Open Source Experiences in the elearning Andrea Valboni andrea.valboni@microsoft.com National Technology Officer Microsoft Italy
Agenda Why ConferenceXP Learning Gateway ALMA TWO, an italian experience More free tool for Schools and Universities.
Why Develop mature partnerships with the global scientific community with MSR working with them to solve the significant scientific problems facing the world today Clearly demonstrate the value of Microsoft software products and research technologies for helping scientists solve the problems they care about Working examples for several scientific communities showing how Microsoft technologies can interoperate with other operating systems and with open source software solutions to create an effective platform for research
Technology without learning science
Improvements Can we do better.
The ConferenceXP Project How compelling and deep can we make the learning experience if we assume high bandwidth, powerful PC s, and advanced Windows technology? Classroom Presenter ConferenceXP Client Microsoft OneNote
Approach Build research platform to support conferencing and the development of rich collaborative applications Collaborate with the academic and research community to build and prototype applications that use ConferenceXP Build a community of developers and implementers
Design Goals Rich experience Integrate high performance audio, video, and network technologies Scalability with single computer per node architecture Ease of use Easy setup and deployment Simple UI to enable participants to join online conferences, presentations, and classes Extensible Provide APIs that enable the development of custom user interfaces and applications
ConferenceXP Scenarios High quality, realtime collaboration Highly interactive distributed learning Active learning in wireless enabled classrooms
ConferenceXP Projects Cross cultural business school collaboration University of Massachusetts, Amherst and University of Ireland, Galway Australian School of the Air Australian Northern Territories Education Department Collaborative music instruction Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; Moscow State University Engineering Design Sketching Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University Engagements 2004 & 2005 Funded Research Projects Purdue: Immersive Mentoring Using Mixed Reality Tabletop; A Tablet PC Based Teaching Platform for Portable Mixed Reality Concept Michigan State: Wireless ConferenceXP with Intelligent Congestion and Rate Control; Peer to peer Multi reflector Networking for ConferenceXP UW: The Teacher Experience Project; Windows Media Transcoding using CXP Archive Service ; An Ink Enabled Curriculum for Data Structures MIT: Classroom Learning Partner IIT, Kanpur, India: Health Information Delivery NTU, Argentina: Mathematical Whiteboard Using ConferenceXP Pace University: Utilizing the Tablet PC to Enhance Lectures and Team Work Project Southwest Missouri State: Proposed Uses of Microsoft's ConferenceXP by the Missouri Virtual School Saint Louis: Connecting Saint Louis University Campuses via Conference XP Vanderbilt: Improving Formative Assessment and Research Planning with ConferenceXP U of Tennessee: ConferenceXP and NetSolve Usage UC Davis: Smart Classroom: Next Generation Collaborative Teaching and Learning over ConferenceXP UCSD: A Tiered Approach to Evaluating and Exploiting the Effects of Multi modal Communication on Expression and Learning in the Classroom U Virginia: Investigating the Effective Use of Tablet PCs in CSE Education; A Comparison of Educational Outcomes when Teaching Electronic Commerce Using Traditional vs. Tablet PC Enhanced Methods UIUC: Mentoring and Assessment Both Inside and Outside the Classroom; Visual Information Manager Brown: ReMarkable Texts U Missouri: Enhancing Reliability by Supporting Path Diversity Overlay Retransmission U Nebraska: Supporting and Enhancing Cooperative Learning with ConferenceXP powered I MINDS UC Davis: Smart Classroom: Next Generation Collaborative Teaching and Learning over ConferenceXP U Mass: Implementing ConferenceXP In A Multi cultural, Collaborative, Academic Environment UCSC: Advanced Classrooms Exploiting Tiled Displays and Student Computers; TeleEducation / TeleCollaboration and Streaming Multimedia
References ConferenceXP Community website www.conferencexp.net Source downloads at research.microsoft.com/conferencexp/
Learning Gateway A SharePoint Learning Kit Portal Interface Single Sign On Browser Based Smart Device Enabled Audience Targeted Education Relevance Virtual Learning Environment Workspaces & Portfolios Digital Asset Management Platform Services Messaging Collaboration Document Management Administration Reporting Server Platform IIS Windows Server SharePoint SQL Server Exchange Live Comms.
AlmaTWO / WP 14 Project Objectives E nable teachers-students interaction Improve contents creation and delivery Maximize quality and effectiveness of learning tools. Community Activities A nnouncements Test Forum Calendar Events Collections Shared Wor kspaces Virtual Courses Learning Object Contents SC O R M Teachers Players Collaborative E nvironment Students Collaborarion
References The Learning Kit is available at www.codeplex.com/lk Source code of the ALMA TWO components is freely available contacting me at andrea.valboni@microsoft.com or Prof. Fabio Vitali from ALMA MATER University at fabio@cs.unibo.it
Additional free stuff Many plugs in are realeased as freeware, including the next to be onnounced: Creative Commons plug in for Office 2007 Most of the MSR results are open sourced, check out the MSR web site. Integration with various services Search against the Search Academic straight from with One click insert to bibliography