Integrating Cutting-edge Research into Learning through Web 2.0 and Virtual Environments

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Integrating Cutting-edge Research into Learning
through Web 2.0 and Virtual Environments

• Author Krishna P.C. Madhavan
• And Sebastien Goasguen
• Saurabh Goyal
• Purnima Mandava

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CONTENTS

• Introduction
• RE_at_L Second Life
• Theoretical Framework
• Architecture
• Remote Resources for RE_at_L
• Preliminary Results
• Strengths
• Issues Concerns
• Critical Questions

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Introduction

• The main goal is to bridge the gap between
  research and education by using the middleware
  technologies.
• This is done by utilizing middleware tools so
  that research and education are presented to
  students within the context of their daily lives,
  their technology choices, and their lifestyles.
• The paper provides the foundation of the
  comprehensive application and extension of
  current middleware technologies within the
  context of social networks.

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RE_at_L Second Life

• What is RE_at_L?
• It is virtual organization for education within
  the social network and virtual environment second
  life. Re_at_l will serve as a prototype to study how
  to compute data and other remote resources can be
  utilized to place learning within environments
  familiar to students i.e. second life.
• Why second life?
• Placing teaching and learning where students are
  already looking increases the chances of
  enticing, inspiring and keeping the students
  better engaged in sciences, engineering and
  technology.

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Theoretical Framework

• Cyber infrastructure allowed an large number of
  millennial students to participate in the
  knowledge production and creation through
  extremely easy methods.
• Advantage - It provides tools and services to
  extremely large set of users, allowing them to
  interact and collaborate with each other in
  natural ways.
• Advances in cyberinfrastuructre introduces new
  services like mySpace, Facebook, and Flickr.

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Theoretical Framework
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Continued.

• Researchers working on pushing new tools that
  utilize the notion of semantic web in higher
  education.
• What is required?
• Cyber infrastructure-enabled applications that
  can better serve learners.
• What it does not address?
• Do not engage significant computational power
  within the application contexts

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Architecture

• Environment used Second life

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Remote Resources for Re_at_l

• RE_at_L access remote resources
• such as compute and storage
• services on TeraGrid, OSG etc.
• Science Gateway Evolution
• (a) Users have access to HPC
• resources through SSH access.
• (b) Uses standard Web portal like
• Open Grid Computing Environm.
• (c) Uses full 3-D environment
• e.g. second life.

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Preliminary Results

• First activity was to integrate
• with second life to show
• condor stats.
• Developed .NET HTTP Interf-
• ace that parses all the data.
• Possible Limitation is the size
• of the data packets.
• Future Development is to build
• search engines, processing
• chemical structures.

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Strength

• It considered the security aspect by considering
  the X.509 certificates for authentication.
• Placing teaching and learning where students are
  already looking increases the chances of
  enticing, inspiring and keeping the students
  better engaged in sciences, engineering and
  technology.
• Shift of Tera Grid and Open Source Grid towards
  Virtual organization helps in management and
  provisioning of resources.

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Concerns Issues

• Minimal importance placed on real-time social,
  behavioral functions.
• Middleware technologies within social network has
  not been fully understood as it has bee developed
  form High Performance Computing perspective.
• Devoid of the real time social interaction and
  students do not able to utilize modern day IT
  tools and services.
• Cannot invest significant amounts into computing.
• Extremely difficult to bridge the gap between
  real world research search and learning that
  occurs in formal and informal settings lead to
  new term called Digital Disconnect.

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Critical Questions

• How can be efficient and fast response can be
  provided to user because second life call condor
  machine? Data throttling occurs at condors, so is
  it not going to delay the response?
• There is no privacy and a confidentiality issue
  has not been discussed.
• How can author declare that it provides the
  foundation of a cyberinfrastructure-enabled
  educational strategy that has all critical
  ingredients of cutting edge research.

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• THANK YOU!!