[Still updating details of this post, quite a lot I had written down and lost]
In 2018 we spent the holidays in the village at our family home along the Maggi Highway, Makana Dobu. A lot has changed back home and although much of the land still looks the same there are a few homes up now and the community is growing bigger each year.
A few of the homes now have solar lighting but the usual setup a single 20W panel, one or two lights and a 12V battery. Just recently we had power poles erected and electricity brought in through a New Zealand government funded (have to confirm this) project. Before this project this was the off-grid setup we had at home.
Our house had the following equipment:
65 Amp battery - 12 volt
100W Solar Panel
50W Solar Panel
Lights:
2W x2
8W x4
10W spotlights x2
Charge controller x1 rating 10Amps
max panel 100W panel
for >100W panel you need at least 15-20 Amps rating controllers.
The final setup on paper...
This was a draft on paper of how things were setup in the house.
Calculations:
65 Amps / HourX12V= 780 Watts/Hour
Everything depends on the load of appliances connected and used in an hour or so.
Formula
100W solar panel divided by 18 volts = 5.56 Amps
(18 V, Nominal output / max output if sun is strong)
5.56 Amps x no. of sun hours.
E.g. 5.56 A x 8 hours of sun = approx. 40 W total power.
Therefore, it depends on the sun (the hours of sunlight you get).
100W is able to give you 40amps in 8 hours of direct sunlight.
Have you ever seen some whiteboard animated videos that bring the message intended to come alive simply by using animation? I used to be fascinated at how they are able to do this and what skill level it would require to even do one. Well guess what, over the years, various tools and apps have been developed that anybody these days could come up with cool whiteboard animations all with the click of a button. Easier said than done as it really does take a bit of time and practice.
Here is several proprietary whiteboard animation software that you may find on the market.
While millennials were introduced to technology relatively early on in their lives, Gen Z don’t know life without it. Since social media and Google have been at their fingertips, students are used to instant information and teaching themselves anything they want to know with YouTube.
With that in mind, students often expect instant results from teachers and find it much easier to learn from video than they do books. While this shift might take a bit of adjustment, it’s a great opportunity for teachers and students to develop their video skills.(2020, Educator’s guide to using animated video in and out of the classroom)
What is VideoScribe?
VideoScribe is the name of the software for creating whiteboard animations automatically.
It is easy (trust me after several attempts), quick, and pretty inexpensive also for a very powerful and resource-rich tool. It was launched in 2012 by UK company Sparkol. After only two years on the market, it had more than 250,000 users in 135 countries around the world. It has remained since as a very popular whiteboard animation tool that is used for instructional videos to advertisements.
I first downloaded a trial copy of this application back in 2016 and have been teaching myself how to use it by watching tutorials online and of course trying my hands at making short instructional videos. It really does require a bit of practice for those without any previous knowledge of using similar tools.
Here is the link to download a 1 week free trial. You may purchase the single user license for $14/month (approx. K50 monthly). Best option would be to get a team license (in an educational setting) as more members would mean less cost.
Since then I have learnt a few things about the tool and have managed to create a few short whiteboard animations to explain some basic concepts for my classes.
The fun part is the learning process. I've learnt to create a script first, organize what I like to call assets (images, text, transition, timing etc) in the script. Once you have this laid out then you can record and do the voice-over.
Here are some sample videos I have created. (Please note they are the results of my 'learn-driving' this application :). I am still learning to do this properly.)
The first video was probably my first explaining the different route types.
An explanation on the purpose of DHCP. (You can hear the famous Madang Flying Foxes chirping away in the background. DWU is home to many of these flying foxes)
Quick introductory to EtherChannels
The purpose of PPP
Hope this will inspire you to try out VideoScribe or even the other apps listed above.
Comment below if you use a different tool that achieves a similar or better result. Also let me know if you would like me to do a video tutorial on VideoScribe.
A sample video of the many videos I have done and put up on Youtube for my classes. Note that this is the only second video I have listed as 'public' with the DWU logo. All these videos for my classes with the DWU logo are 'unlisted' so only students have access to them. I do not monetize these videos and they are the property of DWU (by contractual agreement ).
Note: I don't have the best tools nor do I have the best room space/setup but I make the most of what I have.
I download non-copyright music for the background from tons of sites online.
(Mind you several of my videos have landed me on copyright strikes because music downloaded and used without permission, so be careful when you use music from online and upload to Youtube)
For
us in PNG, online teaching may already be complementing face-to-face
classes for some while others may be still planning on implementing it.
We at DWU have already begun preparing and others have started teaching online. Among the plethora of tech tools available to achieve this you also have
the pedagogy, one of them being the use of online discussion forums.
Made even more popular through the many groups and pages on social media
platforms that encourage this.
Flower Darby, the author, highlights six simple ways to foster meaningful conversations in an online forum:
Take part in the discussion.
But be strategic about your participation.
The better the question, the better the debate.
Ask students to write about something they find naturally interesting — like themselves.
Structure the online conversation.
Aim for organic, authentic conversation.
Read the article to find out more.
I really do not use discussion forums a lot in my online classes however when I do use them the participation in the conversation is not very encouraging in my opinion. Not a lot of my students respond to the discussion question. Even if they respond, the response is light and does not carry much thought in it to further discuss the point. Perhaps I too need to take into consideration a few of this pointers.
What is your take on this and how do you use discussion forums?
The consultative paper is in regard to a 'reference interconnection offer' put forward by DataCo.
The Reference Interconnection Offer is an offer document setting out matters relating to the price, and terms and conditions, under which DataCo will permit the interconnection of another carrier to its network. A RIO aims to provide and facilitate new entrants with sufficient information about a dominant carrier’s or another carrier’s network to assist it in its decision-making processes, and to provide a baseline for negotiating an interconnection agreement.
DataCo has divided wholesale access into five (5) different services, each with its own capacity, unit pricing per monthly basis, and conditions.
Wholesale Internet Service (WIS)
Domestic P2P Metro (up to 1km) over Fibre delivered to Customer Premises
Domestic P2P Metro (more than 1 km) - over Fibre delivered to Customer Premises
Domestic P2P Longhaul (DP2P-LH) over Fibre delivered to Customer Premises
International P2P (IP2P) over Subsea Fibre delivered to at the CLS
Here is the updated (as of July 1st 2020) schedule of pricing for wholesale access services with details (Attachment B of the RIO). Note:this information is extracted from this consultative paper shared here for information purposes.
End-users (consumers) are hoping that lower prices at wholesale level will reflect at the retail end.
The key matters associated with the RIO which NICTA considers should be highlighted are:
a.The form and minimum requirements of the RIO
b.Previous involvement in this RIO by NICTA
c.Services covered in the RIO
d.Relationship between the RIO and the proposed amendment to the Service-Specific Pricing Principles (Submarine Cable Services) Determination 2019
Each of these matters is discussed in the consultative paper and NICTA is inviting interested parties to consider and comment on the RIO.
There has been much enthusiasm about new undersea internet cables in
Papua New Guinea (PNG) and predicted improvements in internet pricing,
speeds and reliability. This blog post looks at mobile internet prices
in the first half of 2020.
Myself and two other colleagues collected data over a period of 6 months. The original article went through several edits before the final one was published to the Devpolicy blog.
During the refining of the article, two graphs were removed due to the fact that there was simply no change in the mobile internet prices so here are the graphs. As we continue to track the prices and observe any change in the prices than we will surely include graphs to illustrate the changes in the future article. Read the article on the devpolicy blog to make sense of what these graphs illustrate; there was simply no change despite several announcements made for a reduction in the prices.
The Internet consists of thousands of Autonomous Systems (ASes) networks that are each owned and operated by a single
institution. Usually each ISP operates one AS, though some ISPs may
operate multiple ASes for business reasons. As is the case now with
DataCo. The visual below shows you the interconnections between ASes
within PNG, and compares the state of interconnections between the IPv4
and IPv6 address families. Notice there
is ZERO interconnection for IPv6 to DataCo, only IPv4. (Writing an
article on this very soon.)
From this visualization, you can
also see which networks play an important connectivity role within our
economy. Notice how the numbers (ASes) outside connect to the two ASes
inside (17828, 136587) which belong to DataCo.
Over the last 5
years the number of Tier 2 and Tier 3 ISPs has grown in the country and
should continue to grow with the PPC1 and CS cable pricing review
(presumably lower pricing) and better arrangements through PNG IXP for
ISPs and CDNs. I strongly believe that when this comes about it will
bring new and real opportunities for economic development in the
country. Research by the ITU has also shown that for every 10% increase
in broadband penetration, GDP growth can be boosted by 1.21% to 1.38%.
(Image source: https://stats.apnic.net/vizas/#)
A rare opportunity to take a habour cruise aboard Melanesian Tourist
Services (MTS) MV Kalibobo Spirit. This was an opportunity me and family
could not pass when invited by bro Sibona Mani and Sir Peter Barter. Here are some of the moments captured using my rusty old Huawei phone. Videos aren't that very clear so if you want to experience it in person please do the right thing. Contact MTS!
You can find more about Melanesian Tourists Services on their website here. Stay in the Madang Resort Hotel or tour the nearby villages and islands aboard Kalibobo Spirit. You can also visit their Facebook Page to find out more...
Use Lesson Activity together with audio, short video and quiz.
A tutorial I created initially for colleagues in the Information Systems department, DWU but I would like to share it here on my blog as the 4th sequel to the Evolving as a digital teacher series.
This tutorial is based on the use of Lesson Activity which is an activity tool in Moodle.
Part 1 Lesson Plan. Create a lesson plan based on the topic you are going to cover for that week.
Example: I want to cover a topic on VPN & IPsec concepts. This topic is part of a module that is already divided into three subtopics with clear objectives for each section. If you're using a text reference as a guide you may want to follow the text layout for each chapter.
Here are the key objectives for each section of the topic.
Lesson 8.1 VPN Technology - describe benefits of VPN technology.
Lesson 8.2 Types of VPNs - describe different types of VPNs.
Lesson 8.3 IPsec - explain how the IPsec framework is used to secure network traffic.
What I usually do is to identify what technique I want to use to cover each section and what tool will help me achieve that.
Lesson 8.1 - Use Moodle's lesson activity to cover it.
Lesson 8.2 - Post discussion points on Moodle and get students to post replies and contribute to the discussion. Creating the task as a Q&A forum and setting the options to allow students to post feedback to a discussion question which can then be rated using a rubric.
Lesson 8.3 - Invite students to a 25 minutes Zoom or Webex online meeting/discussion.
For this tutorial, I will focus on Lesson 8.1 and demonstrate step-by-step on how to setup the Lesson activity.
Part 2 Creating the Lesson Creating the lesson will include an audio intro, a 30 minute pre-recorded video lecture followed by check your understanding quiz at the end of the lesson. (This is how I approach my lesson activity, you may have your style or method. Use what method works for you.)
1. Adding the Lesson activity
Click on Add an activity or resource and select Lesson.
Add a Name and Description. I'll leave out the other important details about a lesson activity like the Grade and Flow Control until the end of this tutorial. I'll go ahead and create the lesson.
Here at DWU, we have talked about online learning for several years now. Several workshops and seminars were conducted all in an effort to upskill academics in the area of online learning. One of the workshops I remember attending was with A/Professor Dr. Susan Crichton from University of British Columbia (UBC) back in 2015. There were quite a number of tools introduced during the week-long session.
Since then we've had lengthy discussions and musings over the pros and cons of online teaching among other things e-learning. Discussions continue to evolve on our university broadcast surrounding this topic as several staff already using various tools share through blog posts (like this post itself) and Youtube videos such as this and others shared by Bernard Yegiora (a DWU staff who also shares some digital teaching tutorials on his blog). We even had a separate Moodle site set up by ICT to experiment with online learning. This site unfortunately has been decommissioned recently this year. Initially not many were keen on taking on the idea of online teaching. In fact only two or three people used the DMS Moodle
platform setup specifically for online learning. Reasons as to why
academics did not take the challenge to at least offer a unit online are
unknown.
DWU however does have a well established e-learning environment using Moodle established several years ago which has gone through various updates with one done recently beginning of this year adding additional features and plugins to allow for more functionality. This university-wide learning platform has been used for both its undergraduate programs and flexible mode programs. Use of Moodle in this case has been mainly for blended learning where lecturers upload resources and post assignments for student to access and for students to post task submissions for feedback. It was not used for full online learning programs. The traditional approach of face-to-face classroom style seminars and lectures is still the norm for most of our programs.
The idea of online teaching using video,web and audio conferencing tools for remote learning was there but somewhat shelved every time it came up in discussions for various reasons.
Anyhow, it now seems the COVID-19 may well 'force' academics to start using the vast array of tools online that allow for remote learning. At least that is the approach taken now in many universities across the globe given the outbreak of this pandemic as this article suggests among many other similar articles.
This post will not talk about how you can move your classroom online, an expert at HarvardBusiness School has done that already and is sharing his expertise and experience by hosting several webinars like this one which you can sign up to attend or download recordings. Harvard Business Publishing also share some great resources on Moving Your Classroom Online.
In this post, I share with you briefly three online delivery options I have been using and which I am familiar with. I use all three of these tools at various times in the Graduate Certificate in Data Networking program that I teach for 14 weeks fully online (remotely) and 1 week face-to-face on campus.
