CompuServe Thread

[Continued] Part 3 of 5…. 3. Teamwork teaching: I can see this option working out in more complicated exercises, or "projects". When you press "teamwork" mode, each "line" from the junction box becomes a separate "Group". The stations and students on every line form a team that is independent from all the other teams. Each team can then use the M160T unit to "look" at each other's stations, "talk" to each other on the team, and control other stations in the team with their own keyboard and mouse. Imagine using this in a networked lab with a multimedia application. Have one station on every line fully equipped with everything needed for multimedia; and have the other terminals on the line capable of running 3D Studio, but with a simple SVGA card. You can have the individuals in the team working on different parts of an exercise; for example one of them would be using the 2D shaper and 3D lofter to create different objects, another would be working in the 3D editor creating a "room", a third one loading in a DXF of 3D furniture to be placed in the "room", then having all the various parts merged and rendered on the multimedia station. During all this the students could be discussing different parts of the exercise, helping each other out, then they could all participate in the final assembly and animation of the finished product… Imagine the same thing using AutoCAD on different drawings in the team and then XREFing the final results together… 4. Evaluation and Testing: A new and *VERY* exciting aspect of the fully configured M160 system. A special companion software allows you to project any "image" on to all the students' stations, with a multiple choice question "overlaid" on top. The students can look at the screen, assess the situation; and press the correct answer on their M160T units. The results of every question immediately show up on the teacher's control unit monitor. There are three buttons on the teacher's control unit that control this: the "correct" answer button (the icon says 1+1=2), the "wrong" answer button (icon: 1+1=3) and the "no answer" button (1+1=). The totals show up immediately giving the teacher instant results… You can use these buttons to broadcast back to the students; for example you can return to group mode and say "I'm going to address myself to those people who didn't answer or who got the wrong answer, and let's go through the question again…" You can run the software in many different modes: Instant questions, where you can ask the questions and wait for the answers; this gives you instant feedback, or timed test mode, where the software will ask the questions sequentially and switch to the next question on the list after a prefetermined time. You can set the time individually for every question, and you can assign every question a certain weight…. Building the questions is VERY easy; just use "PRINTSCREEN" under Windows to capture an image of a DOS or WIN application; then use the clipboard to save the file as a CLP file. The M160 software will read these image files, then you can overlay your question… Another *GREAT* use of this software is to "personalize" the classroom; by inputting the names of everyone using the system, the control unit will not only show you the "number" of a station, but also the name of the user… So you can immediately get into a more relaxed mood with the class. For example, Jane presses the "question" button, and her name shows up on the control unit. You can respond immediately: "Yes, Jane, go ahead.." That's it for the different modes. Now for some of the other things: The disconnect icon: When you havestudents entering the lab to practice quietly, they can "disconnect" so they won't be part of the class. This is great in those situations where you have a multidisciplined class with different interests such as in high schools, or when the same lab is being used for more than one thing at a time… Wave Watcher: A nice touch was using the Wave Watcher Card by AITech Industries. It was plugged into the teacher's station and was connected to a VCR and a videocamera. We saw AutoDesk's old 3D Studio demo reel through the VCR, then the Camera was used to show us live on our screens the steps and the buttons the teacher was using on the main control unit. It worked beautifully…. The cables: There will be ONE 1/4" cable going from interface to interface instead of the four wires currently required. There will be no need for a loop; instead of connecting the cables in a closed ring configuration, the lines branch out from the junction box and are terminated at the last station.. Sort of like thin ethernet coax terminators. Simple straight cabling. The new M160 system will be capable of carrying a video signal up to 350 Mhz; that's about triple the frequency of the current average SVGA signal. Designing the cable layout is VERY important. The Teamwork Teaching mode is determined by the way you cable: essentially each line becomes separate and all the stations on the line will act as a team. So by using the four line box junction you can have essentially four teams. We would use eight lines in each of our labs and have 3 Stations on every line, creating the possibility of eight teams/lab. Each line can have up to 64 stations… the maximum amount of stations on an M160 system is about 2048 <g>. One last thing: having a homgenous lab is very important. For example you can't mix mice and digitizers on the serial ports…. The demonstration was presented by Etienne Bouchard, C.E.O of Robotel Corp., and was organized by Bob Stevenson, the Microselect system's Ontario region distributor. To both of we would like to express our thanks. Mark Kurdi CAD Coordinator Sheridan College ATC Brampton, ON Canada