Microsoft Office 365

Senin, 16 Desember 2013

TechTalk4Teachers - Security Questions and Holiday Tech Gift Ideas

12/16/2013

Episode 160 – TechTalk4Teachers Podcast

In this Holiday edition of the TechTalk4Teachers podcast we discuss the need to choose security questions wisely so that only you know the answer. Just like passwords, security questions also need to be guarded with care to protect yourself (and others) from unwanted account compromises.

In our Technology Picks of the Week segment the TechTalk4Teachers crew will share some stocking stuffer ideas that range from customized personal gifts to an affordable educational computer science project for those wanting to learn more about computing.

Click on the link below to listen to Episode 160 of TechTalk4Teachers

http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/2013/12/episode-160-security-questions-and.html

Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, Ph.D.

@tomgrissom

Rabu, 11 Desember 2013

Creating a 3D Bulletin Board with some Holiday Cheer

12/11/2013

I recently had a couple of my graduate assistants refresh the bulletin board in the ITC. We try to do this at least monthly to give visitors to the ITC ideas for their classrooms. I always stress to our pre-service teachers that bulletin boards are an effective communication tool and you should not limit bulletin board designs to two dimensions. Since it is winter time we had the idea of making a Snowman scene with 3D snowflakes hanging from the ceiling to make it look like it was snowing.

Learning is an attitude and having a pleasant learning environment is an important component for making students feel welcome in their learning space. Bulletin Boards provide information but they also can help set the atmosphere for learning. How welcoming is your classroom?

Here is their accounting of how they did it.

Katy and I work here in the ITC and one of our tasks is to create bulletin boards for others to learn from. This month we wanted to do a Holiday board because we are entering winter break. First, we searched ideas through Pinterest. I don’t know if many of you have an account, and I am sure you do not need one to look through photos. However, Pinterest is a great source for educational ideas. Once we narrowed our search down to the picture we wanted, we got to work.

The ITC has a lot of great supplies to help create the perfect bulletin board from die-cutters, to backdrop paper, markers and construction paper. We measured out our bulletin board and got the appropriate amount of backdrop paper to get started. Once you have that positioned the rest is a breeze. Katy worked with the die-cutters in cutting out many snowflakes.

If you have not already been in to the ITC, come in and take a quick look around. The die-cutters are a great source for cutting out letters and different shapes and pictures. Once the snowflakes were cut out, Katy took two at a time, folded them at 90* and taped two together to form a 3-D illusion of a snowflake. While she was working hard on that, I cut off some white paper and began working on the snowman. I personally think it looks best whenever it is freehand because it makes it look more authentic.

For this particular bulletin board, we wanted the snowman to look like he was sticking out off the bulletin board, having a little extra paper on the sides to make that possible helps. Katy took another yard of white paper and began working on the “snow slopes” that would be in the background of the bulletin board. Once again, I think it is best if you try to freehand this. Just cut out a flowing landscape, it doesn’t have to be perfect!

Once you have the snowflakes, snow slope, and snowman cut out you can begin putting it together using a layered approach. First we stapled up the snow slopes in the background. Once that was done, Katy got to work stapling the snowflakes on the backdrop like they were falling. Next, we began putting the snowman up. We wanted to have him look like he was a 3-D figure. We stapled the bottom first and somewhat up the sides to leave some room in the middle. Once that was done I took the left over paper that we used and crumpled it up into balls of paper. We took that and stuffed it in the snowman’s belly to make him “pop” out. Katy picked out a green boarder to go around the outside of our bulletin board to hide any of the messy side parts and to make it look like a wintery scene. We took left over construction paper and began making the buttons that go down the snowman’s outfit, and the coal shapes for the eyes, and mouth. Katy made a nose out of left over construction paper. If you try this yourself, maybe making the nose look like it is sticking out, to make it 3-D would be a nice effect.

Katy got busy working on the snowman’s top hat; once again, we freehanded all of this to make it look fun and artsy. After that, Katy created from left over construction paper the berries on the hat and the leaf. I used the letter die-cutters to spell out “Happy Holidays From The ITC” as a festive touch.

The die-cutters in the ITC are a lot of fun to work with. They’re simple and make any project easier and more enjoyable. We took brown construction paper to make the arms of the snowman by cutting it in half, width-wise. Then we took each half and twisted it to give it a “stick” look and stuck them into the sides of the snowman.

Katy found little light bulb shapes die-cutters and made a bunch in assorted colors to put along the outside of the bulletin board. It added some flare in making it look more festive! Then we took a permanent marker and traced the light bulbs as if they were on a string of lights. Once all of that was put together, I took fishing line and a hole-punch and went to work on the left over 3-D snowflakes we had. I punched a single hole in the tops of the snowflakes, then I snaked through some fishing line just enough on each to make them look like they were falling at different lengths. Tie the end of the fishing line to a paper clip and then attach to the ceiling tile tracks above to hang the snowflakes.

As a final touch we cut out a small pocket shaped piece of paper and taped it to the Snowman’s chest that served as a pocket to hold a MP3 Player that we cutout and colored with a highlighter. We used real headphones and made it look like they were connected to the MP3 Player in his pocket.

If you look closely the Snowman is listening to our TechTalk4Teachers podcast!

If you would like to listen to the latest episode of TechTalk4Teachers please visit:

http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/

Building a bulletin board can be overwhelming at first, but if you add just a little creativity it can turn out to be a lot of fun!

Thank you for reading our blog,

Amy and Katy

Graduate Assistants in the ITC

December 2013

Keep on Learning!
Dr. Grissom

@tomgrissom

Selasa, 10 Desember 2013

Organizing Files, Folders, and Backups – Tips & Tricks

12/10/2013

Face it, we are all busy, wasting time trying to find that one file can be extremely frustrating.

Some say they are too busy to make regular backups of their files… that is until something goes wrong. If you regularly use a computer/device then you need to have an organizational strategy that makes things easy to find as well as having a backup/restore procedure for those “just in case” moments. This is one of those areas where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I recently completed a two part screencast about organizing files, folders, and backups and posted to the ITC Techshare YouTube Channel. In Episode 33 and 34 of ITC Techshare I explain how I organize my computer files by academic year and subfolders.

As an educator, filing things by academic year makes sense to me. If you are an accountant or in administration, maybe organizing by fiscal year will make more sense to you. Most importantly use a system that works for you. The electronic filing system structure that I use has worked very well for me over the years and has several benefits.

1) Files are organized by academic year so they are easy to file and find. Having a file structure that works for you will make you much more efficient and productive. Even with the ability of most operating systems to quickly search a hard drive having a structure will save you from wasting valuable time looking for files.

2) Files are easily archived from previous years, once an academic year is over you can make a complete backup for archival purposes. These files should not change as the year is over and this archive represents a snapshot in time. You will need to make a backup of all your archived folders and have them ready to restore if needed.

3) Because older academic years are archived in their own separate folder you can concentrate your efforts on routinely backing up the current academic year files that routinely change. These represent your active work that may change daily. Since you have already archived previous academic years work on other backups you can concentrate backing up the much smaller and constantly changing current academic year folder.

4) Remember, in the event of a computing/natural disaster you are only as good as your last backup that you have access to. You will need your last backup of archived files as well as your last backup of your current academic year files readily available if a disaster strikes, see the 3-2-1 Backup Rule below.

5) It is not enough to just backup your files, you must also have confidence that you will be able to restore your files from a backup, if needed, in the event of a disaster. You will want to periodically test your recovery procedures to make sure your system will work in the time of need. Check with your IT department for assistance.

In Part 1 of this screencast I share the basic file structure I use to organize my files.

In Part 2 I share some backup strategies as well as the 3-2-1 Backup Rule that will maximize the protection of your data in the event of a disaster.

When should I backup my files?

I use the “Pain Theory” of backups. If it will be painful to re-create the work that I may potentially lose due to a computing failure then it is time to make a backup. Anytime I have done a lot of work that I do not want to lose... I make a backup. At a minimum the beginning, middle, and end of the semester are good times to make a backup as these are times of massive changes. Of course, I do this more often as necessary. Each backup is a snapshot in time, so as changes occur you need to regularly make backups.

If you use a network drive your IT department may already make regular backups for you depending upon space limitations, many IT departments enforce quotas for network drives so be sure to understand what is and is not being backed up.

3-2-1 Backup Rule

In Episode 34 I briefly explain the 3-2-1 Backup Rule that states you need to have:

§ 3 copies of anything you care about

§ 2 different formats

§ 1 off-site backup

I have also provided a link to the full blog posting by Scott Hanselman about the Computer Backup Rule of Three that is worth a read at:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheComputerBackupRuleOfThree.aspx

Be sure to follow your organizations policies about making and storing backups. Just like your computer access, backups need to be stored in a safe and secure location behind locked doors. Also, be aware some organizations may not approve of “cloud storage” services like Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, etc…

Cloud services have varying degrees of security and you should not store private/confidential information to personal accounts using cloud services that are not supported by your organizations IT department policies and procedures. These policies and procedures are put in place to protect data and confidentiality. Each organization will need to develop its own policies and procedures when it comes to using new devices and services. These services are evolving rapidly so a regular review will be necessary to keep up with the changing technologies.

Great for Students Too!

We are starting a new semester in January and it would be a great time to do some preemptive organizing for a new semester. If you are a student, imagine if you were to organize all of your courses by academic year, each in their own subfolder. At the end of your four years in college you would have a well-organized conglomeration of everything you did in college by course, by academic year. This will help in your future job search as you can refer back to examples of coursework you completed and makes it easy to put together a portfolio of your finest work.

Best of all, you will be able to find it!

Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom. Ph.D.

@tomgrissom

Kamis, 21 November 2013

Mobile Phone Photography for Teachers and the Hack Heard Round the World

11/20/2013

TechTalk4Teachers Podcast - Episode 159

Welcome to the TechTalk4Teachers podcast, the show about teaching and learning with technology.

Click here for a link to the show notes as well as the audio link to Episode 159.

http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/2013/11/episode-159-mobile-phone-photography.html

Image used with Permission from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ittybitty/9932977313/sizes/c/in/photostream/

In this month’s TechTalk4Teachers podcast we will have a guest to speak about using mobile phone photography in the classroom. Brian Poulter, Professor of Journalism at Eastern Illinois University, will be giving tips about using mobile phones to document activities and how he uses blogging to share stories with others. Brian most recently created a blog series about “The Long Winding Road - Illinois Route 1” that can be found on his website at:

http://brianpoulter.com/

Illinois Route 1 Mobile Phone Flicker Set

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ittybitty/sets/72157634715824231/

Mike Gioia will lead our Security Spotlight feature and discuss the “Hack Heard Round the World” about the fallout and aftermath of Adobe’s summer security breach and how it is affecting users and governments all around the world.

Finally, in our Tech Picks of the Week I will share my findings with using the latest technologies to wirelessly display my Windows 8 Tablet to the big screen through the magic of Miracast.

Cindy will highlight resources from the Library of Congress and discuss the 150th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and sadly the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of John F Kennedy.

With the recent outbreak of tornados here in Illinois and the typhoon in the Philippines Mike will have a word of caution about charity giving and making sure the organization is credible so that any money given goes to those in need.

Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Dr. Grissom is on Twitter @tomgrissom

Jumat, 15 November 2013

Using Miracast to Wirelessly Display a Windows 8.1 Tablet to the Big Screen: Trials, Tribulations, and Victory

11/15/2013

Miracast is a new wireless display technology that is finally coming of age. Miracast allows teachers to magically display what is on a computer/device screen to a large screen HDTV or HDMI-capable projector WITHOUT any cables!

Miracast provides a solution to the dream of being able to walk about the room with a portable device completely untethered from any cables and having the screen magically appear on the big screen at the front of the room.

We have been successfully using miracast at the ITC to wirelessly project from Windows 8 tablets to the big screen HDTV for the past 10 months. For the most part miracast has been a reliable way (once setup) to share my Windows 8 Surface Pro screen wirelessly to the big screen. We have this also working on a NEC Projector (NP-M311W) that has an HDMI input for a miracast receiver.

There have been many products on the market in recent years that allow you to wirelessly display a computer screen but many have been prohibitively expensive to garner wide-spread adoption in the average classroom, that is starting to change with miracast.

To use miracast you need to have an approved and capable miracast device that meets certain technical requirements along with a miracast receiver and a big screen source with a HDMI input. This largely involves new graphics cards with appropriate drivers and firmware to support miracast along with the right combination of CPU and wireless adapter. Since miracast is so new we are going through some growing pains in making everything work seamlessly together but once setup and working you will find miracast worth the effort.

Miracast not only wirelessly displays the video to the big screen but also transmits the audio!

Below is a link to a YouTube Video of some of the experiments we have conducted at the ITC using the Netgear PTV3000 and the ScreenBeam 100 miracast receivers.

Over the past 10 months there have been many new developments with miracast technology, most notably the latest Windows 8.1 update has added built-in native support for miracast. This is great news for educators.

Although miracast has been under development for the past couple of years the first devices were certified in September of 2012. Miracast is just now becoming available to the general public and the number of devices on the market that support it is growing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracast

Because miracast is so new there are still many issues to work out in order for the technology to become reliable enough for the average classroom. To begin with you must have the right combination of hardware with compatible graphic cards and drivers to support miracast. Support for older devices is limited so be aware that you may need to buy new devices in order to use this new wireless display technology.

Microsoft just published a new Miracast Guide this week that explains the basics of using wireless display technology with the Windows 8.1 operating system.

Windows 8.1 on your big screen with Miracast Guide

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/11/12/windows-8-1-on-your-big-screen-with-miracast.aspx

The following is a quote about supported devices from the November 12th 2013 Windows Experience Blog:

“Wireless display works on new Windows 8.1 wireless PCs. This includes Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, Nokia Lumia 2520, and Intel Atom Generation 3 (“Bay Trail”) and Intel Core Generation 4 (“Haswell”) systems. Some PC manufacturers have also added wireless display to some of their systems that originally shipped with Windows 8. This includes the Surface Pro and many systems based on Intel Core Generation 3 (“Ivy Bridge”) and Intel Wi-Fi. Be sure to check for updates from Windows Update and from your PC manufacturer, including driver updates listed as Optional, when determining whether your PC manufacturer has made wireless display available on your upgraded Windows 8 device.”

It clearly states that the first generation Surface Pro should be miracast capable with the Windows 8.1 update but we have had mixed results.

In our experience the ScreenBeam receiver has been working reliably with Windows 8.1 however the Netgear PTV3000 worked initially but has since become “undiscoverable” using the original Surface Pro. We are running the latest Windows 8.1 update and the latest 2.4.3 firmware for the Netgear PTV3000. We had previously been successful using the Netgear PTV3000 with Windows 8 but something has changed in Windows 8.1 that is causing issues. We will keep trouble-shooting in hopes that we can make the original Surface Pro work with the PTV3000.

This is where it can get messy. If you would like to learn more about the technical requirements and issues read on.

Before the Windows 8.1 update I had to use the ScreenBeam transmitter with the Surface Pro but since Windows 8.1 natively supports miracast I no longer need the transmitter. This frees up the only USB port on the Surface Pro so I am happy to give the transmitter up.

To learn more about the setup I used back in March 2013 please refer to this blog post:

Day 7 – How to Wirelessly Display (Mirror) the Surface Pro Windows 8 Tablet to a HDTV or HDMI Projector

http://eiuitc.blogspot.com/2013/03/day-7-how-to-wirelessly-display-mirror.html?q=day+7+wireless

One of the benefits of miracast is that it uses WiFi Direct (WiDi) meaning that you do not need an 802.11 wireless network in order for it to work. This has a couple of benefits over other technologies like AirPlay and Chromecast. First, you do not need to worry about bandwidth issues over a shared 802.11 wireless network. Second, connecting to school networks and dealing with subnets can be tricky so this is best to avoid if possible. Third, unlike Airplay you do not need to log into an AppleID account to use it. Also, other technologies like Chromecast can only display items within a Chrome browser tab, miracast allows whatever is displayed on the Windows 8.1 tablet to be displayed whether it be a Word document, OneNote, PowerPoint, browser window, music or video app, …. whatever, a huge plus for miracast.

If you use a device like the Surface Pro that has Pen input you can annotate on the fly while giving lessons.

So, to recap, miracast connects using a “pairing” process similar to how you connect a Bluetooth keyboard to a computer. Once the pairing is complete you will see the miracast-compatible device on the big screen HDTV! What you see and do on the tablet is displayed immediately on the big screen in real-time. There is a slight lag, especially when streaming HD video content but it is very usable. In my testing the physical range is about 50 to 75 feet, plenty of room to roam about the average sized classroom.

Many newer HDTVs and projectors are coming with miracast capability built in. If you have a newer HDTV that supports miracast you may not need the Netgear or ScreenBeam miracast receivers.

Here are more articles I have found helpful with trouble-shooting miracast issues:

http://withinwindows.com/within-windows/2013/6/30/windows-81-features-miracast-wireless-display-tech-and-it-works-well

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/bd4e98df-d0d8-47f7-9d0e-a800aeb44ca1/miracast-in-windows-81-preview

http://www.wi-fi.org/media/press-releases/easy-use-multi-vendor-wireless-display-has-arrived-wi-fi-alliance%C2%AE-launches-wi

Miracast is still a nascent technology, when you have the supported combination of hardware, drivers, and software it can work really well. However, if one component is not compatible then you will experience problems or in most cases miracast will not work at all.

Luckily, I have found a few “right” combinations and am enjoying the wireless display experience when I present in front of large groups of students. Being untethered from a projector and free to roam about the room is a liberating feeling for a teacher.

Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, Ph.D.

Selasa, 12 November 2013

The Microsoft Surface RT Tablet After the Windows 8.1 Update

11/12/2013

Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8.1 Tablet

l have recently updated the original Surface RT tablet to Windows 8.1 and this update has definitely improved the overall performance of the Surface RT. The Surface RT is now over 1 year old and Microsoft has continually provided updates and firmware to improve this first generation device. This 8.1 update will be of interest to any teacher/student currently using the Surface RT in the classroom.

If you were one of the lucky teachers that received a free Microsoft Surface RT tablet at the International Society for Technology in Education Conference down in San Antonio this past summer this update will definitely be beneficial. #iste13

Below is a link to a YouTube demo of the Surface RT running the latest Windows 8.1 update.

Microsoft Surface RT running Windows 8.1 Update

As you can see in the video, the RT performance has been greatly improved and it is now an excellent tablet to support teaching and learning activities. Fast Forward to 4 minutes 30 seconds to see an example of the app switching speed.

With built-in access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote the core Office 2013 apps are available on the Surface RT including the ability to use a stylus to take notes in OneNote or annotate Word documents or PowerPoints. Add the full-size USB port for the easy sharing of documents or videos and you have a winner in the classroom.

If you have not yet upgraded to Windows 8.1 it is recommended and best of all the Windows 8.1 update is free to all first generation Surface tablet users.

Now that a year has passed the second generation of Surface tablets are now available on the market and early reviews of the Surface 2 devices offer a 2x to 4x improvement in speed over the first generation RT. The technology improvements march forward but what is most important is how you choose to use this innovative device to improve the learning experience of your students.

Keep on Learning,

Dr. Grissom

@tomgrissom

http://www.eiu.edu/itc/

Kamis, 31 Oktober 2013

TechTalk4Teachers - Episode 158 - MOOCs, Cryptolocker, and RIP iGoogle

10/31/2013

It’s Thursday, October 31st, 2013 and welcome to episode 158 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers. I'm Tom Grissom, I'm Cindy Rich, and I'm Mike Gioia. (evil laugh - Halloween edition)

Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers the show about Teaching and Learning with Technology.

This month we will be talking about a Technology and Science Symposium currently underway here at EIU, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), a very scary Cryptolocker threat for PCs and we will finish with our Technology Picks of the Week.

http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com/2013/10/episode-158-moocs-cryptolocker-and-rip.html

Rabu, 23 Oktober 2013

Updating the Surface Pro Tablet from Windows 8.0 to 8.1

10/23/2013

This morning I updated the original Surface Pro Windows 8 Tablet from Version 8.0 to 8.1 Last night, I gave a presentation about Tablets in Education so I was holding off updating the Surface Pro until this event was over. Now that it is over, it is now time to do the update. Windows 8.1 is a FREE update for all existing Windows 8 customers, now numbering over 120 million strong.

Yesterday was “Tablet Day” in the news as Microsoft officially began shipping the new and improved Surface 2 and Surface Pro models with Windows 8.1, Nokia also introduced a couple of new Windows 8 tablets and Apple updated the iPad line of tablets. There are now many choices in the tablet space for educators and Windows 8 tablets offer great value with many benefits not available found in other models, (cough, USB port, cough).

I updated the Surface RT last week and found that Windows 8.1 is a great improvement so I am looking forward to also having the 8.1 update on the Surface Pro.

Of course, my first step was to make a backup of all my files BEFORE I began the update, just in case J When was the last time you backed up your files?

Another reason I delayed this update is that this Surface Pro is becoming my main computer and I have A LOT of x86 applications installed including the expensive Camtasia program I use for screencasting. I was not worried about the update on the Surface RT as much, worst case, I could reinstall all my apps from the Windows Store, but for x86 applications on the Surface Pro I would need to completely re-install from the original media if something went wrong during the update. As usual, I made sure that the system was up-to-date with ALL the latest updates and firmware.

Here we go!

7:52am
I went to the Microsoft Store and sure enough the Windows 8.1 update was displayed prominently on the first page of the Store and I selected it to install the free 8.1 update. I made sure the electrical adapter was plugged-in to the Surface Pro and began the update at 7:52am CST and the update process started. The Download began….

8:26am
The download took 34 minutes to complete. Once completed the Surface Pro rebooted for the first time.

8:27am
After reboot I see the message “Setting Up”

8:30am
“Setting Up 75% complete”

8:37am
Another reboot.

8:38am
“Setting up a few more things”

8:40am
“Getting Ready”

8:41am
I get the License Terms Agreement and select “I Accept”

8:41am
I select “Use Express Settings” - Next

8:42am
I get the message to sign into my Microsoft account – typed in my Password

8:42am
“Help us protect your account”

I get a prompt to send a text to my cell phone to verify my account on this device. This number was setup when I first setup the Surface Pro for two-factor authentication.

8:43am
I received the code on my cell phone, typed in code on the Surface Pro – Next

8:43am
Get the message “SkyDrive is your Cloud Storage” - Next

8:44am
“We are setting some things up for you”
Screen color changes from blue to green to purple to red as this process completes.

8:45am
“Taking care of a few things”

8:46am
“Let’s Start”

8:46am
Finished!

I am at the “Start Screen” for the first time, already signed-in and ready to go!

Not bad, 54 minutes from start to finish, including the time to download the Windows 8.1 update on the Surface Pro, not bad at all. For reference, the Surface RT took 2 hours to complete the 8.1 update.

All apps are there, when I went to the Desktop for the first time I got a compatibility box pop-up telling me my VPN client would need to be re-installed.

The first time I started Word 2013 it went through the initial Office setup process that took about 1 minute to complete.

The free space on Drive C: went from 36.5GB free before I did the update to 44.2GB free after the Windows 8.1 update, a net gain of 7.7GB! This gain did not include the space to be gained if I deleted the Windows.old folder as I want to keep this folder around for a bit longer to make sure everything is working properly.

First thing I did was make the Desktop tile the largest tile on the Start Screen. It is starting to feel like home already.

Tom Grissom, Ph.D.

Twitter: @tomgrissom

http://eiu.edu/itc/

Jumat, 18 Oktober 2013

Windows 8.1 on the Surface RT: Make sure you update the update

10/18/2013

Updating the Update

I updated the Surface RT in the morning yesterday to version 8.1 and in the evening there was one more step that I needed to complete, updating the update.

Windows 8.1 RTM’d (Released to Manufacturing) in August. Since that time Microsoft has not rested on their laurels as programmers have continued to work on and improve the code in Windows 8.1. For software engineers programming is never “done” as there is always room for improvements and bugs to fix in the software.

Software updates are one way to address this continued development and Microsoft routinely releases updates. So, it was no surprise to find an “update to the update” last night when I checked.

Here is how the process went for me:

7:17pm

In Windows 8.1 on the Surface RT I went to Settings > Change PC Settings > Update & Recovery > Windows Update

I found a new firmware update, selected it and it took about 1 minute to download and then the Surface RT rebooted.

After the reboot the RT continued downloading updates, this took about another ten minutes.

7:30pm

Another reboot

After rebooting the RT went into update mode and worked through six new updates.

“Updating 1 of 6….”

“Don’t turn your PC off”

“Updating 6 of 6….”

It only took about 1 minute to install ALL 6 updates

7:32pm

Another reboot

“Getting device ready” about 1 minute

“Getting ready” about a minute

7:33pm

Another reboot

7:34pm

All done and signed in with my Microsoft account at 7:34 pm

I checked for updates one last time, found no more.

So, that was not so bad, about 15 minutes to get everything on the Surface RT 100% up-to-date after installing the Windows 8.1 Update earlier in the day.

This last round of updates did make the Surface RT noticeably faster and smoother.

After completing ALL Windows 8.1 updates on the Surface RT, swiping from app to app was noticeably snappier.

I also noticed that before I updated to Version 8.1 I had 3.47GB of space available on the Surface RT and AFTER the ALL updates completed I ended up with 7.38GB of free space!

The other BIG thing that the new Windows 8.1 update brought to the Surface RT is the inclusion of Outlook as part of the Office 2013 package. This gives the Surface RT the full complement of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook for some heavy duty office productivity work. Combined with enhanced integration with SkyDrive the Surface RT is shaping up to be a great companion device that packs a powerful punch.

If you have a Surface RT be sure to do the latest updates as each iteration of updates has improved the RT performance. If you were lucky enough to get a free Surface RT from Microsoft at the #iste13 conference then it is definitely worth the effort to update to the latest 8.1 release.

Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, Ph.D.

http://eiu.edu/itc

Kamis, 17 Oktober 2013

Windows 8.1 Update is available: Updating the Surface RT to Windows 8.1

10/17/2013

Today is the first day that the new Windows 8.1 release became available to the public in the Windows Store. I checked my Twitter feed for others I consider experts in Windows 8 matters and as expected saw that a few of them were updating their systems.

I decided I would go ahead and update my Surface RT. When I went to the Windows Store I found 5 updates that needed to be completed first. It is always a good idea to have your system completely up-to-date before you upgrade a device to the next release. I clicked on “Install” button and in less than a minute all 5 updates completed and my system was 100% up-to-date.

A couple of weeks ago I did the latest firmware updates so I felt confident my Surface RT was ready for the new and improved version of Windows 8.1

But…. just in case, I backed up all the files on my Surface RT to a USB drive as this is just good computing practice, especially when a major update is involved. Yes, the Surface RT has a USB port!

Here we go!

8:10am
I went to the Microsoft Store and sure enough the Windows 8.1 update was displayed prominently on the first page of the Store and I selected it to install the free 8.1 update. I made sure the electrical adapter was plugged-in to the Surface RT and began the update at 8:10am CST and the update process started. This process took about 50 minutes for the download to complete and for the system to gather all the necessary data from the system to install the update.

9:00am
At 9:00am sharp the Surface RT was ready for a “Restart”.

I received the message that the system may need to restart multiple times and to make sure I saved all my work before restarting. The RT rebooted and began the “Setting up” process and this took about 30 minutes.

9:27am
The Surface RT system completed the setting up process and rebooted again.

9:28am
Upon reboot received the message “Getting devices ready” and this only took one minute followed by a “Getting ready” message for about another minute.

9:29am
Received “Applying PC settings” message. This took approximately 8 minutes to complete.

9:37am
The Surface RT rebooted again.

9:38am
Received “Setting up a few more things” message. This seemed to sit on 89% for quite some time before completing.

9:52am
“Getting ready” message.

9:53am
Received “License Terms” message and clicked on “I Accept”

9:54am
Settings option, I chose “Use Express Settings”

9:54am
“Next you will setup your account”

9:55am

“Sign in to your Microsoft Account” It remembered my account name I use on the RT so I just typed in my password.

9:56am
“Help us protect your account info” message. I used my mobile phone to receive text code to verify my account settings.

9:57am
Typed in the code on the RT that was sent to my mobile phone then, Next.

9:58am
Received info about SkyDrive storage saying my camera roll and PC Settings will be automatically backed up to the cloud, Next.

9:58am
Another reboot.

9:59am
Received the “Hi” introductory screen and it began installing my apps.
“You can get new apps from the Store”
“Installing apps…”

10:01am
“Taking care of a few things”
“Installing apps…”
“Don’t turn off your PC”

10:02am
“Getting your apps ready”
“Don’t turn off your PC”

10:03am
“Almost ready”
“Let’s Start”

10:04am
I see my Start Screen for the first time!
Finished!

A little under two hours from start to finish, much better than the 22 hour update the last time I updated an iPad to iOS7. I gave up on the iOS7 update and let it finish the download overnight. The actual update after iOS7 was downloaded was less than an hour. To be fair our network was maxed out at capacity the first day iOS7 was released but I am sure Microsoft servers are also being hammered by traffic today.

10:10am
Looks like all my apps are here and in a similar order to the way I had them organized in Windows 8.0. First thing I did was select the Desktop tile by pressing and holding my finger on it, then selected “Resize” and made it the largest tile size on my Start Screen.

Next, I opened up OneNote to verify my notes were there from SkyDrive, they were.

I next opened up the Bing apps of News, Weather, Finance, Travel, and the new Food & Drink and new Health & Fitness app that were placed to the far right on my Start Screen since they are new apps. I moved the new apps to my “Bing apps” section to keep similar apps together. Moving the apps across the Start Screen to the new location was much faster than rearranging apps in 8.0

Since I now had 7 apps open I swiped in with my left thumb to swipe through all the open apps in a repeating motion to get a feel for the speed of 8.1, it seem a little faster and smoother than 8.0

10:20am
I would like to make a comment to readers that have made it this far, first thank you for taking the time to read this. As tablets are increasingly used in the educational space we need to have tools that take away some of the pain of setting up and maintaining mobile devices and tablets. Microsoft has long been a leader with providing IT Departments with tools for imaging and deployment of computing devices in mass. We desperately need similar management tools in the tablet space. We need imaging tools that will allow us to update and/or re-image a tablet measured in minutes, not hours.

Anyone can update one system, but even at one or two hours for completing the update process is stretching the patience at the individual level. At the school level with, tens, hundreds, and even thousands of devices this becomes a big problem. Microsoft and Apple need to seriously beef up their deployment options.

Setting up an iPad is just as painful, maybe more so as everything is handled in a “consumer” way that is fine for individuals but if you are considering a 1:1 program for students having an update take two hours per device is unacceptable. My experience with the iOS7 update was even more painful as the process took 22 hours to complete as the universities wireless network was overwhelmed with traffic that slowed the iOS7 download to a crawl.

Multiuser Accounts

10:30am
After playing around with the Start Screen and some of the new 8.1 features for about half an hour my next test was to see if the 8.1 update kept my multiuser accounts that I routinely use on the RT, it did. The first time I signed out I had a different Lock Screen picture that was colorful concentric circle design. I think I got this because I was using the default choice from Windows 8.0

10:31am
I signed into the Surface RT with a different user account and got the “Hi” message and then the RT went through some basic setup. I received the SkyDrive message saying that the system would use SkyDrive to backup my PC Settings and Camera Roll to the cloud, so I pressed Next. In less than two minutes my other multiuser account was ready to use on the Surface RT.

My Start Screen was there customized like I had it in Windows 8.0. Since I had used a Lock Screen picture from SkyDrive on this second account it remembered my Lock Screen choice and used it.

I think I am really going to like these roaming settings from device to device. I will need to further explore the app roaming as I have read that you can sync apps across multiple devices as well.

Multiuser accounts are a great option for educational use. Getting away from the one account per one device per person scenario as some tablet makers insist is much more practical in an educational setting. Multiuser accounts are also great in a family setting where you want to share a tablet with a family member but not have them see your account information or messing with your Start Screen.

To get acclimated to some of the the new features available in 8.1 here is a link from Paul Thurrott's WinSuperSite:

http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-81-tips

So, that’s it. I now have Windows 8.1 installed to investigate further and explore the educational possibilities this new release offers.

Keep on Learning,
Tom Grissom, Ph.D.

http://eiu.edu/itc

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