Complexity Theory: CALL @
The Edge of Chaos "WOLFRAM CLASSES/LANGUAGE CLASSES"
by Stephen A. Shucart 

venturing out...
Offering new ways of
thinking about learning and
computers by Scott H. Rule 

Media and Formats on the Net by Paul Daniels 

CALL lab management: A hardcore story byKazunori Nozawa

Reviews
Azar Interactive
The Computer and
          the Non-Native Writer
The Third Culture

Officer Reports

CALL News
Letter from the Editor
IATEFL Reports
Conferences
Call for Papers
Amazon.com
Workshops

Networked Courseware: Kissing CD-ROMs Good-bye

by William Gaton

The issue is logistics: you have fifty students rushing into the multimedia lab for study sessions. These fifty students are at a variety of abilities. Each needs a different level CD-ROM. They line up at the front to collect a CD-ROM, sign a sheet to indicate that they have the disc. How long does it take the harassed teacher or lab support worker to distribute the discs? And how long is it again to collect them at the end of the session? What if discs are "misplaced," damaged by oily fingers or simply stolen?

In another school the group of fifty students rush into class as well. But instead of wasting time queuing for disc dispersal, they sit right down at their computers and log on to the school network. From one icon they launch their courseware, select the level of their study, and use their password to run the multimedia courseware.

This is the reality now contrasted. Multimedia has been contained on the CD-ROM for want of a better container. The data contents are thick: sound, video, graphics and animations. This thick data is also highly interactive. Since memory and processing speed are always the issues for multimedia developers, the CD-ROM has represented the most efficient delivery container. Fortunately, with the development and implementation of higher speed networks, fully networked educational contents are now available. These are the same or better courses currently available on CD-ROM. What has changed is that the network technology has improved.

We have had nightmares with networks. Old Novell systems and the highly unstable Windows NT 3.51 with unwilling Macintosh support have been the chief culprits. These systems are not completely development software, but rather represent the state of the art, meaning, as good as those companies could do in the time pressure of release dates and marketing deadlines. Further, the infamous "Service Packs" for NT 3.51, which are, quite simply, large-scale bug fixes, often are improperly installed by the service firm. The most significant weak link in the network chain has been the systems integration companies (or in-school technicians). These no-doubt well-meaning firms have staff always wanting to sell the latest and the greatest, but who are also playing constant catch-up on a learning curve far steeper than they have time to climb.

The developer community (of which we are one) has had to contend with demanding customers who quite rightly want things to work as advertised, and the systems that are installed by service engineers who may not be quite as apt as they ought. Recent improvements have changed the playing field.

The major improvement is Windows NT 4.0, a very stable and highly reliable environment. The new generation of servers is, of course, much more powerful and speedy. The jump from 10 baseT routing to 100 baseT opens the pipe wider. This means that multimedia can flow freely at last.

Now from the viewpoint of teachers and developers this is all very good news indeed. Teachers are all for logistical simplicity and ease of use. Developers are all for stable operating environments. For us the changeover has meant shifting from RedBook (CD-music quality) audio to fully digitized sound. We waited until digital sound had improved significantly and now it is indistinguishable from RedBook. Likewise with video, we suffered the video standard MPEG for the sake of the quality, but now our engineers have produced digital video that, in many ways, has greater clarity than MPEG. These two technical advances on the development side bring us to a fully digitized product release. Networked courseware is now a practical and significant enhancement.

What sort of system do you need to run fully networked courseware? For the technically inclined we offer this preliminary spec sheet which, while specific to our courseware, may also have wider application in consideration of networked courseware in general. There are three configurations offered here, from the minimal to the robust.

simple network || small network || medium network

Networked courseware is sold as a time-limited, renewable license. Schools also have the option to purchase an automatic upgrade agreement. This is important if the school plans upon changing hardware or LAN wear. What schools gain is a vast leap in convenience.

But we can only advise that you should have profound confidence in the firm setting up the network.

Layout designs of three networks goes here.

[Note: Bill Gatton will be speaking on Networked courseware at the May 30/31 CALL conference. –ed.]