Seattle—It’s kind of a no-brainer: Hold Educause 2007, the huge technology showcase, in Seattle, and Microsoft, the hometown tech company, is going to get into the act.
On Tuesday, the software giant whisked a few hundred higher-ed technology types half an hour east from the downtown convention center (well, an hour if the traffic is bad), across Lake Washington, and into its Redmond headquarters. The goal: To show off Office Live Workspace, the latest addition to Microsoft Live@edu.
Live@edu is Microsoft’s integrated e-mail, calendar, and instant-messaging suite for colleges—oh, and don’t bother buying new servers, because the company will host everything for you on the Web. Now Microsoft has tacked on Office Live, another Web-based product that allows users to upload Word documents, PowerPoint slides, and Excel spreadsheets and share them with others via the Web. The big selling point so far: You won’t have to e-mail that term paper from one computer to another anymore. Just log on to the Web site and grab it. —Josh Fischman
Developing online and blended learning programs requires research and collaboration. Learn how top technology companies are partnering with campuses across the country to advance online learning as it becomes an increasingly important aspect of higher education.