Preparing for a Major OS Release - by Shaun Green
It’s an event which comes only once every four years or so; one which can easily throw off businesses and individuals alike. It’s something we expect but don’t always fully anticipate - a special occasion but also a real headache.
I’m not talking about leap years, of course, even if Chris Conley and Bob Speller enjoy such erratic birthdays. I’m talking about the release of a new version of a major operating system… which in IT today essentially means Windows. Today, I’m going to share some of Epicentre’s experience in preparing for the introduction of unpopular, awkward Windows Vista and its charismatic younger brother, Windows 7.
Writing an awkward intro to a blog post is easy: planning and preparing for the rollout of a new operating system is not. There are a substantial number of factors that must be borne in mind before you can even begin to prepare. Fortunately, at Epicentre we’ve had a lot of opportunity to practice this process, and over the years have gotten it as smooth as it’s possible to be…
The first thing to do is to get a confirmed set of hardware requirements for the new OS, both minimum and recommended. You’ll want instances of the new OS that sit on the baseline hardware as well as some that soar above it and can take full advantage of flashy features such as Aero, widgets, thumbnail tabbing etcetera. For the release of Windows Vista, with its significantly boosted minimum requirements, we purchased a large number of new machines. For Windows 7, with its requirements that matched or were just below Vista, our outlay on updated hardware was smaller.
The next thing to bear in mind is licensing. Typically, businesses can purchase a Volume License from Microsoft which allows them to use any number of instances of an OS up to a pre-determined cap. However, this type of license only applies to certain ‘flavours’ of Vista and Windows 7 – Business/Professional and Enterprise. For the versions aimed at home users, licenses must be purchased individually for each copy of the OS. These costs can very rapidly mount up, so it’s important to carefully plan out how you can cover as many requirements with as few licenses as possible.
This ties in closely to selecting which OS language version you’ll need. For many businesses this isn’t a concern – purchase what you need in your native tongue, and you’re away! But Epicentre has always offered OS’s in a bewildering array of languages from Basque and Brazilian Portuguese to Ukrainian and Urdu. It’s important to plan out not only which versions you’ll acquire but also in which language.
On top of that, it’s important to have up-to-date market research (for example, concerning which operating systems BECTA is recommending that UK schools upgrade to) as well as discussing future requirements with clients (primarily, this means target markets and what they know about future trends within them).
The final consideration rests upon the way in which Epicentre is able to offer such a wide variety of operating systems and language versions. We use a clever tool known as Ghost to create and store ‘images’ of installed OS’s on a number of servers. These images can be retrieved and re-applied to their source machine in a matter of minutes. However, it’s still necessary to plan where you’re going to install your chosen OS’s. There’s no point placing a dozen copies of Vista in obscure and rarely-required languages on one machine and a dozen copies of Windows 7 in oft-requested Spanish and Italian on another.
Of course, every new operating system brings with it unique surprises and challenges. But by bearing in mind the core considerations I’ve outlined above it’s possible to avoid the most painful pitfalls and ensure your new range of OS’s is up and running in a minimal amount of time.
Slow learning and delayed gratification - by Naomi Norman
We seem to live in an era where ‘quicker’ and ‘more convenient’ is considered better – you see an advertisement that persuades you of the merits of a particular product, and as soon as you are next in front of a computer, you are looking it up, finding it cheaper, then putting in your credit card number to buy it. Now, with the rise of Smartphones, you don’t even need to wait to be in front of a computer; and with the advent of mobile money you don’t even need a credit card or a bank account to make the payment transfer.
What’s any of this got to do with learning? Well, I believe that this growth in ‘quicker’ and ‘more convenient’ has led to a demand for instant gratification and has infiltrated every part of our lives, including learning.
Increasingly, people want smaller learning nuggets that make up shorter courses, with greater speed to competency, to fit in with their fast-paced, busy working lives. Even in academia (typically thought to be insulated from the ‘real’ world), I hear that you can now achieve a PhD by producing three publishable papers of about 10,000 words each, as opposed to the single 100,000 word thesis that used to be the requirement.
But wait! Slow down, delay the gratification...
Of course, there are occasions when learning concepts or messages are simple and concise, and can be delivered quickly, in a pithy and/or granular way. And of course there are occasions when a small amount of ‘just in time’ learning is essential to getting on with the job in hand. But let’s not fall foul of thinking all learning can be done this way.
There are many instances when it takes time to assimilate understanding; it takes effort to undertake the necessary thinking; and it takes tenacity to reach the best possible solution. This is not fast. It requires an acceptance of ‘slow’ learning and delayed gratification. And this acceptance has been proved to be a good thing in the long run – it can be a measure of success, as demonstrated in the video clip available from the link below.
So take some time, watch this video, give yourself a few moments to think about it, and then why not submit a considered response?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0yhHKWUa0g
5 top open source Moodle modules - by Peter Smith
One of the reasons for Moodle's current pre-eminence in the LMS market is the large, talented and very active community that undertake all bug reporting, fixing and development duties. Over the years this community has created a huge quantity of third party modules and plugins that can be downloaded from the main Moodle plugins page. Through these modules Moodle administrators can add a range of new features to their site which go far beyond the basic Moodle installation.
The available modules vary greatly in terms of usefulness and the level of polish that have been applied to them. Some of the modules are so longstanding that they can be considered inherent Moodle features; these include the Questionnaire and Feedback modules, which are being incorporated into the new Moodle 2.0 Survey module, and the Certificate module.
The following are my current favourites - for a much more comprehensive list and the chance to see some of the plugins in action I would recommend the HRDNZ non-standard Moodle site.
As the name suggests this module enables you to schedule a face to face event as an activity within a Moodle course. The functionality is quite simple but well thought out and includes full integration with the Moodle calendar, automatic confirmation, reminder and cancellation emails and a handy wait listing feature.
A new Moodle Wiki is amongst the many improvements which will be released in the imminent Moodle 2.0. For anyone still favouring the 1.x version of Moodle we would recommend installing the OU Wiki which offers much neater navigation than the clunky Moodle Wiki 1.0. Also if you want to search wiki content install the OU Search Block.
Created by the University of London Computer Centre, this module enables an administrator and learner to set and specify deadlines for goals, targets and actions. Templates for progress reviews and personal reports can be set up, and the system uses a traffic light metaphor to quickly highlight areas of concern.
There are a number of eportfolio systems that plug into Moodle, but the best of the bunch is Mahara. Developed as part of a collaborative venture involving a number of leading universities in New Zealand, Mahara enables learners to collate information (artefacts in Mahara parlance) from a variety of different sources into a file repository that is shared with other users. Individuals have a very fine level of control over exactly which artefacts other users can access. The tool also includes social networking functionality, blogs and a CV builder.
A module created by the omnipotent Google which integrates Google Apps Premier or Education Edition with Moodle. With this module installed users can access their Google Apps mailbox via SSO directly from Moodle and set Google Apps as their default Moodle email account. Administrators can manage Google Apps accounts from within Moodle and run some fairly basic reports. Full integration with the other Google Apps tools (including docs and the calendar) are in the pipeline.
