MultiPoint Makes the Most of Shared Computing Resources

Because of limited budgets, schools around the world often struggle to make the ratio of computers to students 1:1. In an effort to ensure that every student can benefit from as much access to technology as possible, Microsoft is offering the Windows MultiPoint Mouse Software Development Kit. Version 1.5 of the SDK is currently available for download at no charge for developers, the Redmond company announced at the BETT 2010 educational conference in London. Based on the MultiPoint platform, the SDK allows devs to create applications which can be used by 25 students simultaneously, each one controlling a different mouse.

“Around the world, most PCs in the educational environment are shared,” noted Ira Snyder, general manager of Microsoft’s Startup Business Group. “Our focus is on making technology accessible and affordable to as large a number of students as possible, and Windows MultiPoint SDK 1.5 (...) will help us deliver on that.”

Windows MultiPoint Mouse SDK 1.5 has been updated and released via the Microsoft Download Center earlier this week. According to the Redmond company, the SDK now comes with full support for the latest iteration of the Windows client, Windows 7, in addition to Windows Vista and Windows XP.

The software giant revealed that developers and Microsoft partners have already leveraged the resource in order to put together apps aimed at shared computing resource environments. An illustrative example in this regard is Scholastic’s “Story Stage,” also announced at BETT.

“Story Stage is an interactive and creative virtual puppet-based literacy application, says Tim Meek, a senior commissioning editor for e-learning at Scholastic. Story Stage provides theatrical objects such as puppets, props, backgrounds, and visual and sound effects – all of which can be controlled by students working together to devise and perform their own retellings of traditional stories, or new stories of their own creation. Using the MultiPoint SDK, Scholastic built the program to enable up to four students to work on Story Stage at once,” Microsoft stated.

Windows MultiPoint Mouse Software Development Kit 1.5 is available for download here.