Higher Education Resellers Apple

Notes (what I say and what I do - roughly speaking)

OVERVIEW

Higher Education and Further Education are being squeezed.  How can these institutions respond?  By considering increased use of flexible and open learning, developing new courses, competing for a wider audience of students and by creating independent learning materials, HE & FE may be able to deliver whilst keep quality standards high.  Each of these are potential reasons for buying Macintosh, each offers either suitability, savings in labour or reduced training costs.

Click on Critter to hear my notes for this and other slides. Option click Critter if you want to change the notes. Click on the centre picture to look at the background to the H.E. and F.E. squeeze, click on each colour cloud to discuss that opportunity.

THE SQUEEZE

Last November, the government cut 7% off Higher Education budgets.  Further education has suffered a squeeze for many years.  The net result is that they are looking for savings in the delivery of learning.  The European Year of Lifelong Learning adds credibility to the notion that students will learn independently.

Click on The Lemon Song to launch MoviePlayer with the Led Zeppelin song.  Play the movie using MoviePlayer's controls and point out that this is just another QuickTime movie, made direct from the original Audio CD without special software - just MoviePlayer.

FLEXIBLE AND OPEN LEARNING

Some flexible and open learning solutions are immediately attractive.  Learning direct skills and underpinning knowledge with interactive training software can be highly efficient.  Quicktime screen-capture of applications in use with expert voiceover is easily developed for Macintosh.
Seeking guidance through software for operational help and advice could potentially reduce the load on busy  lecturers and support staff.  Apple Guide with its innovative context sensitive support and coach-marking can make independent learning possible. Internet delivery can mean freeing rooms, timetables and delivering interactive,  large-group learning.  Small scale web-publishing is easiest on the Macintosh.

Insert the Training on CD demo disk and then click on the button to demonstrate QuickTime being used to deliver training on common Mac applications.
The Apple Guide button simply bring s the Finder to the front for you to select the Macintosh Guide from the System Help menu.

NEW COURSES

New courses which meet the needs of students keen to join the creative services are attractive.  With information technology these are less concerned with traditional Computer Science, but growing in the fields of Art and Design, Media and Music.  These are all areas where the Macintosh has the lead professionally. There are no demos for this slide.

LEARNING MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

Macintosh is the platform of choice for  multimedia development.  Not just for the professionals, but also for ordinary lectureres who want to go beyond the Powerpoint slide set. Developing learning materials can range from simple desk-top publishing of a paper handout with word-processing software, through presentation slides to enliven lectures, to self study 'electronic worksheets' created using Cyberdog and Opendoc. The new digital media are as easy to handle as word-processing, using basic cut and paste ideas which many teachers are already comfortable with.

Click on the Quayle Season button to open MoviePlayer with that movie.  After enjoying the movie, demonstrate how easy it is to select jokes from the movie and sequence edit them into a new movie - just liek cut and paste in a word-processor.

COMPETITION FOR NEW STUDENTS

New students are to be found amongst those who live at a distance (including overseas) or those who live locally but cannot attend at the times the timetable offers.  Internet delivery can most easily developed on Macintosh.
Students with disabilities are also to be sought, with modern I.T. solutions providing better than ever access to learning.  Macintosh, with its broad vision of digital video which encompasses multiple text tracks can allow such learners to choose how they access learning materials.
In competing for all students, but particularly those from overseas, the ability to offer comprehensive cultural and linguistic support will allow institutions to stand out.  Macintosh has the best handling of multiple languages and the best world-wide cultural support - offering overseas and British students native language word-processing could help an institution 'stand out'.

Click on the World in Motion button to open MoviePlayer with that movie.  Play a bit of it and show how you can enable the text track of the movie to aid students with hearing problems.  Also use Find in MoviePlayer to search for 'hooligans'.

If you have installed the Cyrillic language kit, you can demonstrate that Macintosh can mix different language character sets.  Point out the Pacific rim countries, where students are looking for UK qualifications, are particularly well served by Macintosh language kits and third party software.