enhance the web browsing experience. It can improve students’ digital literacy by encouraging them to do more than simply read web pages.

This is only a taster of what Bing can do for your students. Creative teachers and students will soon discover many more.

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Improved search with Bing

“�The�first�thing�you�need to know about Internet Explorer 10 is that it’s very fast.”


www.bing.com/social

Full�Microsoft�Office�365 for education integration


In education, one of the most exciting cloud announcements in recent times has been the full release of Office 365 for education. The ability to fully integrate Office 365 for education into Windows 8 is particularly attractive for schools and colleges as it starts at free to academic institutions. If your institution has not yet signed up to Office 365 for education, then consider it carefully because you have nothing to lose, and, in fact, you, your students and your wider school community all have much to gain.

Office 365 for education includes –

Email, tasks and calendar Cloud-based email and calendars powered by Microsoft Exchange Online using your own school domain name. You get 25GB of storage per user.

Web conferencing Rich online meetings with audio and video, desktop sharing, and virtual whiteboard using the power of Microsoft Lync Online.

Office web Apps Create and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote documents straight from your web browser.

Public and team websites Use your own domain to design and maintain a simple, public-facing website for your school or class. You can also create up to 300 sub-sites, and share files and documents with other Office 365 users. All powered by SharePoint Online.

A word about typing Productivity tools such as Office 365 for education require you to type, so it’s important that Windows 8 is optimised for mouse and keyboard as well as for touch. Indeed, one of our favourite features is the ability to search for an App just by typing on the Start Screen. Windows 8 also has multiple keyboard shortcuts, such as Win C for opening the Charm menu, Win D for showing the desktop, and Win Z for opening the App bar.

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12 Windows 8 in Education education

Full�Microsoft�Office�365 for education integrationLearning in practice with Office�365�for�education�in Windows 8With Office 365 for education you can introduce young people to the enterprise-standard tools that they’ll meet as they continue into education and work beyond school. But the power of the toolset held within Office 365 for education also has the potential to improve teaching and learning in a number of classroom scenarios.

For example:

• Use a Microsoft Lync Video Conference to beam an expert into your classroom.

• Use a combination of Microsoft Lync and SharePoint Online to deliver distance-learning for your students.

• Use SharePoint Online to build a school or class website. This will help anytime, any where learning and also help break down your school walls to parents and the local community.

• Give students a choice of output for a presentation, choosing among tools in Office Web Apps. But remember the focus should always be on the narrative and not on the tool.

• Use Office Web Apps to create an ePortfolio using OneNote online.

• Use Exchange Online tasks to keep on top of your ‘to do’ list and lesson planning, or Exchange Online Calendar for people to book specialist rooms in the school.

• Because Exchange Online is optimised for Windows 8, which is available on multiple devices, this opens the possibility of using Exchange Online to communicate with your students, populate your school timetables and manage your diary.

“ One of the most exciting cloud announcements in recent times.”



Bring your own device: Windows To GoWindows To Go enables Windows 8 to boot and run from a mass storage device such as a USB flash drive or an external hard drive.

This interesting idea has a lot of potential in education, particularly in supporting the emerging ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) agenda, where students and teachers are allowed to bring their own laptops, tablets and smartphones into schools and connect to the school wireless network.

In financial and practical terms BYOD is attractive. Schools and education institutions often complain that they don’t have the resources and computing hardware that they need, yet many young people in the UK these days have a laptop, tablet or smartphone that has to be turned off for the 8 hours a day that they are at school. Similarly, hundreds of thousands of school computers sit unused in the evenings, weekends and school holidays around the country.

However, the most common barrier to BYOD is that, while schools need to be able to manage the workspaces on which their applications are being used, students and teachers, for their part, may not want their personal computers managed for them by their schools.

Windows To Go addresses this dilemma by creating an environment that can be managed separately from a user’s personal environment. With Windows To Go, both students and teachers can use the school or education authority workspace when the Windows To Go thumb drive is plugged in and operating. It is also important to realise that Windows To Go turns your PC into a Windows 8 machine even if you have Windows 7 running at home or on the machine that you are using. What is nice about this is that the experience between home and school can again become more unified.

For security reasons if you are running Windows To Go then you cannot access your local files on your hard drive. However, with Windows To Go running you can sign in with your normal Microsoft Account and access all of your normal Windows 8 Apps, software and cloud storage (via SkyDrive or SharePoint Online). This underlines the importance of Office 365 for education as an integrated part of the Windows 8 experience.

“ The experience between home and school�can�again�become�more�unified.”



Learning in practice with Windows To Go.Learning opportunities using the potential of Windows To Go include opportunities to talk to children and young people about the IT industry, virtualisation, IT security, network segregation, network management, corporate responsibility, responsible use policies and cloud computing.

If your school or college decides to use Windows To Go for the BYOD route, there’s an immediate boost to ‘anytime, anywhere learning’. This will feed back to curriculum planning and to pedagogy as barriers between classroom learning and ‘home’ tasks become blurred. There are strong implications for CPD here.

It is also worth considering that, if any BYOD implementation is going to be successful, utilising the power of Windows To Go, as well as having robust and acceptable use policies in place as a school, you also need to make sure you have gathered some key data. In particular, if you are going to allow student owned devices to connect to the schools network this will put strain on your network. Firstly, BYOD is likely to not be successful unless you have adequate bandwidth. Secondly, if you are going to allow young people to take their Windows To Go stick home with them then you need to make sure they have access to hardware and connectivity at home (remember: you can’t store anything locally). We know this sounds simple, but don’t assume anything. For BYOD to be as revolutionary in education as it deserves to be, make sure you have done your homework, gathered the data and built a strong business case around learning and finance.

Bring your own device: Windows To Go


“ There’s an immediate boost to ‘anytime, anywhere learning’.”



App development with Windows 8Everyone enjoys and appreciates Apps. Many students have a try at developing their own, and many more could do so with encouragement and the right tools. The benefits of doing this are going to be far-reaching, not just for computer education, but for motivation, collaborative and also independent learning, creativity, entrepreneurial skills – really there’s no limit.

Now, with Windows 8, the Windows Store and Microsoft tools, App development has never been easier.

Here’s how you might manage the process with your students –

First comes the idea. Many will have one or more of these already. Some will have had success in bringing them to life, but in any event they can all discuss App ideas with friends, classmates and social network contacts. They can think, with you, about what would make life easier, more interesting, and more entertaining, not just for them, but for other individuals and groups – older, younger, with different needs and preferences. It’s very much an ‘out of the box’ process.

Next, here’s something you don’t do. Some people are tempted to start coding straight away as soon as there’s the germ of a good idea. That’s a common mistake. Instead, there’s a crucial stage where the developer steps away from the screen and tries sketching a few designs, jotting down some user scenarios to get a good feel of what’s possible, what the App would look like and how people might use it. At this stage, surprisingly, good old pencil and paper is sometimes the best way. Spend time at that planning stage, and the coding will be that much easier because there will be a much clearer idea of where it’s going.

First in, first win Your students’ Apps will go into the Windows Store. Think what that means. Windows spans the globe. It’s used by people in every bit of this lovely planet of ours. More than 600 million licenses of Windows 7 have been sold as of June 2012, and all will be given a simple, affordable way to move up to Windows 8. And, with the Windows Store built into every Windows 8 device, your apps will be on show and available to that huge, eager audience.

Imagine, build, revolutionise Students are always the ones to transform music, fashion and pop culture. Now your students can do the same by their ability to reimagine Apps and all that they can do. Instead of being behind the curve, you and your students collectively can be among the leaders, setting the trends, and creating what’s next.

In step with the professionals Windows 8 is so new that you, with your students, can learn and put into practice the same skills, at the same time, as professional developers who create Apps for a living. These are exactly the same skills that people use for building websites, for example (HTML, JavaScript). That’s good news for a young person’s future, wherever it leads, as there isn’t an entirely new set of tools and languages etc. to learn.

You can be certain that Windows 8 development will be in great demand. Not only that, but whether a student is headed for a technology course or career or not, success in App development will show that a person is a highly creative problem-solver, with a great understanding of how to meet people’s needs and preferences.


Developer’s Resources: DreamSpark: www.dreamspark.com Faculty Connection: www.microsoft.com/faculty

www.dreamspark.com

www.microsoft.com/faculty


Conclusion:�Gaining�the�benefitsOvercoming the challenges and getting started with Windows 8In this section of the Windows 8 in education eBook, we will examine some of the challenges that you may encounter when trying to integrate some of the ideas and concepts that we’ve covered. To help you tackle these challenges we have provided some answers to frequently asked questions.

Why the focus on technology? Yes, technology is an enabler, but, combined with good learning and teaching, it does have the potential to be transformational. So although Windows 8 is essentially a technological product, our primary aim has been to focus on learning and outline just what might be possible when you use an industry standard, world class operating system with your students and colleagues. Young people should be able to use the best and most up to date technology wherever appropriate. How else can we prepare young people in the UK for an increasingly competitive and globalised work force?

What about professional development? The good news is that today’s technology is not actually that complicated, and many of the teaching and learning ideas and processes that we have described in this book do not require technical wizardry. We have emphasised throughout just how intuitive and slick Windows 8 is to use. It really is an out-of-the-box solution that doesn’t require a complicated instruction manual. Also, because it runs across multiple devices, and the modern interface has been unified across other Microsoft tools and services you will very quickly get your head around things.

If you do get stuck using Windows 8, don’t forget you can ask your schools ICT technicians for a hand (you probably have up to 30 of them in front of you most days!).

If you want to be a school that embraces technology in the classroom, then what’s probably more important than technical know-how is a collective change of mindset. This is best done through support and swapping ideas. We have given you plenty of ideas to get you started in this short guide and now it is up to you to adapt them for your own local need.

Don’t forget that Microsoft Partners in Learning Network (www.pil-network.com) offers global connections, discussion forums and digital tutorials populated by some of the most innovative and enthusiastic teachers in the world.

Will the children misuse technology? Children have always misused technology, and any misuse of technology in the classroom needs to be seen as a learning opportunity where the responsible use of technology can be emphasised.


“ Windows 8 really is an out-of-the-box solution.”


www.pil-network.com

Will the computers be powerful enough to create digital content? They should be. But if not, you need to take this into consideration when procuring your next set of PCs. Young people expect a media rich experience where they can manipulate images, edit video and design games.

As we have mentioned previously, Windows To Go is a real game-changer here, as you can now run a modern operating system from an older machine. In addition, as Windows 8 makes full use of the cloud, why not let the Microsoft data centres do all the hard work when it comes to running applications (such as Office 365 for education) and data storage (such as SkyDrive).

Are the Microsoft IT Academy qualifications worth it? That is completely up to you to decide. Structured learning with assessment at the end of it is one way to get some students motivated. We also know that the qualifications are recognised by industry. Have a good look at the online materials, and decide if any of the qualifications are relevant for your local needs. If they are, why not give them a try?


Conclusion:�Gaining�the�benefitsHow do I get staff motivated to make learning more exciting with technology? Strong leadership is important. Start with little steps and encourage staff to take risks in the classroom. See if there is anyone in your school or education authority willing to do one or more of the following to help get things moving:

• Sign up for a Microsoft Account to unify your Windows 8 experience across platforms and other Microsoft Services.

• Make a point of ‘pinning’ any interesting web sites that you come across to your Windows 8 Start Screen, then share these pinned sites with contacts from your ‘People App’ who might be students or teachers within your professional learning network.

• Explore the Windows Store for any Windows 8 Apps that could help you in the classroom or enhance the learning experience for your students.

• Set your students the ‘App Evaluation’ challenge – not only is this a great authentic learning task, but it will save you a lot of time.

• Use the Bing start page every day for a week as a lesson starter.

• Unlock the power of technology by signing up for Office 365 for education for your class or school.

• Publish your students’ work online using Office 365 for education, and give students real audience and recognition for their work.

• Use Microsoft Lync to connect with another teacher, and develop some real-time interaction around a global citizenship project.

• Have a conversation with your corporate IT team about learners being able to connect their own devices to the school network to help make learning more accessible. Why not volunteer to be the first teacher in your school district / education authority to take part in a Windows To Go pilot project?


Introduction: Windows re-imaginedWindows 8 is a completely new take on Windows and is like no other previous version, but is built on the solid foundation of Windows 7. For a network manager, that can be quite a challenge, because you know that, if your staff and student users are going to be comfortable with the system’s great features, then you will want to be steps ahead in both knowledge and confidence. With this in mind, you and your technical staff may well find yourselves running learning sessions and clinics quite soon.

The good news, though, is that you’ll be able to do that more easily than you thought. In this section of the eBook on Windows 8, I’ve set out to help you and your technical staff with the all-important task of making sure that teachers, support staff and students can use this brilliant operating system to the full, in the interest of learning.

Windows 8 has the potential to streamline and extend the role of ICT in and beyond your classrooms. I can’t give you all the answers here, but I can give you a start, and a taster which will make you want to dig deeper and discover the full potential of Windows 8 for education.

Alan Richards

Chapter 3: Windows 8 - The network manager’s story Windows 8 in Education

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The Lock Screen

The very first thing you see as soon as you boot up your Windows 8 device, or rouse it from ‘sleep’, is the Lock Screen. It’s a full screen image which you choose as part of the personalisation process.

(In Ollie Bray’s section of this eBook, he emphasises the way students can use the Lock Screen image to project their own digital presence.)

Right there on the Lock Screen, you see the time and date and some other basic status notifications such as unread emails, network and power. You can configure many of the built in Windows 8 style Apps to display detailed status information via the Lock Screen, also. This glance and go functionality is a huge productivity booster and often prevents the need to actually access the physical Apps, themselves.

To bypass the Lock Screen and reach the Start Screen, you just swipe it up on a touch screen, or touch any key on a keyboard. A Lock Screen is obviously most useful for tablets, where it prevents accidental ‘touches’ on devices in bags and pockets. On a PC it will still appeal to some users for its appearance and ‘instant’ notifications, and many desktop users will stay with it to start the day.

However, Windows 8 is all about personalisation and you can easily disable it if you prefer not to embrace this functionality. We think most people will love the new Lock Screen experience, but it can be easily disabled by following these simple steps:


Welcome to your Windows 8 working day

• Open Local Group Policy Editor.

• In the ‘Run’ box type gpedit.msc then work through ‘Computer Configuration’, ‘Administrative Templates’, ‘Control Panel’, ‘Personalisation’.

• Double-click ‘Do not display the Lock Screen’ and select ‘Enabled’ in the window that comes up.

• Click ‘OK’ and close the Local Group Policy Editor.

“ This glance and go functionality is a huge productivity booster.”



Windows re-imaginedThe Start Screen The Start Screen is one of the key areas where you will see that Windows 8 is a completely new take on Windows, and like no other previous version.

The Start Screen is designed to bring together built-in Apps that revolve around your online life. With Apps seemingly for all eventualities, a user can easily see data from all their cloud, business and education accounts in one easy place.

Furthermore, these live tiles provide real time updates relating to the core focus of the App, such as news, calendar updates and the weather. So useful!

The fluid interface design allows the user to get to Apps quickly, and flick between Apps with either the swipe of a finger on a touch enabled device or the positioning of a mouse. Additionally, swiping your finger from the right on a touch device or moving the mouse to the top or bottom right hand corner of the screen brings up the Charms menu. From here, you can easily access settings, share content and search for Apps, files or additional settings. Pressing the Windows key + C will also bring up this menu and is a key element of the Windows 8 experience.

All the built in Apps are designed specifically to work with the Windows 8 Start Screen experience, which offers the user a chromeless environment and the largest amount of screen estate possible. Surfing the web in Internet Explorer 10, for example, is a dream, and donates all of the screens real estate to your content.

While the common Apps are right at your fingertips, you can simply right click anywhere on the screen to bring up the All Apps option, allowing you to get to any of the Apps installed on your device (both desktop and Windows 8 style Apps). Additionally, from the Start Screen just type what you want to find, and you can automatically see the relevant search results. Impressive! More on this in the next section of the eBook.

One of these Apps is the desktop, giving you the familiar desktop interface that you experience with Windows 7. You should think of the desktop as just another App though, used to run legacy applications.

“ Common Apps are right at your fingertips.”



Search The screen shot below shows what happens if you type a key word while on the Start Screen. In this case it’s Snip, and shows up the snipping tool. The user could, however, search for anything that doesn’t appear on the Start Screen to open up an application such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, for example.

Clearly the search feature in Windows 8 is a vast improvement on that in Windows 7, and permeates every App in Windows 8. Typing text in the Start Screen brings up a navigation bar that shows you every App that has the word you searched for, with a number indicating how many times the searched-for word appears in each App.

Another key feature for those whose role (or interest) will take them more deeply into the operating system is the Windows + X key function. Pressing this key combination will bring up a menu of key functions needed by any IT Manager in a Windows 8 environment, such as Task Manager, Control Panel and File Explorer.

Solid foundationWindows 8 is a completely redesigned and newly coded operating system, so the brilliant new features, such as the Start Screen experience, are built right in to the operating system, not simply added on top of a Windows 7 core. That said, as with all Microsoft technology, the huge experience derived through successive earlier versions means that it comes with a serious heritage, and is a mature, solid and reliable product. As an established Windows user you will quickly realise that you are on familiar and secure ground. With Windows 8 you get all the traditional qualities which have grown up through the story of Windows, as well as a host of ground-breaking new features.

Windows re-imagined



Windows 8 has some very powerful built in Apps that are very useful within an education environment, and will ensure that all of your users have access to mail, calendars and people at the touch of a button. Let’s take a look at these key Apps.

Mail In the real world, many users have two or more email accounts. With the Mail App, you can view all your mail accounts in one easy to use App. Opening the Mail App prompts you to add an email account; just entering your username and password for your Microsoft account will add it to the App.

Initial setup of the Mail App, and for that matter any App built into Windows 8, requires a Microsoft account. Adding additional accounts is also just as simple; just bring up the settings navigation bar and select Accounts.

Clicking Add Account will let you select from some common email systems and adding them is as simple as entering your email address and password.

Using the Mail App means that students and teachers can have all their accounts in one simple to use App. No longer opening Outlook for work or Hotmail/Outlook.com for personal use and any other web mail they may have in order to get to emails or attachments, it’s all in one place.

Sending emails is easy using the Mail App, click on the + sign to open a new mail and start to type into the To: box.

At this point you can search the directories of any of your attached accounts to find matches for the text you have typed in, and once you have selected your recipient you are ready to go.

From the screenshot below you can see the simplicity behind the interface, prompting you to enter a subject and the message itself.

But where are all the options like attachments and fonts? First, you will recall that a right click on the Start Screen will bring up the ‘All Apps’ option. In the same way, right clicking in any App, itself, will bring up an additional menu at the bottom of the screen. So, in the Mail App, for example, that means you will see all the other functions you need to complete your message.

Key Apps



Calendar We all lead hectic lives, and a calendar is key to being where you should be, when you should be. If you have added your accounts to the Mail App then the calendar will now hold all your calendared events for those accounts.

The calendar bears all the marks of the Windows 8 Apps, with a clean and simple design. Hovering over the month at the top of the screen will bring up arrows at either side of the screen, which you can use to advance or decrease a month. Right clicking on the calendar screen brings up the menu items at the bottom of the screen from where you can change the scope of the calendar

and also add new events. And as we saw in the paragraph on the Lock Screen, the next scheduled calendar event shows up on the Lock Screen as soon as you wake up your device – a simple but highly effective and helpful little feature.

As with all the Apps a swipe of the finger on a touch enabled device or positioning the mouse in the corners of the right side of the screen will bring up the Charms bar, from where you can select settings. From here you can use the options menu to change the fonts of your items, the colours of your calendar and much more.

The new event screen is again a repeat of the simple but effective Windows 8 App design, and gives you all the key elements you need to add a basic calendar event.

If you need more options, maybe to invite other attendees, then simply click the Show More text and you will have more calendar options available to you.

Key Apps



People One of the final key Apps in Windows 8 is the People App. This brings together all your connected accounts and gives you a one stop shop for accessing your contacts.

From this screen you can click on any of your contacts and bring up all the ways you can get in touch with them.

From this screen you can see their latest activity in Facebook and Twitter. You can also send them an email or message using Twitter or Facebook.

The sum of all its partsWindows 8 has some great individual Apps but that is not what makes Windows 8 the great tool it is. What’s really going to excite users is the way that all of the Apps work together, so once you attach your accounts to them you have access to all of your mail, pictures, documents, music and video from one easy to use interface. Let’s take a look at a simple student scenario, one which people who are at home, in schools and classrooms will find easily recognisable.

Student scenarioA student is doing a project for IT that includes a PowerPoint presentation on their pet. They have some pictures they would like to use but they are all in different locations, taken using a mobile phone and uploaded using the phone. Before Windows 8, it would have been difficult to bring all of this together, but now, with the Apps that are built into Windows 8, it’s possible to view all the sources the student has in one easy to use environment.

Key Apps

“ A one stop shop for accessing your contacts.”



As a network manager you may be looking at all the packaged Apps in Windows 8 and thinking that maybe not all of them would be ideal for students to use. For example, it may not be a good idea to give students access to the Xbox games App, or the messaging App.

Windows 8 gives you the means of dealing with that concern, because with App Locker you can devise and enforce a policy that limits access to the Windows 8 packaged Apps.

Before you can start using App Locker you will need to install the Remote Server Admin Tools (RSAT) for Windows 8, which can be downloaded from the Microsoft download site. Once installed you need to add the Group Policy Management Console feature to Windows 8.

Once the installation has completed, launch the Group Policy Management Console. The App Locker policy is managed at a computer level so if you already have a policy that covers your computers you may use that, if not, then you could create a new policy. In the example below we are using the Default Computers policy.

Navigate to Computer Configuration | Policies | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Application Control Policies | App Locker | Packaged App Rules

The first task you need to complete, which needs to be done on a Windows 8 computer, is to create a rule. The reason for doing this on a Windows 8 computer is that you can automatically get the rule to search the local computer for installed Apps.

Right click the Packaged App Rules section and select New Rule, then click Next at the welcome screen.

Leave all the defaults for now and click Next.

At the next screen click Select under Use an installed App as a reference and, from the pop up screen select your App. In the example below Games is selected.

App Locker



Now click Next. At the next screen we don’t want to create an exception, so just click Next and then on the final screen click Create.

You should now have a new rule controlling access to the Games App, which currently just allows everyone access.

So, as you can see in the image below, when a student logs on they can see the Games App.

Now let’s edit the policy to change it to deny access to the Games App.

Navigate to the packaged App rules, right click the Games rule and select Properties.

For this example, let’s change the rule to a Deny for everyone and click OK.

Logging back on as a user doesn’t show any changes in the Start Screen, but once they click on the Games app the App Locker takes control.

So, as you can see, using App Locker gives you full access over the packaged Apps in Windows 8. Of course in this example we denied everyone access to the Games App. In a real world environment you can use your Active Directory groups to configure deny rules for certain Apps based on group membership, giving you the ultimate in control over your environment.

App Locker



As you move towards deploying Windows 8 in your institution, you will need to look at the tools available for deployment. The good news here is that, if you deployed Windows 7, then you’ll be able to use the same deployment tools to deploy Windows 8.

Windows Assessment and Deployment KitThe ADK for Windows 8 is a suite of tools that can be used to customise and automate the deployment of Windows 8. The tools included in the suite are:

Application Compatibility Toolkit This should be run on your current computers. It will identify any issues with applications and produce a report showing you which applications are compatible with Windows 8, and, more importantly which ones are not compatible.

Deployment Tools The deployment tools enable you to customise, deploy and manage Windows 8 images. They are another set of tools which facilitate all of the customisation features available to network managers.

User State Migration Tool This tool can be used to migrate any data from a current user’s computer to a new installation of Windows 8. The tool is a command line utility.

Volume Activation Management Tool This tool is used to manage the volume activation of Windows 8 clients. You can use this tool to manage the license keys for Windows 8, Windows Server taken from your licensing portal.

To download this suite of tools visit the Microsoft website at the following address: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30652

Deploying Windows 8“ Customise and automate the deployment of Windows 8.”


http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30652



Microsoft Deployment Toolkit The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is the ideal tool for the automated capture and deployment of images across your institution’s infrastructure. The latest version can be downloaded from the Microsoft website: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=25175

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit uses a simple interface that is then used to create task sequences for capturing and deploying Windows images.

Using a combination of task sequences and deployment shares, the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit enables you to sysprep and capture images from reference Windows 8 computers and then deploy those captured images to other computers around your network.

By using task sequences and deployment rules you can customise your deployment infrastructure to suit the individual needs of your own environment. You can have a fully interactive deployment where the end user or a member of your technical staff inputs answers to all the common installation questions such as computer name, language and whether to join a domain. Or, you can have a fully ‘zero touch’ deployment, where all the variables are in the task sequence, and the end user just has to press the F12 key to start the PXE boot.

System Centre 2012 The latest version of System Centre 2012 Configuration Manager is a best of breed management solution for organisations who want full control over their network of devices. This is clearly important for Windows 8, which is designed to run on a multitude of devices –desktop PCs, tablets, ‘hybrids’ or smartphones. With System Centre 2012 Configuration Manager you can deploy and control all of those devices.

System Centre 2012 Configuration Manager uses task sequences and rules to customise Windows deployments. However the power of System Centre 2012 Configuration Manager lies in the level of control you have over the deployments, and then over the devices you have installed.

Deploying Windows 8


“ Customise to suit the individual needs of your own environment.”




Windows To Go A continuing issue for network managers is the range of software that students and staff have on their home computers. Now, with Windows to Go these problems are solved.

Windows To Go enables users to boot and run Windows 8 from a flash drive or external hard drive. It uses the hardware of the host device – for example the user’s home computer – to give the full Windows 8 experience. While using Windows To Go, all the applications, security and anti-virus settings assigned to your organisation’s standard Windows 8 image are available. At the same time, the user has no access to local hard drives, and the C: drive that appears to them in My Computer is in actual fact the USB device that they’ve used to boot Windows 8. This means that if they save files to the C: drive, shutdown the Windows To Go operating system and then use the USB device in another computer, the file saved to the C: drive will still be available to them on the new host.

With Windows To Go designed to hide the local hosts’ hard drives, users can’t accidentally save files to the local host and then not be able to access them when they use another host to load up their Windows To Go Device.

There are multiple scenarios where Windows To Go will be used in education. For example, where students do not have access at home to applications such as Word or Excel, they’ll find it included in the standard Windows 8 image in Windows to Go.

It’ll be useful, too, for a staff member whose laptop is out of action yet still needs to work at home. Additionally, those many staff who travel between schools will also be able to take their school’s Windows 8 image with them. In fact, the possible uses of Windows To Go are endless, and the network manager will be able to take a lead in spreading the word, and will also be ready to respond to the many other creative applications that staff and students are sure to discover and want to use.

(In his section of this eBook, Ollie Bray discusses the potential of Windows to Go for advancing the ‘Bring Your Own Device’ agenda.)

Deploying Windows 8

Chapter 3: Windows 8 - The network manager’s story

“ The possible uses of Windows To Go are endless.”



Storage spaces With Windows 8 comes a new way of managing your attached storage devices, whether they are attached by USB, SAS or SATA. This new feature is called Storage Spaces and will revolutionise the way you work with attached drives. Essentially, it allows you to group your attached drives together to create a single storage pool. This pool can then be divided into virtual disks or ‘storage spaces’. In effect, it’s virtualisation, and is a way of achieving a scalable, flexible and cost-effective storage solution.

Put simply, you can use your attached drives to make one logical drive that will appear to Windows 8, the attached drives do not even have to be the same size and needn’t all be attached in the same way. You could take a 2TB attached SAS drive and a 3TB attached USB drive and create a simple 5TB logical drive that will appear to Windows 8.

While the example above is amazing on its own, that’s not all. With Storage Spaces resiliency, features have been included which allow you to choose between mirroring (keeping a copy of a file on two different physical disks) or parity (Storage Spaces keeps redundancy information within the Storage Space as well as the actual file, allowing the reconstruction of data in the case of a physical drive failure).

Another new feature in Storage Spaces is Thin Provisioning; which allows you to allocate space to a volume without actually having the physical space on the attached drives. This all works because of the cooperation between NTFS and Storage Spaces. Once you start to reach the physical capacity of the Storage Space, you will be prompted to add more capacity.

Deploying Windows 8

Chapter 3: Windows 8 - The network manager’s story

“ This new feature will revolutionise the way you work with attached drives.”



Networking The more highly visible features of Windows 8, such as the Start Screen, are obviously going to attract teachers. But for network managers and technicians, one of the keys to any operating system is its networking capability. This is what makes it possible to share documents, send emails and make use of all of the applications installed alongside the operating systems.

The good news is that in Windows 8 you’ll find a number of changes that are designed to simplify the networking process, increase network support, reliability, performance and security, and add more mobile-related features.

Now, for example, you’ll find built in support for airplane mode, which appears on the main connection window, making it easier for portable device users to turn off and on their wireless connections.

Enhancements have also been made to task manager so that users can view the current and historical data usage for particular network connections or apps. Also with network metering you can set limits for data usage, ensuring that mobile data users don’t exceed any data limits.

For people who require that little bit more bandwidth then Windows 8 comes with the ability to use the built in NIC teaming functionality. Up until now you have needed to use the third party software supplied by some NIC manufacturers to provide teaming, with various degrees of success. Now, with this functionality built into Windows 8, you have it at your fingertips.

With the new and improved connection manager, network managers can apply connection settings to users in the form of profiles, allowing them to easily connect to remote networks, and making it much simpler for the user to connect to the school network from remote locations and get on with their work.

Deploying Windows 8


“�You’ll�find�a�number�of�changes�that�are�designed�to�simplify�the�networking�process.”

Top Apps*

A growing selection of free and paid education Apps for Windows 8 are now available in the Microsoft Store, with some exciting titles launching over the coming months. Let’s take a look at 6 Top Apps for education.

Windows 8 in EducationChapter 4: Top Apps

education



* All Apps available for BETT 13.


“ Bringing together an incredible array of learning tools and resources.”


Features:

• Designed specifically to help UK students aged 11-19 with their studies.

• Improves learning, and, in school trials, has been shown to increase assignment grades by 1-2 grades.

• Provides resources from over 4,500 leading education sites linked to the curriculum.

• Access to textbooks from the UK’s leading publishers including Letts & Lonsdale, World Book Encyclopaedia and Heinemann.

• Intelligent search provides accurate and age appropriate results from within the Autology database, all linked to the national curriculum.

• Amazing value – access thousands of premium resources at one very low monthly cost.

• Based upon our successful, award winning online service which is provided to schools across the UK.

• A great way for parents to support their children’s education in a protected and focused learning environment.



The Autology Homework TutorThe Autology Homework Tutor is a revolution in digital learning for UK students aged 11-19. Created by online education experts Autology World Ltd, The Autology Homework Tutor brings together an incredible array of learning tools and resources – including textbooks, encyclopaedias, revision guides, study videos, and other online knowledge – into a single, safe, easy-to-navigate resource for students to access and use on their mobile or tablet.

Chapter 4: Top Apps

The Autology Homework Tutor – it’s your own personal library and research assistant on your tablet or mobile device.

Contact Us Information:

Web: uk.autology.org/contact-us Email: [email protected] Phone: 01244 560965


“ Provides users with the information they seek.”


Features:

• 80,000 articles in a fully searchable database.

• Tens of thousands of images, diagrams and charts.

• Ability to download articles for offline viewing, store your favourites and access your search history.

• Research noteworthy events and birthdates from “This Day” in history.

• An A-Z search allows users to browse the entire contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.



The Encyclopaedia Britannica AppFor more than two centuries, Encyclopaedia Britannica has partnered with Nobel Laureates, former US and international presidents, scientists, and many other historical figures to provide our users with the information they seek. With the Encyclopaedia Britannica App for Windows 8 all of this trusted information is now available on your PC. The free Encyclopaedia Britannica App gives users the full contents of the 100 “Top Articles” and the first 100 words of all 80,000 articles as well as all images in all articles. Subscribers have access to the full content of the entire database.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica App gives users the ability to find information and explore subjects without compromise. Users can feel confident that their answers are accurate and vetted by professional editors and expert contributors.

Chapter 4: Top Apps

The Encyclopaedia Britannica Home Screen


Web: www.britannica.co.uk Email: [email protected]

©2012 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

www.britannica.co.uk



Features:

• The Home screen provides learners with a quick and compact view of their timetable, library and news with important notifications given a position of prominence.

• Improves learning, and, in school trials, has been shown to increase assignment grades by 1-2 grades.

• The timetable shows learners a timeline of all their appointments for a specific day organised by category.

• Library shows all the books that the learner currently has on loan organised by due date as well as reservations and their status.

• The news section allows users to subscribe to campus news feeds.



The myday Appmyday is a unique and customisable solution utilising Microsoft technologies. Accessible by desktop, tablet or smartphone devices, it provides students and staff the information they need for their academic day with a responsive and intuitive user interface.

myday can be used ‘straight out of the box’ or it can be themed to reflect an academic front facing website, incorporating college branding and colour ways. This creates a familiar environment for students and staff, allowing them to manage their time, coursework, activities and status with a format that is enjoyable to use every day.

For a mobile academic environment, myday starts here.

Chapter 4: Top Apps


Email: [email protected] Phone: 0845 050 7380 Box Studios, 17 Boundary Street, Liverpool, L5 9UB

“ Gives learners a simple but powerful view of their day.”

The myday Home Screen – Provides learners with a quick and compact view of their timetable, library and news.



Features:

• Filter search resources.

• Preview resources.

• Browse resources.

• Download resources.

• Single sign on to other resource repositories.



The Global Grid for Learning App

Chapter 4: Top Apps

The Global Grid for Learning Home Screen


Web: www.globalgridforlearning.com | www.ggflondemand.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/globalgrid (@globalgrid) LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/752671

Email: [email protected] Phone: +44 (0)20 7203 2023

A safe and reliable way for teachers and students to search, stream and download high quality and copyright-cleared digital learning resources from trusted content providers – all in one place.

With over two million digital resources from more than 50 content providers, Global Grid for Learning represents one of the most comprehensive digital educational content collections in the world. It’s an intuitive and easy to use service that requires no training, enabling users to quickly find digital content that supports teaching and learning across the curriculum and eliminating the often overwhelming, inappropriate and inaccurate nature of Internet search results.

“ All your digital, educational content needs in one place.”

www.globalgridforlearning.com

www.ggflondemand.com

https://twitter.com/globalgrid

http://www.linkedin.com/company/752671



Features:

• Browse the resources by topic, unit, chapter etc.

• Use the powerful search tool to find exactly what you are looking for.

• Build, edit and play lessons and question practice quickly and easily with the Lesson Builder tool.

• Share content, resources, activities and lessons with students, and with colleagues in your school or college.

• Pin favourite resources and lessons so that you can easily access just what you need.

• Synchronises with your online Dynamic Learning account.



The Dynamic Learning App

Chapter 4: Top Apps

The Dynamic Learning Home Screen – The first thing you see when you launch the App.


Email: [email protected] Phone: 0207 873 6001

The Dynamic Learning App from Hodder Education makes teaching and learning easier wherever you are and whatever device you are using, whether that’s a tablet, smart phone, desktop computer or whiteboard.

The Dynamic Learning App enables schools and colleges to browse and use a wide range of outstanding content, and provides time saving tools to create and deliver lessons, homework activities and exam question

practice. Students can easily access activities and tasks assigned to them by their teachers, anytime, anywhere.

“ Use the Lesson Builder tool to create, edit and play lessons.”



Features:

• Access the 184,500 words, phrases and meanings.

• Hear words and example sentences spoken by real British and American voices.

• All the text is live – tap any word to look up its meaning.

• Browse Oxford 3000 keywords and learn the most important words to know in English.

• Save your favourites and access your search history.

• Search by the main entry word or in a full-text search.

• Touch a word within an entry to jump to the entry for that word – look up what it means or find out more about the word.

• View a word of the day; and in future versions see a favourite word of the day.

• Browse words saved in favourites; and in future versions share these lists via social networks.



The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary App

Chapter 4: Top Apps


Web: www.oup.com/elt Email: elt.oup.com/contactus Facebook: www.facebook.com/oupeltglobal

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD) app helps you improve your English language skills so you can understand what words mean, know how to say them, and know how to use them.

The OALD is a world best-seller and is being made available as a Windows 8 app that makes it quick and easy to access the 184,500 words, phrases and meanings to find the word you want. Real voice audio (not text to speech) in both British and American English helps you learn to pronounce words correctly, making communication more effective.

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Sample Screen

Twitter: twitter.com/OUPELTGlobal Oxford University Press, ELT Division, UK & Ireland Sales, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford

Improves your English language skills.

www.oup.com/elt

www.facebook.com/oupeltglobal

© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The Microsoft Brand G

uidelines for Education | 27


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