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Vol 14 No. 1 Term 1, 2000	Quarterly Journal of the Educational Computing Association of Western Australia (Inc.)

From the President

2000 is packed full of great events. Recently, at our General Meeting, we invited members to meet the world-renowned author of the book The Learning Revolution, Dr. Jeannette Vos. We thank Mark Weber and his team for organising this premier event.

I hope you got to the Noalimba Camp. I thank Mark and his team, and the volunteers, who presented great sessions for our members on the weekend.

This year, Rod Gaynor will be trialling regular Secondary PD sessions. Monthly Primary PD sessions will be coordinated by Thierry Lehembre. Check ECAWeb for details.

ECAWA is proud to announce its Bunbury Chapter. Contact David Wells or Nola Cigulev at the District Office for further information.

ECAWA is hosting a conference in Broome in June. We hope to form another chapter in Broome by then.

The 2000 ECAWA State Conference with the theme Y2KPlus will be held at the Performing Arts Centre, Mandurah between Tuesday September 26 and Wednesday September 27. For further information please visit http://www.ecawa.asn.au/events/conf2000/index.htm or email Mike Leishman at myself@iinet.net.au

For news on our Christmas Point Peron Camp stay tuned.

We also have revived the Toucan Club: the North coordinator is Leanne Sampey and the South coordinator is Jenny Lee Hogan.

ECAWA is also reintroducing a "refereed stream" of papers for the 2000 conference, and will publish the papers presented in the official ECAWA Journal, Viewpoints. You are invited to submit papers for consideration. For further information please visit http://www.ecawa.asn.au/events/conf2000/referred.htm.

All current individual members of ECAWA are automatically granted ACCE Associate status and are entitled to use “ACCE Associate” in their professional signature. This structure replaces the Membership of ACCE (MACCE) structure adopted in 1997.

Information about gaining ACCE Professional Associate status and ACCE Fellow status will follow in next Login Lite or this site.

On a more personal note, I also take this opportunity to thank Margaret Churchland, our ex-secretary, who has joined the Carnarvon scene. On behalf of ECAWA, I thank Margaret for her time and effort.

Bhavneet Singh

President

Paul C. Dench

Paul@dench.net

Here is some news about a comparatively recent developments in programming languages for the programmable LegoDacta™ RCX brick.

RoboLab™ has a very nice icon-driven interface for downloading programs to the brick, but some of you might be hungering for a more direct and interactive way of programming it.

There are at least two relatively easy ways to do this using Spirit.OCX™ - a free LegoDacta™ Software Developer Kit that may or may not be included on your RoboLab™ installation CD.

Jim Fuller has been using the Visual BASIC™ interface method for some time and already has notes on his Web site (see http://www.southwest.com.au/~jfuller/).

And now we also have BrainStorm™, a UCB-Logo variant with an extensive set of brick commands. I've at last managed to get a copy of Spirit.OCX™ and some installation instructions, and with the loan of Mark Weber's gear have got my copy of BrainStorm working well. The BrainStorm™-Logo is not as nice to use as MSW-Logo™ but perhaps we can look forward to the integration of Spirit.OCX™ with MSW-Logo™ sometime in the future.

In a few minutes I was able to interactively control the brick. Those of you familiar with Jim Fuller's Visual Basic™ approach would find your knowledge of Spirit.OCX™ readily transferable to BrainStorm™ if you are familiar with Logo.

I shall be preparing some '“Get-up-and-Go Notes” for those interested in attempting to control the brick from a Logo environment, so keep in touch.

I wish you all a happy start to the new school year. I will be thinking of you occasionally!

Logo for Teachers and Parents:

http://www.cowan.edu.au/pa/ecawa/sig/logo/paul_dench/turtle/

Mark Weber

mrweber@cleo.murdoch.edu.au

Why Logo?

As we are entering the next thousand years of human evolution, it may be well to pause and look through the retrospectroscope and see where we have been. Given this is an article on behalf of those who love Logo, we might just well ponder the question, “Why Logo”?

In 1990, at the World Conference for Computers in Education held in Sydney, Apple Fellow Allan Kay introduced his vision of computers using the following analogy:

“

The giant condor of South America is the world’s most efficient animal at converting effort into movement. This creature can glide hundreds of miles surfing the thermals above deserts and exploiting up draughts around mountains, with just a few seemingly effortless slow movements of its wings.

A human, on the other hand, is not so efficient. In fact in the animal kingdom premiership table, humans are lucky to scrape in to the top third.

However, take that human and put them onto a bicycle. That person becomes three times more efficient than the condor.

A bicycle then, can be thought of as an amplifier of effort. In the same way a computer could be thought of as an amplifier of the mind.

”

Logo, then is just that; something that a computer can use to amplify a student's ability to think.

It is my contention that a person needs to learn to program to be computer literate. Programming may be thought of as simply entering the number of pages you want your word processor to print, a small script in a presentation package like Powerpoint™, or a macro or Visual Basic™ Application in a word processor or spreadsheet.

Logo's most distinctive feature is that it allows the user to operate "Turtle Graphics" and control a pointer on the screen from the keyboard, and hence is uniquely designed for children.

By using the three determinants of a computer language; sequence, repetition and decision, even the most novice of programmers can produce wonderful graphics using iteration, colour changes, and most of all, recursion. They can investigate number sequences in such simple experiments as the Total Trip Theorem, graph their favourite basketball team logo, or just to colour in.

More confident students use it for structured programming. Logo's true purpose originally was to control remote devices. The Logo group works in close conjunction with the ECAWA Robotics group, which in turn leads onto the various projects run by colleagues of ECAWA in universities here in Western Australia.

The major revolution of the Internet has allowed educators to share ideas and experiences amongst each other. Not only has this enabled humans to access what has become known as the "Giant CD ROM in the sky", but it has enabled us to communicate with people all over the world on any subject we care to invent.

Logo has many web sites, now organised into a web ring, list servers and people corresponding via email every moment of the day. These people are passionate about what they are doing, and are there, day and night, to provide a 24-hour world-wide service to help the most inexperienced user get over those first tentative steps. The Internet allows us to share ideas and experiences like never before.

When one put these two ideas together - the computer as an amplifier of the mind and the ability to share ideas and experiences around the world - we have perhaps the most powerful tool ever in the hands of ordinary people.

Logo is one way to reach for these ideals in a way that starts very simply and ends up where your imagination leads you. It was not a coincidence that at this same World Conference the closing keynote was given by Seymour Papert.

And it is all free.

Setting up an inexpensive intranet

“There are no concerns about publishing student photographs, student work, student names or the students having access to doubtful or pornographic material.”

Jim Fuller (with thanks to Justin Davies of Hedland SHS)

jfuller@southwest.com.au

http://www.southwest.com.au/~jfuller

Jim Fuller is the 1999 ECAWA Educator of the Year. He is a willing contributor to the professional development of Western Australian teachers, and provides many useful resources via his website.

This article provides a concise technical approach to setting up an intranet.

Until recently I thought intranets were the domain (no pun intended) of the real high fliers. The thought was that they were very expensive to set up and very difficult to maintain, unless of course the system was based on that colourful alternative where everything came bundled in wonderful out-of-the-box solutions. Well, even we Wintel people can set up an intranet for a few hundred dollars and a few hours time (paid for of course by our appreciative school community).

I have a suspicion that as soon as I use those magical letters: "NT4", I will lose most of my audience. PLEEEASE don't give in just yet. This really is simple. If you can create a web page and use Microsoft Windows95/98, you can do it!

First some pricing, just to show you how inexpensive it can be . . .

1. Install Microsoft NT4 on one of your new systems. Cost: $168. That's actually cheaper than installing original Win95/98!

2. Pay a $10 "client licence" fee for each machine on the network accessing the NT4 server.

That's it! About $500 to set up a network of 30 computers on your very own intranet.

Now for the nay-sayers …

NT4 is superficially just like Windows 95/98. If you can use Windows 95/98, you can use an NT4 system. You don't have to do all the NT4 security stuff. Pretend it's just Win95/98. You can install most of your Win95/98 software (like Office™ for example) and use the NT4 system just like any other computer. If you ever want to play with the powerful features of NT4, it will be there waiting for you.

May I reiterate the pricing outline above - an NT4 licence can be cheaper than Windows95/98.

I personally wouldn't make the NT4 system generally available for student use. I'm sure most schools have computers set aside for “secure” use by staff and “trusted” students. The NT4 server would fit into that sort of category.

Yes, the $10 client licence for each machine on the network accessing the NT4 server is an additional cost. I can assure you that the benefits far outweigh the costs. Hopefully by the time you have finished reading this article, you will agree.

1. You don't need to be an NT4 “expert”. Just pretend it's a Win95/98 machine.

2. You can run most of your Win95/98 software on the NT4 system.

3. The $10 client fee can actually save you money by eliminating the need for ZIP™ drives, extra back-up space, the provision of printer management, etc.

Now the Nuts and Bolts

1. Set up one of your new systems with NT4 and install Internet Information Server (IIS). (IIS is built into NT4 and comes free.) Most hardware suppliers would do this for you. The process takes a little longer than setting up a conventional system, but it is no more complex. Any supplier who actually wanted your business would be modest in their charges. If I were buying a number of systems from a supplier, I think it would be reasonable to expect the basic NT4 installation to be done for no extra charge.

2. Create all your web pages and copy them into the NT4 directory called C:\InetPub\wwwroot\

3. Set your Browser to: http://<NTServerName>/default.htm (see below)

4. Set your Browser to treat intranet addresses differently from normal Internet addresses (see below) and away you go . . .

That’s it! I told you it was simple.

Notes

We called our NT Server "room15" (guess why). Our browser address (point 3 above) is therefore set to http://room15/default.htm

As it happens, we consider the system to be so economical we have set up another intranet in another part of the school. In the future we may have half a dozen or so NT4 “intranet” servers set up around the school, each one managed by its own Learning Area. (We might also decide to put all our eggs in one basket and have just one “master” intranet server. The point is that we can do it either way).

Setting up the Browser …

You need to tell your browsers to treat your intranet address differently from calls to the wider Internet. In Internet Explorer this means going into View/Internet Options…/Connections and ticking the box that says: Bypass proxy server for local (Intranet) addresses. In Navigator, you have to go into Network Preferences/Proxies/View and in the "No proxy for:" box enter the name of the server followed by a colon and then the number "80". ie <NTServerName:80>. In our case we entered room15:80.

There is just one more thing to do. On each of the client machines go into the C:WINDOWS directory and use DOS Edit to create a file called HOSTS (no filename extension). Into the HOSTS file add the line: <NTServer IP address> <TAB> <NTServerName>. In our case it would be:

192.168.0.12 room15

What Now?

The key to an "intranet" is self-evident. By definition it is an internal structure. There are no concerns about publishing student photographs, student work, student names or the students having access to doubtful or pornographic material. But best of all, the network administrator has total control. You don't even need to be connected to the Internet! You don't need a modem, an ISP account, or a phone line.

Your intranet can run in parallel with Internet access if that's what you want. (That's probably the way most schools would operate anyway.) Students may not even be aware of the line between intranet and Internet.

As a further bonus the files you publish on the intranet will download very quickly.

As a secondary school, we will probably use our intranet/s in a more structured way than primary schools. We intend to publish course outlines, student assessment outlines, on-line tutorials, software guides and so on. I assume primary schools would be more interested in publishing examples of student work, newsletters, notices about special events, coming events, student achievements and so on.

With most of the new systems having hard disks in the order of at least 6 gigabytes, there's no limit to what could be published. Until quite recently most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were limited to just a few gigabytes to cater for hundreds of clients (each one could have been the size of a school). Using the intranet approach you will have at your disposal disk space that ISP's could only dream about. No longer will file size and download time be a factor in deciding the content you make available to your students. If it is of benefit to the learning program, if the picture looks better in its original 16 million colour format or if you want to publish a full-blown “movie” - go for it!

I do not consider myself to be an NT4 “expert”. I am however totally convinced that any computing person with a command of simple networks and Windows95/98 could successfully set up the sort of intranet described above. Give it a try. If you have problems there are lots of people out there who can and will help.

Just one point in conclusion ….

Intranets and massive hard disks open up the opportunity for “web-whacking” and site "mirroring” where entire sites are downloaded onto a local disk and then accessed internally. It is my understanding that this is in breach of copyright. It may be possible to obtain written permission from some site owners to allow some form of site duplication, but without such written permission you are toying with a personal law suit. Is it really worth the gamble?

Refereed Papers information for the ECAWA Conference 2000 - Y2KPlus.

This year ECAWA will have a refereed paper stream managed by Jeremy Pagram of Edith Cowan University. If you would like to present a refereed paper and have it published in the ECAWA official journal Viewpoints, then please read the information about this at: http://www.ecawa.asn.au/events/conf2000/referred.htm

Mike Leishman - Conference 2000 Convenor

ECUBit 2000: Censorship and the Cyber Society

On Wednesday, 12 April 2000, the School of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University, will host a one day conference/workshop on Internet censorship and regulation. The conference will be held at the Mt Lawley Campus of Edith Cowan University and will include presentations from:

· the Australian Broadcasting Authority

· CSIRO

· Electronic Frontiers Foundation

· the Internet Service Provider Industry

· the Internet and Curriculum Project, EDWA

· Edith Cowan University

· Centre for Online Services

The keynote speaker will be Dr Philip McCrae, of CSIRO's Mathematical & Information Sciences. Dr McCrae was commissioned by the National Office of the Information Economy to investigate the information economy implications of content blocking. He published a major research report on the subject in 1999.

Speakers will address the online content management regime established under The Federal Government's Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 which commenced operation on 1 January, 2000, covering

· technology and information economy issues arising from online content regulation

· the current state, and future of cyber rights in Australia

· the effectiveness of content regulatory regimes for Internet online services

· content and Internet management issues in our schools

· managing risk in the online environment

· client and server side technologies for the implementation of content management

· implementation issues for ISPs arising from the adoption of content blocking and increasing levels of Internet regulation more generally

The one day conference registration fee (inclusive of workshops, lunch and reception) is $125 with group and other special discounts for teachers and other education professionals. A conference Web site with an online contact information form has been constructed at:-

http://www.scis.ecu.edu.au/ecubit/ecubit.htm

Further information about conference registration is available from Kay Noble at the International/Commercial Office of the Faculty of Communications, Health and Science (tel: 9400 5612, fax: 9400 5577 email: k.noble@cowan.edu.au)

Kay Noble

Business Office, International/Commercial

Faculty of Communications, Health and Science

100 Joondalup Drive

Joondalup WA 6027

Acceptance speech for Educator of the Year 1999

“In an information world, it should be obvious that schools need more specialist IT, not less.”

Jim Fuller

The following is an abridgement of Jim Fuller’s Acceptance Speech, made at the ECAWA Conference Dinner in September 1999.

I have put a lot of thought into a theme to highlight this award. I have decided to go with the echalk topic I raised a few months ago of "Put Computing back into the Curriculum". In fact, it will be more along the lines of "Leave Computing in the Curriculum", rather than putting it back. If it is ever actually "removed", education in Western Australia will suffer badly.

My concern is that in promoting the use of IT in other than the traditional "Computing" subjects, a significant number of decision-makers have interpreted the message as meaning that IT as a cross-curriculum learning tool can replace the unique skills developed under the guidance of Computing specialists. I believe that students in Government and non-Government schools will be significantly disadvantaged if formal IT subjects are allowed to disappear from the curriculum. Australia's future as the so-called "Intelligent Country" would be seriously undermined.

In part, the national "Education and Training Sector Draft Action Plan for the Information Economy" outlines a framework under which "stakeholders" can (and I quote):

“

Develop broad strategies and implement key initiatives to ensure all citizens posses broad literacy, numeracy and technological literacy skills for life, work and lifelong learning, and that there are adequate numbers of people with the specialist skills needed by the IT and communications industries and other Australian industries to service the needs of the economy . .

”

The document goes on to discuss other features of the proposed National Action Plan. What I want to highlight here is the dual nature of this particular goal. The plan calls for general IT literacy while stressing the need for individuals with "specialist skills". In my opinion this is exactly the same strategy adopted by all Learning Areas. General education for most, with the option of specialising for those with an interest, or need.

It would be a sad irony if one of the results of the "cross-curriculum" push were the demise of specialist IT in schools. I believe that the community expects schools to offer specialist IT subjects. I believe that Industry expects schools to produce graduates with a firm grounding in IT. I believe that the state government expects schools to wisely use the investment it has recently made in schools. I believe the Education and Training Sector expects schools to take heed of its guidelines.

Formal IT subjects and specialist IT Teachers are an essential part of education in Australia. In an information world, it should be obvious that schools need more specialist IT, not less. I urge ECAWA members and schools in general to take note of the recommendations of the Education and Training Sector document and ensure that specialist IT remains an integral part of Education in Western Australia.

Footnote: Interested educators may wish to subscribe to the ECHALK list server at majordomo@cleo.murdoch.edu.au by entering subscribe echalk as the only text of the message). Editor

Nasty HTML- enabled email

Mike Leishman

myself@iinet.net.au

I mentioned a while ago on echalk about the "Bubbleboy Worm" and that you can now get a virus/worm from just getting mail within an HTML-enabled browser. A quick netsearch or look on the Symanatec page should give you lots of information about Bubbleboy. Check it out at: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/vbs.bubbleboy.html

Here is the code similar to that within an email I recently received. I could only mark it as read and delete it with a lot of difficulty without it loading the scripted web page’s URL. I could not get it to stop loading web pages without disconnecting. A bit of a worry if you didn't want to read it! Solution: Set up a rule to delete the mail from the server, something to do after the event so you won't receive more!

I have made a similar mail that I can send to you and force you to launch to the ECAWA home page without your say in it. Hmmm... :)

Once the ECAWA page has loaded, you can delete it, but it will not be marked as read. You can try it for yourself if you are using Outlook Express or similar. Make sure you are in Rich Text Format and then choose View Source Edit. Select the Source tag at the bottom and paste the code in. Try sending it to yourself or a good friend, but not echalk!

<HTML>

function windowOpener()

{

window.open('http://www.ecawa.asn.au/');

}

</SCRIPT>

</BODY>

</HTML>

PRESIDENT:	Bhavneet Singh	minty@iinet.net.au
VICE PRESIDENT:	Mike Leishman	newman@iinet.net.au
SECRETARY:	Victoria Lacey	ecawa@iinet.net.au
TREASURER:	Ligita Abbot	ligita@iinet.net.au
LOGIN EDITOR:	Kim Lego	klego@iinet.net.au
PRIMARY COORDINATOR:	Thierry Lehembre	lehembre@nettrek.com.au
SECONDARY COORDINATOR:	Rod Gaynor	gayn@santa.maria.wa.edu.au
TERTIARY COORDINATOR:	Paul Newhouse	p.newhouse@cowan.edu.au
NATIONAL JOURNAL EDITOR:	Jeremy Pagram	j.pagram@cowan.edu.au
GENERAL COMMITTEE:	Leanne Sampey	ljsampey@landsdaleps.wa.edu.au
	Anne Christoldulou	kinross@kinrossp.edwa.net.au
	Josephine Smith	Josephine.Smith@eddept.wa.edu.au
	Harry Clements-Shepherd	harrycbc@hearts.q-net.net.au
	Mark Weber	mrweber@cleo.murdoch.edu.au
EXECUTIVE OFFICER:	Annette Mateljan	Amateljan@aol.com