Full HTML for

Basic foilset Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It!

Given by Geoffrey C. Fox at Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. on September 9-11 1998. Foils prepared September 13 98
Outside Index Summary of Material

We start with an overview of web based education in asynchronous and synchronous modes
Then we describe Tango which can be downloaded and used Today
It is quite reliable and one of most sophisticated "WebWindows" applications -- build systems entirely on top of Web clients and servers
Overview of Tango Architecture, Capabilities and how to use it -- not only in education but also in
Collaborative Visualization and Computational Steering or more generally Collaborative Research
In each case one needs a mix of Asynchronous and Synchronous collaboration and a mix of real-time and archival information.

Table of Contents for full HTML of Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It!

 Denote Foils where Image Critical
Denote Foils where HTML is sufficient
1 Web Based Education and Training Lets go for it!
2 Abstract of An Introduction to Web-based Education Presentation
3 The Ingredients of Web Based Education
4 CSC499/615 at Jackson State
5 Architecture of Tango Distance Education
6 95 Talking to NT running 4 Applications
7 Tango WebWisdom Model Collaborative University model for Education
8 Screenshots of Tango Teaching Tools
9 NPAC Education Curricula and Distance Delivery Activities
10 Lessons from JSU Experiment
11 Design and Architecture of Curricula Material
12 Future Design and Current Status of Curricula Material
13 Traditional Model of Instruction
14 Collaborative Model of Instruction
15 The Pragmatic Object Web I
16 Pragmatic Object Web II
17 Authoring the Curricula
18 4 Approaches to Authoring of Back End Resource I
19 4 Approaches to Authoring of Back End Resource II
20 Managing the Curricula
21 Learning and Teaching the Curricula I
22 Learning and Teaching the Curricula II
23 Collaborative Capabilities
24 Multi-Lingual Collaborative Dance
25 TangoInteractive is Just One Click -- Integrated into Web Browser
26 Download the Java Controls Login into the Java Server
27 A Session is An Application and a Group of Users You can join a session
28 The current Capabilities of Tango -I
29 Click the Chat Icon to start a Session
30 TangoInteractive is a flexible framework -- 3 chats
31 Tango Offers Two White Boards
32 Capabilities of Tango -II
33 Microsoft's NetMeeting runs under Tango -- It has a more limited sharing Model
34 The current Capabilities of Tango -III
35 Two Shared Physics Simulations and audio video conferencing
36 Either Join or Master Remote Opens
37 Shared Simulations -- Fluid Flow and Planetary Motion
38 The current Capabilities of Tango -IV
39 Games are Natural in Tango Othello and the Magic Cube
40 Architecture of Tango
41 TANGO Server
42 How do you use Tango I?
43 How do I use Tango II?
44 Tango and Collaborative Versions of Other Large Scale Systems
45 Asynchronous vs. Synchronous
46 Features of Database Backend
47 WebWisdomNT
48 PPT Slide
49 Leveraging Collaborative Tools
50 Collaborative Web Applications with their Participants I
51 Collaborative Web Applications II
52 TANGO for Distributed Simulation and Computational Steering
53 Tango and Grande Gateways
54 Shared Visualization in Tango
55 A Shared Java Mapper used in Crisis Management
56 Some Tango Futures

Outside Index Summary of Material

HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 1 Web Based Education and Training Lets go for it!

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
September 11 1998 Mississippi State University
Dynamics of the Networked Academy
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/msuwebedsept98
http://www.npac.syr.edu/tango
Geoffrey Fox
Syracuse University
NPAC
111 College Place Syracuse NY 13244 4100
3154432163
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 2 Abstract of An Introduction to Web-based Education Presentation

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
We start with an overview of web based education in asynchronous and synchronous modes
Then we describe Tango which can be downloaded and used Today
It is quite reliable and one of most sophisticated "WebWindows" applications -- build systems entirely on top of Web clients and servers
Overview of Tango Architecture, Capabilities and how to use it -- not only in education but also in
Collaborative Visualization and Computational Steering or more generally Collaborative Research
In each case one needs a mix of Asynchronous and Synchronous collaboration and a mix of real-time and archival information.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 3 The Ingredients of Web Based Education

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Design of (possibly new as exploiting new possibilities) curricula
Decide on Architecture of the curricula material
Authoring of material in curricula
Managing the material and students response to it including quizzes, grades and administration
Delivery of the material in a mix of self-paced (asynchronous), traditional (synchronous) or collaborative (interactive)
Good answers to all these components are pretty clear and these answers will match the evolution of web over next few years
  • The answers are not perfect but they will improve and they are already good enough and can be delivered at a distance
So all we need is .......................
Organizations with appropriate mission, resources and entrepreneurial spirit to do the grand experiments, succeed and blossom in the future ....
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 4 CSC499/615 at Jackson State

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Taught using Tango over Internet and defense high performance network DREN every Tuesday and Thursday from Syracuse
  • Course material based on Syracuse Senior Undergraduate class ECS406(Web Technologies) and graduate class CPS615(Base Computational science)
Jackson State major HBC University with many computer science graduates
Do not compete with base courses but offer addon courses with "leading edge" material (Web Technology, modern scientific computing) which give JSU (under)graduates skills that are important in their career
  • Job fair employers liked Java Programming!
Needs guaranteed 30 (audio) to 100 (video) kilobits per second bandwidth assuming course material mirrored at JSU
  • Can be offered using CD-ROM's to homes with audio only (plus modest fram rate video) link and 28.8 kbaud modem
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 5 Architecture of Tango Distance Education

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
NPAC Web Server
JSU Web Server
Java Tango Server
.......
Share URL's
Audio Video
Conferencing Chat Rooms
White Boards etc.
Address at JSU of Curriculum Page
Teacher's View of Curriculum Page
Student's View of Curriculum Page
Participants at JSU
Teacher/Lecturer at NPAC
.......
Java Socket
HTTP
Java Control Clients
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 6 95 Talking to NT running 4 Applications

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
95
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 7 Tango WebWisdom Model Collaborative University model for Education

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
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Universities "specialize" and deliver courses in areas of expertise
  • Provide all students and faculty with access to broader range of leading-edge courses
JSU will lead HBCU wide deployment
NPAC is studying use internationally
Pilot for distance training for DoD
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 8 Screenshots of Tango Teaching Tools

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
WebWisdom
Chat
Shared Browser
Audio Control
Tango Control App
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 9 NPAC Education Curricula and Distance Delivery Activities

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Can offer "Certificates in Internetics or Computational Science" (Total of 4-6 or 1-2 semester classes respectively)
Can offer internally Web and Java classes for K-12 level
All these courses are in form suitable for synchronous/asynchronous delivery
Taught two semesters from Syracuse over Internet a Senior Undergraduate Class in Java for web applications at Jackson State Mississippi using Tango collaboration system
This fall combining with local CDROM to teach computational science at Jackson using full asynchronous and synchronous support
Tentative Collaboration with Peking University to set up ICWU or "International Collaborative Web University" with initial focus on teaching Internetics
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 10 Lessons from JSU Experiment

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Students liked the job relevant skills taught
Important to have curricula mentor and technology expert at remote site; important to visit 2 or 3 times a semester
Digital Audio/video less stressful to lecturer than speaker phone
"Shy" students are helped by remote format as digital interactions are "personality neutral"
Need to keep to the point -- digressions, which are often helpful in standard lectures, tend to lose students
Need to keep everything synchronized -- chat as we tended to use it caused confusing delay
Experiments were successful but conservative -- we deliberately tried to reproduce "time honored approach" -- we can expect there to be different optimal approach in distance case than in face to face case -- find by more experiments!
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 11 Design and Architecture of Curricula Material

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
First we note that the web is evolving to the "object web" as "distributed object" and traditional web technologies merge. Whether Sun(Java), Microsoft(COM), W3C (Web Consortium) or OMG (Object Managent Group) win does not matter
  • At a high level they are all distributed objects accessible from the web
So the architecture is that of distributed objects which are designed to be as modular as possible
  • Natural size of basic "educational object" is about a screenfull
Initial design will be traditional -- include
  • Bunch of "foils" (electronic presentation)
  • Bunch of HTML pages (electronic book)
  • Bunch of multimedia dazzle (today's educational CDROM's)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 12 Future Design and Current Status of Curricula Material

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Future design will include virtual environments and interactive simulations and these can only improve a situation that is already better than current teaching model because
  • Can teach at a distance more students than in a class.
  • Thus can invest more effort in curricula by the most appropriate developers and so get more up to date understandable curricula of a traditional type
  • distributed electronic object model allows for greater re-use than current system allowing development of customized courses for special audiences
  • Universal access technology will also allow optimization of delivery of given material to special groups of users
  • And of course distance education can reach users who otherwise would find it hard to attend quality classes
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 13 Traditional Model of Instruction

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Professors
Students
Common Shared Books and Such Resources
Done separately for each class at each university
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 14 Collaborative Model of Instruction

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
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Professor from Univ. 1)
Outside
Students
Common Shared Books Web based Lecture Material
and Similar Resources
Each University teaches a given class to all Students Universities divide classes up among themselves
Local Students
INTERNET
Class I is
given by
University 1)
to students
at 1,2,3)
3)
2)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 15 The Pragmatic Object Web I

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
What about the four different object models swirling around in today's technology cauldron?
  • XML from W3C is easiest and great for documents
  • Java Jini/RMI from Sun is most elegant
  • CORBA from OMG is most powerful
  • COM from Microsoft is highest performance and best developed and Gates will soon crush us all ...
So don't settle on any one of these but put all your material in a database; host your database with a server (called a broker in CORBA) and use "middleware" (an Enterprise Javabean and JDBC - the Java Database Connectivity standard) to map between models
  • Do NOT produce HTML pages
  • Can use Oracle or any standard "relational" database
  • Put up a token fight against Microsoft -- abhor Access
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 16 Pragmatic Object Web II

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
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Maybe we will complete our book "Building Distributed Systems with the Pragmatic Object Web" which describes the current cauldron using as example JWORB -- a server that understands all 4 object technologies ...
Alternatively take our "4 to 6 semester course" Certificate in Internetics offered using Web-based instruction!
Alternatively learn into from your children who can also take (at a distance) our 1 to 2 semester Java Academy designed for middle and high school students
"Business Logic"
Java(JDBC)
Servlet optimizing display for client
Student/Teacher
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 17 Authoring the Curricula

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
It would be good to use simulations and nifty animations and digital video if available
  • Simulations can be server side objects or client side (applets)
But at the low end, use PowerPoint or HTML (with various levels of sophistication in editor)
  • Using COM can store individual foils of PowerPoint in a database
At the high end, use Macromedia Director or equivalent technology
Only use technologies that support web export
Consider as objects that can be stored in a database and exported as HTML/XML using some template
Store video and images in multi-resolution format to accommodate different curricula quality/network bandwidth tradeoffs
Expect authoring tools to improve
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 18 4 Approaches to Authoring of Back End Resource I

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
In order of increasing sophistication; cost; preparation time and presumably also in increasing learning value
"Low-end" typified by simple HTML and PowerPoint. Of course hand written notes and postscript are even less sophisticated but these are getting less important.
"Enhanced Low-end" typified by audio or video over web pages. Not clear how editing is possible/desirable
  • This can be viewed as a pragmatic way of capturing details from the busy lecturer who does not have the time to carefully prepare a more sophisticated resource.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 19 4 Approaches to Authoring of Back End Resource II

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
"Medium End" such as the Cornell Virtual Workshop where one provides overview material (as in traditional foils) as well as more detailed information. The former is used when you lecture and the asynchronous learner uses the details.
"High End" such as the classic Multimedia CDROM ( or its web equivalent) prepared by sophisticated authoring tools such as Macromedia Director and with possibly professionally produced videos.
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 20 Managing the Curricula

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
So as we have stored all our material in a database, managing it is equivalent to building an administrative support system for the database
  • Administrative system is built in usual way as "business logic Javabean middleware" running on a server and accessed from some web client
Web export from database should support Educom's IMS standard for metadata to allow convenient webwide searches of repositories
One needs special modules that accommodate
  • PAPI or Personal and Performance Information
  • Submission of homework of diverse nature
  • Laboratories including both programming and science labs
  • Producing composite lectures from collections of base educational objects (re-use)
  • More research needed on assessment tools
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 21 Learning and Teaching the Curricula I

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
So the students need to learn the material and they may need some sort of help from a teacher or mentor
In self paced or asynchronous learning, student studies material in his or her own time and essence of this is a web site which may of course be generated from a back-end web-linked database
  • optimal for highly motivated mature students such as those in continuing education
  • electronic version of using a library
In synchronous learning, teacher selects material from website and delivers it in electronic virtual class rooms
  • Homework is set from same website which remains a base asynchronous resource
  • Natural when teachers insight delivers motivation and clarification of key material to student
  • electronic version of traditional classes
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 22 Learning and Teaching the Curricula II

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
In collaborative learning, teachers, assistants, students and the web resource interact in an electronic collaboration system
  • Seems particularly valuable in K-12 arena
  • Also natural model for collaborative research
Note systems like Lotus Notes are "just web-linked object brokers" in this point of view
All approaches use basic asynchronous tools such as electronic mail, bulletin boards and searchable repositories
One need not chose any one approach as can support all of them with a (preferably database back ended) web site linked to a suite of collaboration tools
Note just as we can link asynchronous--synchronous--collaborative, we can also link education and training
  • Note modular educational objects naturally support smaller units of achievement certificates
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 23 Collaborative Capabilities

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Collaborative Systems share information between participants -- in education, these are students and teachers either synchronously
  • conferencing; white board; shared simulations/visualizations; shared curricula pages; chat rooms; special resources such as meeting control/voting/"raise hands" applets
or asynchronously as in Lotus Notes
  • threaded discussion (i.e. mail); calendars; documents (this is just database)
  • or as in MOO's, and Bulletin Boards
Note can record all sessions in database, so synchronous/collaborative interactions can be replayed asynchronously
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 24 Multi-Lingual Collaborative Dance

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Web Pages
Web Pages
Java
Java
C++
C++
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 25 TangoInteractive is Just One Click -- Integrated into Web Browser

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Tango Interactive is Integrated into Web Browser
Start with One Click
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 26 Download the Java Controls Login into the Java Server

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 27 A Session is An Application and a Group of Users You can join a session

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 28 The current Capabilities of Tango -I

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Tango supports a synchronous shared event model of collaboration
Tango supports (more than) enough (over 40) applications
Core Collaboration Capabilities
  • Audio-Video Conferencing multicast between room participants
  • Text chat rooms with various tradeoffs between "coolness", ease of use etc.
  • Shared Browser (Synchronized view of Web Pages)
  • Shared Web Search (becomes shared database query)
  • Slide Show
  • White Board
  • Shared Audio and Video Players (Java Applets and link to video on demand database)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 29 Click the Chat Icon to start a Session

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 30 TangoInteractive is a flexible framework -- 3 chats

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Shared Streaming Video
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 31 Tango Offers Two White Boards

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 32 Capabilities of Tango -II

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Databases Linkage (Under Development)
  • JDBC Link to WebWisdom Database
  • Lotus Notes Link to Asynchronous Collaboration
Office and Authoring Tools
  • PowerPoint via shared display or shared Java viewer
  • Microsoft Excel using NetMeeting
  • Microsoft Word
  • shared visual C++ etc.
  • Combined Whiteboard / Java object based PowerPoint like authoring system
  • Shared emacs editor -- shared programming
Critical for Education
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 33 Microsoft's NetMeeting runs under Tango -- It has a more limited sharing Model

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 34 The current Capabilities of Tango -III

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
General Virtual University Applications
  • Current WebWisdom hierarchical systems navigating through 20,000 foils and 500 foilsets
  • "Raise Hands" Applet to help teacher-student synchronous interaction
Special Virtual University Applications
  • Shared Java applets to teach physics (spring, planets, vector cross product)
  • Shared visible human illustrates biology teaching
  • Shared Java Applets used to teach Java!
  • Shared SmartDesk system aimed at activities useful in special education with built in assessment
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 35 Two Shared Physics Simulations and audio video conferencing

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 36 Either Join or Master Remote Opens

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 37 Shared Simulations -- Fluid Flow and Planetary Motion

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 38 The current Capabilities of Tango -IV

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Have some fun with Multi-player games
  • VRML Chess
  • JavaScript Tetris
  • Java Othello and Rubic's Cube
  • Should develop snakes and ladders and bunch of similar "grid" games
"Other" Applications
  • TANGOsim command and control system with shared tools (e.g. mapping, weather) to use in scripted crisis management
  • There is a very good shared mapper which is a Java whiteboard supporting map backends and general shared drawing
  • Shared Visualization and other programming tools under development
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 39 Games are Natural in Tango Othello and the Magic Cube

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 40 Architecture of Tango

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Java Tango
Server
Netscape Browser
Tango
Daemon
Shared Applet 1
Shared Applet 2
Shared
Java/C++/..
Application
Socket Connections
Client Side Bus
Netscape's
LiveConnect
Typical Client
Other
Collaborating
Clients
Shared
JavaScript/ Web Page
Tango CA
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 41 TANGO Server

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Java application
  • requires JDK 1.1 or higher
100% maintenance free
Industry-strength stability
Platform-independent
  • tested on IRIX 5/6, Solaris, Linux, Windows NT
  • will also run on Windows'95 (not recommended)
Available for download from http://www.npac.syr.edu/tango
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 42 How do you use Tango I?

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Tango provides for any developer:
  • Session control among users
  • Access to broad range of general collaborative tools
  • API to JavaScript (Web Pages), Java Applet or Application, C and through C to any client side program (LISP, VRML)
If you have a set of Web pages defined by their URL's -- then use today the Shared Browser and later on can store in WebWisdomNT database for a more powerful model
If you have some enhanced Web Pages using Cookies and Forms (and wish say, to share form input), then we need to use shared JavaScript API -- we can provide this as general capability
If you wish to share server side results as in Lotus Notes (or CGI Scripts), then exploit web export of these servers -- XML very powerful here -- with a variant of shared browser
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 43 How do I use Tango II?

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
If you have a client side program, then you need to know an API to it which allows one to get and set all the properties (or events which are change of properties)
Most elegant interface is a TangoBean which implements shared Javabeans
  • A Javabean is a Java applet/application which has well defined visual and programmatic interface to its properties -- "design rules"
In any case, you choose events to be shared; meaning of master/slave relationship (if any) and consequence of sharing on disparate machines
  • e.g. in shared physics simulation, one could share positions of particles or just start/stop commands
  • Then slower machines simulate less .....
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 44 Tango and Collaborative Versions of Other Large Scale Systems

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Note that in Audio-Video Conferencing, Video on Demand, and Microsoft NetMeeting applications, Tango "just" provides session control to another application which provides itself all the necessary data distribution
  • This is also true in Shared Browser where Tango just provides a URL and lets Web Servers distribute information
  • So could in principle support many other such subsystems including other A/V conferencing tools such as MBONE
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 45 Asynchronous vs. Synchronous

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
As primary Web function is asynchronous information publishing, Web-based collaboratories inherently link two models
  • Both modes focus on the basic concept of a "shared object"
  • Both modes can share presentation tools
  • Synchronous mode may create or persistently enhance/modify shared objects
Web database linkage technology (based on JDBC/ Enterprise JavaBeans) promotes complex asynchronous collaboration by exposing rich data models of industrial-strength relational and OO DBMS's
Need Both! Tango can be linked to Oracle, Lotus Notes and similar database systems -- XML is a powerful interface for such linkage
  • Tango offers "guided tour" sampling a large asynchronous web site, CDROM, database
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 46 Features of Database Backend

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Use a database to store material so as to
  • Manage large collections
  • More easily adapt to changing/different browsers by "just" changing templates
  • Back-up, security etc. well established capabilities
Database has curricula material of all (4) levels of sophistication and supports both synchronous and asynchronous learning
  • database stores multimedia information -- video, audio and images
  • Also administrative information; organization of courses into programs; grades; student/teacher data
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 47 WebWisdomNT

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Educational Objects i.e.
Data Defining Curricula Material at all levels from "University" to "foil"
Server side
Java(JDBC)
XML Parser
Servlet
Metadata
Web/Video Server
Conventional HTML Pages
Dynamically Generated
(IMS/ADL) Metadata
Streaming Audio/Video
Web Browser
Templates Defining in XML How educational data stored in Pages
Share with Tango
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 48 PPT Slide

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 49 Leveraging Collaborative Tools

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
At K-14 education level, dominant emphasis is "building learning communities" and tools to support collaborative learning
  • Fully interactive; semi-interactive (as in MOO model) or possibly asynchronous
  • Working through NCSA Alliance with NSF CILT center
  • 2.5D Chat is perhaps a nice tool here
Web collaboration is central to many other applications
Thus there are many leverage points
  • Synchronous teaching a good place for early deployment of collaborative tools as relatively structured and so less sensitive to immaturity of systems
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 50 Collaborative Web Applications with their Participants I

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
We have discussed Distance/Collaborative Learning Community Education and training-- teachers and students (and administrators)
Not so directly relevant to this group, we have:
Forums and Chattering on the Web -- the world!
(Tele)medicine -- Doctors (primary and specialist referrals), Nurses, Patients and administrators
Business Enterprise (strategic) Support as in Lotus Notes -- Employees of Business including especially managers
On next page, we find there are applications of direct relevance to DoD HPC users
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 51 Collaborative Web Applications II

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Crisis Management and Command and Control or more generally distributed (tactical) real-time decision support -- decision makers and gatherers of information
Multidisciplinary Applications including Collaborative design -- teams of up to 10,000 engineers
Collaborative Visualization/Data Analysis and Computational Steering -- one or more computational scientist and visualization device
Consulting and shared software/systems development
In each case Collaboration involves support for dynamic interactive shared distributed objects and one needs both synchronous (as in Tango/Habanero) and asynchronous (basic Web/Lotus Notes/Email) support
The shared objects are both client and server side
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 52 TANGO for Distributed Simulation and Computational Steering

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Clearly Java Collaboration Systems are natural implementations of general environments that mix computers and people
Computational Steering -- a simulation is like a participant in a Tango session which has
  • simulation engine
  • visualization subsystem
  • one of more computational scientists
Distributed Modeling and Simulation (from DMSO) with "humans and computers in the loop" already has this type of architecture
NCSA has developed a prototype collaborative visualization system using Tango (2D and 3D images can be shared by participants with viewpoint and choice of rendering replicated)
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 53 Tango and Grande Gateways

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
Geographically
Distributed
Grandecomputer
Resources
GrandeGateway
System
hosting Seamless Access
TangoInteractive,
Visualization and other Services
Geographically Distributed users
and consultants
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 54 Shared Visualization in Tango

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
NCSA has used C++ Tango Interface to produce collaborative visualization linking multiple clients running VTK (Visualization Toolkit)
  • AS VTK cross platform, this collaboration can link PC's, UNIX, CAVE's etc
NPAC's SV2 is building a Java server-based visualization system that can be accessed either from the SciVis Java visualizer or AVS or ....
  • As in database backend, the Tango Server and Visualization Server are distinct so that we do not put the large data streams through the Tango server
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 55 A Shared Java Mapper used in Crisis Management

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
HTML version of Basic Foils prepared September 13 98

Foil 56 Some Tango Futures

From Web Based Education and Training -- Lets Go for It! Dynamics of the Networked Academy Mississippi State Univ. -- September 9-11 1998. *
Full HTML Index
We intend enhancements to some applications -- such as full annotation (on the Java Whiteboard) with database access and archiving in WebWisdomNT
We will evaluate Internet Explorer version (prototype available), Macintosh and AIX support
Archive audio-video conferencing, text chat etc.
Looking into a built in window manager, more automatic support for mirror (content) servers
Link Tango user module with administrative (class) database -- link Tango and conventional mail
Lots of interesting assessment opportunities
Could build Collaboratory tools -- scientific visualization will be supported but also could do debuggers, performance visualizers etc.
EOT PACI has identified NCSA Biology Workbench, BU Biology database, and for K-12 Belvedere annotation system
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