Technolandy

Day 130 (of 2024/25) 50th anniversary of Microsoft

I am known for having a love/hate relationship with Microsoft… loved their word processing program…. Liked their office suite… hated the rollout in 2003 when some key features were eliminated (Publisher & Exporting Powerpoint to Video) which lost me…

I have also not liked how aggressive ‘it’ (and tech managers in school districts) have been to create ‘single system’ environments in classrooms… I think it missed a few good points – and I also noted that shortly after Publisher is when a ‘team’ at apple came up with the amazing Pages and Keynote setup – the platforms that definitely handle images and video much better than the MS platform… and the return of some of those features… well, it was a little bit too late… but I had been a fan once upon a time… but lost my confidence, and I really preferred the way my Apple setups had treated me through schooling…, but I know there are a lot of fans (after all, if it weren’t for PCs schools wouldn’t need tech depts😇)

So, as a tribute to 50 years of the battle of OSs and types of devices… here is an observation of my top three Microsoft Hits and Misses (and then a reshare of my older satirical blog about embracing single platform…)

Top 3 Hits

Word Online – one of the better online tools for working on different screens… my second favourite behind Pages – but I no longer curse when I have to create a .docx as I used to…

Xbox – great gaming platform

CoPilot – good share of an AI for introduction to this tool system!

Top 3 Misses

Zune – with the exception of its appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy… a lot of money 

Kin – phones… shows that personal portable devices are not its strength (and a lot of schools are focused on banning personal screens… hmmm maybe a conspiracy someone should look into!)

Cortana… makes Siri seem like Einstein

Top 3 under-rated

MSNBC – loved the ‘click any word for more’ initial setup… 

Teams – the evolution of Skype… as with many MS products… started rough, but got/gets more stable every month!

Clippy – better than “BOB”  to show how to use the product – early AI sampler!

Top 3 over-rated

PowerPoint – needs to handle visuals much better than it always has

Emails – whether hotmail or outlook (or a bunch of others… ) the email infrastructure is secure but not always easy to sort and search….

Explorer… ugh Bing/Edge is proving to be much better… but that’s not saying so much…

Ongoing Bonus

Solitaire – my mother-in-law kept a small laptop with MS just to be able to continue playing solitaire!

Little grrs…

Minecraft – nice that MinecraftEDU is free* 

*with Microsoft school participation – single platform setup – speaking of single platform…

Day 67 (of 183) iLandy Or how I learned to stop worrying and love single platform

Call me iLandy. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my budget, and nothing particular to interest me in my classroom, I though I would travel around a little and see a variety of schools and districts. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly December in my soul; then, I account it high time to get to thinking about technologization as soon as I can (yes, abridged from Moby Dick or The Whale – really enjoying the previews for In the Heart of the Sea)

I have had a revelation through a dream about my stand against a single-platform and have re-thought it. The discussion of having a single-user experience for the ease of all adults may have its value – to be able to go into any school and use the technology in the same way as where you came from – to know how it does and does not work in the same way. But much as the years after Ford and his advent of the assembly line process, we should be able to automize and simplify much more. One person for one job to create Community, Identity and Stability (yes, repurposing Brave New World….!)

It made me think that if this ‘single user experience’ is good for the adults and lead learners, it should benefit all learners as well. We have struggled greatly with students transferring through the year and getting used to a ‘whole different way of doing things’ in new schools and classrooms. It should be an easier experience – indeed, perhaps it should be a single-user experience.

Consider if you will how valuable it would be for a student coming to my school on December 15th to know that the work they started on the 14th in one school would be able to be continued easily and simply upon their arrival! No matter where you move from or move to! No difference in teacher methodology, no difference in the tools they use. One lesson plan would benefit both students and teachers alike! No need to wonder if a students learning style is a match for classroom dynamics – it will not be relevant!

Imagine knowing that manipulative are the same in all environments before you arrive! Libraries with exactly the same books set up in the same manner! Mayhap’s to think that different teachers use different tools to help learners is mis-thinking – some may be too advantaged than another! The ease and convenience and levelling-of-the-playing-field of this will be as invaluable as having all users accessing the same technology – indeed as I came to doublethink (yes, blatant ripoff of 1984) and realize that 2+2=5, the struggle is finished. I have won victory over myself. I love single platform. Does it matter which one??      I can walk!!