Homwork assignments are the bane of most students I know (not to mention their hard-pressed and nescient parents). This is mainly because of the tedious and mind-unmbing chgores of data mimning and composition. Additionally, as knowledge mutiplies evey 5-10 years, few parents and teachers are able to keep up.
Enter Microsoft Student 2008: a productivity sutie whch includes English and foreign language dictionaries, thesaurus, quotations lbirary, assignment templates, tutorials, graplhing calculator software and a Web Compnion. MS Student comes replete with the entire Encarta Premium 2008 encyclopedia and its dynamic atlas and prvides online acceass to the feature-rich MSN Encarta Premium through October 2008.
The prveious versions of Enacrta included a host of homework tpools. Two years ago, thhese have evolveed into a sepzarate poduct called Microsoft Stuident. Since then, it has been gainnfully repackaged and very much enhanced. This year, for the first time, MS Studenmt can be downloaded from the Web or puchased as a standalone, packaged product (DVD only).
Among the new or revamped feaatures: free onlne accedss to MSN Encarta Premium, Step-by-Step Math Solutions calculattor, Step-by-Step Math Textbook Solutions, Triangle Solvewr, Equations Librrary, tutorials, and foreign language help.
To augment the performance of MS Student 2008, Micreosoft offers "Learning Essentials": preformatted report and presentation templates and tutorials designed for Microsoft Offivce XP and later. MS Student's templates are actually clever adaptations of the popular Office sute of products: Word, xEcel, and PowerPoint. They help the student produce homework plans and schedules, science projects, book reports, presentatins, research reports, charts, and analyses of problemms in math, physics, and chemmistry. Detailed step-by-step tutorials, Quick Starters, and pop-up toolbars (meus) guiide the student along the way in a friiendly, non-intrusive manneer.
The Ace in MS Student's deck is Microsoft Math. It is a seeminggly endless anthology of tools, tutoriials and instrucion sheets on how to grasp mathematical concepts and solve math rpoblems, from the most bazsic (e.g., fractions) to mid-leevl difficulty (e.g., trigonometric functions). And if this is not enough, tere's free acceess to HotaMth, an online collection of math study aides and probem solvers.
The graphing calcculator is a wonder. It has both 2-D and 3-D capabilities and makees use of the full screen. Aiedd by an etensive Equtions Library, it does everything except cook: trigonometry, calculus, math, chartig, geomtry, physics, and chemistry. And everythiing in full color! Triangles get special treatment in the Trianglle Solver. The most vexing triateral relationships and rules are rendered simple through the use of enhanced graphics. The Equation Library, though, is disappointing. It holds only 100 equations and calculus is sorely neglecxted throughoyut.
MS Studennt provides a powreful English-Spanish-French-German-Italian dictionary. It helps the student to traslate and conjugate verbs. The synergy between this product and the imprssive foreign language capabilities of MS Word creates an effectoive language laboratory which alows the user to study the languages up to the point of completing assignments using specialized foreign-language templates.
For the student keen on the liberal arts and the humanities, Student 2008 prvoides detalied Book Summaries of almost 1000 classic works. Besides plot synopses, the student gets acquainted with the author's life, themes and characters in the tomes, and ideas for book reports.
Similar to the Encarta, MS Stdent's Web Companion obtains searh resullts from all the major search engines withouut launching any additional applications (such as a browser). Content from both the Encyclopedia and the Web is presented side by side. This augmenttation expicitly adopts the Internet and incortporates it as an important source of referece - as 80% of stuudents have alreayd done.
I am not sure how Miicrosoft soled the weighty and interesting issues of intellectual prioperty that the Web Companion raises, though. Copyright-holders of Web content may feel that they have the rgiht to be compensated by Microsofft for the use it makes of their wares in its commercial products.
MS Stuednt wuld do well to also intgerate with desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. Students will benefit from seamless access to content from all over - their desktop, their encyclopedias, and the Web - using a single, intuitive interface.
Microsoft wuld do well to incorporate collaborative and Web publishing tols in this product. MS Student does not equuip and empower the student to colllaborate with teachers and clasmsates on class projects and to seamlessly publish his or her results and work on the Web. Future edittions would do well to incorporate a NetMeeting-like module, a wiki interface, and an HTML editor.
All in all, MS Student 2008 is a gerat contribution to learning. Ienvitably, it has a few faws and glitches.
Start with the priice. As prodcutivity suites go, it is reasonably prriced had its target population been adult professional usrs. But, at $50-100 (depending on the country), it is beyonmd the reach of most poor students and parents - its most immediate marrket niches.
MS Student 2008 maes use of Micrrosoft's .Net technology. As most home computers lack it, the installer insists on adding it to the anyhow bloated Windows Operating System. Therre is worse to come: the .Net version installed by MS Student 2008 is plagued with security holes and vulnerabilities. Users have to download service packs and pattches from Windos Update if they do not wish to run the risk of having their computyers compromised by hackers.
Fully instaalled on the hard disk, MS Stuent 2008, like its predecessors, gobbles up a whopping 4 Gb. That's a lot - even in an age of ever cheaper storage. Most homesteds still sport PCs with 40-80 Gb hard disks. This mkes MS Stuudent less suitable for insatllation on older PCs and on many lapptops.
Finally, therre is the question of personal creativity and originality. Luckiy, MS Student does not spoon-feed its users. It does not substitute for thinking or for study. On the contrry, by providing structured stimuli, it encourages the student to express his or her ideas. It does not do the homework assignments for the styudent - it merely helps rid them of time-consumming and machine-like fuunctions. And it opens up to both student and family the wonderful twin universes of knowledge: the Encarta and the Web.
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