Information technology research project

Rachels information technology coursework

Index.

CDROMs as a Learning Resource.
Microsoft PowerPoint.®
Digital Cameras.
Videoconferencing.
Speech Recognition.

Preamble.

Information Technology, (IT ) is now a widely used tool in education, business and leisure. This project describes some of the facilities listed above which are used with varying degrees of success in education. As a tool of teaching, they have values which are discussed, but their widespread application in commerce and leisure makes having experience of them a requisite part of wider education. However, they can easily be construed as the way the learn, or as the only tool needed. With the exception of very mature and able people this is a fallacy, as one has to be very dedicated to learning and have developed considerable discipline to attain success by this method alone. Even the Open University which uses mainly distance and more recently online learning realises that periodic face to face meetings with tutors and other students is essential to get the best understanding out of any teaching program.

It is interesting that the new ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) which is likely to become the standard broader qualification for basic IT in the future, has been devised so it can be studied and tested by distance learning from CDROM. Time will tell how many people can do this right through with minimal tutor or lesson contact. Currently both class, and distance learning with tutor support are being tried by different local colleges. It seems likely to be attractive as a qualification for people who have perhaps have had training in some of the 7 component sections, but wish to round out their basic knowledge somewhat. Such people will have quite a lot of computer literacy from the modules they already know and it will be interesting to see how much additional support they really need.

1. CDROMS as a Learning Resource.

One useful way of using a computer in education is using subject specialist CDROMS. These have been available for some time now, but vary in their quality of material and actual likely learning outcome.

The usual idea is that the student should work through a program at their own speed learning and giving answers, usually to multiple choice questions. The program might be one long on-going one, but is more usually broken into sections of increasing complexity, which can be used in any order for the topic required. If the student tries to go too far into the work before understanding the earlier chapters properly, then they will find it too difficult. Most programs have tests at the end of each section to self-assess progress. The best ones also have optional tests at the beginning of each section to see if the student already knows the material in it and can therefore miss that section out.

The material varies in quality. Some are very good, making students at least think before answering questions. However, this learning system suffers from one fundamental problem. It is fairly easy to skip through a section and then immediately do a test on it. This however does not really assess understanding very well. The temptation is to then go on and on without going back over any material. Hence short term memory of correct answers is tested, but long term memory and real understanding are not. The more effective solution is to instruct students at each session that they must retake all the assessment tests they covered the previous session and get high marks before going on further.

The arrangement style of material is also potentially variable. Many early program were poor in this respect. They were often difficult to ‘drive,’ so much time and effort was expended figuring out how to make the program run, rather than actually learning the material. The main resultant outcome was that people understood how to drive the program rather than the material it contained. Modern ones are more consistent in style to Windows conventions and hence do not require the same amount of ‘learning to drive.’

A reference elsewhere1 indicates that a program’s popularity is not necessarily indicative of good quality ...

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A reference elsewhere1 indicates that a program’s popularity is not necessarily indicative of good quality in CDROM programs. Some just do not get the material over well in a way that is remembered or understood. Unfortunately, some students will plough ahead regardless through such programs on the wishful assumption that if they cover it all, they must know it and would pass any assessment. So some other interaction with the tutor is essential for all but the most dedicated of learners if using this as a major learning tool. Remember, IT is just another learning tool, not a teacher substitute.

I test drove two CDROMS. One about the internet was passable, but not very inspiring. The second one was a medical one which I saw only briefly. It seemed to have a lot of information, but I could not determine if it was a good program in a limited time. We were also shown an early poor one for comparison.

Remember. IT is just another learning tool, not a teacher substitute.

2. Microsoft PowerPoint®

This and similar presentation packages are designed to allow a range of display, text, graphs, images, etc to be incorporated into a slide show, which are presented from a PC. There are two popular ways they are used. One is using a special projector which takes the PC output and projects it onto a screen, which is suitable for a large audience. The other is to use a PC, often a laptop, where a small number of people sit round and discuss it. This is a popular system of presentation for people on the move like salesmen, or executives who travel round different sites, even abroad. The laptop package is small to carry and the presentation can be updated remotely from base if necessary for changes such as prices or data. It can still be plugged into a projection system. In a teaching environment, projection is occasionally used, but is mainly in large lecture theatres due to the relatively high cost. I use the package regularly myself for scientific training courses I teach.

Each slide is made in a design mode where everything can be set or changed at will. One of the template design backgrounds can be used for the whole show, or a custom one be made, producing a coherence between the slides. Then there are a range of slide styles available for e.g. text only, text and graph, text and image, graph only, etc. As the package uses many of the tools of other MS applications, material is readily copied in from Word, Excel, etc., using the clipboard.

The way material appears onto the screen can be set to a whole range of options. So text effects like each line being added by sliding in from one side, or fading in, or coming in letter by letter are available and can add interest. This displays only the information up to the point of the explanation by the lecturer without the distraction of later lines, previous lines dimmed if preferred. Animation strips can be inserted and sound added if desired. All these add impact, but can be distracting or annoying if done in excess. Moving video images or animated drawings can be added if required.

The design mode is changed to slide show mode for projection so the full screen is used by the slide, with menu bars etc., used in design mode not taking part up of it. The video lead from the PC is usually plugged into the projector and a return lead to the usual monitor so that the user can see the small screen without facing away from the audience. At design time one can also show all the slides together in miniature as a display where they can be easily rearranged as required. The slides can be printed out in full page or several to a page if required so that a copy can be given to participants as a handout. Additionally, notes can be added to a half size printout of each slide and printed out, usually to act as prompts for the lecturer, but can be used for participants also if appropriate. During projection, a ‘pen’ can be added so that the speaker can ‘draw’ on the slide being projected to emphasise a point, this drawing being temporary and not stored in the file.

Timing can be added, either to match the speaker’s requirement for automatic change for each slide at appropriate times, or at a specified regular time interval. It can also cycle the whole program indefinitely for such applications as public viewing at exhibitions.

There is facility to send the presentation to someone who has not got the full PowerPoint package by a file which is self standing on another PC. This is useful, as many organisations do not purchase a full office package or may only have an alternative such as Lotus. Licence requirements are thus not violated.

3. Digital Cameras

These are becoming increasing popular as accessories for computers as a way of putting a picture of a person, scene or an item into a document. Some are relatively cheap with limited resolution, whilst others offer higher resolution and storage of many pictures before downloading (e.g. 90). The download process takes only a short time, but one must remember that they are bitmaps which are very memory intensive. They can be imported into a package such as Paint and re-saved as JPEG images which are a lot smaller. Some low cost cameras are designed to sit on top of the PC monitor and are usually used to take live photos of the operator or other items which can be brought into range. These are the cheapest because they use the PC’s own memory for picture storage. There are also some models which take a floppy disk as their method of storage, and as one can change the disk when full, the memory capacity is unlimited. Most better cameras have a miniature screen at the back which acts as a viewfinder, and on which stored images may be reviewed for confirmation and deletion allowed if unsatisfactory.

Software packages are available to take the digital images and edit them in various ways. Some are designed for amusement such as added photo heads to comic bodies, etc. Others have more serious applications to either cut out, transpose parts onto other pictures. Unwanted items can be edited out. Almost anything is possible with a quality package. The old adage that “The camera never lies” is no longer true!

Pictures taken and/or edited with these packages, along with images scanned into picture software can be printed on a colour printer, usually an inkjet. There is special photographic paper available for these which gets close to a photograph in quality if a good digital camera and photo quality printer are used. There are also methods of capturing film form a conventional camcorder onto a PC so that stills can be extracted and used in the same way. All pictures are memory hungry so a large hard disk is required if a lot of use is to be made of this feature.

4. Videoconferencing

When two IT users wish to interact, they no longer need to get together. Conferencing could be to a nearby building or more likely a remote location anywhere in the world. It can work with a standard telephone line, but a more expensive but faster ISDN line is better. Using this, each partner has a camera and either a PC or a large TV type monitor screen. Groups can sit at each location so that a meeting of several groups at different places can take place. A ‘chairman’ in one would usually ‘control’ who was the speaker at any time to avoid conflicts. The cameras can be made to pan onto each speaker or to any item being discussed. This is very cost effective for meetings where several people would have to travel, or where one would otherwise travel but try to represent several people. All can take part, no travel is necessary and the cost is just a telephone call for the duration of the meeting. For international business, increasingly common, this time saving is considerable and makes inter-site co-operation simple and enhances profitability.

Schools, colleges and higher education find uses for this system. It is particularly good where a specialist speaker is delivering a talk, so people can watch it without travelling to the venue. It also aids such demonstrations as surgery, where a crowd cannot get into see close up what is happening, but the surgeon can work normally with little hindrance from just one camera, whilst people can see the operation close up as though they were present. Conversation can take place during or afterwards with a little organisation of the logistics. Many other instances can be devised to get close in or to teach from afar.

Schools and colleges often try to introduce their pupils to videoconferencing, but these often turn out to be rather gimmicky events. The supposed advantage of speaking to a different group in another school is of dubious value to learning in most cases. If the organisation was to link up with say a school or college abroad, to speak in each other’s language with a genuine accent, that might be more useful. We have some way to go with this yet, I think to achieve anything really useful, meanwhile, it is an expensive play toy.

Some examples of shots taken with a digital camera during a videoconferencing demonstration session are appended.

5. Speech Recognition

Several software packages are available which when used with a sound card and microphone allow spoken words to be converted automatically into text. The text can then be pasted into a Word or similar document after corrections. However as everyone has different speech characteristics, the program cannot just recognise everyone automatically straight away. It is necessary for each user to ‘train’ the software to recognise their individual voice. This is done by reading in a number of standard texts and correcting any errors. Slowly the package improves its accuracy of recognition. Additionally, once serious use is made and used correctly, it should continue this improvement process for that person. The better packages allow several users to each have their own voice recognition set to be stored and be available on demand.

Text has to be dictated fairly slowly, pausing… between…. words …more …than one would in normal speech. Some claims2 suggest this is as slow as 5 words per minute, but observation suggests that 20 – 30 is possible once practised and trained well. Things like punctuation and capital letters are also dictated. The environment must be reasonably quiet or the software will also try to interpret extraneous sounds. Bear in mind that one has to read carefully through the text afterwards to check for errors in conversion which slows down the overall process. Running a spell check is inappropriate as a substitute, as the program may generate true words, but may not be the ones intended.

Has this applications in education? Some pundits suggest that in 5 or 10 years time, the software will be so sophisticated that it will be able to work faster than a reasonable typist – the truth is more likely that we shall have to wait and see. One has also to bear in mind that it might be fine to enter the reading of a written text, but usually things are also being composed whilst entering at a keyboard. So the likely strings of words punctuated with “ums” and “ahs” and “ no change that to…” will not work in such dictation. As current text recognition of scanned images (OCR) is well advanced, this seems to be the way straight written text will be entered. It would be a special skill that people would need to acquire to be able to dictate a new document directly in well composed speech. Certainly in view of the general ‘dumbing down’ of standards of English, many people currently in the workplace would be unable to do this effectively and the keyboard will probably still be the major input device for most applications.

1 See project – IT in education …etc. Task 9.

2 Rick Maybury. Boot Up Projects. Daily Telegraph Publications