Computers–only good for games, internet, excel?

<*Sigh*>

Most young people only associate computers with either Games, the Internet or Word and Excel!

There is a shortage of developer skills and we need to try to change it.

We have arranged for Microsoft UK to present on the 30^th May at The Ron Cooke Hub, to all students on how they can get started with development of new “apps” and software on the soon to be released Windows 8 operating system.

The good news is that <PROGRAMMING IS BECOMING EASIER>

Come along and bring a friend or colleague.  Promote the following event to your students and to 6^th Form Colleges across the region.

http://windows8york.eventbrite.co.uk/

Hey Cool Kids….Get Microsoft Training to build Xbox games!!

I spotted this gem earlier today.  How cool would this be as a hobby or pastime?

Learn from the beginning how to develop games fro the Xbox, Kinect and forthcoming Microsoft technologies.

The Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) is a great starting level – it provides the core building blocks for developing your skills from a standing start.

Contact me, Andrew Bettany, IT Academy & Creative Technology Manager, via Twitter @yorkitacademy or drop me an email via www.it-academy.co.uk to know more!

Microsoft Certification–All Change!

Microsoft Learning have this week re-imagined and re-engineered their certification program.  It now fully aligns with the cloud (you have heard about the cloud…have you?).

Why have they done this?  Because the world has changed over the last 20 years since Microsoft Certification first started. (with Windows 3.1).  There has been 7 million people obtain certification in the last 20 years.  1 million exams were taken on Microsoft technologies last year alone!

Take a look at the Certification journey over the last 20 years and see how it is changing here:

Recording of the live event at Microsoft in Redmond on April 11, 2012, during which we unveiled and celebrated the reinvented Microsoft certification program with our Learning Partners, Certified Trainers and employees. For an overview of the new program, please visit: http://aka.ms/MSCerts

The IT Academy at the University of York is an authorised Prometric Test Centre and we test both external and internal candidates – please contact us for more information.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012

One the updated free tools from Microsoft that I have been eagerly awaiting has been released!

The MDT 2012 has been in Beta for a while and it really great. It is now available for you to use. 

 

 

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 is the newest version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, a Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment. MDT 2012 supports deployment of Windows 7, Office 2010 and 365, and Windows Server 2008 R2 in addition to deployment of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.

Key Benefits:

· Support for Configuration Manager 2012

· Customizable deployment questions

· Ease Lite Touch installation

· Secure deployments

· Reliability and flexibility

· Support for Windows 8

If you would like some training, or even want to rent out our lab space to practice on our PCs’/Servers – please get in touch!

Apple IOS Programming Course

 

Ready to change the world?

New training offered at the University of York:
Overview:

The training course is intended to give a firm foundation in the tools and techniques that are necessary to get started in app development on iOS devices. It assumes only a very basic knowledge of programming, though a passing familiarity with C or another modern block structure programming language will help. The first day deals with the tools themselves and how app developers design user interfaces, before moving on to implementing the code of an application. By the end of the day, the delegates will have their first iOS app running!

Apple IOS Programming Course

The second day delves deeper into app prototyping and dealing with more complex situations like having multiple views and managing tab bar and navigation stacks. Day three will look at getting your app onto the AppStore and exactly what Apple expects, as well as covering the basics of data storage and object persistence. The final day is optional and will concentrate on more advanced topics such as databases, memory management, more advanced story-boarding techniques and providing an overview of where to go next as an iOS app developer.

 

Dates:

Wednesday 18th April 2-5pm: pre IOS Programming Course – Introduction to programming for non-programmers
Wednesday 25th April 2-5pm: IOS Programming Course – Session 1
Wednesday  2nd   May 2-5pm: IOS Programming Course – Session 2
Wednesday  9th   May 2-5pm: IOS Programming Course – Session 3
Wednesday 16th   May 2-5pm: IOS Programming Course – Session 4

Cost:

This is a brand new course which is part-supported by the University.  This is a pilot course and will be offered at £300.00 per person for the full 5 sessions.

What Next?

We are already pulling together the resources to offer similar courses based on Android and Windows Phone – let us know if you are interested.

All change for Microsoft Certifications!

With big fanfare, champagne and keynotes galore, Microsoft Learning announced yesterday the brand new “cloud” related certifications.  One of the biggest surprises was the return of the much loved/coveted MCSE and MCSA “brands”.  Much less loved by some pundits was the need to re-certify every 3 years to retain the qualifications.

What people are saying:
“Back to the future: By simplifying their certification program, yet making it more rewarding, Microsoft has ensured the relevancy of their certification program for the second decade of the 21st century. And, by reviving one of the best-known acronyms in the industry, they continue on a brand that has defined IT certification leadership.” – Marc Michault, MCT Advisory Council member

“Overall the changes to Microsoft’s certification program are an appropriate evolution toward greater industry relevance and business value.” – Cushing Anderson, program vice president of the Consulting, HR and Learning practices at IDC

To find out more visit:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcse.aspx
http://borntolearn.mslearn.net

Do you have kids in school?

Microsoft Office Specialist Competition 2012 – Great Opportunity!

Last year the Microsoft Office Specialist Competition attracted over 228,000 students from 57 countries around the world.

Rebecca Rickwood (from Sawtry Community College UK) returned as the World Champion and Ryan Fletcher (Poole Grammar) also performed excellently and placed 10th in in the Word stream. Rebecca’s exploits have received nationwide coverage with articles on the BBC, Telegraph and Metro.

This year the winning entrants will travel to the World Finals at the BELLAGIO in LAS VEGAS. Can one of your students become the World Champion in 2012?

Will your child’s school be entering this competition?  If so please let the University of York IT Academy know as we would love to follow their progress!

What do we talk about most? Windows!!

 

It is a nearly half a year since I last ran a diagnostic on this blog to see what we most like to talk/blog about.  Not surprisingly WINDOWS comes out top again.

To show off, I pushed our blog through the great Wordle engine to provide the following:

What do you talk about to your audience?  Drop me an email with your Wordle graphic and if it is interesting, we will share it!

800 Days Until Windows XP End of Support

 

It takes 18-24 months to plan for and deploy a new operating system. If you haven’t started planning to migrate your Windows XP PCs to a modern OS, or if your migration plan have stalled here are some great tools to help you.

First of all, start by downloading  the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). It removes the need for disc imaging, migrates your data in place during deployment, and (best of all) it’s free.

Some other tools to help make your move from Windows XP to Windows 7 easier include:

• Automating the Migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 End-to-End
• Migrating User Files and Settings from Windows XP to Windows 7
• Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Guide
• Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals (check the Windows compatibility status of more than 27,000 applications)
• Video: Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010
• Video: Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 Using the User State Migration Tool (USMT)
• Need some help? Find support in the Windows 7 Installation, Setup, and Deployment forum.

Questions about Windows XP EOS and what it means to you and your company? Make sure to check out theEnd of Support website for Windows XP and Office 2003 and as always, visit the Deploy Zone on the Springboard Series on TechNet for all your Pilot, Deploy and Manage needs!

When all the words are gone, make up your own?

 

I came across the following blog recently, which highlighted the rapid disappearance of quality domain names left unregistered:

Companies now really struggle to secure a “real” word in their domain name following the rules below:

1. keep it short (short is best)
2. ideally buy the  “.com” as this has the most international scope

Even with the release of new top level domains, new start-ups are reluctant to deviate from the above “rules”.

The answer, and it seems a growing trend, is to simply make up the name and register that as a dot.com.  I noticed this some years ago when Virgin Records sold out to a management buy out – they became Zavvi.com!

Now nearly all new entrants to the “internet arms race” are using made up names, or phonetic spellings, such as

• Flickr
• Shoply
• Tumblr
• spotify

And if a “made up name” is not up your street, you better get your cheque book out.  Only yesterday “challenge.com” sold for $500k and and “vi.com” $325k!

Every start-up nowadays not only needs to come up with a neat idea, but also a savvy name, and ensure that name is available across all media outlets: web, twitter, facebook, google+ etc