Firstly, I must acknowledge this very useful explanation from Ashier's blog. 

A BlazeDS project is simply a standard web application, with a few additional features. In this case I have created a Tomcat application in Eclipse. You can see the various components in this image of the Eclipse resource navigator:  



The additional elements within the web app are:

1. The flex directory in WEB-INF, containing the BlazeDS configuration files for this application, with the required service configurations (for example, making Java classes available to Flash).
2. Various jar library files in the lib directory. 
3. The flash application (swf and html files) generated from the Flex 3.0 project.
4. Some configuration settings added to the web.xml file.

To get it all set up, I followed these steps:

1. Create the Tomcat project in Eclipse.

2. Add the jar files.

3. Add the flex directory with template config files.

4. Modify the web.xml file so that BlazeDS requests are handled.

We need to add the listener...

<listener>
<listener-class>flex.messaging.HttpFlexSession</listener-class>
</listener>

And a message broker servlet...

<servlet>
<servlet-name>MessageBrokerServlet</servlet-name>
<display-name>MessageBrokerServlet</display-name>
<servlet-class>flex.messaging.MessageBrokerServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>services.configuration.file</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>MessageBrokerServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/messagebroker/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>default.html</welcome-file>
<welcome-file>default.htm</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

5. Create a new Flex 3.0 project.

Use settings like this:

Note that I have set it to use LiveCycle Data Services (now known as BlazeDS) and a J2EE application server. In the next screen, the location and url of the web app must be specified. Note how I have set the output folder of the Flex application to be the root of the web application, so that when I run the Flex app it is built and deployed directly into the web app.

6. Write and build a class in the Eclipse web app project.

I created a class called Hello in the package hello. To start with it contains two simple methods. One method is called sayHello, and returns a string. The other method is multiiply(int i, int j). This method returns the value of i * j.

7. Make that class and its methods available to the Flex application via BlazeDS.

The following 'destination' needs to be set up in the remoting-config.xml: 

<destination id="Hello">
<properties>
<source>hello.Hello</source>
</properties>
</destination>

The source maps to the Hello class in the hello package.

I also pared-down the services-config.xml file so that only the remoting service is being used (as suggested by Ashier):

<services>
<service-include file-path="remoting-config.xml" />
</services>

8. Add a RemoteObject to my MXML application file in Flex 3.0.

This points to the class that I have created and registered with BlazeDS. See how the source points to the Hello class in the hello package. Also see how the RemoteObject has its own id. We use that to referece it and call its methods.

<mx:RemoteObject id="blazeService" fault="faultHandler(event)" source="hello.Hello" destination="Hello">
<mx:method name="sayHello" result="resultHandler(event)" />
<mx:method name="multiply" result="resultHandler(event)" />
</mx:RemoteObject>

Notice how I have registered the two methods, and specified a resultHandler method (in this case the same handler, as it just displays the string that is returned in a text box).

9. Call one of the methods, and handle the result.

I have a button that, when pressed, calls a method that calls the multiply method on the RemoteObject...

blazeService.multiply(i, j);

This method executes asynchronously on the server, in the class Hello. The values of i and j are passed to the Java method. The result is receieved bythe specified result handler method in the action script:

private function resultHandler(evt:ResultEvent):void {
result_text.text = evt.message.body.toString();
}

In this case, I simply get the single string that is returned, and display it in a text box.

Alternatively, I could get a series of arguments, an ArrayCollection, an Object. I can also create a value object class in the Flex app, mirroring a class in the Java. This class may then be passed back and forth in the method call (i'll document this in another article).

A great result. When Kay Sanderson and I first promoted the idea of academic blogging in 2003 we had hoped that it would help students in just this way: becoming active and self-reflective writers, and becoming part of the research and cultural process.

Created using an Apple MacBook, with the built-in camera. Recorded and edited with iMovie. Screen captures created in Screenflow. Converted to FLV format using Flix.

Title: Podcasting: audio recordings online for teaching and learning

In 45 minutes, the session will address these issues:

1. What is a podcast? Is it audio? Is it video?
2. How can we listen to podcasts?
3. Podcasting by staff, creating online learning materials, recording live events, creating podcast programmes.
4. Podcasting by students, as a research-based learning activity.
5. How can I design a podcast programme? Useful tips.
6. How do I record my podcast? What gadgets do I need?
7. What if I need to edit?
8. How can I publish my podcast?

We will use Edirol R09 recorders in the session, creating a short podcast interview.

Case studies will include:

A. Recording live events in the English Department.
B. Creating a podcast programme.
C. Student podcasting, research-based learning.
D. Student podcasting using MediaManager.

Participants will receive how-to guides (on paper and CD) and a copy of the Audacity editing software (on CD).

The session will be repeated in the afternoon.

I like cafes. I like working in cafes. The Arts Faculty has what could be a great cafe, Raffles. In the past I would spend half an hour in there with a laptop, just giving e-learning advice and networking with other members of the faculty.

The recent refurbishment of Raffles is quite good. However, one feature renders it quite unuseable: a wide screen TV that cannot be turned off. I asked the staff if they could switch it off, or at least turn down the volume. They responded by saying that they aren’t allowed to. And so we have to put up with the constant drone of News 24 interrupting all other conversations and activities.

As I write this, there are 8 people in the cafe. One is reading and writing notes. One person seems to be writing an essay on a laptop. One person is reading a journal. Three people are discussing their research. Each of them seems to be occasionally disturbed by the TV.

And now thanks to the marvel that is the blog audio recorder, you too can experience what is considered to be an audio environment suitable for a world-class academic institution. Also note the constant hum of a very loud refrigerator.

Firstly, a word about how this list was constructed. I have simply talked to many of the people who are responsible for creating an excellent ‘Warwick experience’ – not just the student experience, but also the researcher and teacher experience. Some of the ideas are developments of official teaching and learning strategy. Others are based upon my first hand experience as a student, researcher and teacher.

Here’s my list. It’s not intended to be exclusively complete, but rather to give a basic framework.

1. Create, promote and review many diverse opportunities and resources.
2. Reduce the burden of admin and bureaucracy.
3. Enable and encourage enterprise.
4. Provide space, tools and resources for creativity.
5. Support managed risk taking.
6. Support deep-learning and specialisation, within an understanding of wider contexts and connections.
7. Establish a range of alternative channels of expression and collaboration, to be used intelligently, with purpose and discretion.
8. Create and sustain meaningful communities at the appropriate scale and of the appropriate form.
9. Facilitate international and local perspectives and connections as part of all activities.
10. Form mutually beneficial collaborations that bring together diverse people (varying status, age, skills level, intellectual and cultural background etc).
11. Develop, communicate and use appropriate and well defined values: benchmarks; standards; competencies (assessment).
12. Enable and encourage the critical reflection, planning & action cycle.
13. Identify and reward individual contributions, capabilities and achievements.
14. Share examples, testimonies, methods and stories.
15. Communicate and celebrate success.
16. Provide an enjoyable, caring and friendly experience.

How then does technology fit into this? Clearly the intelligent and well designed use of new technologies may assist greatly with each of the points. I plan to explore this more thoroughly. But we should also consider what might be a prerequisite for technology having an effect in such fundamental and powerful processes. I argue that there are core competencies that are necessary pre-conditions for success: the core competencies of a digital native. It is in supporting the development of these core competencies, as much as the provision of actual technologies, that the most vital work lies.

This will probably the most uninteresting video to appear in Warwick Blogs. But it is significant. Talking to Jonathan about his plans, it became apparent that they would like to be able to instantly capture post-performance or post-workshop commentaries and reflections. So I plugged a Logitech web cam into is PC, wentto my blog, and recorded this brief message. It worked perfectly. Was he impressed? Oh yes. Very. They already have PCs on trolleys that can be wheeled into a room. So I left my web cam for him try. I predict that this will be a great use of the feature.

Shock of the Old is, in my experience, the best annual learning technologies conference. Organised by the Learning Technology Group of Oxford University Computer Services, the presentations and discussions are both cutting-edge and pragmatic. Most importantly for us, research-led universities are in the majority amongst those represented by the delegates. And to make it an even more tempting prospect, the event is held at the wonderful Said Business School.

My 2008 presentation, on ‘Lessons from 5 years as a Web 2.0 university’ will examine Web 2.0 design patterns and their fit with common learning design patterns. This will be a follow-up to my 2005 presentation on Warwick Blogs and guerilla PDP. The outline for my presentation can be found in this entry.

Housed in a vast Victorian glass-roofed hall, children can wander independently, looking at the hundreds of exhibits. There are cases with displays of land, air and sea animals from across the world, as well as geological and scientific displays.



Lawrence comparing his model sharks to a display of icthyasaurs.

Best of all, of course, are the dinosaurs: both skeletons and life-sized reconstructions.

Lawrence with tricerotops: say RAHHHH!.

Some of the model animals have been created specifically so that children can touch them. The cheetah, pony, fox and badger are particularly attractive.

Lawrence impressing a lady with his zoological expertise.

When we visited a couple of weeks ago, a children’s art event was in progress, with many craft tables in place, at which artists helped the children to create dinosaur masks, puppets and drawings.

Some lesser known highlights:

• There is an upper-level, containing many more exhibits, including beetles, bugs and butterflies.
• Half way up the stairs, there is a live (or dormant in the winter) bee colony, housed in a glass case.
• There is a gruesome skeleton and a model of an angler fish in the fish cases.
• Just to the left of the reception as you walk in, there are mysterious drawers containing further exhibits that can be examined closely.
• The Pitt Rivers museum at the back of the hall displays cultural artefacts from around the world, including some lovely shrunken heads.
• Lewis Carroll drew inspiration from the museum, and there is an exhibit all about him and his creations.
• The hall is lined with statues of key people from the science of natural history – notice how Darwin and Aristotle seem to be staring intently at each other, what are they thinking?
• Dyson hand-driers in the toilets. Bizarrely effective.

After spending a couple of hours in the museum, we visited the very good Strada restaurant in Little Clarendon Street. Seafood linguini, lobster risotto, pizza for the adults. Spaghetti and ragu for Lawrence (along with samples of all of the other orders).

On an increasingly large scale Warwick has promoted, and sometimes created, ‘Web 2.0’ technologies for staff and students. The pervasive ubiquity of Sitebuilder, Warwick Forums and Warwick Blogs has encouraged the adoption of sophisticated online activities as normal and everyday: social/academic networking; wiki-esque collaborative writing and tagging; keyword and full-text search; blogging; podcasting; eportfolios; news and event services; RSS content aggregation. This has been motivated by a broadly ‘constructivist’ pedagogy, valuing independent research-based learning, creativity and ‘cognitive flexibility’ (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992). However, the rapid normalisation of these practices has been driven by other forces: independently adopted Web 2.0 services, created for non-educational purposes, have blended into our feature-rich and often confusing mix. A recent poll of 100 postgraduate students indicated that most were accessing and updating Facebook more than twice a day. None of these students admitted to keeping a paper-based personal or research diary. Evidence shows that our October 2007 intake were the first to arrive with social and intellectual affiliations already formed online.

Web 2.0 is not a superficial development¹. It is not merely a new interface to an old world. It changes the nature of knowing, and hence of knowledge and the known. For any knowledge based business, it is a ‘disruptive technology’ with negative and positive effects. This presentation will summarise my research into the nature of this new epistemography, with reference to specific technologies (see above) and established pedagogical practices². The epistemography will be explored both from the perspective of its inhabitants and from a critical distance, with views presented in video interviews.

What effect does this Web 2.0 epistemography have upon learning design patterns? Are Web 2.0 technical design patterns incompatible with conventional learning design patterns? How are we (teachers and students) adapting to Web 2.0? Is a poorly understood scattercast approach to teaching and learning replacing familiar broadcast and narrowcast channels? Are there transferable strategies and techniques that can be recommended?

________________________

NOTES:

¹ For example, Web 2.0 might encourage loosely coupled concepts: a rapid turn-over of low-value interchangeable ideas (in ‘the long-tail’), redundant detail, few dependencies, weak identities, decreased ‘situational ambiguity’ (and hence less drive to learn), with many poorly evaluated connections and few enabling constraints. Deep structures and specialisations are eroded by endless waves of decontextualisation, resulting in a wide but shallow sea filled with a multivarious confusion of conceptual and practical species.

² Patterns being investigated:

• Transmit, record, report, verify.
• Predict, experiment (risk take), infer.
• Cognitive apprentice.
• Adopt, perform and test a perspective.
• Perspective switching.
• Stepping stones.
• Build a product/text.
• Reflective learning diary.
• Peer review.
• Practice/evidence based competency development.
• Last-minute mash-up.

Here are the main points discussed:

1. We have been given £5000 in additional funding, I am to use it to temporarily fund our activities and to write a report on the feasibility of continuing the e-Squad with funding directly from departments.
2. Ideas for an e-Squad logo were discussed. Douglas suggested a clever e symbol rather like @. Lisa will co-ordinate this.
3. The idea of e-Squad members wearing yoof-style hoodies with the e-squad logo WAS REJECTED in favour of more subtle and stylish badges.
4. We will produce a set of business cards for e-squad members to use.
5. Lisa Lavender (History IT person) will be taking over running the E-squad for a day a week.
6. All reported that they are happy with the system currently used for advertising tasks (posted onto a forum).
7. To make planning more straightforwards, each student nominated a set hour (or two) during the week during which they will come to our office (H409) to work. We will try to organise work for them to do in advance, but in some cases may not have any tasks – an email will be sent to the student the day before to confirm. THIS IS OPTIONAL FOR UNITEMPS STUDENTS.
8. Training sessions and other dates will be added to the calendar at: Two sessions have been arranged, one on Sitebuilder (you may have done that already) and one on video. See the calendar here.
9. Catherine has started to create a video of interviews with first years about their expectations and experiences of Warwick. Douglas will be filing more footage for this. If you want to get involved, talk to Catherine. There will be more videos to produce soon.
10. I have an additional £5000 to run the Warwick Podcasts student competition again. Help will be needed for this. You may also want to enter a team. You can see info about last year’s competition.
11. There will be a University-wide showcase event (with posters, stands, presentations and videos) in week 10. More info soon.

On an increasingly large scale Warwick has promoted, and sometimes created, ‘Web 2.0’ technologies for staff and students. The pervasive ubiquity of Sitebuilder, Warwick Forums and Warwick Blogs has encouraged the adoption of new online activities as normal and everyday: social/academic networking; wiki-esque collaborative writing and tagging; keyword and full-text search; blogging; podcasting; eportfolios; news and event services; RSS content aggregation. Independently adopted Web 2.0 services have blended into this potent and sometimes confusing mix: a recent poll of 100 postgraduate students indicated that most were accessing and updating Facebook more than twice a day.

Web 2.0 is not a superficial development. It is not merely a new interface to an old world. It changes the nature of knowing, and hence of knowledge and the known. For any knowledge based business, it is a ‘disruptive technology’ with negative and positive effects. This presentation will examine the nature of this new epistemography, with reference to specific technologies (see above) and established pedagogical practices (listed below).

For example, Web 2.0 might encourage loosely coupled concepts: a rapid turn-over of low-value interchangeable ideas (in ‘the long-tail’), redundant detail, few dependencies, weak identities, decreased ‘situational ambiguity’ (and hence less drive to learn), with many poorly evaluated connections and few enabling constraints. Deep structures and specialisations are eroded by endless waves of decontextualisation, resulting in a wide but shallow sea filled with a multivarious confusion of conceptual and practical species. To cope with this diversification, scattercast teaching and learning replaces more familiar broadcast and narrowcast channels. There are both negative and positive aspects to these changes. The effects may also vary considerably between disciplines; comparisons will be explored through interviews with practitioners and students.

What effects does this Web 2.0 epistemography have upon learning design patterns? Are Web 2.0 technical design patterns incompatible with conventional learning design patterns? How are we (staff and students) adapting to Web 2.0? Are there transferable strategies and techniques that can be recommended? Patterns being investigated include:

Transmit, record, report, verify.
Predict, experiment (risk take), infer.
Cognitive apprentice.
Adopt, perform and test a perspective.
Perspective switching.
Build a product/text.
Reflective learning diary.
Peer review.
Practice/evidence based competency development.
Last-minute mash-up.

On an increasingly large scale Warwick has promoted, and sometimes created, ‘Web 2.0’ technologies for staff and students. The pervasive ubiquity of Sitebuilder, Warwick Forums and Warwick Blogs has encouraged the widespread adoption of new online activities as normal and everyday: social/academic networking; wiki-esque collaborative writing and tagging; keyword and full-text search; blogging; podcasting; eportfolios; news and event services; RSS content aggregation. Independently adopted Web 2.0 services have blended into this potent and often confusing mix: a recent poll of 100 students indicated that most were accessing and updating Facebook more than twice a day.

Web 2.0 is not a superficial development. It is not merely a new interface to an old world. It changes the nature of knowing, and hence of knowledge and the known. It is a ‘disruptive technology’ for a knowledge based business, with negative and positive effects. This presentation will examine the nature of knowledge and knowing in a Web 2.0 environment, with reference to specific technologies (see above). The effects of this new epistemography on established pedagogical practices will be examined.

Web 2.0 may encourage loosely coupled concepts: a rapid turn-over of low-value and interchangeable ideas; with redundant detail, few dependencies and many connections. This results in a wide and shallow sea, eroding the deep structures and specialisations around which university learning is constructed, and promoting scattercast channels over familiar broadcast and narrowcast teaching. A significant change in academic skills and student behaviour is already being encountered.

What effects does this Web 2.0 epistemography have upon the learning design patterns that are commonly employed by teachers and students? How are these patterns and their users (staff and students) adapting to Web 2.0? Are there any good transferable strategies and techniques that can be recommended?
______________

My research for this will look at a range of learning design patterns, including:

Transmit, record, report, verify.
Last-minute mash-up.
Predict, experiment (risk take), infer.
Cognitive Apprentice.
Adopt and test a perspective.
Perspective switching.
Build a product (write a text).
Reflective learning diary.
Peer review.
Practice and evidence based competency development.

Think of David Attenborough as we know him today: the calm and expert voice; a tall, up-right stance, firmly at home in any environment, in any climate; god-like access to spectacular visions of all of the world’s wildife, no matter how rare or remote. Now strip away half a century and almost all supporting technologies. What remains? A primitive movie camera, a mission to collect interesting species for the London Zoo, his friend the pioneering cameraman Charles Lagus; and an as yet un-proven theory that watchable TV could be produced in this way.

Lost at sea, with only a sketch map to guide them, and razor-sharp coral below…

The ship rocked and staggered so violently that it was all we could do to keep on our feet on the wildly tilting deck. As we desperately thrust our poles on to the reef, the racing water almost tore them from our grasp. We fought with all our strength until at last, driven by the gale, our tiny ship struggled out of the grip of the whirlpool and into deeper water…To retreat was impossible for the wind was blowing directly behind us and to go back we should have had to take the suicidal course of furling our sails and abandoning ourselves to the tidal race. We were irrevocably committed to going on. Within seconds, the ship reared and plunged as the next eddy sucked at her bows.

Some simple advice, in case you ever should need to sail across to the island of Komodo:

• hire a sea-worthy boat;
• make sure that the captain and crew know how to sail it;
• ensure that the captain knows the way to Komodo, or at the very least, can read a map;
• a shared language might help to avoid some of the more disastrous misunderstandings.

There simply were no professionals in 1956. Risks just had to be taken.

Zoo Quest for a Dragon is the story of two young adventurers making it up as they went along. It is the best type of adventure story, written with honesty and humour, and accounting for all of the mistakes as well as the remarkable successes. Attenborough’s attempts at speaking pidgin, often remarkably accurate but sometimes amusingly erroneous, capture the spirit of the expedition. Most people will have seen at least some small elements of the footage that they created whilst in Indonesia. Dragons and orang-utans. Some of the most memorable images from the history of wildlife broadcasting. My copy, a Companion Book Club special from 1959, contains photos, maps and an additional gem: Quest for the Paradise Birds, describing their march across Papua New Guinea. Travelling with large groups of porters in the style of the great Victorian explorers, they encountered not only the amazing dance of the birds of paradise, but also the soon to disappear rituals of the tribes, including pygmies and cannibals (one photo depicts a particularly gruesome necklace made of human fingers).

Many fascinating strands are brought together in this book, in a way that would be unlikely in modern natural history television. Most importantly, it presents the people of Indonesia as part of the environment (although tensions between the two are highlighted). And therein is the real surprise. In describing the many rituals and celebrations of the people encountered, Attenborough proves to be as great an observer of people as he is of animals.

Then, as evening fell, the mood changed again. The music of the gamelan became fierce and full of foreboding, and down the steps from the temple rushed the barong, one of the most powerful and terrible of the spirits of Bali. He was a huge four-legged monster. His body was covered with white shaggy hair hung with gilded leather trappings on which were sewn innumerable flashing mirrors. He had a long golden tail which arched far behind him, decorated with sacred cloths and a tinkling bell. His head was a huge bulbous-eyed mask with savage overlapping tusks and beneath his jaws hung the most magical attribute, a long beard of human hair.

The BBC may soon be making some of the Zoo Quest television programmes available through its online archives project. It will be interesting to see if the Attenborough of this book is all that different to the Attenborough in front of the screen. For now, a short clip is online (Real Player): http://www.turnipnet.com/tv/zooquest.rm

Main aims and objectives of the project:

• To further the establishment of student podcasting and interviewing as a valuable research based learning activity.
• MP3 recorders will become ‘embedded’ within each participating department, along with the skills required to produce quality podcast ‘programmes’.
• To produce an investigation and subsequent report on the benefits of student interviewing and podcasting. We will seek to publish this in a peer reviewed journal.
• To provide showcase examples relevant to a wide range of departments across the university.

Description of the project

Departments will be invited to enter teams consisting of an academic or alumni and up to two students. There are a maximum of ten teams, with the aim to get ten different departments to participate. Departments who have not yet participated in podcasting will be targeted for recruitment. Training and advisory sessions will be provided for the students and staff in the departments, along with support from the Arts Faculty E-squad (student helpers). We will focus upon interview and investigation skills, planning, editing, and creating podcast files. The aim, guiding the judging of the entries, is to see the production of podcast interviews that stand alone as valid and high quality academic productions, reflecting the work and abilities of the students. A secondary result will be the presentation of the work of the interviewee to a wider public. Completed podcasts will be uploaded to a publicly accessible web site. Last year’s entrants can be found on the page below, along with a reflective interview conducted with a winning student by the Arts Faculty E- learning Advisor

The issues discussed with Manu Raivio (winning student) will be researched more formally. The idea of an ‘audio essay’ as an assessed activity will be focussed upon. This investigation will be presented at events by the Arts Faculty E-learning Advisor, with the aim of publishing in an appropriate journal. The student podcasts will be judged by a team of experts, including a specialist in the communication of academic work. Winning podcasts will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the end of the forthcoming E-learning Showcase Day in the Teaching Grid (in the week before the Easter vacation). Following the event, work will be carried out with our participating departments and to showcase student podcasting throughout the university.