At a C2000 meeting not too long ago (and I think it was one you
weren't present for), we talked about this issue a bit. The resolution
was an assurance from Scott that OIT would be able to set up a
"rack" in the classroom to accommodate Ethernet connection.
So let's get things clear on this point.
1) We need Ethernet connectivity that reaches to the student tables in
239 Rich for the 10 DTRs. This will require 20 foot Ethernet lines
with RJ-45 connectors to fit to the DTR.
2) We also need a holding place in room 239 for the DTRs and the ThinkPad
360PE and the Tablet. The latter two machines will rely on LapLink for
downloading and uploading information.
3) Our assumption is that OIT is going to provide 1 and 2 by the beginning
of the Winter Quarter as part of the infrastructure necessary for the
electronic classroom.
Scott or Ron, please let me know ASAP whether this is going to be achievable.
And now, two other issues concerning the audio:
1) Recording audio. We got by in our experimental class using a
Sparc in Room 239 to do the recording. Ami or Scott, what is the best
solution to put in place for the coming quarter, and can we guarantee that
there is going to be a machine available in 239 to host the digitial recording
every class? What about the long term microphone solution?
2) There will be a number of LCC masters students in IDT
in the class next quarter. We currently only have audio support for a
unix box. The LCC students typically work over in the IDT lab in Skiles
and it has no unix boxes. Would it be possible to arrange the loan of
a unix workstation to that lab for next quarter for use in Classroom 2000.
I don't think we need a monster machine over there, just something to
run Netscape and the audio tool for review purposes. Ron or Jim, I think
this one might be your call. It's extremely important that we provide
all students in this class a similar level of accessibility to the on-line
Web material for the class if we are going to attempt to evaluate the
effectiveness of this technology.
And on the matter of evaluation:
1) Does it make sense to host the entire set of class web pages on
the machine c2000.gatech.edu? The reason I am asking is that that system
already hosts the audio portion and what I want to put in place is some
instrumentation next quarter that helps us gather usage statistics over
the course of the quarter (how many visits to class materials, how many
accesses to audio, and the like). I don't really know what kind of
instrumentation is necessary to capture this data, but I don't think it's
that difficult. My only other concern here is the bandwidth between CoC/LCC
machines and c2000.gatech.edu. It's clear from student evaluations last
quarter that speed of access to pages is critical to utility.
That's all for now,
Gregory