Day 7 – BYOD: Windows 8 Tablet Playing Nice with Others

A Windows 8 Tablet for Teaching and Learning - Day 7

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

There were a couple of unintended consequences from my actions yesterday when I uninstalled a couple of the apps that were preinstalled on the Samsung Ativ 500T Tablet. I uninstalled a game app (Shark Dash) and also the Norton Internet Security Suite that came preinstalled. I did this after having issues with updating the Shark Dash app and also wanted to remove what some call unnecessary bloatware that sometimes can slow down the operating system.

This morning when I tried connecting to the university WiFi network I was not allowed on to the network. The university uses a system called “Safe Connect” that acts as a gatekeeper for users accessing the WiFi network. I provided a screenshot of the Safe Connect splash screen I received this morning below indicating I had been quarantined until I updated my antivirus program.

All computers accessing the university network (Mac or PC) must have up-to-date antivirus software installed. If not then the device is not allowed on the network until the issue is resolved. This is to protect the entire user community from computers/devices that might be infected with a virus and to keep it from spreading to other users. It is also used to authenticate active faculty, staff, and students to verify they are users in good standing at the university.

When I uninstalled the Norton program the included Windows 8 antivirus program (Windows Defender) was not turned back on. This is what tripped the Safe Connect program that prevented me from logging in to the university network. To fix this issue I clicked on the red flag icon in the lower right corner of the status bar on the Windows 8 Desktop. When I clicked on the red flag it gave me the option to turn back on Windows Defender and I was then able to connect to the university network. Problem solved.
 

There is a growing movement across the nation that has been labeled as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) where employees and students bring their own electronic gadgets into the workplace or school for work/school related use. This presents many challenges for IT departments that provide networking services (often at no cost to individuals, but at large costs to businesses and schools). Because Windows 8 has a long tradition in the enterprise the Samsung Ativ 500T (and tablets like it) fit well into corporate and school environments and thus make it a natural BYOD device. Windows 8 tablets based on the Clover Trail processor are affordable, expandable, and compatible with many established business and school computing environments.
 

Since many mobile phones and laptops have WiFi capability many people expect network access for them at their place of employment or school. WiFi capability of gadgets has proliferated immensely over the years and now it is not uncommon for individuals to have more than one WiFi capable device. In a university setting many students have some combination of a mobile phone, iPod or other MP3 player, iPad, xBox, ebook reader,  laptop, and/or desktop computer. In the past couple of years low cost tablets have hit the market including the Kindle, Nook, Nexus 7, and hundreds more. Believe it or not many students have multiple devices that they want to connect to available WiFi networks for free This expectation has proven costly to businesses and schools as deploying campus wide WiFi is expensive. In the end someone has to pay for all of this “free” WiFi. In order to manage capacity and access many IT departments deploy special tools to monitor usage and aide in future capacity planning.

Discovery of the Day – Keyboard Choices

The Samsung Ativ 500T Tablet comes standard with a choice of 3 different styles of onscreen keyboard input. First there is the traditional QWERTY style keyboard that allows you to switch back and forth between letters of the alphabet and numbers and symbols. What I particularly like about the first keyboard style is that it has the Ctrl key next to the space bar. This is very handy for copy and paste (Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V) a very common action with word processing.

The second choice of keyboard style is what I call the thumb typing keyboard. The keyboard keys are cut in half with half on the left side and half on the right side of the screen. Because the Ativ tablet is a wide 16:9 screen this style allows for you to use your right and left thumbs to enter text.

The third type of keyboard style is actually a handwriting recognition input area that allows you to write using the S Pen stylus like you normally would using pencil and paper. As you write the tablet uses handwriting recognition to change your handwriting into typed letters in whatever application you have open. This has been around for over a decade on Tablet PC’s and is now a mature technology that is amazingly fast and accurate.

Keep on Learning,
Dr. Grissom