Wished For In-Kind (Equipment and Software) Donations

As of: April 12, 2011 | Misc | Server PCs | Client PCs

None of the items below are absolutely essential to the short run work of WebLearningTools Research through the end of 2011.  However, monetary donations made via PayPal will help the PI purchase some of the equipment and software listed below from online stores such as eBay and Amazon, as well as from other real and virtual stores with online listings of new and used equipment and software.

    Miscellaneous Devices, Parts & Software
  • One of the following Canon $300+ digital cameras: S90 or G11 or ideally: an EOS-1D Mark III (10 megapixels per frame), or EOS-1D Mark IV (16 megapixels per frame), or EOS-1Ds Mark III reborn (21 megapixels per frame), or EOS-7D or any other camera in the EOS series. 
    This very high resolution camera with 1+ high quality interchangeable lens will allow the PI to manually digitize in very high quality images other books in her personal library and which donors ask to be digitized.  This mode of digitizing is much cheaper, but more time consuming, than buying a used automatic microfilm-to-digital-web-files scanner-digitizer. 
    With digital images of book pages, she can "OCR" the digital images and securely web-publish the contents of 1+ books on this web site within the constraints stated in the "Fair Use" section of U.S. copyright law.  Thereafter she also can experiment with various multi-book contents search strategies, some of which may be deployed for user-testing and feedback on this site. 
    Also she can experiment with the automated generation of multiple learning "threads" (or paths) through similar technical book contents according to various student learning objectives. Minimally the PI and assistants will report on this web site the best processes these experiments reveal with which educators and institutions can digitize and securely web-publish contents of their own institutions' physical libraries. 
    See the "virtual library" building overviews, white-papers, and projects on this site for more goals and details.
  • 1-3 Iogear GPU202 or GUF202 USB2.0 pcmcia card(s) to enable older laptops in or donated to the test-classroom to use USB 1 & 2, plus FireWire.
  • 1-3 Logitech "Quickcam for Notebooks Pro" web cam(s) with USB 2.0 cable for test-classroom laptops.
  • 1+ USB-switch. This device will allow a WLT instructor or TA (i.e. someone presenting "stand-up" instruction or training) to switch between 2+ USB 2 web-cameras placed in their physical classroom. The switcher should also switch between live and pre-recorded parts of a class presentation where that material comes from various servers in the classroom or audio/video sources available to the classroom.

Minimally the PI and assistants will report on best use and best cases that utilize this hardware in the WLT test-classroom and in other nearby classrooms that are suitable for educators to adopt.

    Server Parts & Software to improve existing 3 server tower lab on an 8-port Belkin KVM.
  • 1+ CD/DVD-R/W internal drive(s).
  • 1 nVidia AGP-3 video card for 2 monitors for P4 server.
  • 1 Adaptec RAID-1 PCI card for SATA hard disk drives for P4 server.

    Client Parts & Software for the lab's test classroom.
  • 1+ used Pentium 4 laptop(s) 1GB RAM preferably upgradable to 2+ GB RAM, A/B/G or N WiFi, 10/100 ethernet, IDE HDD bay, reasonably good Li-ion battery (45+ minutes running on the battery-only), power adapter.
  • 1+ older Apple MacBooks, PowerBooks minimally with 1GB RAM preferably upgradable to 2+ GB RAM, A/B/G or N WiFi, 10/100 ethernet, IDE HDD bay, reasonably good Li-ion battery (45+ minutes running on the battery-only), and power adapter.
  • 1+ newer Apple MacBooks or "Mac Airs"minimally with 1GB RAM preferably upgradable to 2+ GB RAM, A/B/G or N WiFi, 10/100 ethernet, IDE or SATA HDD bay, reasonably good Li-ion battery (6+ hours minutes running on the battery-only), and power adapter.
  • 1+ Apple iPad-1 or iPad-2 tablets and power adapter.
  • 1+ used Android OS or Mac-OS smart-phones with WiFi.

Needed In-Kind (Equipment and Software) Donations

As of: April 12, 2011 | Misc | Server PCs | Client PCs

Prioritized items below are essential for the WebLearningTools Research PI (not yet able to hire paid lab staff or research assistants) to complete more and better work in the short run to the end of 2011.  Monetary donations made via PayPal will help the PI purchase some of the equipment and software listed below from online stores such as eBay and Amazon, as well as from other real and virtual stores with online listings of new and used equipment and software.

    Miscellaneous Devices, Parts & Software
  • (High) Upgrade CD for OmniPage Pro OCR software to current version 17 (from v11).
  • (High) Almost any $150 5+ megapixel digital camera with a zoom lens with macro capabilities. With this camera to make stills and "short" videos) and 1+ "SD" cards for that camera.  This camera will help the PI record on-site examples of installed, working DL and ITS for display on this site.  Also the macro feature of this camera will enable the PI to "manually" digitize technical books in her library of physical books and micro-filmed books in order to use them for "in-house" study by computer and for restricted logged-in public web-use as eBooks to be available care of this web site. (I would be sharing my library with interested and well identified others.)
  • (Medium) Nuance.com's Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software, 5 seat / computer license, $99 as of April 2011.  With it, the PI can speed up her pace of providing new content and revisions to exiting content on this web site.
  • (Medium) 1 HP LaserJet color printer with toner cartridges usable as a network printer, WiFi printer, or USB cable-connected printer.
  • (Medium) 1+ USB-switch. This device will allow a WLT instructor or TA (i.e. a presenter such as myself of "stand-up" instruction or training) to switch between 2+ USB 2 web-cameras placed in a test classroom (such as at the WLTRes lab) or in a physical classroom. The switcher should also be able to switch between live and pre-recorded parts of a class presentation where that material comes from various servers in the classroom or audio/video sources available to the classroom.
  • (Low) 1-2 17" or wider flat-panel monitors (USB+VGA).

Minimally the PI and assistants will report on best uses and best cases that utilize this hardware in the WLTRes test-classroom and in other nearby physical (brick-and-mortar) classrooms so that educators can better determine which are more suitable to adopt.

    Server PC Parts & Software to improve existing 3 server tower lab on an 8-port Belkin KVM.
  • (Medium) 2+ 320GB (or larger) SATA hard disk drives for RAID-1 on P4 server.
  • (Medium) 1 Adaptec RAID-1 PCI card for SATA hard disk drives for the 3rd of the 3 P4 servers.
  • (Low) 1+ CD/DVD-R/W internal drive(s).
  • (Low) 1 nVidia AGP-3 video card for 2 monitors for the 3rd of the 3 P4 servers.
  • (Low) Pentium 5 upgradable dual-core mother boards with CPU and 2+ GB memory on each.
  • (Low) One Gigabyte-per-second LAN switch

    Client PC Parts & Software for the lab's test classroom.
    The test classroom currently has 2 8-10 years old Pentium 4 laptops each with 160 GB and 40 GB ATA-IDE hard disk drives and 1 GB of main memory, such that the memory is not upgradable.
  • (Low) Upgrade to the latest Framemaker word processor and book publishing software FM v9(?) (from the lab's existing Framemaker 5.5).
There are no translations available.

 

Efforts Prior to 1997: WebLearningTools Research originally was a "garage lab" operation which I operated part-time on my (the PI's) extra income from contract computer programming and instructional design work.  There were a few interesting work-products suitable for improving distance learning which I created from 1990-1997, one of which was "stolen" by Adobe, Inc.  I said too much in the presence of an unidentified Adobe scout at a NextWorld conference in San Francisco.  Please enjoy their costly "Adobe Distiller Server" product which still falls far short of the vision I had in 1994 and begun to implement for a similar open source product, now a part of what I call the EOE Project.

Full-Time Efforts, 1997 to 2009: In 1997 I received a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Education to develop ideas I had proposed for Internet (web) server software technologies that would create "virtual schools", "virtual classrooms", and an "educational operating environment" (EOE).  The "virtual schools" and "virtual classroom" projects have been implemented and sold by others in what I call crude "generation one" Web 1.x and Web 2.0-beta versions at this writing.  But in this investigators opinion, the feature sets of these products are rudimentary at best and tedious to use and maintain for instructors and instructional content authors.  The instruction is just as fixed and inflexible -- and in some ways more difficult to change -- as is instruction or training made with the use of an ordinary textbook, hardcopy exercises and tests.

Please read my essays published elsewhere on this web site to explore my criticisms of the commercial and open source products available to-date in these areas.  See also the off-site web-links that I and others add to this site to elaborate on these technologies and their problematic technical, ordinary maintenance, and pedigogical issues.

 


 

Meta Project Goals: Since I first saw a painfully simplistic working example of Psychologist B.F. Skinner's "Programmed Instruction" displayed on a terminal connected to an IBM 360-40 mainframe in 1964, I have wanted to contribute to much more educationally useful forms of distance learning.  As I learned more about "artificial intelligence" (AI) in computer science classes in the 1980s, I also became acquainted with leading "thought leaders" in the Silicon Valley of the time, such as Dr. John Seely Brown and others, who predicted the advent of what we now call "Intelligent Tutoring Systems".  I have tracked the progress of the relevant software technologies from then to date and improved my technical knowledge and skills in those areas as well.

Therefore, the projects I propose on this web-site will demonstrate practical designs, prototypes, and ways to achieve "generations 2 & 3+" of Web 2.x and Web 3.x (semantics-aware systems) of combinations of emerging and to-be-developed advanced open source distance learning and intelligent tutoring system software tools.  For the non-technical reader, "we" (the world of Internet users) are at the Web 2.0 stage as of the end of 2009.  In this expert's opinion, VERY much needs to be improved in what is available commercially and as free open source for distance learning that carries the "web 2.0" label.  And projects published in summary and in-detail on this web site will demonstrate and explain those improvements for non-technical educators, administrators, and for computer technical people as well.

Interestingly, the EOE I proposed at the end of my formal Dept. of Education work period in 1998 has not been implemented in the public domain for 12+ years.  In short: The EOE is intended to integrate disparate (heterogeneous, otherwise not "friendly" or not-inter-operating) commercial and free open-source server systems of similar function.  Please see my essay-style, white-papers and public design overviews of the EOE design available elsewhere on this web-site.

The research I performed with Dept. of Education funding, 1997-1998, led to too many good ideas about how this field of distance learning technologies and what was then called "computer assisted learning" might evolve.  With post-grant financial help from my "mentor", VP of ana-systems, Inc., Mr. Stan Osborne, I further developed these ideas 3/4 to full-time into projects for which I could then prepare more concrete discrete proposals for grants.  Mr. Osborne is a long time computer contract programmer and systems administrator and a lecturer in computer security and computer systems administration at San Francisco State University.


 

A few of the "better developed" proposed projects alluded to above will soon appear on this web-site as encouragement for "angel funding" from site visitors who have sufficient funds to contribute to the intended collaborative design and development efforts.

The Lab Equipment and software always needs updating and upgrading.  See the "Needed In-Kind Donations" article on this site for details.  The Lab Equipment currently consists of a 10/100 Mbps LAN for desktops and servers, WiFi (b/g) wireless networking for laptops, and a high-speed DSL connection to the Internet. Networked computers in the lab number 5 to 10 depending on the number put in service for "serving" purposes. There are currently 3 dedicated server computers, each a Pentium 4 with high-capacity SATA hard-disk storage. Among other things with such a LAN "we" can experiment with load balancing locally before deployment of server software to one or more public "test" or "live" (production) sites.

Some test goals: We want to be able to experiment with various configurations of "thin" (stupid, dumb, slow, but rugged and durable) and "thick" or "robust" (smart & fast, but expensive) client computers in "test classroom" scenarios. We are materially able to do some of those tests now, if and when they become a priority. For client computers currently there are 5-6 laptops available of various ages. Ages range from 5 years old Pentium 4s to an Apple G4 notebook, a Pentium 3, to 2 12 years old Pentium 2s. All of these can be used as simulated thin-clients or as thick/robust/smart client workstations and can be put to use in a variety of test-classroom and test student-course-materials presentation and learning interactivity scenarios.

The older laptops and a few older Pentium 3 desktops are used for "regression testing" of the same tests we would perform with newer, more recent hardware and software, but using slower machines, perhaps with no file storage capabilities on the laptops, and perhaps running older operating systems.

Some Intended Publications: We hope to publish best-case configurations and performance reports about the uses of older equipment which in turn can use "well" newer or newest educational software, course-ware, and distance learning techniques and web-sites. We hope to publish these reports in several languages such that they will encourage and guide certain "poorer schools", school districts in developed and developing countries to adopt state-of-the-art distance learning services and materials in their curricula if and when all they can get is the "older computer equipment" and networking hardware.