Given by Geoffrey C. Fox at 8th Annual Scholarship and Community Conference University of Houston (Hilton Hotel) on October 7 1998. Foils prepared October 10 98
Outside Index
Summary of Material
We start with an overview of web based education in asynchronous and synchronous modes -- we cover
|
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 in education |
We stress the important role of both Asynchronous and Synchronous collaboration and the web and web-based collaboration allows one to implement it. |
Outside Index Summary of Material
October 7 1998 University of Houston |
http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/houstonwebedoct98 |
http://www.npac.syr.edu/tango |
Geoffrey Fox |
Syracuse University |
NPAC |
111 College Place Syracuse NY 13244 4100 |
3154432163 |
We start with an overview of web based education in asynchronous and synchronous modes -- we cover
|
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 in education |
We stress the important role of both Asynchronous and Synchronous collaboration and the web and web-based collaboration allows one to implement it. |
Pervasive Communication Infrastructure (The Internet) and powerful new software technologies and concepts
|
Can enable education and training with
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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
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So all we need is ....................... |
Organizations with appropriate mission, resources and entrepreneurial spirit to do the grand experiments, succeed and blossom in the future .... |
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 semester teaching graduate computational science |
Can combine with local CDROM of curricula material |
Have specialized programming laboratories for both Web and parallel programming -- Jackson students do ALL work from a PC at JSU accessing resources at Syracuse |
Taught using Tango over Internet and defense high performance network DREN every Tuesday and Thursday from Syracuse
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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
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Needs guaranteed 30 (audio) to 100 (video) kilobits per second bandwidth assuming course material mirrored at JSU
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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 |
Structured (managed) Curricula |
Unstructured Info |
Collaboration/Interactivity |
Teacher-Students (Instruction) |
Student-Students (Projects) |
Collaboration = Sharing |
Asynchronous = Access to common Web and Database Information sources + simple tools (email, calendar) |
Synchronous = Real time/Interactive sharing of information that can also be accessed asynchronously |
An "object" is a "foil" or "screenful" -- natural unit of information that fits both computer screen and goal of focussed nuggets of knowledge |
Use Conventional Web Servers and databases (a.k.a object brokers) as information sources |
Server-side enhancements (Collaboration server, XML Curricula object processor) written in Java |
Client Side enhancements are a mix of Java applets (GUI), Java Applications (curriculum manager) and JavaScript (control web pages) |
Can collaborate with server or client side shared applications |
WebWisdom |
Shared Database |
Chat |
Shared Browser |
Audio Control |
Tango Control App |
Universities "specialize" and deliver courses in areas of expertise
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JSU will lead HBCU wide deployment |
NPAC is studying use internationally |
Pilot for distance training for DoD |
Professors |
Students |
Common Shared Books and Such Resources |
Done separately for each class at each university |
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) |
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 -- help with shared cursor |
Need to keep everything synchronized |
Chat stores up messages to answer at end of "current object" |
Teacher can browse ahead 1 or more foils as "thumbnails" |
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! |
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
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So the architecture is that of distributed objects which are designed to be as modular as possible
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Initial design will be traditional -- include
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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
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What about the four different object models swirling around in today's technology cauldron?
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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
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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 |
It would be good to use simulations and nifty animations and digital video if available
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But at the low end, use PowerPoint or HTML (with various levels of sophistication in editor)
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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 |
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
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"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. |
So as we have stored all our material in a database, managing it is equivalent to building an administrative support system for the database
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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
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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
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In synchronous learning, teacher selects material from website and delivers it in electronic virtual class rooms
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In collaborative learning, teachers, assistants, students and the web resource interact in an electronic collaboration system
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Note systems like Lotus Notes are "just web-linked object brokers" from this point of view |
All approaches use basic asynchronous tools such as electronic mail, bulletin boards and searchable repositories |
Can record synchronous sessions for later asynchronous replay |
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
|
Web Pages |
Web Pages |
Java |
Java |
C++ |
C++ |
Tango supports a synchronous shared event model of collaboration |
Tango supports (more than) enough (over 40) applications |
Core Collaboration Capabilities
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Shared Streaming Video |
Databases Linkage (Under Development)
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Office and Authoring Tools
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Very Useful for Education |
General Virtual University Applications
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Special Virtual University Applications
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Have some fun with Multi-player games
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"Other" Applications
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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 |
Tango provides for any developer:
|
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 |
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
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In any case, you choose events to be shared; meaning of master/slave relationship (if any) and consequence of sharing on disparate machines
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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
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As primary Web function is asynchronous information publishing, Web-based collaboratories inherently link two models
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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
|
Use a database to store material so as to
|
Database has curricula material of all (4) levels of sophistication and supports both synchronous and asynchronous learning
|
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 |
At K-14 education level, dominant emphasis is "building learning communities" and tools to support collaborative learning
|
Web collaboration is central to many other applications |
Thus there are many leverage points
|
We have discussed Distance/Collaborative Learning Community Education and training-- teachers and students (and administrators) |
Some important areas using related technologies are: |
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 |
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 |
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 |
At K-14 education level, dominant emphasis is "building learning communities" and tools to support collaborative learning
|
Web collaboration is central to many other applications |
Thus there are many leverage points
|
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 |
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 |
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 |