martin's notes

Mobile learning - the end of the beginning

2009-09-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Not an IT suite in sight.

I took a trip around a few of our sites to help get things ready for some new teaching \learning developments - it happened that all these developments involved mobile in one way or another, from a look at a new mobile e-board system to the start of a new innovative teaching room to using netbooks in workshop areas (motor vehicle) and a double classroom setup with 40 netbooks.

This is our new mobile display system -e-board and ultra short throw projector mounted together on a mobile stand with motorised height adjustment.

Easy to install and move around a room and between rooms.

Bring the display out among the learners and break out of the old "chalk & talk" style.

Below - a quick demo of the mobile e-board

Below - a quick view and description of our new "Green room" innovation learning area.

The room is bright, spacious and configurable in many ways to suite different learning needs. The room has modular tables for 28 learners and netbooks - the tables have central power pillers for laptop use. The room will later have an e-board table display and other display equipment.

More photos of our mobile learnign developments can be found here

Free cloud file storage

2009-07-02T02:24:00.000-07:00

Free cloud file storage

As recommended by Jay

1. Mediafire (unlimited storage and quite easy to use) However, doesn't allow uploading of folders, only files) Easy to share publicly or selectively.. See
http://www.mediafire.com/?

2. Humyo. Cool. Allows Folder uploads. I think its 5 gig limit.

3. 4Shared (My favourite) There's a limit on storage but its nice.

4. SkyDrive. Very good. 25gig. File upload only though. can't share a link for some reason but I've attached a screenshot.

As Recommended by Richard

http://www.jungledisk.com/workgroup/how.aspx - desktop x platform client uploader – single file max is 5Gb – unlimited space – priced at AmazonS3 rates on storage per Gb/month and bandwidth

http://www.elephantdrive.com/help/pricing_structure.aspx - desktop x platform client uploader - max single file upload is 2.5Gb – unlimited space - $34.95 per month for max 10 users

As Recommended by Tim

Box.net

Dropbox

Not So Good GAD - Musings on Directory Synchronisation

2009-06-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

The Google Apps Directory Synchronisation (GADS) tool will synchronise accounts between your current directory system (e.g. Microsoft Active Directory) and your Google Apps premier or education system.

I took a look at the Google Apps Directory Synchronisation (GADS) tool on Sunday and had reservations

1 - It doesn't sync passwords – you have to install and operate a Single Sign On Server to do this - more complexity and things to go wrong

2 - It will delete accounts on Google Apps that are not on AD if the parameters are not properly set up – scary

I wonder what happens when someone gets married and we change the AD account name – what happens to the Google account?

Sorting all this out will takes time and adds complexity – the stuff that normal IT people kinda like but not me.

You will guess that I prefer as simple a solution as possible - quicker to get running, easier to fix and maintain and quicker to change and adapt.

If you think about what we do with accounts – it’s pretty straightforward - we create, disable or delete them - that's all.

All the rest of the time is spent in manipulating account resource permissions and memberships.

In Google apps it is the users who manage access and permissions – there isn’t even a central management facility to do this – apart from create groups and mange group membership.

This is what I am proposing

Continue to use the raw Google Apps management tools to create and disable accounts either manually or with the bulk upload tool.

Script from our management system (Centime) a CSV file with account changes to upload to Google in the same way we do for AD anyway

Look at the Google Apps Provisioning API for a direct programmatic interface for this

Discussion

Microsoft AD is everything to everyone at the moment – it provides systems for access to corporate data as well as communications, information sharing and personal productivity. However, it doesn’t provide the tools for agile collaboration.

Google Apps provides an agile and productive environment for personal productivity and collaboration. By locating the personal productivity in a corporate Google apps we can leverage this for collaboration and sharing too – although this is possible with a fully mashed up system from people’s own resources for the time being this is easier with a corporate located environment just because it is easier to locate people at the moment if they are in the same environment.

I envisage that AD will become more tightly focused on corporate core functions (e.g. data) while a set of “off-core” systems such as Google Apps develop for personal productivity and collaboration. There is some logic to this – the recent discussions on data protection would certainly suggest that core data be carefully protected and focusing our AD onto this makes sense while allowing more flexibility in a separate the collaboration space.

Issues

Staff have two separate accounts – the concern is that they will forget their username and/or password for Google apps – this will reduce effectiveness and increase the support needed. However, so far there have been no problems like this, although we have only been piloting with the more keen early adopters.

From Netbooks to Nettops - a desktop revolution at last?

2009-06-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

Netbooks have revolutionised mobile computing and I promote their use as desktop replacements. Just use with perispherals to enjoy a desktop experience and then take the unit away with you.

I think that ultimately personal mobile computing will prevail and I wonder just how long the huge dinosaur like desktop chassis will continue for - just consider the manufacturing, storage and delivery issues of these things. Most of the space inside a desktop chassis is air anyway.

However, there are situations where desktops are necessary and these are mostly about security - its just harder to steal a big old desktop chassis.

However, the core processing components are shrinking fast and most of a desktop environment is taken with items that really do need to be large - the screen and keyboard and perhaps a printer (if you must).

The laptop has been revolutionisised by the entry of the netbook - it's time the dekstop also had a revolution - enter the Nettop.

The new generation of ultra small form factor desktops (Nettops) are about the size of what used to be the CD drive. In the box where once one PC was delivered you can now get devilvered 10 or more Nettops. The implications for IT support departments and suppliers are revolutionary.

What I see happening here is that the processing unit becomes the smallest, cheapest and most replaceable part. You could keep the desktop chassis and simply upgrade or repair by swapping in the processor unit - even simpler than the way we would have changed a CD drive some years ago. The processor unit could "disappear" - just becomming embedded and given away with the peripherals - certainly the screen. For now however, we anticipate mounting these units at the rear of our 19in screens.

Lets not forget that these machines are also very good for the environment - low power, small and low noise.

Could this be why Intel are moving into embedded software bedause the computer market is literally disappearing...

Here are some references for Nettops

Nettops - Wikipedia

The Acer AspireRevo Nettop with NVIDIA ION GPU 4Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD and 1.6Ghz ATOM CPU

The Asus Eeebox

The Pars I-Cute - These are the units I'm holding up in the photo above

FE Colleges and Twitter

2009-03-03T02:17:00.000-08:00

There is a good item on Twitter and its use by some FE colleges

For the latst list please go here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/03/twitter-social-messaging

Twitter pioneers include Deeside College, Havering College, Regents College, Sunderland College and Cornwall College - there twits can be followed below - well worth a look.

http://twitter.com/CornwallCollege

http://twitter.com/deesidecollege

http://twitter.com/haveringcollege

http://twitter.com/regentscollege

http://twitter.com/CitySun_College

http://twitter.com/lincoln_college

Cloud Conditions - What is Cloud Computing

2008-10-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

What is Cloud Computing

The Internet is a network of networks and the phrase “Cloud Computing” comes from internet diagrams that use a cloud symbol to hide the complexity of the way networks are connected. My network is connected to your network somehow through the “cloud” – I don’t need to know the details of how this happens, I only need to know how to connect to my internet service provider.

If you use a webmail system (e.g. Googlemail, Hotmail) then you already have some experience of cloud computing.

Many older email systems operated as client – server. The client was an email program that you needed to install on your computer and servers provided a system for email clients to send and receive email messages between each other. Messages were downloaded and stored on the client computers. This meant that messages stored on one computer wouldn’t be available to you on another computer.

Webmail combines the application, storage and communications aspects of email into one service available from any computer with a web browser and an Internet connection. Webmail provides a good familiar example of what cloud computing is all about – application, storage and communications services operating in the Internet and accessed through a web browser.

Webmail has been around for ages now but the development of new web programming technologies in recent years has allowed the advantages of cloud computing to be applied to most areas of computing - hence the explosion of new applications – here are a few examples of cloud computing:

Social networking – Myspace, Facebook, Bebo etc

Web2.0 – Youtube, Flickr, Blogger, Twitter, Wikipedia etc

Applications – Googledocs, Zoho etc

For more information about Cloud Computing have a look at the links below

My Cloud links

BBC - general article on Cloud Computing

Observer article on the economics and business change of cloud computing

Google Docs - spreadsheet functions - WOW

2008-06-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

In a comparison of Google docs and Microsoft Live Office comment 10 by Jrome describes the Google docs speadsheet fill operation and the function "=googlelookup"

You can populate a list of cells by entering a few values and then drag the selection out and have the application guess what you want and fill the cells with the guess. Often this means entering 1 then 2 and having the application continue the series. The Google docs spreadsheet function can fill in car names, cities chemical elements etc.

The "=googlelookup" function can access databases to populate lookup queries.

e.g. you can fill a list with planet names and use the lookup function to list data on them - here is a list of soem of the things you can find

Chemical Elements (like "Helium")
find atomic number, discovered by, atomic weight

Stars (like "Betelgeuse")
find constellation, distance, mass, temperature

Planets (like "Saturn")
find number of moons, length of day, distance from sun, atmosphere

Dinosaurs (like "Velociraptor"): height, weight, when it lived

Here is an example I prepared earlier to find the length of day on planets

1. Create a Google Spreadsheet
2. Type "mercury" in A2
3. type "venus" " in A3
4 Select A2:A3 and, while holding the Ctrl key, expand your selection down to A10
See the list of planets appear from a2 to a7
5. Type "length of day in B2 and copy b2 into cells b3 to b10
6. type "=googlelookup(A2; B2)" in C2
see the length of day appear in c2
7 copy cell c2 to cellls c3 to c10
see the list of planet day lengths appear

Here is a list of Google spreadsheet functions

http://documents.google.com/support/spreadsheets/bin/answer.py?answer=82712&ctx=

Microsoft Silverlight - wowing the developers

2008-06-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Silverlight is Microsoft's answer to Google Gears and Adobe Air for webclient code and presentation.

Microsoft's Silverlight is starting to wow developers - it has great potential.

As Microsoft builds its cloud systems Silverlight looks set to be a major plank on the web client side of this.

For developers it fits into a larger development framework called Windows presentation foundation - a framework that can include both developers and designers - the potential is good.

Rumour is that Microsoft will use Silverlight to deliver a web office

If you have Silverlight 2 installed - here are some examples:

Hard Rock Memorabilia
Here you can see the Deep zoom capability - here there are hundreds of images in a catalogue with gigabytes of storage which load relatively smoothly. This is a possible future general navigation technique - it reminds me of the early Seadragon presentations

Microsoft's silverlight showcase presents a variety of small applications

Mashoo lists some Silverlight games as examples of application

Asus Eee Linux Vs XP

2008-06-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Initial setup times
switch in, enter country; date/time; user info; connect to wifi network and configure wifi network then browse the net

Eee Linux 512Mb RAM 4Gb Flash drive = 3mins
Eee XP 1Gb RAM 8Gb flash drive = 7mins 30 seconds

Useability times
switch on to browse the net

Linux = 45 seconds
XP = 40 seconds

General impressions
Linux = more like a gadget and easier for the "normal" person to get on with - nice uncluttered screen
XP = traditional and for IT people - setup and operation feels more technical

Linux provides a nice clean interface with a good set of on-line desktop icons and usefful easy to use local aplications. I like the way the common icon are presented on the desktop.

The XP interface seems uninuitive - you need to know where things are (start, all programs, works). It seems difficult to locate and set up the wireless connection etc, This is strange given the amount of time and money Microsoft have spent on User Intreface research over the years - culminating in Vista......

I was surprised by the speed of XP - must surly be down to the solid state drive - the days of rotational media in user equipment are surey numbered.

Microsoft have managed to get some links to Microsoft Live on the menu - this is Microsoft waking up to the new world - head in the cloud but feet on the ground. I used live writer to create a blog entry on an existing live spaces area here - I really can't see the point of this approach

Youtube annotations

2008-06-05T02:39:00.000-07:00

We can now add annotati0ns to youtube videos

Youtube How to page You tube how to video
The first anotated video on youtube
A Blog about this

This is really welcome news - I was planning on going to World TV to do this - it did seem possible to store video on youtube then display them via worldtv with annotations. Youtube annotations wil make this a lot easier

The Sensory Operating System (SOS) Era

2008-05-28T01:32:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Windows 7
Ray Kurzweil on the future of the mobile

There were pre GUI systems like CP/M, MSDOS

There were GUI systems for the last 15 years or so like Mac and Windows

Vista seems more and more like the last eeking out of the GUI operating system - taking it as far as it could go.

For most of the GUI era software lagged behind hardware but for what might be regarded as the last microsoft product in the GUI era Microsoft seemed to overestimate the cost/power of hardware available for Vista

The mouse was a radical yet natural innovation for the human-computer interface and dominated the GUI era but recently many have regarded the mouse as a barrier to even better systems.

It seems as if we are now moving into the next phase of operating system and human-computer interaction. Systems in development are more "SENSORY" - they make use of other human senses and modes of interaction - speech,touch, gesture and movement.

Recent products have informed this move to the "sensory" operating system (SOS) - the success of the iPhone with its touch interface, the success of the Wii with it's motion interface.

This is good news for Microsoft as the GUI operating system is saturated and Microsoft is losing its dominance - teh GUI operating system is a commodity now and people are caring less about the operating system - as long as you can get onto the web.

Microsoft have an opportunty to set the scene for the next generation - if they are bold enough.

The death of the IT department and the rise of the virtual organisation

2008-05-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have just been reading and listening to Charles Black the CEO of hosted desktop company Nasstar about hosted desktops - here is a summary and some of my thoughts

Workwise UK estimate there are up to 3.5 million "telecommuters" (remote workers)

Charles Black predicts that the rise of telecommuting and hosted IT will have a radical effect on the traditional IT department and that by 2013 the traditional IT department will no longer exist. He argues that IT departments wil be freed to focus on giving companies a competitive advantage through IT - using IT for business advantage.

There is an attractive logic to hosted services especially for smaller companies who would prefer to focus on their business rather than their IT - especially with increasing complexity in IT security and continuity.

Some of the issues around moving to a hosted model:
- Network availability, speed and reliability are essential
- Local IT can be cheaper and last longer - you can use lower specification and older equipment
- Costs and resources shift from local IT to the network
- Costs shift to revenue\ongoing instead of capital
- IT skills shift to user advice and the aplication of IT - interpersonal and business skills
- Security - it is probably the case that global compainies like Google have the resources to secure systems far better than the average business but smaller hosing companies could be a risk (e.g. the fasthosts hack was very damaging to the company and those it hosted). However, the local computer and user remains a weak point for security
- Continuity - if the network is down then your IT use is down

For me this also raises the question about the organisations themselves - if workers are increasingly virtual through their use of remote and virtual systems then what of the organisation they work for - surly that too can be transformed.

Many organisations will still want/need physical locations (if only for vanity and display) but web presence is increasingly important to such a point that in the choice between on-line Vs physical organisations start to prioritise on-line and even foresake the physical.

Second Life - notes from an interview with Philip Rosedale

2008-05-09T03:45:00.000-07:00

A few notes from an interview with Second Life creator Philip Rosedale.

Second life covers an area of 462 square miles and is expanding at a rate of 5% per month.

It has a storage of capacity 100Tb and uses 18,000 servers dispersed over 3 data centres - each server managing 16 acres of land area.

Second life sysems can cope with 1 million simultaneous users - they are currebly at around 60% capacity.

250 people work at second life.

They have an ambition to "become the web" - arguing that the interaction mode is more natural and is less language dependent.

Connections with the real world are likely to become stonger - e.g. go virtula shopping for real items that will be delivered or watch youtube videos from a second life venue.

There are plans for a much improved interface - for the graphics they are working on better resoultion and functions like reflection. For the modes of input they talk much about new 3D camera technology that can locate a person, seperate them from their background and map their movements onto an avatar - one option is to manipuate virtual objects with realworl gestures.

I think that second life has great potential for synchronous meetings - the interview ends with discussion of the potential of second life in holding meetings.

Second life

How can Education Innovate?

2008-03-14T03:48:00.001-07:00

There is considerable discussion about the way we educate – how exam results get better and better yet there is a shortage of people with the skills for the 21st century knowledge economy - those that can “get things done” – those who can learn continuously; deal with change and the unknown; research, analyse and develop solutions, collaborate and communicate, take responsibility etc.

The problem is that education is locked down – students, teachers and institutions have to be practical and meet the various measures which are set.

How can students, teachers and institutions develop in the way we are being asked?
How can the “innovation nation start in education”?

On-line safety - the role of academia

2008-03-07T04:15:00.000-08:00

The Guardian on-line podcast here discusses on line safety with Stephen Balkham from FOSI

My summary of this is:

- Adults (including teachers and managers) need to become familiar with the systems being used so as to better understand the issues and risks involved - the pod says "the youngare fearless and parents are clueless" - this is a recipee for problems.

- Academia can play a crucial role in on-line safety - not least because our young spend so much time on-line at school and college. Academia need to provide material and education in how to be safe on-line - education - it's what we do.

Our ideas of "computer literacy" are completely out of date these days. Maybe we should be considering "computer literacy 2.0" - skills to use on-line resources and to search, evaluate, use and interact safely on the net.

Our college is developing an on-line safety approach is yours?

College Web 2 presence

2008-03-07T01:59:00.000-08:00

This morning I found the BBC twitter sites - this got me thinking.

Firstly - so many developments now start from the bottom and work their way up (SMS, Soial networking, blogging, youtube, TXT etc etc - even the PC) - one advantage is that they have time to develop, get debugged and then for "corporate"applications to be made.

Secondly - it's time that our college developed official web 2 presence so that potential students, students, partner organisations, parents and staff can "tune in" to colege news

Here are some suggestions to provide web 2 news and development updates
A EHWLC youtube channel
A EHWLC twitter site
Departmental blogs and twitter

What do you think

web 2 debates

2008-03-04T02:24:00.000-08:00

Interesting link

http://management.silicon.com/careers/0,39024671,39170243,00.htm?r=1

"We've all got email and we've all got access to the internet and so we probably tend to think we're completely up to date. But what we've tended to do in many businesses is we've automated a paper process rather than necessarily look at the capability of the technology that you have and ask if there are even more efficient ways to use it,"

This has been the approach from the first introductions of IT - look at an existing process and computerise itor automate it.

IT generations

2008-03-04T02:22:00.001-08:00

Generation 1 - Mainframes/Mini's - IBM - Institutional IT

Generation 2 - Personal computers - Microsoft/apple personal IT

Generation 3 - on-line shared - Google - "web 2"

smartphones do IT all

2008-03-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

I remember the old discussions about convergence - wow it’s here and rolling.

I have little doubt that the future is smartphone - it’s natural and just happening without artificial inducements.

The main dilema is local Vs on-line - storage isn't so much a problem now - you can get multi-gigabyte memory chips very cheaply. Processing seems to be the main issue - my smartphone has HSPDA communications - when used as a modem for a laptop then teh Internet is very fast but when used by itself then access is much, much slower - thisis teh result of the slower CPU in the unit.

No doubt there will be on-line/local compromise using off-line web tools like Silverlight, Gears and Air.

Google Gears application on mobile zoho shows the potential -
check the zoho blog in this and the google blog about gears

However, I have a feeling that remote desktop will win out and not just for mobiles. You can use a small power efficient processor on a mobile device and harness huge the capabilities of a central system for computation, storage and connectivity. The key thing is communications - dedicate most of your devices capability to communications.

I can also feel the capability of using external peripherals for your mobile unit - larger screens (e.g. Surface), keyboards, cameras etc.

While I still think a smartphone will have it all I also think that it's communications will aloow it to off-load when appropriate.

In the begining was IBM and mainframes (centralised computing)
Then came Microsft and Apple with Personal computing (not forgetting (Commodor, Compaq etc)
The came Google with collaborative computing

Have a look and listen at the video here
http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,39170179,00.htm

The video discusses:
“Hyperconnectivity” - it’s all about high speed connctions - HSPDA, HSPDA+, LTE
Multi-service and communication - GPS installed in most new smartphones (location services) social networking, entertainment - everything

Smartphone label may diappear and instead become “appliance” - (maybe the term PDA might yet win)
many execs now choosing to take their smarthoen instead of their laptop.

IT services user support in 2010

2008-03-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

"The role of IT services user support in 2010"

Developments in technology and in the nature of teaching and learning will mean there are changes in how we support our users in the future.

Here is a compilation of some of the ideas presented

We will need to consider the service provided for users own equipment – in college and outside

Questions such as: “I get a blank screen when I access webmail from home” or “ I can’t access the Internet from the college guest portal on my computer”

We will need to consider external-remote access for user help
Given the increase in remote work and learning our users will need to be able to access help outside the college

We need to consider our response to help
- we need to consider how we deal with emergencies (e.g.mobile techs with mobiles)
- should students/guests have access to our help system

We need to consider personalised service
Use helpdesk information to assist with service – e.g. inventory of user owned equipment, call history and notes – like patient medical notes perhaps.
We need to consider self help

Self service options through use of more information in the helpdesk on problems/solutions and user information
We need to consider remote interaction with users and their equipment
Possible use of remote assistance applications, video conferencing, voice, instant messaging

We need to consider proactive ways of preventing support issues
User training and information needs to be improved.

Seems like we could make use of ideas from the health services perhaps – information, appointments, mobile para technicians, proactive maintenance, clinics for training and service.