Wow, Microsoft's going after Dreamweaver (Expression Web), Fireworks/Photoshop (Expression Design), Flash IDE (Expression Blend), Flash (WPF/E), Photoshop Album (Expression Media), PDF (XPS), Flex/ColdFusion (ASP.NET) and now they want to get Adobe's slice of the education pie by competing with their training tools like
Shockwave Director and
Authorware. Randomly checking out the Microsoft's beta site, I discovered Microsoft's got a new product under the code name of
"Grava", which they describe as:
"Grava" is the code name for a new
set of tools from Microsoft’s Education Products Group that is designed
to allow the education community to create and assemble materials that
will increase discovery and allow learners to go at their own pace and
learning style. "Grava" tools are scheduled for release in fall 2007.
Essentially, I think its a software package designed for teachers to easily create interactive elearning content, like what we see on educational CDROMs, which is typically the domain of Authorware or Shockwave Director. I suspect it'll be aimed for delivery not only through the traditional mediums like CDROMs, but also online, maybe partnering up with one of the dominant web courseware providers like
Blackboard, and big textbook publishers.
I guess it makes sense, now that they have their new WPF technology, on which this is based. Adobe aside, this also competes with other well-entrenched companies, like
MatchWare's Mediator.
Details are quite scarce and not many blogs have caught up on this either (that or I missed it). Here's some
screenshots from Microsoft (which look quite nice):