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Appropriate technology considerations are driving many military education decisions with respect to the content delivery methods, infrastructure, hosting, and hardware selection. In addition to cutting costs, all branches of the military are looking closely at how to best deliver online and distance training to learners in widely diverse conditions, including in the desert, in an urban warfare encampment, on a submarine, on a patrol ship, on a long transport flight, at sea for a lengthy deployment, or in remote, often-changing locations. Infrastructure, hosting, and hardware selection have been stretched to the limit given the rapid evolution of technologies, that, in many cases have been disruptive.

Coined by the economist E.F. Schumacher in his seminal text, Small Is Beautiful, the term “appropriate technology” refers to the need to align technology options with the real infrastructure, user abilities, and desired outcomes of a place or situation.

When people usually use the term, appropriate technology, they are referring to “down-teching,” which is to say that they are using a low-tech solution instead of a higher-tech one because of the availability of spare parts, power, etc. However, the term can also be used to indicate “up-teching” or “technology piggy-backing” so that the latest, and ostensibly highest-tech solution (often an eclectic or synthesis of solutions) is really the best alternative in a seemingly low-tech environment.

In addition to diverse condition, the military are now facing extreme diversity in terms of content delivery options, both in terms of hardware and software. In the mix now are an array of learner-side options: laptops, handheld computers (Dell Axim, etc.), mp3 players (iPod, etc.) PDAs (Blackberry, Palm, Treo, etc.), highly interactive cell phones (T-Mobile Sidekick), video and DVD players. Ways of getting the content to the learner and providing for collaborative learning are also multiple: access through a portal and a learning management system (Blackboard, WebCT, Desire2Learn, WebTycho, open source-Sakai, etc.), open source content, video-game based simulations and “serious games,” Internet telephony (Skype, etc.), weblogs / RSS-driven feeds, audio-blogging CD-ROM, as well as basic print-based learning.

Appropriate Granularity of Learning Objects

Needless to say, the array of possibilities and situations requires one to re-examine many of the issues inherent in online/distance course development and delivery. Problems of content management include the danger of instant obsolescence or short shelf life of material that costs a great deal to develop. Many online learning experts have pointed to learning object repository projects (MERLOT, CAREO) as a solution, at least in terms of sources of truly interchangeable, appropriately granular, re-usable, repurposable objects.

In the meantime, course developers need to keep in mind that objects must now be usable across delivery methods, which include PDA, CD-ROM, and online. Screen sizes will vary and the number of plug-ins and players at one’s disposal will vary.

Analyze each course and develop a sense of appropriate format. Develop a general template that accommodates the range of options from PDA to CD-ROM to iPod to laptop.

Objects should be in html, jpeg, mp3, gif, mpeg, and sometimes pdf.

Plug-ins and players should be uniform. Adobe Acrobat, Windows Media Player, are safe bets. Use Flash, Java, and Javascript with discretion.

Make sure that the objects are readable in tiny screens (PDAs) as well as large screens. Provide audio backup and scripts for vision-impaired, and be sure that the colors used are also low-vision friendly. Make sure that text can be read by screen readers such as JAWS.

Avoid items that would precipitate a startle reflex or create distractions. Be aware of design considerations for the cognitively impaired (attention deficit syndrome, etc.)

Incorporate commercially available products when it truly contributes to one’s learning outcomes. This includes movies, audio, games, and simulations, as well as assessment tools.

If using web-based assessment interfaces such as Survey Suite or Zoomerang, be sure that they are accessible by the students in a time-frame that is significant.

Alleviating Bandwidth Problems

Security issues with respect to online access make it difficult to implement some of the solutions to alleviating bandwidth bottlenecks which are suggested here. The best approach to obtaining more bandwidth is not necessarily one of laying more fiber-optic cable, getting server farms, and putting in a satellite array, although those of us who love the idea of being in the middle of the biggest and “baddest” supercomputer center on the planet are utterly entranced by that option.

More realistically, the following options will help address bandwidth and access issues.

Have a static html alternative wherever and whenever possible: One of the quickest ways to increase bandwidth usage is to put in a website or application that includes a great deal of dynamic html. For example, universities that implemented “smart” student portals that automatically “remember” student information, as well as customizable information provided “on the fly” (such as local weather conditions, stock market ticker tapes, headline news, recommended consumer product purchases), were often shocked by the numerous crashes and the incredibly slow performance upon launch. The first impulse was to blame students downloading from peer networks (Kazaa, Napster, etc.), but the real culprit was the portal application.

Although it is nice to have the dynamic html application, be sure to provide a static html alternative.

Use Internet security and firewalls that block spyware and Trojans: Even if it is not stealing passwords or your identity, spyware is bad. It sends commands and thus impedes functionality. In effect, too much spyware is a kind of de facto “denial of service” attack, which results in too much information being sent in a very limited space.

Some institutions that eradicated spyware from their servers found their performance improved as much as 75 percent.

Prohibit P2P file sharing: Individuals who allow their computers to be used as mini-servers for interactive games, file sharing (mp3s and mpegs), and games, put a huge stress on a university’s or military education unit’s computer system. It is going to be difficult to modify all behaviors, and young, bored enlisted troops with high-speed access are going to be the first to download games, music, and videos. Further, with the ever-increasing popularity of interactive games (Xbox Live), it is important to insist that individuals pay for their own access (in-room service, Internet cafe, etc.) rather than clogging military or university networks.

Avoid massive pdf files: It is amazing that someone has not stopped digital resources providers such as EBSCO and Proquest, from scanning in journal articles in such a way as to result in gargantuan file sizes. There is nothing more disappointing that downloading and storing a 3 MB file that is a mere 2 pages when printed. Not only does it make storage an issue, it requires a lot of bandwidth for downloading, and users may find that their connection times out before the download completes. Try to keep scanned files at less than 350 kb.

Separate the course content from the interactive parts of the course (discussion board, chat, gradebook): The interactive elements can often have access issues, due to being blocked by military servers, or being bound up in a learning management system. Having multiple users signed in at the same time can create an overload, as well. Thus, be sure to house audio, text, and graphics content separately.

Utilize alternative means for encouraging student interaction: Commercial services such as internet telephony (Skype) and the various instant messengers (AIM, MSN, Yahoo), are very efficient and affordable. Collaborative chats can be hosted by free services such as Chatzy.

Use different server for assessment, not requiring access through portal: Bandwidth pressure can also be alleviated by housing tests and assessments on a different server.

Use prepackaged non-interactive components whenever possible: Content and activities can be downloaded onto a chip (in the case of PDAs), onto a CD-ROM, or a card (in the case of games). It is important to maintain good battery life, though, if results are being stored in flash memory rather than on the chip or elsewhere in memory.

Avoid e-mail web access that requires complex applications and a great deal of dynamic html: Outlook and Lotus webmail functions are useful and are often required by universities. They are rendered useless, however, when students cannot access them due to the complex nature of the code, which can include java, flash, dynamic html, java script, etc. The simpler the interface the better. Functionality is useless without access.

Appropriate Interactivity

Some of the policies and procedures that make sense for students who are doing coursework in homes, dorms, offices, or hotel rooms with high-speed internet access do not work for deployed military students, who stand in line for an hour for 15 minutes on the “morale” computer, or spend all their liberty scouring the port for Internet cafes, just to find that access the learning management system has been blocked.

Designers need to rethink the nature of interactivity, and to open it up so that there are easier and more dynamic options. Although one of the major selling points of a learning management system is that it is self-contained, which allows for the easy functioning of interactive databases and a “one stop shopping” learning experience. Further, the fact that a record can be maintained of all correspondence is useful in cases of grade appeals and legal action.

However, is such tight control really necessary? Learning is fluid and arises spontaneously through interaction–with the text, with other students, with the outside world in situated, or experience-based learning.

It is often not a bad idea to experiment with alternative forms of chat and discussion–using other groups, or software (chatzy, yahoo groups).

E-mail forms the core of interactivity between instructor and student, and an increasing number of institutions are requiring students to use the institution’s e-mail. This solves certain problems, including the problem of forward e-mail getting trapped in spamguards, and a lack of records about correspondence.

However, if the host institution insists upon its own e-mail, it must make sure that its email server is robust enough to handle the volume, and that it has a low-bandwidth alternative for slow dial-up connections. Further, limits to e-mail size storage restrictions should be lifted. It is pretty ridiculous to require an instructor to use the host institution’s email server for all correspondence and to keep a record of student projects and submissions, and then to announce a limit, such as 20 Mb of storage.

Blogs: Not to be Ignored or Avoided Any More

Back in 2000, when blogs were first taking off, they were touted as great places to keep journals and to aggregate one’s one news and current events. Journals tended to be confessional and of the “my daily diary” mode, an exercise in confessional literature or narcissism.

However, the notion of how to use blogs has profoundly changed over the last few years. Some of the key events in the “blog-explosion” come to mind as being tied to global world events. While people use to post in alt.net when they had something to say about a current event, rss made blogging the pundit’s platform of choice. Pundit-powered blogging took hold with the 2000 election debate, Chandra Levy (and all the conspiracy theories), 9-11, Matt Drudge and others, anthrax, Iraq war, 2004 U.S. presidential election, and more.

There are now hybrid “daily diary” types of blogs–blogs from the front or deployment, even better than e-mail or snail mail, in the sense that one can post photos and daily events without having to send individual e-mails. Blogs use templates that are remarkably flexible and easy to use, and syndication is a snap if one uses programs such as bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) and feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com)

The more popular weblog providers are blogger (http://www.blogger.com), xanga (http://www.xanga.com), typepad, lycos/tripod, and others.

There are many advantage of using blogs in online education, particularly when access is not a problem. Students can subscribe to the feed, which comes to them through their feed reader of choice. They can aggregate feeds in one of the many free aggregators available: newsgator, bloglines, feedburner. They can also aggregate audio feeds in what is known as podcasts (after the mp3 player, iPod).

Student can comment on blogs, and then develop their own. A companion website can also be developed for free at myspace.com (http://www.myspace.com).

Although there are definite problems with control of content and hosting if one encourages students to develop their own websites and weblogs, as well as audioblogs, the advantages are that the weblogs do not go away at the end of the semester, as do university-provided personal websites and space. Plus, the pressure on the university system is reduced.

Although personal expression and news-based weblogs still predominate, an increasing number of blogs deal with other topics that include science and medicine, music, entertainment, education, journalism, social sciences, health, financial planning, and more. The same applied to audio blogs. Classification and ratings of blogs is provided in ipodder, google alerts, blogstreet, bloglines, and numerous others.

The advangate of blogs is that content is downloadable and playable later. This is particularly useful in the case of PDAs, handhelds, and mp3 players, and could be very appropriate for educational programs used by the Coast Guard and others, where handheld delivery is required.

Graphics

PDA and handheld delivery requires a reassessment of how graphics and learning objects are used, particularly if the graphics are large or interactive.

Most common graphics and interactive graphic applications include the following:
–photos
–illustrations
–diagrams
–maps

It is important to remember that the mouse-overs and other javascript applications will not work in some environments, nor will they work with all browsers (Firefox is one).

Key considerations in developing graphics for appropriate and multiple deployability are

–size
–viewability on different size screens
–color / display issues–will the graphics be readable in gray-scale?
–is there sufficient color contrast for vision-impaired learners or in a case of poor color display?

Audio and the Surge in Popularity of mp3 Players

Before the recent price cut in iPods, and the advent of RSS2 which allowed blogs to deliver mp3 content seamlessly as a single download, mp3 files generally consisted of popular music converted to an mp3 and illicitly shared through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, including Napster, Kazaa, Morpheus, etc.

Now, however, more audio files are being made available, particularly those that average 10 minutes in length and consist of “podcasts” or shows. These are often extemporaneous thoughts, but the best and most useful ones have a text script or outline which appears on the blog website in html.

Such a format is ideal for the deployed military student who may download the file, or receive it on a chip. Having the content in multiple locations–housed on the blog, and also in chip format on a handheld or in an iPod makes listening to lectures possible, even while on a submarine, in a long flight on a transport plane, lying in a tight bunk on a Coast Guard cutter, or during downtime on a large aircraft carrier.

In addition to providing a portable solution to content, the audio files accommodate learning styles, and help the learner who may be more comfortable with audio / aural transmission of ideas.

Further, audio has a direct impact on learner affect, which can be very helpful in alleviating learner anxiety. Audio presentation of information at a time that is comfortable for the learner, when he or she is most receptive is very useful in developing effective self-regulation, which is vital in any learning strategy.

The topic of appropriate technology is certainly a vast one, and considers revisiting, particularly when what is called for is a kind of technology piggybacking as described in the various examples. Solutions are not confined to instructional design, content delivery, or hardware. Large structural issues must be addressed in order to solve such issues as bandwidth, and basic philosophical issues about control and intellectual property must be addressed as well.