by Scott Muniz | Aug 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
CB: The World Health Organization designated 2020 as the year of the nurse and midwife to raise awareness of nurses and midwives significant and varied roles in healthcare. On May 15th, Johnson and Johnson, Sonsiel, DevUp and Microsoft partner to host nurse hack for health. Giving nurses and clinicians an opportunity to define new ways to save lives. Today we discussed the importance of having nurses and clinicians involved in hackathons and creating innovative solutions to everyday problems.
Claire Bonaci: Hi, Kathleen, Jeff and Jeff. Welcome to the podcast.
Group: Hi. Hi Claire, thanks for having us.
Claire: Well first I’d love, I’d love it if you could introduce yourselves and briefly mention your role here at Microsoft
Jeff Fatic: So I can go first. So, Jeff Fattic. I was managing a group of cloud solution architects up until this week. Now I’m managing a group of people an actually one of the things we’re really focusing on is hackathons, topic of our conversation.
Jeff Luna: And I’m Jeff Luna. I’m a cloud solution architect, entering my 9th year here at Microsoft. So I work with customers in the field to really help them establish their cloud practice and get going.
Kathleen McGrow: I’m Kathleen McGrow, the chief nursing information officer for the US health and life science business for Microsoft.
Claire: Great, thanks so much. I’m really excited to talk to all three of you. So you have both been very involved in hackathons as you just mentioned and I know it’s a passion for both of you. Can you share what are your favorite types of innovations that come out of hackathons and how did those innovations actually help patients?
JF: I can go first, that’s fine. So one of the things we’ve really seen in their most recent hackathons is getting closer to the clinicians, right? That they’re getting more involved and part of that is because the the bar for entry and some of these technologies has come way down. It’s easy to get in talk to them about power apps and power BI and things like that which has been great. And so some of the things we’ve seen there are very frontline focused, which is especially important right now. So we’re really helping them develop tools that might seem trivial in some ways. It could be as simple as a lost and found tool, right? For all the people coming in and out, but it makes a huge difference for them in their day and lets them focus on things that are much more value add.
Claire: No, that’s really great point. I think that’s definitely what nurses and clinicians are looking forward to begin with. And Jeff Luna, do you have a perspective?
JL: Absolutely one of the things that I’m always astonished by is how people bring their different ideas together to form one solid idea. So really kind of taking the things that they’ve seen in their practice, their experience, and really kind of working as a team to really ideate and work through different iterations till they come up with the final solution that really makes them not only proud of what they’re accomplishing, but also, leveraging tools that they’ve learned about on the way. And in a lot of these hackathons, you know, it’s a short amount of time, we’re always pushing for minimum viable product. And some of the things that really emphasize kind of the success criteria are when there is a sense of purpose. A definite sense of belonging and the ideational aspect that really started from one point and has carried on through multiple iterations to something great.
CB: That’s great. I love that you bring up the teamwork aspect of that, especially since a lot of Hackathons, you go into it not having a team or not knowing anyone, so it’s great that you can actually hear that background and actually create something out of that.
JL: Yeah, I’m going to make it a T–shirt that says introverts are Hackathon people too.
CB: That’s definitely true, and since it is year of the nurse and midwife, where have you seen nurses actually innovate in their role in and outside of their role?
JF: Yeah, this has been really awesome to see. I mean, we’ve always honestly been looking at nurses often as career changers. Like we’ve seen them come into our industry in waves, and that’s been really interesting. So there’s always been an aptitude there. But lately, on these hackathons where we’re not trying to recruit them out of their jobs, it’s been really interesting to see how they bring that hackathon mentality. It may not be the same as a developer in their code first kind of model, but, these are jobs that you know they make their whole days out of improvising, right? Like How do I solve these problems without the necessary resources or or this industry in a new and unique situation. So that mindset coming across is already there and that makes it a lot easier.
JL: One of the things I’ve seen is just kind of the long history of nurses being innovative. Whether it was hand hygiene and hand washing protocols in the 1800s. Feeding tubes, color coded IV lines, crash carts, there’s been this long history of iteration to make the job easier. So in my own experience, I think about some of the nurses that have helped our family, my children, and there’s a reason why there’s tape around stethoscope. They’re always putting stuff together. There are always kind of bandaging things together. But more so it is taking kind of a course of action that really helps demonstrate the care and compassion that nurses are known for.
CB: And I think people are now even more seeing how innovative nurses are, especially with the pandemic and how much they are being valued more now than they happen in the past. So I think the question that first time hackers asked a lot are where should they focus their efforts? So if you could give any advice on where would you say the next generation of nurses should focus their innovations to solve a big problem in the industry? What would you tell them?
JF: Sure, go ahead Jeff.
JL: So one of the things I see a lot are nurses who come into hackathons and really tried to kind of bring their best. And sometimes they have an idea and it gets diluted really quickly with other ideas. They really have to write kind of that problem statement that helps kind of initiate what they would want and this is kind of where I see a lot of nurses who come into hackathons a little bit hesitant. But it’s all about expression. It’s all about more art than science. And it’s definitely about finding the right resources to help you. You don’t have to be an expert of coding. You don’t have to be an expert at computer science. There are people there who are meant to help. And when you have a need, you go and ask the organizers. Hey, I need somebody who could help do this, and in some of the hackathons I’ve participated in, it’s been clinicians and nurses who said, I’ve got this idea. I’m not sure how to put it together, what would you recommend? And I’m not at all familiar with the problems or the problem statement, but in them telling me the story, I could kind of see the pieces that would help support their idea and really kind of helped furnish their solution.
JF: Yeah, I’ll add to that. So I agree with everything Jeff said. The thing I would also like, I guess, sort of caution nurses on as they come to this, or any clinician really, they live in a very structured world, right? That every day is a lot of policies and procedures and things like that and hackathons are almost the opposite of that. Its at best controlled chaos and so it’s kind of just go build stuff. So you have to sort of switch that mindset when you walk in. Kind of thinking about Am I on a team yet? What are we going to do first? All those things, all that will get figured out. Be patient. Make yourself known. There are people who want to pull you in. Absolutely. So you know just just sort of change that mindset a little bit, and I think you’ll find that it’s actually a lot of fun.
JL: Yes, I’d like to add to that thought. I know Jeff and I have done some hackathons together and the only sense of organization is that final line when you’re doing your presentation. Everything in between from the start to the end is free form. So it’s really about creativity. It’s really not about trying to build the best, it’s getting to the thing that demonstrates your idea and your solution.
CB: That’s great. I love how the flexibility piece comes into play as well. And my last question for you, it’s a little bit of a fun one. So if you could create any hackathon, what would your hackers accomplish? Or what would be the end goal that you’d really want them to come out with.
JF: Sure, sure you know, I think and Jeff knows this about me too. I. I wanna move fast right? I’m sort of selfish about some of this even as my as a developer like I. I love health care because I want to live forever. So you know how can we put things in place and really transform our industry. Those are the kinds of products and projects that I want to really be invested in. I don’t want to be on my deathbed, just missing the next cool nurse innovation, right?
JL: Yeah, I agree with that thought you have. A lot of times we want to build solutions for ourself. And we’re inspired by some of the things that happen in our own personal environments, in our extended families and our friends and loved ones. So thinking about the current times and thinking about some of the innovations that are out there right now: Shortage of PPE. Somebody came up with a way to help make that PPE go a little bit further or sterilize. Thinking about some of the aspects of the hackathons we’ve participated in, you know, people are walking up with great ideas and sometimes they just want to feel that support and that’s what our teams are there for to really help kind of build and support those ideas as they grow.
CB: Great, well I love that. And Kathleen, I haven’t forgotten about you. So you’ve been in many hackathons yourself and your our Chief nursing innovation officer. So I want to ask you a different question. As a potential hacker, why would you not join or what are some of the barriers that you might face joining a hackathon?
Kathleen McGrow: So I think that most nurses are highly motivated and in order to join a hack, they want to be able to participate, they want to bring their clinical skills to the table. But I think there may be a hesitancy or maybe some shyness they might be concerned about technical barrier. The hack that Jeff and Jeff participated with me in, they were very helpful, right, having that Technical Support to get the nurses online so that they needed to get into groups that they were able to get into the groups and be able to navigate to apps that were out there. I think that, uh, some may be concerned about their expertise level. Maybe there’s some more novice nurses that may potentially feel they don’t have much to bring to the table, but no matter what level you are, whether you’re expert nurse or a novel nurse, there’s a ton of information that you can bring. And just, I think a ton of knowledge that you can bring to the non clinical team. And really be able to be a value add. Sometimes just answering one question where someone is stuck can be tremendously helpful. And then potentially you know you may be concerned about the time commitment. I think most hacks are very upfront ahead of time with the amount of time that you need to commit. Uhm, I was very impressed um during our last nurse hackathon that during the final pitch for some of the project, nurses actually joined from their units their ICUs. They worked in the ICU and join from the unit as they did the pitch. And they had worked that out ahead of time with their with their coworkers in their units, which I think was just awesome. So I think that if we can just identify the barriers and help nurses to overcome them, we can get more and more nurses to participate in these types of activities and be very beneficial to everyone.
CB: Yeah, you bring up a lot of great points. I think I definitely understand the fear and the hesitancy, but getting that perspective and getting as many nurses involved as you can, it’s very beneficial. So thank you all for being part of this podcast and answering these great questions about hackathons. I’d love to see more hackathons in the future and our expanded involvement. So thank you so much.
JF: Thank you
JL: Thank you.
CB close: Thank you all for watching. Please feel free to leave us questions or comments below and check back soon for more content from the HLS industry team.
by Scott Muniz | Aug 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
This is the third in a series of posts based on interviews with experienced Dynamics 365 Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs). The premier technical and instructional experts in Microsoft technologies, MCTs offer live virtual instructor-led training (VILT) that provides in-depth, hands-on experience tailored to learners’ needs. We talked with three MCTs about their approach to teaching Dynamics 365 skills and preparing partners and customers for Microsoft Certification: Julian Sharp on Microsoft Power Platform, Beth Burrell on customer engagement, and Brandon Ahmad on finance and operations. Whether you’re a business owner in search of training for your company or someone who wants to build your skills and get certified in Dynamics 365—or if your goal is to become an MCT yourself—you’ll find their take on Dynamics 365 training as inspiring as it is valuable.
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There’s a growing demand for people skilled in Dynamics 365 who focus on finance and operations, and a shortage of courses that help people build those skills and get certified. That’s the word from Brandon Ahmad, MCT, Technical Solutions Architect, and Founder and head of Instructor Brandon. Ahmad teaches several virtual instructor-led (VILT) Dynamics 365 courses, including MB-300T00-A: Microsoft Dynamics 365: Core Finance and Operations and MB500T00: Microsoft Dynamics 365: Finance and Operations Apps Developer. He also offers an online bootcamp that covers the material in both these courses.
Teaching Microsoft Official Courses (MOCs) online is not new to Ahmad. He has 12 years of experience working with customers operating in different industries and has worked on over 60 different implementations around the world. Just as important, for many years now he’s been offering MOC instruction online through an online learning platform that he designed himself. Offering all his training online, he explains, means he can go across timelines, no matter where learners are, to deliver all his instruction, from video conferencing deep dives into course materials to his custom labs. And it enables him to can check in on people all along way, to see how they’re coming along.
Ahmad’s blended virtual live approach—a combination of video conferencing, mentoring, labs, and quizzes—enables him to deliver personalized teaching and to help people become successful by learning the technical aspects of finance and operations in Dynamics 365. A blended approach to learning is what learners are asking for these days, Ahmad says, much more so than a decade ago, and it’s also what he believes is the most effective way to train today and why he designs all his classes this way.
The Dynamics 365 environment also has to be taken into consideration when designing a course, he adds. That environment is one of rapid cycling, with updates coming fast and furious, bringing new functionality, new features, and new specializations all the time. With so much changing so regularly, it’s not just the students who need to keep up to date but also the instructors and the instruction. “Instructors have to accept that rapid updates are now a part of successful course delivery,” he says. Ahmad has taken his own advice to heart. He’s always increasing his knowledge of finance and operations functionalities and possibilities in Dynamics 365, and he’s always looking for ways to improve his instruction and have it keep pace with the technology.
Ahmad’s custom-designed Dynamics 365 training covers all the content of the Microsoft curriculum with engaging delivery of video instruction, the use of virtual machines, and the addition of enhanced course content that he creates, such as quizzes and real-world, hands-on labs, and even supplemental reading. “The official course content is excellent,” he notes. “It’s comprehensive. It gives learners a solid foundation. I build on that foundation.”
So what does that look like, in action? Ahmad’s courses are presented with a unique method of delivering videos, he says, and by exposing students to technologies like Lifecycle Services and Power BI “using our remarkable Dynamics 365 virtual machines and services.” Along the way, he invites questions and gives custom quizzes. As he covers the course modules, he tells learners what he likes about the features and capabilities, and he often shows them how they can use a different approach than the official one. Personalizing instruction is key for him. He’ll teach students how to troubleshoot an issue, for example, or help them learn a faster way to do something that hasn’t been documented yet. “This is a value add,” he says. This is not a one-size-fits-all course. “No one ever can go through everything in a course, so it’s like having an experienced guide telling you to focus here, do this, save that for later.”
The value add of his courses that he’s most excited about, however, is the labs. His courses include a unique lab interface custom-designed by an experienced instructor for enhanced learning. “These labs give you lots of real-world, hands-on learning experience.” You need to learn by building apps, for example, as well as by understanding how they work. And as learners work through the labs—such as a lab on custom load testing or Dynamics 365 reporting—they have access to help from him or another instructor on his team. Wherever they are in the world, as they work through a lab, a student can connect with an instructor to ask for help or for mentoring or coaching. Within 10 hours, they get a response to get their learning back on track.
Ahmad carefully enhances each lab himself, giving an exhaustive explanation of each part of the process—with copious annotations—offering his own insights into the process, and covering material that’s not in the official courses. He just finished writing a 23-page lab, he says. That’s “labor-intensive, but worth it for the real-world experience it gives learners.” He’s constantly updating the labs, too, to reflect the changes in Dynamics 365.
The biggest challenge of the rapid-release cycle of Dynamics 365—every four to six months—that he experiences is keeping the labs up to date. Changes happen so fast, it’s a job to keep the labs up with the newest terminology or expanded functionality. He and his team are constantly adding to and updating the labs to reflect these changes. If a learner has a problem with a lab, he tells them, “Give me 72 hours to fix it.” And he does. Next to the quality instruction he offers—active, engaged instruction with lots of discussion—it’s the quality of those labs that excites him the most.
“Dynamics 365 gives me a way to be excited, be creative,” he says. “I’m not just teaching people how to use the finance and operations tools of Dynamics 365 so they can be more productive. I’m teaching people how to be app makers, how to build apps with no code or low code, so they can create their own solutions to their own business problems.” That’s another reason he enjoys teaching these and other Dynamics 365 courses—they’re as rewarding for him as they are for students.
Ahmad is clearly an energetic and creative instructor dedicated to providing the highest quality in Dynamics 365 instruction online, including much-needed skills in finance and operations. Asked to sum up his teaching, he offered one word: passion. Sign up for a course led by Ahmad or another MCT, and experience how exciting and rewarding learning new skills can be.
Explore certifications in finance and operations in Dynamics 365.
Browse for more courses offered by Microsoft Learning Partners that prepare for certification in finance and operations in Dynamics 365.
by Scott Muniz | Aug 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Ready or not it is time once more to Reconnect! For this week’s edition of the series, we are joined by none other than two-time MVP recipient Hannes Preishuber!
Hailing from Austria, Hannes is an author, speaker, coach, and business leader. Hannes, rewarded twice for his expertise in ASP and ASP.NET, remains active in the Microsoft community by running the Vienna Meetup. He counts accreditations like MCSD, MCSE, MCAD.NET, MCSD.NET, and MCT to his name.
Hannes puts this varied tech experience to good use as the chief executive officer of ppedv, a Microsoft Learning Partner. While the training centre – which teaches C#, WPF, Windows Server, SharePoint, .net, Angular, JavaScript, and SQL – has been forced online due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Hannes says the transition from 12 physical educational centres to the virtual realm has been relatively seamless thanks to Microsoft.
“[We have implemented] a completely new backend and frontend line of business. We use Blazor and ASP.NET Webforms to get the process to code within a short time. As a former ASP.NET Webforms MVP, Blazor brings a lot of productivity back. I still miss some tooling like scaffolding and features like hot reload, but in summary for me, Blazor is the best LOB tool in the market. Well done Microsoft!”
Hannes, who received the MVP award from 2003-2005, recalls fondly his time in the programme with events like TechEd and PDC Session. He recommends all new MVPs to “make connections, meet people, and exchange your ideas.”
“MVP was a lot for me with friends and connections to product groups. To see Microsoft connecting us former MVPs is a value and an honor,” Hannes says.
For more on Hannes, visit his Twitter profile.
by Scott Muniz | Aug 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Today we are super pleased to announce another milestone in the Surface journey with the release of a major new form factor.
Unveiled today and shipping September 10, Surface Duo represents the next wave of mobile productivity, inspiring people to rethink what is possible with the device in their pocket. Surface Duo delivers the easiest way to multitask on the go, bringing together the power of Microsoft 365 experiences and the full ecosystem of Android mobile apps. Starting at $1,399, Surface Duo opens into the thinnest mobile device on the market with an 8.1″ PixelSense Fusion display connected by a revolutionary 360-degree hinge, allowing you to use each 5.6″ display individually or together, across a variety of modes. Do more wherever you are with Surface Duo.
Commercial customers can go here to find a commercial reseller for Surface Duo. You can get technical documentation about managing Surface Duo from our newly published site on Microsoft Docs with more content coming soon.
Enterprise-level security from chip to cloud
Surface Duo has protection built in at every layer with deeply integrated hardware, firmware, and software to keep your devices, identities, and data secure. Part of what makes this happen is that we built in our custom engineered Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) which enables full control over firmware components. Microsoft delivers Enterprise-grade security to Surface Duo by writing or reviewing every line of firmware code in house, enabling Microsoft to respond directly and agilely, to potential firmware threats and to mitigate supply chain security risks. To learn more, check out the Surface Duo security overview.
Another new capability that also helps raise the bar on productivity is the option of connecting to a full Windows 10 experience in the cloud with Windows Virtual Desktop. To learn more, take a look at Windows Virtual Desktop on Surface.
Simply put, Surface Duo is a perfect fit for the modern workplace.
Stay in control with cloud-based management
You can manage the entire Surface Duo experience for employees and protect work data with a variety of mobile device management (MDM) options, including Microsoft Intune.
We understand how challenging it can be to balance the needs of your end users bringing their own device (BYOD) with enterprise requirements to protect corporate data. Intune app protection helps address this balance by protecting data without requiring users to enroll their device into their company portal. App protection policy settings only take effect when handling corporate data such as using Outlook to send a draft presentation for review. If the same user logs into Outlook with a personal account, the app protection policies have no effect.
Intune lets you manage Google play to distribute line of business and store applications to your non- enrolled devices in the app protection scenario. All this helps make App protection and Android enterprise work profiles the most implemented MDM scenarios. And that’s the reason we designed Surface Duo to be fully optimized for both. You can also manage Surface Duo in highly managed, corporate-owned device scenarios using Full device management or Dedicated device management.
Learn more
by Scott Muniz | Aug 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Development containers with Visual Studio Code can serve as a fantastic tool in education to ensure students have a consistent coding environment. Dev containers take care of setup, which can oftentimes occupy the first few days or weeks of the semester and allow students and instructors to instead focus on what’s truly important: learning and coding something great!
The Visual Studio Code Remote – Containers extension lets you use a container as your main coding environment. In the classroom, an instructor can take an existing dev container, or create their own, and share it with the class. Each student can open the container in VS Code and automatically have the tools and runtimes they need to develop their applications. Students will also have access to VS Code’s full feature set, including IntelliSense and debugging, while coding.
We’d love to learn more about your interest in or usage of development containers in the classroom through the quick 5-minute survey below. Whether you’re already using dev containers in education or just hearing about them now, we want to hear from you. You also have the option to leave your contact information to connect with our engineering team:
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