A Casual Teaching Tool for Large Size Computer Laboratories and Small Size Seminar ClassesTakashi YamanoueKagoshima University

Contents

1. INTRODUCTION2. OUTLINE OF SOLAR-CATS3. MAKING A GROUP OF NODES4. USING FUNCTIONS5. EXPERIENCES6. RELATED SYSTEMS7. CONCLUDING REMARKS

1. INTRODUCTION

Teaching tools (for Computer Lab.) Teacher’s Screen -> Students’ Screens

popular and effective.

Need Servers require

significant time and energy by the manager

Not only computer Lab. ad-hoc seminar classes

hard for most teachers to maintain their own server.

SOLAR-CATS A teaching tool

for large size computer laboratories and small seminar classes

To meet this need. does not need a server … P2P technology.

Functions. Remote operation Interactive operation … mutual exclusion The sending of images The recording and replaying

Using SOLAR-CATS for Introductory computer literacy classes

…5 yeas, about 50 students/class Network security class…2years, 30

students Seminar classes … 3 to 8 students

Actual size letters and pictures Some students requested it No support from the lab manager USB keys to students.

2. OUTLINE OF SOLAR-CATS A WYSIWIS (What You See Is What I

See) Enables sharing real-time operation of

Applications text editor draw a simple programming environment web browser writer’s assistant , …

All equipped with SOLAR-CATS.

Consists of node systems (nodes) a group manager.

Each node system Applications A main controller A command transceiver An event recorder/player

Group Manager

Teacher’s node system

TCP TCP

TCP TCP TCP TCP

Student’s nodesystem

Student’s nodesystem

Student’s nodesystem

Student’s nodesystem

Student’s nodesystem

Student’s nodesystem

Writer’s Assistant

Web Browser

Programming Environment

Text Editor

Draw

Applications

Main Controller Command Transceiver

Event Recorder/Player

Network

3. MAKING A GROUP OF NODES The video of making a group of nodes

4. USING FUNCTIONS

Remote Control of an Application Interactive Operation of an

Application Still Image Broadcasting Recording and Replaying

4. USING FUNCTIONSRemote Control of an Application

4. USING FUNCTIONSInteractive Operation of an Application

4. USING FUNCTIONSStill Image Broadcasting

4. USING FUNCTIONSRecording and Replaying

5. EXPERIENCES

6. RELATED SYSTEMS

Commercial systems (like DyKnow) Server

The electronic chalk board Uni-direction

QuickBoard… web based WYSIWIS It uses a high performance server Uni-directional.

Multi VNC … is an extended VNC No mutual exclusion.

Wb … interactive draw No mutual exclusion.

ESM, RelayCast and Emma… ALM (Application Level Multicast) exchanging streaming data No sharing the same operation.

7. CONCLUDING REMARKS

SOLAR-CATS A real-time and interactive instruction tool For large size computer laboratories and

small size seminar classes P2P

transmit an operation at one PC to other PCs in short time without any errors

A mutual exclusion algorithm realize a bidirectional sharing of the operation.

Problems The group would form incorrectly

when many nodes attempt to join a group in a short time

The new node does not get access to the common data immediately

When a new node joins the group, if other nodes are sharing common data

Fixing now.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Fundamental Research(C), 17500041

You can use it Now!

http://yama-linux.cc.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/　~dsr/solar-cats.html

http://10.250.3.10/w/ … This PC Sorry. It seems, it does not work now.

At Your Own Risk! This program has a remote control

function. You can re-distribute the program for

educational use. I can help you to install it and to run it

now.