Back in the late 90s, mighty Microsoft went head to head against Netscape in what is commonly referred to as the first browser war. History taught us that having control of a platform makes for serious competitive advantage in the software arena. Fast-forward to today and another battle ensues, this time for the hearts and minds of educators everywhere. For the time being, it’s hard to predict which of today’s two giants has the stronger advantage.
If it can be said that Microsoft is #1 on the computer, it could perhaps be said that Google is #1 on the internet. Turning on your computer often means starting Windows. Going to the internet often means starting with Google. With all the talk about private, personal and public clouds these days, it is anyone’s guess as to what extent things will shift from local PC to an internet service. In this era’s battle, neither company is taking chances and they are making heavy investments where it matters most, schools.
Both companies offer a wide range of free premium products and services to schools, educators and students. In some cases, they offer full licensed copies of software for rock-bottom prices. It is a well known fact that companies get the best ROI when a young person has brand loyalty from a very early age. With technology, this is even more important because tech products tend to have a higher learning curve than many others. Once you’re familiar with a given interface, it can be painful to switch to using something else. Have you ever tried switching from using Windows to using Linux? Even though Linux is free, many people would rather pay for a copy of Windows than to have to learn to use a different system. Moreover, these people take their preferences into the workplace where employers cannot simply hand an employee a computer running Linux. I have a friend who first experienced the internet using AOL back when AOL was synonymous with the word internet. To this day, he refuses to access the internet with anything but the AOL interface. Thus is the significance of brand-loyalty in the tech landscape.
With so many service providers giving away premium content these days and no clear market leader, which one should you go with? After doing some research, I can’t say that I have the perfect answer. However, I can at least offer to save you some time by sharing what i have found. Below are my unscientific notes about the two:
Microsoft Live@edu
Microsoft’s free hosted services for schools fall under the live@edu banner. In many ways, it offers many of the same features available to the general public. The difference is that it comes in a private-cloud format. The services can be configured to have a seamless feel between the internal network and the hosted end. The email address uses the domain name chosen by the school instead of @hotmail.com or @live.com for example. The user accounts are managed by the school and they can be configured to use single sign-on either through outlook integration or through the web interface.
Pros:
- For networks built mainly with Microsoft software, using Live@edu will give users a more consistent GUI experience. Microsoft is still the OS leader, for those who use Windows and Office at home, the consistency extends there as well.
Cons:
- At the time of this writing, this free service is only available to k-12 schools.
- If you use sharepoint for your intranet site, SSO is not officially supported on that server. You have to create/use an IIS server that does not have sharepoint installed.
- Because this service is not free for higher education schools, students may end up having to go from using microsoft email to google email, since google makes their version free to colleges as well as k-12.
Wishlist:
- It would be interesting if Microsoft offered an optional account migration path so that students can take ownership of the account and have it transferred to either a college or converted to a standard windows live account.
For more information, check out Microsoft’s site:
http://www.microsoft.com/liveatedu/free-email-accounts.aspx
Google apps:
Pros:
- Chrome OS + Google apps equals a complete cloud solution. Many popular learning and exam applications only require a compatible web browser. If your school has a lab or set of labs where all their needs are met with a suite of office applications and access to web applications, then this is by far cheaper than maintaining traditional desktop computers. Schools can also buy chromebooks which comes with everything needed to run Google apps as well as included tech support.
- Google apps seems to be winning the PR battle by far with educators. They have created a custom Youtube site for teachers, which simplifies content filtering configurations for tech staff.
- I’m not sure if Apple has similar services to what Microsoft and Google are offering, but it seems as if Google is going out of their way to make sure their stuff works on Apple equipment. Most of their apps are available on the iPhone/iPad, and android of course.
Cons:
- For tech departments that like to control as much of the user experience through a client that can be manged through Group Policy Objects, tough luck. With Google apps, the browser is what makes the user applications available, not the windows OS. For teachers, this could mean keeping an even closer eye on k-12 students while they use the computers.
For more information, check Google’s edu site:
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/
