Forum .LRN Q&A: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN

Posted by Christian Fuchs on 05/07/06 12:14 PM

Is any using or thing about integration of a whiteboard into dotLRN?

We are using dotLRN in many lower/higher education courses with lcd - Projectors and there is no room for a real whiteboard on the wall, so for sketching and writing things down (like a blackboard) we use powerpoint and it is not very quick to save pages and let students write also on the whiteboard.

I am thinking in integrating a whiteboard (this looks good http://www.groupboard.com/demo/) into dotlrn an saving stuff in filestorage with automatic timestamp. Users can participate and teachers can save their work in class, too and student can review later.

Any suggestions?

2: Re: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 1)

Posted by Caroline Meeks on 05/07/06 04:19 PM

Hi Christian,

I think the first step if you haven't done so is to look at the various chat options, especially xowiki chat.

Another possiblity is to integrate with an external service. I would start by looking at what APIs they offer.

Let us know what you end up doing.

Thanks
Caroline

3: Re: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 1)

Posted by Orzenil Silva Junior on 05/07/06 05:40 PM

Christian,

did you already take a look at Coccinella?

"Coccinella is a free and open-source cross-platform chat client with a built-in whiteboard"
(from http://hem.fyristorg.com/matben/)

Following Caroline tips maybe you could take a look at Coccinella as possiblity to integrate dotlrn with an external service based on XMPP protocol. A time ago Malte and others elaborate a to-do to get XMPP support for OpenACS and one of the biggest goal would be to record Coccinella whiteboard messages. The original forum thread is here

http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=189152

Please keep us informed about your ideas.

4: Re: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 1)

Posted by Rafael Calvo on 05/09/06 04:33 AM

Hi
We will be committing Beehive this week.
(I need someone to put it in CVS).

Beehive has whiteboard, chat, video conferencing and much more:
http://www.weg.ee.usyd.edu.au/projects/beehive/

You will need Macromedia's Flash communication server. But a development version can be downloaded for their site

In this project we have put a *lot* of focus on the best educational design practices. The systems uses IMS Learning Design to interact with the flash server, and uses the concept of educational design patterns to provide a wizard with many pre-built educational activities.

cheers

Rafael

5: Re: Res: Re: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 4)

Posted by Jose Pablo Escobedo Del Cid on 05/09/06 12:16 PM

Congratulations! These are great news! I'll be looking forward to try it out =)

I have some questions though. Were can I read more (or can you tell me more) about the interaction and use of IMS Learning Design? What do you mean by The systems uses IMS Learning Design to interact with the flash server... Do you generate or read xml compliant with the IMS Learning Design spec?, are you using CopperCore or some kind of parser/engine for that? and finally, is the Beehive project something like LAMS?, is there a demo site somewhere to try it out?

Regards,
Jose Pablo Escobedo

6: Re: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 1)

Posted by Rafael Calvo on 05/10/06 03:02 PM

Hi
Beehive is now on cvs.
There is a multimedia animation that shows and explains how it works in the page I provided. There is also 2 academic papers listed there that describe it in detail.
Please post your feedback.

Aiman Turani is the developer of the project and he will be happy taking your advice.

The installation instructions are in the cvs repository

Rafael

7: Re: Res: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 1)

Posted by Jose Agustin Lopez Bueno on 05/24/06 10:48 AM

Hello, Rafael!

What about Beehive?
I am searching the cvs and I have not found the sources.

Regards,
Agustin

8: Re: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 1)

Posted by Rafael Calvo on 05/26/06 01:29 PM

Hi Agustin
Yes, it is there:
http://cvs.openacs.org/cvs/openacs-4/packages/beehive/

You will also need dotlrn-beehive and beehive-portlet.

I haven't had a chance to write a proper announcement but I will post something on the news section ASAP. We are keen in having people us the system

cheers

Rafael

9: Re: Res: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 1)

Posted by Jose Agustin Lopez Bueno on 05/26/06 02:23 PM

Thanks for the quickly answer!

We are testing the soft and it is great!

We like to install in our university (Valencia, Spain)
but one problem is the price of the Macromedia Server.
Do you know any GNU replacement for this soft?

Thanks again,
Agustin

10: Re: Whiteboard integration into dotLRN (response to 1)

Posted by Rafael Calvo on 05/28/06 09:42 AM

No, I don't know of any replacement.
It is true that it costs $4,500 but the amount of thing it offers is quite impressive.
Video conferencing software is normally not cheap. This one adds whiteboard, chat, and other things. Behhive then puts all this 'pieces' into educational activities.

cheers

Rafael