Teaching Computer-Mediated Communication for Governance

At the Varietas Multidisciplinary Teaching Interest Group on Wednesday we discussed what was required for a learning management system (LMS). What quickly became apparent was that selecting an LMS should be treated like other requirements analysis for an ICT system. Rather than start with a shopping list of features found in typical LMS, we should work out what the learning objectives are, the appropriate learning styles for that learning and then how ICT can support it.

LMS can have document creation and document/record management facilities, person to person and person to group communication, meeting management, assessment management and course delivery features. What many of these have in common is computer-mediated communication (CMC):

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is defined as any communicative transaction which occurs through the use of two or more networked computers.^[1] While the term has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats (i.e., instant messages, e-mails, chat rooms) it has also been applied to other forms of text-based interaction such as text messaging. ^[2] Research on CMC focuses largely on the social effects of different computer-supported communication technologies. Many recent studies involve Internet-based social networking supported by social software.

From: Computer-Mediated Communication, Wikipedia, 28 September 2008, at 11:06

Even the document/record management facilities and assessment, could be considered a form of communication. The record management facilities are used for communicating from now to the future, and the assessed is the assessor communicating to those who may wish to employ the student.

This analysis should work well for the courses on web design and electronic document management I present, as the topic of the course is also Computer-Mediated Communication.

To test if this would be a useful approach I tried the same technique wh9och I had used with "learning commons". A web search on CMC, returned about 2.5 million hits. Narrowing the search to the last 24 hours, produced just over 10,000 documents. This suggested the term was widely used, but the real surprise came when I narrowed the search to CMC for 24 hours at ANU, which found 4 documents, including an announcement of a seminar a few hundred metres from my office by an expert in lexicography and computer-mediated communication: The 5-Concentric Circles Model & the Australian English Dictionary, Vincent B Y Ooi, The Australian National Dictionary Centre, CEDAM Seminar Room, Building #96, 10 October 2008.

Rather than arguing the merits of Wiki, Blog, Podcast, Webinar, Feed or whatever new technology may be around the corner, it should be possible to apply the analysis developed for CMC, such as synchronicity, persistence, multimodality, privacy and security.

My courses on web design and e-document management largely address the needs of governance. This could be generalised as CMC for governance; that is using computer based systems to coordinate an organisation, or a society. In this way we can step back from the detail of how email or word processing documents should be archived in a company or a government agency and look at how computers can be used to make decisions, have those decisions implemented and satisfy the community the process was properly carried out. Different forms of CMC can then be assessed to see how they assist governance.

Learning Management Systems for multi-disciplinary teaching

Srinivas Chemboli runs the Varietas Multidisciplinary Teaching Interest Group at the Australian National Unviersity in Canberra. This week's meeting is on learning management systems (LMSs) for multi-disciplinary teaching (all welcome):

The Varietas TiG will meet today at 11:30 at N329, CSIT Building [Bldg 108]

Agenda

• LMS needs for multi-disciplinary and disciplinary teaching/research/collaboration
• What should a wish-list for a LMS comprise of?
• Document creation/management tools
• Focus on function and goals, not specific technologies
• Communicate/discuss the proposed draft outline for group activities via LMS
• Support for logically ordered communication
• Calendaring/meeting-manager support
• Support for blended/flexible learning
• Set up a time-frame/agree upon an action-plan to draft the needs statements for an LMS
• Assess existing LMS options in the context of the needs statements
• Integrating cross-disciplinary strengths in teaching
• The logistics of a cross-disciplinary group course

Building supercomputers from computer game chips

Eric McCreath is giving a seminar at the ANU on building supercomputers from computer game chips. He will be talking about using the Cell Broadband Engine (from Sony's PlayStation 3 game console) and the NVIDIA 8800 GPU (from PC gaming graphics cards) for scientific applications. The seminar is free and there is no need to book:

DCS SEMINAR SERIES

Using the Cell Broadband Engine and NVIDIA 8800 GPU for Computational Science Applications: A Particle Dynamics Comparison

Eric McCreath (DCS, ANU)

DATE: 2008-09-25
TIME: 16:00:00 - 17:00:00
LOCATION: CSIT Seminar Room, N101


ABSTRACT:
The NVIDIA 8800 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and the Cell Broadband Engine employ a vast amount of parallelism to produce low cost high performance systems which dwarf standard desktop processing units in terms of floating point calculations. These systems offer great potential for computational science applications. This presentation compares the programming model, implementation strategies and realised performance achieved on these two systems for implementing a simple particle dynamics simulation code. Both systems were found to give considerable performance improvements over high-end uni-processor machines. The Synergistic Processing Elements (SPE), on the Cell, can not directly access main memory. This complicates initial implementation compared to the NVIDIA GPU, however, fully exploiting the complex architectures of both systems is equally challenging.

BIO:
Eric McCreath completed his Ph.D. degree in 1999 from the University of New South Wales. This was on research involving Inductive Logic Programming(ILP) which is a sub-field of Machine Learning. He joined the Basser Department of Computer Science(now the School of Information Technologies) at Sydney University in 1999 as a lecturer and then in 2001 he joined the Department of Computer Science at the Australian National University. Dr McCreath currently holds a lecturing position at the ANU and is pursuing research in the Computer Systems research group.

ANU Multidisciplinary Teaching Interest Group

Srinivas Chemboli has issued an invitation to those interested in Multidisciplinary Teaching to join the Varietas Multidisciplinary Teaching Interest Group at the Australian National Unviersity in Canberra:

Varietas-TIG is a Teaching Interest Group (TIG) that focuses on multi-disciplinary themes in teaching.

Wednesday, 17 September, 16:00 - 17:30, N335 CSIT Bldg (Bldg 108)

Topics of discussion will cover (but are not necessarily limited to):
1) A multi-disciplinary approach to teaching and course management
2) Reconciling different pedagogical approaches across disciplines
3) Incorporating a wider spectrum of research-led themes as guides for teaching
4) Integrating reusable knowledge across disciplines in skills and services-oriented curriculum
5) Develop an effective methodology to reuse the semantic richness of multiple disciplines

Website: http://alliance.anu.edu.au/autoreg/varietas

Topics for Discussion This Week:

• Format/ideas for TiG activities
• Multi-disciplinary activities at the ANU
• Discussing the practice and personal experience in cross/multi-disciplinary teaching
• Equity in multi-disciplinary courses, a pipe-dream?
  • Suggested activities for analyzing the trend in cross/multi/inter-stream courses
• Tying in assessment with disciplinary objectives
• Paper discussion: Multidisciplinary students and instructors: a second-year games course

e-Assessment makes the grade

The University of Canberra is having a Learning & Teaching Week, 9-12 September, 2008 with free events, which non-UoC people, such as myself were invited to. One of the last sessions was the seminar "e-Assessment: More than just a grade", with Professor Geoffrey Crisp, Director of the Centre for Learning and Professional Development, University of Adelaide and author of the "e-Assessment Handbook".

I attended a similar seminar by Professor Crisp, at ANU last October. The presentation has been updated with new material since then. He showed simple ways to implement computer assisted assessment using existing tools such as the Moodle and Web CT learning management systems, in conjunction with web based simulations and other interactive applications. There are demonstrations of the technquies available online (you need to create your own account for acceess). He also demonstrated the use of Ken Taylor's world leading VotaPedia system, which we used at the Open 2020 Summit.

This was a very useful and skillfully presented seminar, which combined high level educational theory, painlessly combined with practical tips for teaching. About the only negative was that the University of Canberra's technology was not quite up to the job, with the system controlling the video projector crashing and other audio visual problems impeding the presentation. However, Professor Crisp was able to skillfully work around these and use them as lessons about e-learning.

e-Assessment: more than just a grade This session explores some of the opportunities offered by online assessment to improve student outcomes and the quality of the assessment tasks. The work is based on the Carrick Associate Fellowship project and describes how academics can prepare interactive, computer-based assessments using helper tools such as browser plugins, java applets, QuickTime VR and Flash. The aim of the project is to assist teachers to move beyond simple multiple choice questions in an online environment to provide much richer, authentic and meaningful assessment tasks for students. Discipline examples may be viewed at http://andy.services.adelaide.edu.au/moodle/

The Lecture is dead

As part of the University of Canberra's Learning & Teaching Week, I was invited to come along to "The Lecture is not dead!". Michael de Percy made the case, followed by comments by two other UoC people. Michael started with a mock video-conference with a fictional "cowboy" lecturer. This had a clever pre-recorded segment with Michael in a cowboy hat on screen apparently replying to questions from the real Michael in the room. This was mildly amusing, with the cowboy lecturer making ironic statements about lecturing. But the sound was very poor and the video stopped and had to be restarted, ruining the illusion of a video conference. Also I had difficulty working out when Michael was being serious and when he was being ironic.

The distorted sound gave me a headache and so I left the room for a few minutes. When I returned Michael was presenting Powerpoint slides with a lot of colour and text in them. At this point I became unsure as to if the comedy had finished and he was now being serious. The cowboy Michael had suggested using loud pop music in lectures and throwing around beach balls. I tool this to be a joke, but Michael then said that world music appealed to the overseas students and he seemed to be being serious. There were also comments about the use of "clickers" which were cheap if purchased with a text book, which I was not sure was intended as a joke but sounded like one.

The two UoC people providing a response did not clarify any of this. At question time, as requested I announced that I had given "My Last Lecture" at ANU and received a round of applause.

Overall the session was disappointing. About all I got from it was conformation of my view that humour should be used sparingly in any presentation. If this was intended as a demonstration of how lectures could be made interesting if failed completely and confirms my view that the lecture is dead.

What was more useful was an information discussion after the formal sessions, about how UoC is exploring alternatives to traditional lectures and the inducements for this and barriers to it. Had the session been on that topic it would have been far more useful and interesting.

Digital Preservation of e‐Records

Tom Reding, CRM Executive Consultant (Governance, Risk & Compliance), IBM, will be speaking on "Digital Preservation of ESI (e‐Records) for the 21st Century and Beyond" in Canberra, 12 September 2008 at a joint RMAA/ALIA event.

Options, alternatives, and strategies for long term preservation, information lifecycle management (ILM), migration and legal risk associated with migration of information / conversion, strategies for preservation / migration of ESI will be explored and examined thoroughly with the audience. Authenticity, integrity and reliability requirements for digital migration and preservation as well as the ARMA guideline for migration / conversion will be an integral part of the presentation. The functionality of Retention Management vs. Records Management processes and technologies ...

Higher Learning Success by Design

The University of Canberra is having a Learning & Teaching Week, 9-12 September 2008. On Tuesday I attended the interactive workshops: "Seven Levers for Higher and Deeper Learning - Research-based Guidelines and Strategies for Improving Teaching, Assessment, and Learning" and "Successful Learning by Design - Making Courses Clear, Coherent, Connected, and Consequential" by Professor Tom Angelo, from La Trobe University.

ANU people, such as myself, where generously invited to attend by UoC. It looks like about one quarter of the twenty or so people at the workshops were from ANU. The day did not start well as I ended up in the wrong building facing a very large industrial fridge with a bio hazard warning on it (I was in building 3 of the university, not building 6). Then when I found a room full of familiar faces and sat down, nothing happened for several minutes. Eventually someone came in and directed us to the other end of the campus to where Tom was waiting, wondering where we all were.

With everyone in the right place we were handed a very useful set of workshop exercises and when through interactive sessions, with a few PowerPoint slides, Tom talking and getting us to work in groups and respond. This was a useful form of demonstration of how the techniques being talked about could be applied.

Tom hinted at how what was being discussed could be applied to e-learning (what I am particularly interested in) and the drivers for its increasing use. But these workshops were designed to be applicable broadly to university teaching, not any specific technology.

Some of the techinues I could see applying in my own efforts, were use of quizzes for assessing students knowledge (and preconceptions) and the beginning of courses, asking students about what they wanted to get out of a course, have students act on what they read in a course, the use of think/paid/share approach (applied to e-learning, the use of something like the NSF concepts tests and pyramid tests.

One thing I thought Tom could have addressed were issues with students where English is a second language and are from other cultures.

Tom used the analogy of an African Grey Parrot: if it could be suitably trained would be able to complete our exam questions? This was a way for us to consider if we were just testing rote learning. I wondered if he should have changed it to a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo for the Australian context. More seriously, computer scientists will be familiar with this as the Turing test: where a machine is used to mimic a person, as a test of intelligence. The problem with this idea is that in narrowly defined fields, computers now perform well on such tests, challenging or notions as to what intelligence is. So just because a Parrot, or a computer, could perform well in an examination does not necessarily indicate that the exam is trivial.

At the end of the second workshop Tom seemed to stray from the general to specific suggestions of new learning modes for university and how these would costs to the university. The approaches suggested appears to be similar to the MIT iCampus. In a way I felt I had come full circle, as it was a talk about the iCampus which sparked my interested in e-learning and learning techniques a year ago. I would have liked to hear more about how Tom would see these techniques applied in Australia, but that would be the topic of a whole extra workshop.

After announcing "My Last Lecture", I was invited to come along to the Wednesday 10:30am panel session on "The Lecture is not dead!", to make some controversial remarks. It should be interesting.

Combined data center and solar power station for Canberra

A study commissioned by the ACT Government and ActewAGL has found that a large-scale solar power plant is feasible in Canberra: "Solar Power Plant Pre-feasibility Study". If re-elected, the government will seek expressions of interest to build the plant. As suggested to the Chinese government in 2003, I propose the plant be built on the roofs of new data centres and warehouses in industrial parks. This will allow the land under the plant to be put to use, provide power for the data center and industrial buildings. It would also overcome environmental problems with the previously proposed data centre for Canberra.

Building Design

The complex would use a standard industrial building design, with a roof strengthened to hold the solar collectors. Most buildings would be initially used as low cost warehouses and only fited out as data centers when required. The data centers would use a proven, simplified modular design for equipment, which would be placed on a simple sealed concrete floor. The height of the warehouse building would be used to reduce air conditioning requirements with proven low cost techniques.

Data Center Customers

Scientific customers, such as ANU's supercomputer center and government agencies, could be large scale tenants to anchor the development. Some ancillary office space could also be provided.

Twinning

To allow for backup data supplies and exploit the daily solar cycle, the center could be twinned with centers in other time zones. While concentrator solar power stations can store energy, there is still a peak power supply during the day. This peak power could be most efficiently utilised by the data centre under the collectors. A center in another time zone, such as near Perth, would have a peak at a different time of day and could take over some of the processing load from Canberra, as well as providing a backup.

Sighting

The feasibility study raised the issue of the visual intrusiveness of a large field of solar collectors. If placed on top of a warehouse, in industrial parks, the collectors would be less visible. The industrial park could be designed to high environmental standards, retaining natural vegetation around the buildings to soften the visual impact, with the buildings coloured to blend in. In addition the opportunity could be taken to collect high quality water from the complex, for use in Canberra.

Solar Power Plant Pre-feasibility Study
Executive summary

This Solar Power Plant Pre-feasibility Study was undertaken for ActewAGL and the ACT Government (the joint parties) by PB. Its purpose was to investigate solar power generation technologies, identify an appropriate solar technology for the ACT, and establish the economic viability of a solar power facility.

Technology for producing electricity from solar energy is technically proven for both PV and solar thermal technologies. 354 MW solar thermal plants, using trough technology, have been operating in the USA since the 1980s and new plants of this type (between 50 MW and 70 MW) are now coming into service in the USA and Europe. Other solar thermal technologies that are not yet in commercial use are power towers, paraboidal dishes and Fresnel systems. Large multi-megawatt PV plants, to approximately 50 MW, are now in operation. Solar technology is expensive, and significant financial assistance from government is available to the developers and operators of new plants. There is significant local community and market support for solar power generation.

This study identifies a 22 MW project that uses solar thermal trough technology, similar to new overseas plants, as the best option for the ACT. This technology has been chosen because of its substantial operational record (more than 20 years), lower cost compared to other solar technologies, and use in new commercial plants in the USA and Europe.

The plant will produce enough electricity for approximately 10,000 Canberra homes and the project cost, before government assistance, is estimated at $141 million (including land and infrastructure). A site of 120 ha will be required and if engineering, planning and environmental work commenced immediately, it is envisaged that a plant could be
commissioned by 2012.

An alternative option is a large PV cell-based plant. To produce the same amount of electricity (that is, to service 10,000 homes), 75 ha of land would be required and the plant would have an electrical capacity
of 57 MW. This would be one of the largest PV plants in the world but the risks would be lower than the solar thermal plant, reflecting the more mature status of PV technology, its predictable performance and
cost. However, the total project cost of $424 million is high.
It is recommended that this pre-feasibility study be followed by a feasibility study that includes engineering studies, ongoing commercial evaluation, financial modelling and environmental and planning studies.

A staged study, extending over eighteen months, could be conducted and lead directly into procurement and construction. However, trough technology is not cost effective for a staged development at the size
of the proposed ACT plant. Even though the solar field is modular, the balance of the plant is not suitable for staged development without incurring significant additional costs. A financial evaluation of the solar thermal project, assuming 100% equity funding, a 9.5% Weighted
Average Cost of Capital (WACC) and a 20-year project life was undertaken, Key results were:

• a levelised electricity cost of $106/MWh for a net project cost of $47 million. This is for a plant cost of $2,500/kW, which is forecast for the technology in Australa, and allows grant funding of 50% of the project capital cost;
• the relatively high cost of generation is due to the high capital cost of plant itself, the high proportion of infrastructure and land (38% of project cost) and the relatively low productivity (measured by the 42% capacity factor).
• larger plant size would significantly improve the economics by spreading the infrastructure costs over a larger productive plant and capturing economies of scale of the production plant itself. For example, doubling the plant to 44 MW would lower electricity cost by about 25%;
• 57% grant funding was required to reduce the levelised electricity cost to $95/MWh which is the expected Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) electricity selling price;
• higher solar radiation levels such as at Mildura would lower levelised electricity cost by about $50/MWh, or 17% (before rebates); and

Government grants and subsidies have been fundamental to the facilitation of the growth of solar energy generation around the world. The requirement for government support also applies to this project. This
project would appear to fit well with current Australian and ACT Government policies (such as the move toward zero/low carbon emissions and renewable generation) and it supports ActewAGL regulatory
requirements for renewable energy.

The Sun is a reliable but intermittent and diffuse source of energy. There is strong daily and seasonal variation and availability, and it may be limited by cloud cover. To extend power generation beyond periods of sunlight and to allow a steady supply of heat, two approaches to solar thermal plant energy storage were proposed:

• storage of heat at the plant and use of this heat when direct sunlight is not available. This would give an extra four to six hours operation without the Sun shining; and
• use of natural gas as an auxiliary fuel to supply heat as an alternative. If this is supplied by the waste heat from a cogeneration plant, an additional 47 MW could be generated by a gas turbine. The use of gas auxiliary fuel does not affect the eligibility of solar generation as renewable or green energy under the current regulatory arrangements, but may have some impact on community perceptions.

The solar thermal plant would occupy a significant area and unless it is well-shielded, it is likely to be a prominent visual feature. It would combine the physical features of the large solar field with a small
thermal power station, possibly with a gas boiler or small gas turbine for back-up. While the solar technology itself is considered to be relatively benign, it is likely to require consideration environmental issues, that are similar to those raised by a small gas-fired power station with the additional issues raised by the large land area and visual amenity.
Formal evaluations of potential sites for the solar facility will occur only if the project is found to be viable and progresses to a more detailed study, at which time such sites would undergo a rigorous environmental and planning assessment.

From: Executive Summary, "Solar Power Plant Pre-feasibility Study", Parsons Brinckerhoff Australia, (PB 2158583A-RPT001-Qpc, 2 September 2008

Helping Managers Achieve Value from ICT

Last night Peter Outteridge presented a Seminar on Achieving Value from ICT at the ACS Canberra Branch. This was based on a study sponsored by the federal government and conducted by the ANU and company Opticon Australia in 2005. Peter argued that this overlooked study had valuable lessons for helping ICT professionals assist their clients to get maximum benefit from ICT. The full text of the study is available online, along with an accompanying Achieving Value Booklet and the dataset for additional analysis.

Peter warned at the beginning that there would be nothing new for experienced ICT professionals in the talk. But what was new was having one's experience of the value of properly worked out business cases and project management confirmed by careful, detailed empirical analysis. However, what was missing was some idea of where to go from here to have these things implemented widely: if project management is clearly essential to getting value from projects, then why isn't it happening? What do we need to do to make it happen?

One concern I have is that ICT professionals may be expecting too much from the non-techncial managers of their clinet organsiations. The average manager has not been trained in the type of rigirous project management processesd which ICT professionals are. It may be too much to expect them to know how to look after such a project. Perhaps the average company or government agency should simply not do ICT development, and instead only purchase off the shelf, pre-proven hardware and software.

As a bonus at the end Petertalked about the development of the Leo computer, by the Lyons catering company. He humeriously described this as the first example of a vertically integrated computer business applciaiton and outsorucig company. Lyons build their own computer, modelled on Cambridg University's EDSAC and programmed it for oders in a call center and payroll. This was so succesful the company undetook payroll processing for other companies. But this was an exceptional company and I don't think the average organisation today should be doing software development, let alone hardware design. ;-)

Peter also recommended the Investment Management Standard (Victorian Government). However, even here, while the step by step process seems logical and simple enough, this is not an easy task. By making this look easy, this may well lead organisations into difficulty development processes. In many cases ICT will get the blame when the project goes wrong, even though it was a failure of management, not of technology. A case in point is Victoria's troubled Myki transport smartcard project. Like Sydney's failed transport smartcard, the problems are not with the technology but the business model built into the project.

Achieving Value from ICT: key management strategies (April 2005)
While there’s clear evidence that information and communications technology (ICT) can substantially improve firm productivity and performance, it’s wrong to assume that the introduction of a new technology alone is sufficient to provide these benefits. Organisations gain the greatest productivity and other benefits from ICT when it is accompanied by complementary management practices and strategies. This was demonstrated through research based on a survey of 1050 firms from 15 industry categories. Achieving Value from ICT: key management strategies examines the types of benefits organisations gain from the use of ICT and the management and organisational strategies that accompany effective ICT use.

The Achieving value dataset (File format: ZIP, File size: 319Kb) from the survey of ICT use in organisations that formed the basis of the Achieving Value report is freely available for fair use by researchers provided the results of any further analysis are shared with DCITA. An accompanying Achieving Value Booklet (File size: 356Kb) is also available.

From: Firm level studies on the influence of ICT on Australian productivity growth, DCITA Archive website, 5 February 2008

Matthew Purcell wins ACT Pearcey Award for Young Achievers

Matthew Purcell, best known in Canberra as the "The Silicon Kid", for his computer column in the Canberra Times newspaper, has won the inaugural ACT Pearcey Award for Young Achievers. The Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, handed Matthew the award last night.

Matthew is the ICT Manager at Canberra Grammar School. He was one of my students for e-commerce at ANU and I am delighted to see took the lessons about metadata to heart in designing the school's web site. He has promised to give me some tips on how e-leaning is being implemented at the school.

The award commemorates Australian ICT pioneer Dr Trevor Pearcey. He lead the team which build the world's fourth computer, CSIR Mark 1 (CSIRAC), which is on display in the Muuseum of Victoria.

Online teaching in Canberra

The University of Canberra is having a Learning & Teaching Week, 9-12 September, 2008 with free events, which non-UoC people are invited to. After announcing "My Last Lecture", I was invited to come along to their panel session on "The Lecture is not dead!". The seminar "e-Assessment: More than just a grade", and workshops "Seven Levers for Higher and Deeper Learning" and "Successful learning by design" also look useful.

Keynote speakers are:

Professor Tom Angelo, Director of the Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Centre, La Trobe University and author of "Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, Classroom Research: Early Lessons from Success" (1991) and " Classroom Assessment and Classroom Research: An Update on Uses, Approaches, and Research Findings" (1998).

Professor Geoffrey Crisp, Director of the Centre for Learning and Professional Development, University of Adelaide and author of the "e-Assessment Handbook".

Learning and Teaching Week session abstracts:

Seven Levers for Higher and Deeper Learning: Research-based Guidelines and Strategies for Improving Teaching, Assessment, and Learning

How much would you trust a physician, engineer, athletic coach, or nurse who didn't keep up with and apply lessons from relevant research in his/her field? Or one who couldn't apply basic principles of good practice to new situations, with new client populations, or in using new technologies? Probably not much. Yet many faculty and academic administrators remain (relatively) unaware of current research -- in psychology, cognitive science, and education -- on teaching, learning, and assessment and on its relevance to our daily practice. This interactive workshop will explore seven research-based guidelines and provide examples of simple, powerful applications to improve teaching, assessment, and student learning in and beyond our (virtual and actual) classrooms.

Successful Learning by Design: Making Courses Clear, Coherent, Connected, and Consequential

While effective teaching is clearly important, good course design may ultimately matter more in supporting learning. In a well-designed course, even an inexperienced but willing teacher can help average students achieve above-average learning. In a poorly designed course, on the other hand, even experienced, excellent teachers and above-average students struggle simply to survive. This workshop provides several simple, practical strategies for designing/redesigning undergraduate courses to promote learning outcomes effectively and efficiently. Key concepts demonstrated include: strategic alignment, backward design, cognitive loading – as well as the “parrot” and “bus” tests for course design quality. Please bring the syllabus, outline, or description of a course you hope to design or redesign.

e-Assessment: more than just a grade

This session explores some of the opportunities offered by online assessment to improve student outcomes and the quality of the assessment tasks. The work is based on the Carrick Associate Fellowship project and describes how academics can prepare interactive, computer-based assessments using helper tools such as browser plugins, java applets, QuickTime VR and Flash. The aim of the project is to assist teachers to move beyond simple multiple choice questions in an online environment to provide much richer, authentic and meaningful assessment tasks for students. Discipline examples may be viewed at http://andy.services.adelaide.edu.au/moodle/

University of Canberra moves to Moodle

Allan Christie from Netspot sent me a copy of their "Moodle & Sakai News for Enterprise-Level Education", which has a few interesting items on Australian universities working with e-learning products. They point out that University of Canberra has decided to replace Web CT with Moodle. and USQ is using Wimba with Moodle.

Replacing Web CT with Moodle is a sensible move, but a difficult one (apart from the technical changes, Moodle looks less glossy than Web CT). I am not sure how much integration would be needed, or possible between Wimba and Moodle, as Wimba is a real time audio, video application and Moodle is a mostly text based stored message sort of application. Apart from just having a hypertext link to start up Wimba from within Moodle, I am not sure what other integration would be needed, or possible.

University Accommodation from Shipping Containers

According to an ABC News report " ANU considers shipping in accommodation", the ANU is considering student accommodation made from converted shipping containers. The best known shipping container housing is the Dutch Keetwonen project. But there are a other Modular Low Cost Housing options, which can produce a very liveable building quickly, without using shipping containers.

... The university is considering the idea to help address Canberra's student accommodation crisis.

The containers have balconies with room for a kitchen, bathroom and double bed.

ANU Student Association president Jamila Rizvi says the containers are cheap to build and only take about two months to put together.

She says they will appeal to students.

"They are probably on the outside not as attractive as what we've got at the moment but certainly on the inside they are twice as good as anything being offered at the ANU at the moment," she said. ...

From: ANU considers shipping in accommodation, By Penny McLintock, ABC News, 14 August 2008

See also:

1. Audio: Extended interview: Jamila Rizvi speaks with 666 presenter Ross Solly
2. eHome: Modular Low Cost Housing
3. Did the shipping container change the world?
4. More on Shipping Containers
   

Auditing of Carbon Emissions, Canberra, 13th August 2008

Rod Gillan, Principal of Ethan Group will talk on "Auditing of Carbon Emissions" at the ACS Green ICT Special Interest Group Meeting in Canberra, 13th August 2008 (Register online):

Green ICT Special Interest Group Meeting
Auditing of Carbon Emissions

Rod Gillan, Principal, Ethan Group

In August 2007, Ethan Group conducted an Audit of the carbon emissions contribution by ICT in Australia Business for the Australian Computer Society (ACS). The Audit provided the foundation for the ACS to develop their Policy around Carbon Neutrality and begin lobbying the government for change.

It is not contended that all business should immediately become carbon neutral but rather that a rational coherent process should be undertaken to reduce emissions on a realistic and cost-effective basis. We recommend a commitment to a process which over time dramatically cuts emissions through the careful implementation of technology and an observance of emission reducing upgrade paths at various points along an infrastructure lifecycle.

About this Event

Venue: Executive Dining Room, Canberra Club, 45 West Row, Civic Date: Wednesday 13th August 2008
Time: 6:00PM
Registration Register

Additional Information

Event Type: Special Interest Group
PCP Hours: 2

Event Prices (Inc GST)
Regular Fee: Members: $0.00 Non Members: $0.00
Contact Details Meryl Morgan
PO Box 779
Mawson ACT 2607
(02) 6290 0711
(02) 6290 0722
acscanb@acs.org.au

Canberra Light Rail Proposals

Just had a call from a company asking if I knew who to talk to in Canberra about light rail proposals. The only people I know of with a serious proposal for trams in Canberra were the Federation Line. But there appears to have been no progress with that for several years.

This was a very modest proposal for a tourist tram in central Canberra, which seemed well thought out and would require the minimum of capital works. It would service some office staff and shoppers as well as tourists.

There is also ACT Light Rail. This seems to be a relatively recent group which has been active in late 2007. They do not appear to have a specific project proposal.

The ACT Government has proposed a light rail system linking Civic to the Airport, Parliamentary Triangle and major town centres, at a cost of "around $1 billion". They also proposed this could like to a future fast train to Sydney.

The ACT Government doesn't appear to have done a serious assessment of light rail, but instead is just putting in an ambit claim. The one billion dollars would be enough to run a line between two of Canberra's town centers, but not between them all.

One option might be to expand the Federation Line's proposal around Civic out to the Airport. This could service defence offices and offices at the airport itself.

Recently I visited Turkey and Greece and saw their impressive public transport facilities. However, those depend on having densely packed apartment blocks. The same infrastructure would be prohibitively expensive in Canberra's suburbs. About the best which could be hoped for is more bus lanes and reserved ways waiting for newer technology.

How to convert handouts to interactive learning objects

A free series of workshops on e-learning is being sponsored by the Australian Government. The next is on how to create e-learning materials using free software, in Canberra, Thursday 24 July:

Do you want to learn how to convert you handouts to interactive learning objects for your learners?

e-pd in the @CT

In 2008, the ACT Framework Team will provide free e-learning professional development opportunities for the ACT vocational education and training community.

AREDv2 e-tools workshop - Thursday 24 July

Applications for rapid e-learning development version 2 (AREDv2) is a free Australian Flexible Learning Framework tool to publish or create media rich interactions.

To register for this free e-tools workshop on Thursday 24 July from 1.30pm - 3.30pm at CIT Reid Campus, email kerry.manikis(a)cit.act.edu.au by cob Tuesday 22 July.

e-tools workshops are free short and sharp hands-on afternoon workshops which enable practitioners to use e-learning tools and resources to create engaging learning content.

For more information visit the ACT Framework webpage at http://flexiblelearning.net.au/act


Kerry Manikis
Senior Project Officer, Industry Integration of E-learning and ACT E-learning Coordinator
Strategic and National Projects, Marketing and National Positioning Centre, Canberra Institute of Technology
Post GPO Box 826, Canberra ACT 2601
Physical Room A202, Level 2, Block A, Constitution Avenue, Reid ACT 2612

Supporting e-learning opportunities for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework

Later events:

12 August, 12noon - 2pm - Toolboxes at CIT: ACT Toolbox Champion webpage
14 August, time to be confirmed - E-portfolios with guest presenter Allison Miller (E-portfolios business activity manager): E-portfolios Network, RPL Online Network (RON), Leonard Low's E-portfolios slideshow and Mahara (open source e-portfolio tool)
20 August, 8am - 9.30am - Toolbox showcase
27 August, two days - E-learning Explorers (Moodle) : e-explorers webpage
28 August, 1.30pm - 4.30pm - E-learning Tools: Virtual classrooms : e-tools webpage
10 September, 8am - 9.30am - Designing online learning sequences with Toolbox resources
11 September, 1.30pm - 4.30pm - E-learning Tools: Audio and podcasting
18 September, 1.30pm - 4.30pm - E-learning Tools: Moodle on a stick
29 - Tuesday 30 September, all day - E-learning Explorer (Myclasses)
2 October, 1.30pm - 4.30pm - E-learning Tools: Precious Web 2.0 gems
6 October, 1.30pm - 4.30pm - E-learning Tools: Digital stories
12 November, all day - November online event: configuration room

2 December, all day - ACT E-learning Showcase

Solar Energy Research at the Fraunhofer Institute Germany

Professor Eicke R Weber from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems will give a free seminar at the ANU in Canberra 29 July 2008.

Contact: kim.burgess(a)anu.edu.au

CSES SEMINAR SERIES

Solar Energy - Fraunhofer Institute Germany

Professer Eicke R Weber (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems)

DATE: 2008-07-29
TIME: 19:30:00 - 20:30:00
LOCATION: Engineering Lecture Theatre

ABSTRACT:
Professor Eicke R. Weber is the Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and Professor of Physics and Applied Sciences at the Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany. The ISE institute has a staff of approximately 670 people and an annual budget of more than 36 million Euro. It is one of the world's leading research institutes in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The focus of Professor Weber's research is the analysis of lattice defects in Si and compound semiconductors. Recently he specifically studied how ('good') solar cells can be produced from upgraded metallurgical ('dirty') silicon with high metal content. url: www.fraunhofer.de

BIO:

Professor Weber studied Physics at the University of Cologne, Germany. From 1983-2006 he lectured at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of California, Berkeley - since 1991 as Professor of Materials Science. In 1990 he was appointed visiting professor at the Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan and in 2000 at the Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. In 1994 he received an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. From 2004-2006 he served as the chair of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Graduate Group in Berkeley. He served as president of the Alexander von Humboldt Association of America (AvHAA) from 2001-2003 and in 2003 he was elected founding president of the German Scholars Organization (GSO). In 2006 he received the Award of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande) of the German President.

Opposition to gas fired power station in Canberra

Efforts to build a data center with co-generation in Canberra have met with local opposition. The Garnaut Review interim report proposes a carbon trading scheme. The effect of this will be to increase the cost of electricity compared to that from gas (which is less polluting). But this is not as easy as it looks. As an example the proposal for a gas fired co-generation plant for the "Canberra Technolofy City" data center in Canberra is meeting community opposition. The plant will be much cleaner than a coal fired one, but the residents don't want it within a few tens of kilometers of them (the coal fired plants are hundred of kilometers away).

The opponents remapped the data provided by the plan's proposers to emphasize how far pollution would spread. This is a sensitive issue as Canberra is subject to an inversion layer in winter, trapping pollution. However, a new gas fired power station is going to produce very little pollution. Perhaps its output should measured in FWDE: "four wheel drive equivalents". ;-)

The proposers of the plant brought some of the problems on themselves by calling what they were building a "power station" and emphasized its capacity. If this was described as just a way to supplement the data center's power it is unlikely anyone would have noticed.

The community consultation documents show the data center "ground view-from Macarthur", of a starkly visible white building with four towers which look like smoke stacks, rising out of the countryside. If the building was painted grey-green and tan to blend into the landscape it would be far less objectionable. This would not increase the cost of the plant, the steel panels of the building could simply use the standard palate of Colorbond colours developed to developed to blend into the Australian landscape. For increased blending, the rectangular building panels could be of subtlety different colors, forming digital comflage and making the building difficult to see from more than a few hundred metres away.

If the stacks were in low visibility colors and below the ridge line of the surrounding hills, it would not look so much like a power station. Gas fired generators are very small units, and the one for the data center probably occupies about the space of a double garage. The buildings show in the plans will be the offices and the cooling plant for the data center, not the power station.

13th Australian Conference onSafety Related Programmable Systems

The 13th Australian Conference on Safety Related Programmable Systems is in Canberra, 21-22 August 2008.

13th Australian Conference on
Safety Related Programmable Systems

University House

Australian National University

CANBERRA, 21-22 August 2008

Regulating for Safety – is it enough?

The Australian Safety Critical Systems Association (aSCSa) announces its 13th National Conference on Safety Related Systems. The 2008 conference will be held in Canberra, ACT at University House, (Map), The Australian National University and its theme will be the role of regulation in the development and deployment of safety-related software intensive systems. Apart from specific hazardous industries where some level of regulation exists, the only direct governance for the development and deployment of safety-related software intensive systems is occupational health and safety legislation which is often applied after the fact. Tort (Common) Law could also be considered as an after-the-fact control.

Continuing the very successful format of recent annual conferences, international and local keynote speakers will address this topical issue. The keynote speakers include:

John McDermid Professor of Software Engineering Science at the University of York, UK

Frank McCormick President (Certification Services, Inc., USA) and FAA Consultant DER

Paul Cheeseman Deputy Technical Director, Asset Management, Lloyd’s Register Rail, UK

A “Call for Papers” has been issued. A programme for the conference is expected to be available July 2008 following the notification of acceptances. The two-day conference will commence at 9.00am Thursday 21 August 2008.

To complement the conference a course and a tutorial are offered. Prof John McDermid will present a short course on evidenced-based approaches for safety, commencing 2.00pm Wednesday, 20 August 2008. To register, please complete the registration form: [Editable Form] [Paper-based]

Want more information about the conference?

For questions about the Conference Program, please contact:

Dr Tony Cant (Program Chair) Trusted Computer Systems Group Information Network Division Defence Science and Technology Organisation

PO Box 1500 Edinburgh SA 5111 Australia Email: tony.cant(a)dsto.defence.gov.au

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