Dan Olsen’s Weblog

I was just looking at the different information I can have come up on my opening page on my Blackboard account. I found that they had an option to have an RSS feed appear on my opening page. However, the feed is a feed that shows the status of Blackboard. So, Blackboard added RSS like I was hoping but not for the purpose I would like it for. I was a feed that gives me the latest announcements in all my Blackboard courses. I am predicting that Blackboard will get RSS feeds for my courses about the time I finish with my Masters degree. Figures.

Phil Windley recently posted an entry to his blog with the same title, “XML and Scheme“. He talks about how he used Scheme to show his class that what they are learning can also help them understand XML. I found this quite interesting because I thought of the things I learned from Dr. Windley’s Concepts of Programming Languages class. I used the same kind of process he showed in his entry to help myself understand XML better.

I have decided to base my CS 601R project around messaging. Dr. Windley had posted the idea of control messaging on the ECLab wiki. The idea behind the project is to consolidate the messages a person receives. Many of us have our email that we check on a regular basis. However, we also find that there are other types of messages that we may be interested in. The idea is to find a way to consolidate those messages into a single place such as a dashboard. You can read more about the idea here. I will also be posting information about the project on my wiki.

I have been reading a paper written by Charles Zhang and Hans-Arno Jacobsen called “Resolving Feature Convolution in Middleware Systems” in order to present the paper to my Middleware class. In the paper they talk about using Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) in order to resolve feature convolution. I have picked up a little bit about what AOP is from the paper but I still have quite a few questions about it.

My goal is to be able to describe AOP enough for the those in the class to walk away with a little more than just a basic idea of what it is. I contacted the authors of the paper and Hans-Arno Jacobsen responded with some links.

Look at Charles’s home page and at our current make-shift web page http://www.eecg.toronto.edu/~jacobsen/prism/ .

I’d also recommend our earlier papers in AOSD, IEEE TPD, DOA, and our newest AOSD’05 paper (revised version will be avail. in a few days.). They are all avail. on the above site.

Look at the papers by G. Kiczales, should be cited in our papers for an introduction on aop. Look at aosd.net and the aspectj pages for intors do aop.

Hans-Arno Jacobsen :: Department of Computer Science @ University of Toronto

If anyone has any other good information regarding AOP please post a comment on where I can find that information.

I am taking Computer Science 601R this semester from Phil Windley which is about middleware. I am looking forward to the class because I think it will be a lot of fun.

For the class, we have to find three papers written on the subject of middleware and spend three different class periods giving a class presentation on each paper. Well, part presentation and part discussion. We also have to decide on a project we would like to do for the class. Once we come up with the idea we are to submit a two page project proposal. When our project is approved, we have the semester to research and work on the project and produce a 10-15 page paper about it.

Now, of course, this is the perfect time for me to think about what I want to write my masters thesis on and get a head start my last semester as an undergrad. I am interested to hear of some ideas people might have as I am thinking up a topic. If you have any cool ideas dealing with middleware, let me know, I would interested to hear them. Some of the ideas Dr. Windley has given can be found on the class wiki.

I have received some answers to my questions from Doug Claflin of the Etiwanda School District. I will post my questions followed by his answers.

Question #1: You say there is web based access for parents to the AERIES system. What language are you using for that site?

AERIES is produced by Eagle software www.aeries.com They use asp code for the access to the ACCESS database. We have extended the system with our own customizations.

Question #2: Why did you choose that language opposed to other languages?

We chose the language because it was started in that language and we all know it.

Question #3: What kind of feedback have you gotten from the parents?

The few that have used it have liked it. Some have figured out how to use the system to get information that we didn’t expect. Such as the class assignment for their student before they are posted. Pretty ingenious I think.

Question #4: Do you have a server hosting the site there in the district offices or do you host it with another company?

[The] server is hosted at our site just outside the firewall. The system has a gradebook component that our teachers are starting to use and they like that they can access from home and work without carrying a diskette or emailing the data back and forth.

Question #5: Do you find any limitations by using Microsoft Access?

Access does have the limitation of the overhead of opening and closing of databases, but with efficient asp code and the use of arrays processing can be increased. We like the idea that AERIES provided us with the database structure and the code for the program. We also like that it is a known data structure that is open for access unlike proprietory databases.

Question #6: have you considered providing blogs for students to publish ideas and thoughts as they work through projects? Would this fit into you schools being K-8?

Blogs for K-8 may not work very well until they have unlimited access to computers. There still is a limited amount of time for K-8 to use the comptuer as a tool. K-8 is where they develop the skills to be productive with the computer and software so that in high school it is second nature to them and then the blogs can be implemented.

Question #7: What are the benefits of using Microsoft Office instead of an open source suite such as OpenOffice?

My tech team has looked at OpenOffice and was initially concerned about the portability of work between MS Office and OpenOffice. I believe that most of these issues have been remedied. I think it is just easier to stay with the MS Office suite for teachers in the elementary arena so there is a larger support system for their technophobic tendancies.

Question #8: At what grade do the students begin to have computer based training? What would you say is the most advanced projects used by the students in your district?

Kindergarten is where the students start to at least become familiar enough to use a paint program and title it. They progress through 8th grade where many students create sophisticated PowerPoint presentations with imbedded graphics, movies, animations, etc.

All information about the Etiwanda School District technology plan in this entry is provided with permission from Doug Claflin

My father-in-law is on the school board for the Etiwanda School District in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. He gave me the e-mail address of their technology specialist Doug Claflin so I could find out how they use technology in their schools. The school district is only over the K-8 schools in the area.

Doug informed me that they heavily rely on the Microsoft Office Suite. The students use Word, Excel and PowerPoint for different assignments through out their time in the K-8 schools. Doug said that they have used several products for these activities over the years but decided to use MS Office in order to prepare the students for high school and beyond.

For the administrators they also use MS Office. Their Student Information System (SIS), also known as AERIES, is built on MS Access. This system contains the students information and records. There is also web based access to this system for parents. Doug admits that the system is not as robust as it could be with other products but it is expandable and effective for their needs. I have asked him to explain in more detail this system they use. Here is what Doug says about the simple system:

Although this is simplistic in our application, when managing 15 schools, district office and maintenance/operation/transportation facility, simplicity across the network with a small efficient staff is best.

Doug Claflin

I will continue to post more information as Doug responds to more of my questions about their technology plan. I also hope to get some information from other districts around the country.

All information about the Etiwanda School District technology plan in this entry is provided with permission from Doug Claflin

RSS feeds! As a person who uses a news aggregator to subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds I must say that the benefit of a class website having an RSS feed is awesome! In Blackboard I have to log in to check what the latest announcements are and due dates (if the teacher posts them). With my 462 class all I have to do is subscribe to the RSS feed and I get the updated announcements with the rest of my news. I can also subscribe to the calendar so I know when changes have been to the assignment due dates. Will Blackboard eventually provide feeds for students using Blackboard?

Before I give all hail to RSS feeds in this field, I must add that this may only be something that people who are tech savvy will enjoy. I know many people that prefer to just log in when they need information.

However, it wouldn’t hurt to have an RSS feed for those of us who prefer to subscribe to a feed to get updates with all their other updates in their aggregator.

Dr. Windley is teaching my CS 462: Engineering Large-Scale Internet Applications class this semester. He is using MovableType for the class web site as well as Kwiki for different parts. I am going to compare the use of the web site to Blackboard through out the semester and see what kind of advantages and disadvantages I may find between the two.

I read an article today on CNN’s website called “Computer science school breaks with tradition“. The school is called Northface and is located in South Jordan, Utah which is just south of Salt Lake City. The school offers a computer science degree in 28 months and for $60,000. How do they do it? Well, all their courses are focussed on computer science. They have only one liberal arts course and instead of taking up time with general education courses they focus solely on the technical classes.

Northface is backed by IMB Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., and Unisys Corp. The goal of the school is to teach students what they need to know and that’s it. Many critics of the school say that the students won’t have the skills to be well rounded thinkers without the extra ciriculum offered at universities. MIT is one of those that says it is important for students to receive a well rounded education to succeed in the world of computers.

I am interested to see how well Northface students do compared to MIT or other well known universities in computer science. From the sound of it, Northface feels they will be competition for such schools.

Will Richardson posted to his weblog, Weblogg-ed, about the topic of K-12 Weblogs and Security. He stated:

First, let me say that these issues are ones that we’ve spent a lot of time discussing and debating. The last thing that we want, obviously, is to put our students at risk as they work more transparently and publish to a wider audience. Even though (knock wood) we’ve not had one problem in the hundreds of student Weblogs that we have created here, parents are legitimately concerned about the potential abuses.

Will Richardson :: Author of Weblogg-ed.com

Security is an issue that I am planning on including in my paper on technology in education. Security is a real issue that needs to be addressed in order to make technology a success in a learning atmosphere. As Mr. Richardson points out, it is especially important in the K-12 schools because the students are all minors and would need to have their parent’s approval before the student could use weblogs or other online publishing tools.

Now the question comes up, “What do we do if a parent does not approve?”. Something Mr. Richardson says is to block the public from seeing what the students are publishing. He mentions how Manila has an “Editor’s Only” option where a teacher can assign access to certain students. Do other programs provide the same kind of options? I looked at MovableType and I can’t tell if they support this feature or not. MovableType supports multiple authors but I have not found a way to block the weblog from anyone other than the “editors”.

An important security measure would have to be the teachers being responsible for checking their student’s entries frequently to make sure that the students are not using the system in any kind of inappropriate manner. If we cannot get the teachers to do their part effectively there is already a break down in the system. How easy would it be to get teachers to monitor the content on a regular basis? This was another point which Mr. Richardson pointed out.

These are just some of the questions that I hope to continue to answer as I research this topic.

I received a comment from Phil Windley in which he stated:

I’ve used blogs (including Slash, Radio and Movable Type) to manage courses for about 3 years. Have you thought about how blogs can be used to achieve many of the same features of Blackboard? I’d be interested in seeing a comparison of features and uses.

Phil Windley :: Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University

I had a class from Dr. Windley where he used a weblog for the class and that was the first time I was introduced to weblogs. I plan on looking into comparisons between Blackboard and weblogs.

After reading the comment by Dr. Windley I started searching the Internet for other blogs that post on the topic of Technology in Education or similar topics. The first blog that I bumped into was Will Richardson’s Weblogg-Ed. Mr. Richardson posts news that he finds around the Internet mostly regarding weblogs in education. On his blog, Mr. Richardson also has a link called “educator weblogs” which is a list of educator’s weblogs as the name of the link implies. I have contacted Mr. Richardson and hope to hear back from him and hear some of his ideas and philosophies.

Another blog a came across was DV for Teachers by Tim Merritt. DV for Teachers is a weblog with ideas and information for teachers in regards to technology. I read a couple of posts from this blog and found that it has some basic useful information.

I will continue to look more in depth on the subject of weblogs used for educational purposes as it seems to be growing in popularity. I also plan to look and see what other systems there are in the market that are similar to Blackboard and compare them as well.

I am getting ready to write a paper for a writing class I am currently enrolled in and I have decided to write about the benefits of technology in education. This topic is one that has interested me as of late. This entry, and entries that will follow, contain some of my thoughts and findings on the matter. Ideas from anyone would be greatly appreciated!

This first entry is about the basic ideas I have for my paper. I am doing this with the hope that people will add their comments and give me some ideas and sources that may be useful.

As a student at Brigham Young University I have had the opportunity to use the Blackboard online course system. Although Blackboard has some improvements to make (which may be the case in the latest version which BYU is not currently running) it is a great resource. Currently BYU provides links on Blackboard to resources and other useful information found on the Internet. In my opinion, this kind of information and these kind of resources should be available to all students.

The best part about Blackboard, in my opinion, is how easy it is for professors and students to communicate. If a professor needs to clarify a point and make a change to an assignment, he or she can post it to Blackboard and all the students in the class can check the announcements for such changes. Another feature that I have found useful time and time again is the discussion groups. I have received help from other students by posting my questions to the discussion group and in return I post answers to other student questions. One of the best features is the online syllabus which eliminates all the paper teachers have to use to distribute the information about the course. Blackboard does have some issues that need to be worked out, or BYU needs to do a better job at implementing Blackboard. One issue that needs to be addressed is the security of information. Security and other such issues are important and need to be thoroughly reviewed and discussed before technology can be truly reliable in education.

My focus on technology in education is not limited to higher education. I am also interested in what can be done in the K-12 schools. A friend of mine mentioned that in her high school biology class they had computers at their dissection stations that took them through the steps of the dissection. I remember waiting on different occasions for a teacher to come and help because the teacher was the only resource we had to use. The time that can be saved by using computers in the class room could provide more time to learn more material. Is that such a bad idea?

As I said earlier, input on this topic would be greatly appreciated. I will continue to add to this topic as I find more information and as my paper progresses. I will also be sure to post any good comments that are posted in the comments section.