Professor Austin is Professor of Neural Computing in the Department of Computer Science, and leads the Advanced Computer Architectures (ACA) group.  He teaches Computer Architectures and a course “So you want to start a company?”.  He also runs a small spin-off company, Cybula Ltd.

Jim also has a very interesting and diverse computer collection from Crays and other supercomputers to the BBC micro and other microcomputers.  The collection contains some real gems.  See http://www.computermuseum.org.uk/ for details.  These computers are the topic for this evening’s talk and Professor Austin will bring some examples of old computers with him.

The event will be in rooms 1F024 and 1F025 which are on the first floor.  Disabled access is available and there is car parking on the site.  Please sign in at reception when you arrive.  Thank you to Richard Hind, Tutor of IT and Computing at York College, for organising this event.

See www.yorkcollege.ac.uk/maps-and-directions/ for information on how to get to the college and floor plans.

Please email us (wybranchbcs@googlemail.com) if you are coming to the meeting so we can arrange sufficient seating and refreshments.

For those requiring something more substantial than tea or coffee and biscuits, the College has a canteen, open until 6pm, serving hot food and sandwiches.

Introduction

The evening was in two sessions, each session having two topics to choose from:

Session One

Introduction to WYSIWYG with Nick Schneider and Dominic or Online Assessment with Blackboard with Richard Hind

Session Two

Technology of WYSIWYG with Nick and Dominic or Creating video tutorials with Graham Hollingsworth

I attended the two sessions on WYSIWYG, which is software to aid with the planning, 3D design and implementation of lighting effects. The use of software in this way was an “eye-opener” although it is difficult to convey in words what we saw on the screen, the lighting desk and the effect on the room as the lighting changed.

Session One: Introduction to WYSIWYG, by CAST Software

Nick and Dominic used a studio setting with an interviewer and 2 interviewees as an example. You can have e.g. pieces of furniture, people in different poses, different coloured backgrounds etc. They had planned the studio and lighting rig then rendered it to give a 3D model of how the various lighting effects would look. By altering the position of the lights on the plan they were able to show the effects of these changes.

The software is used because it can reduce production lead time by 2 months, it’s easier and the design can be uploaded to the lighting desk. You start with a plan view (i.e. from above) and create the virtual lighting rig, placing the lamps in their positions. You then render it to see what it will look like in side view plans and 3D model. Once finished the design is uploaded onto the lighting desks. The digital light desk contains 2 laptop cpus, floppy, modem, DMX cable (to the lights) and can control lots more lights than an analogue desk. You can pre-program special effects e.g. red is a pre-programmed combination of cyan, yellow and magenta. Physical changes made on the lighting control desk are reflected in WYSIWYG representation. Conversely changes in WYSIWYG are passed to the desk and the lighting alters. It was amazing how much could be done with just one light! And equally amazing how easily a plan of the lighting could be rendered and then adjusted to meet the needs of the client.

Session Two: Technology of WYSIWYG

Dominic took us through the process from starting a plan to controlling the lamp from the lighting desk and from the software. Some problems occurred which meant we learnt more – including the fact that you can hard reboot a lamp! Some of the steps involved were:

• Cabling between the lamp and the light desk using DMX cable. The base of the lamp has an encoder which accepts DMX (language that controls lamps).
• Enabled Ethernet connection and set up the software to communicate with the instruments.
• Set up IP address for the lamp! Connect it to network and console and bind the new light to a channel
• Send data from WYSIWYG to light control desk (as a patch) The monitor has grey buttons that control each aspect of the light.

The lighting engineer can take manual control if something unexpected happens on stage. One processor does DMX light language and the other does “proper” PC work. (Windows is embedded on the PCs.) This means that if the pc dies you can still use it as a lighting desk – or if the desk dies you can use the virtual version to control the lights. Some lamps have WiFi boards and you can run the software on an iPod. Dominic demonstrated control of the lamp from his phone which is useful if you’re in the rigging!

Conclusion

The evening introduced lots of new concepts – lights with encoders, a language (DMX) and an IP address!! Where will computers go next?

Margaret Moore

Introduction

The format of the evening was new – to match the new college. There were two introductory presentations followed by six short presentations and each person could choose to attend three of the six. We were spoilt for choice! As it was such a full evening, the notes that follow are very brief. Please see our web site for more details.

Anne Tyrrell, the Deputy Principal, gave an overview of the new college, from the process starting in 2003 through to the handing over of the keys on 23/7/07. Everything from IT to plumbing is in one building and Information Learning Technology (ILT) is in all classrooms and learning areas.

Martin Harmer, ILT Manager, continued by explaining why they chose tablet PCs and wireless projectors. The benefits include greater flexibility during teaching, as the tablet pc can be moved around the learning area/classroom, and the fact that staff have their own tablet PC so they can do their work anywhere. The college also uses online lesson planning and has upgraded Blackboard from the Basic to Enterprise version so it now links into the MIS. The new equipment is being well used – but more equipment has stimulated further demand. The support load was huge initially and there was a lot of setup needed – but now they can check projectors remotely etc.

The presentations

The six presentations were:

• Introduction to VJing! by Nick Schneider
• Using mind mapping software to produce PowerPoint presentations by Mel Fish
• Using 3-D modelling software by Ed Poxon
• Blended teaching with Blackboard by Rob Gardiner
• Producing training videos for online tutorials by Graham Hollingsworth
• Using virtual machines to simulate a corporate network by Richard Hind

Notes on three of these follow:

VJing

VJing is the video equivalent of disc-jockeying. A DJ has two decks with a fader; a VJ takes two video images (e.g. someone dancing and war footage) and uses a slider. Media students can mix and manipulate the stored videos in the “collection” live. Some VJing software can take input from other sources e.g. webcam or text. With LED walls the effects can be spectacular.

Mind mapping

Mind mapping is one IT tool to produce output (course work). Mind mapping software can display a map in several different ways – traditional “map”, linearly or hierarchically. The map can be exported into Word (with or without the diagram) and will apply “Heading” styles to the map. It will also export into PowerPoint – and both of these were demonstrated with a map the group built.

It is an alternative way to think and plan – thinking isn’t linear but notes are! Using this technique, ideas can be merged or dropped. You can brainstorm then organise, sequence and expand the ideas later. It is good in a group setting e.g. one student could be developing a point when an idea occurs to another student. That idea can be noted down and fitted into place later.

Using virtual machines to simulate a corporate network

Richard Hind explained that this was done using software called VMWare which allows you to create virtual machines on individual desktops running XP. (There is also a version that can be run on a server.)

Richard explained how this is a good tool for teaching. IT students can practice setting up a variety of environments from scratch without risk of causing any problems to others. They can have full administrative controls, again without the risk of causing problems. Students can practice again and again until they are happy that they know what they are doing. For IT support the VMWare software is useful for setting up virtual environments using different specific versions of applications as required. It is also useful for setting up test environments.

Summary

Feedback was very positive with several people saying that “their” topics would fill an entire evening – and the facilities were excellent. Our thanks go to all those who presented and to Richard Hind for putting the evening together.

This talk attracted such a good turn out that York College kindly arranged a larger room at short notice. Our thanks go to the college.
Martin Harmer, the first speaker, started the evening by explaining the use of e-learning at York College, giving a short demonstration of Blackboard as used at the college and finished by outlining future plans for e-learning.

The key e-learning elements in use at the college are:

• Blackboard VLE – which is intuitive for staff and students
• Interactive whiteboards – good for use in classrooms
• Video streaming
• E-portfolios – are being trialled at the moment
• Tablet pcs & wireless projectors – training tutors in their use

Blackboard looks familiar to users with “Tools, My Announcements and My Courses”. The college started by putting Word and PowerPoint documents on it but it wasn’t used much. Now they have links to other sites and content which is more interactive and usage has increased.

• Course overview giving learning materials, questions to be answered, exam questions & model answers – material which help people go further or catch up if missed something
• Course work – tasks for each week which can be sent in via a “drop box”
• More social things such as group discussion boards

The college will be upgrading to the Academic/Enterprise edition of Blackboard which will allow, amongst other things, adaptive release of material. This means that the students could be “taken through” the course and release of the next stage will depend upon results. The plans are to make the content even more interactive, giving prompt feedback, increasing motivation e.g. simulations of task based things.

Gustav Delius, a theoretical particle physicist, went on to explain what has been done with Moodle in the Mathematics Department at York University and connected via the web so that we could see examples. Each lecturer has a list of modules that he/she is teaching whilst each student has a list
of modules to be studied. There isn’t much course content but there is a news forum (lecturer to student). The discussion forums have really taken off and there is lots of input from students. They have the photos of the people involved (which helps as the memory of the photo prompts the lecturer when he next sees the student). Moodle is being used as another channel of communications; it is being used by everyone, not
just the tutors, which is vital.

Other uses are:

• Forum per student group
• New students tell lecturers what they found fun to learn about at school (so the lecturer gets to know something about the student)
• Save time marking – if the answer is a maths formula (there is a theory of typesetting formulae). Another advantage of this is that it gives instant feedback and the students can try again, optionally persisting until they find their own mistakes.
• Participants’ list – see who the other students are & can email them from here so being used as a social tool.

Moodle has drawn Gustav in. He explained that he wanted to do extra things so he looked at the code (it is open source software) and added them. One can post ideas on the web and someone else writes the code (e.g. students doing peer marking – the work is anonymously given to another student, marked then sent to tutor) – there is a good community.

Marcus Green, a former lecturer at the College, is now in commerce. He has used both Blackboard and Moodle and talked about the Moodle community. Moodle VLE – delivering learning material through the web. Martin Dougiamas (Mr Moodle) is trying to use trademark to support open software development. He has trademarked Moodle so it can be used but any revenue goes back into product development avoiding “freeload” i.e. people making a profit from open software.

Moodle has socio-constructivism at its heart i.e. students interacting with each other and learning from each other. They can be directly engaged through announcements, discussion forums and quizzes.
The Moodle community is a very friendly environment and the forums are a great source of help and advice.
Looking at commerce v. gratis aspects of open source development:

• Moodle is “free” and is gnu public licence (GPL) but is taking advantage of trademark protection (words, logos, designs) and the trademarks are being enforced.
• There are Moodle partners (strict criteria) who can do consultancy for newcomers; Martin Dougiamas gets the royalties which go back into development.
• Individuals can e.g. run a course on Moodle but can’t use the name to promote themselves.

A discussion and debate then took place, ending at 8:40pm. Thanks to all three speakers for a stimulating evening.

Background

Bill Gibson started off the evening from the educational perspective. A survey of students studying OOP showed that most thought the skills learnt were of use and 50% said that they will carry on with it. The tutors have 17 weeks to teach the subject so they can only teach the basics. They need to cover the syllabus but also wish the course to cover what employers want.

The college has found Jade to be a good teaching tool because of its intuitive interface, built in classes are initially hidden, multi-user and web interfacing is easy. Also, the students like to see theory put into practice quickly which is possible thanks to Jade’s rapid application development. As the tool is easy to use it means that the tutor can concentrate on teaching OO rather than teaching how to use the tool.

Bill then posed the following three questions for employers:-

1. Do you want independent graduates who can learn things?
2. Do you want people who can use a specific language or people who have the basic set of OO skills that can be transferred?
3. Do you want multi-disciplined programmers (e.g. who can also do some systems analysis) or “just programmers”?

These questions led into an active discussion. Amongst the items discussed were:

• Skills learnt using Jade are transferable to e.g. Java.
• Various structures within business and the interaction with programmers. Some businesses want programmers to write code and nothing else whilst others will want programmers who have business skills and other skills e.g. the ability to teach users about the new software. The role of hybrid managers was discussed.

An overview of Jade

Benn Masters then gave an overview of Jade. It is a language cum database cum middleware which will run on Windows or Linux. It is object oriented across all tiers. (Usually products have an OO front end to a relational database.) Jade excels in complex situations such as logistics or rail networks. It is possible to use a .NET front end and a Jade database via web services.

There is a relational population service (RPS) which means that you can synchronise or populate an SQL database in real time giving flexibility in business. An SDS service means that it can replicate to a secondary database making it robust and you can make changes in the metaschema.

Web services supported by Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, Sun and HP. This means that you can use the appropriate technology for a problem.

Benn then went on to discuss service oriented architecture (SOA). One looks at what services a business supplies and how they do it. This is a framework of policies and practices that provides an agile service-based architecture. It may help to bridge the gap between user and developer and give closer alignment of business and IT.

Questions

We ended the evening with some questions for Benn:

• Nodal architecture gives scalability. You can have the database and application front end on the same or different servers.
• Do you intend to support interfaces with other databases? We already do SQL. You could use ODBC to e.g. Oracle.
• Impedence mismatch is a “hot topic” in some circles but Jade has had this for some time.
• What do Jade look for in graduates? They like people who have been in business and are used to working on projects and delivering in time. Any developer is given an induction on Jade followed by mentoring.
• What is the syntax like? It is a bit like Pascal.
• Jade handles many to many very easily.

Conclusions

The evening was very informative and we would like to thank both speakers for instigating an interesting discussion. The PowerPoint presentations of both speakers are available on the branch web site.

Downloads

• Download the presentation “OOPs – What we are doing (Part one)” in PowerPoint format
• Download the presentation “OOPs – What we are doing (Part two)” in PowerPoint format