Facts about TU Berlin

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Moses meets Mumie
-- Notebook University --Concepts and
Experiences at TU Berlin
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About this Talk

• About TU Berlin
• Concepts of a Notebook University
• Concepts of Notebook Integration
• The Moses Project
• Conclusions

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About TU Berlin
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Facts about TU Berlin... (1)

• Largest technology-oriented German university

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...More Facts... (2)

• Located in the center of Berlin

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...More Facts... (3)

• Public University

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...More Facts... (4)

• 30.000 students

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Research at TU Berlin

• Speaker of the DFG Research Center Mathematics
  for key technologies
• Speaker of eight Collaborative Research Centers
  (SFBs)
• Partner of seven Collaborative Research Centers
• Seven Graduate Colleges located at TU Berlin
• Partner of five Graduate Colleges located at
  other universities
• ...

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Teaching at TU Berlin

• TU Berlin offers 50 courses of study, mainly in
• Engineering
• Natural sciences Math
• Economic Business
• Planning Sciences
• Humanities Social Sciences

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Concepts of a Notebook-University
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Running a Notebook University Requires...

• ... technical infrastructure on the campus
  technical staff
• ... teachers integrating mobile e-larning
  scenarios
• ... students using mobile e-learning scenarios

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Infrastructure/Staff

• Campus-wide WLAN
• Power charging stations
• Software campus licenses/license server
• Help desk
• Additional lecture hall equipment, e.g. beamers,
  electronic white board systems
• Technical staff to support students/teachers/admin
  istration

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Motivation for Teachers

• Benefits for teaching
• Simple to learn/use
• Technical support
• Students motivated to use mobile scenarios
• Well equiped students

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Motivation for Students

• Benefits for learning
• Simple to use
• Technical support
• Teachers motivated to integrate mobile scenarios
• Well equipped campus/teachers

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Framework Conditions at German Universities

• Public funded universities
• No tuition fees
• No standard students equipment required
• Liberty of teaching
• Liberty of learning

• Strong influence on the design of a notebook
  university concept

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Notebook Universities? Two Main Groups of
Concepts

• Recommendation-Concept
• (Notebook/software
• recommended for students)

Request-Concept (Notebook/software requested
for every student)
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... in Detail

• Notebook/software requested for every student
• Equipment provided for all teachers
• Homogeneous hard-/software solution possible
• Central organization possible
• Financing by fees/leasing concepts

• Notebook/software recommended for students
• Equipment only for selcted teachers
• No homogeneous hard-/software solution
• Central support only for selected equipment
• Financing concepts difficult

Request-Concept
Recommendation-Concept
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... Mainly Concepts of

• American Canadian Universities

• European Universities

Request-Concept
Recommendation-Concept
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... Important Difference
Recommendation-Concept (Notebook/software recom
mended for students)
... depends much more on the integration into
teaching/learning scenarios...
Without integration into teaching/learning
scenarios notebook university will definitely
fail !!!
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Concepts of Notebook Integration
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How Students are Using Notebooks

• Email
• Chat
• Surfing on the web
• Getting information on-campus
• Taking notes
• ...

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But - Integration in Educational Processes Would
Mean
Notebooks should be...

• natural working tools
• integrated into lectures/classes
• used for homework/training
• used for laboratory work
• used for team work
• used for preparation of presentations

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The Moses Project
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Notebook University _at_ TU Berlin Overview

• Introduction
• Background
• Partners
• Objectives
• Subprojects
• Notebooks for students
• Technology
• Content
• Organization

Mobile Service for Students MoSeS
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Moses Background

• Funded by the German Federal Ministry of
  Education and Research
• NotebookUniversity initiative
• 25 NotebookUniversity projects
• Funding period 07/2002-03/2004
• Aim support of mobile teaching/learning
  scenarios at universities

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Moses Partners

• Cooperation of research groups at 4 faculties
• Mathematicians
• Physicists
• Chemicists
• Several groups of engineers
• Supported by the Department of Pedagogics

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Moses Objectives

• Bundling existing mobile/e-teaching initiatives
• Strengthening multimedia competences
• Creating common infrastructure
• Promoting development of e-learning material
• Promoting use of modern hardware/software in
  teaching

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Moses Subprojects

• WLAN
• E-chalk systems (www.e-chalk.de)
• Sofware licence server
• Dual boot image dvd
• Notebooks for students
• Notebook helpdesk
• Software helpdesk/workshops

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Moses Notebooks for Students

• Homogeneous notebook architecture
• Selected attractive notebook models
• Cooperation with a single business partner
• Central help desk

Students are missing variety of manufacturers ?
changed concept

• Cooperation with a single distributor
• Selected attractive notebook manufactures
• Central support by distributor

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Moses Technology

• WLAN on campus
• e-chalk systems in selected lecture halls
• Support for highly selected hard-/software
• Standard application software via floating
  licence server
• Semi-homogeneous notebook architecture

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Moses Content

• Using existing material no specific content
  production
• (Mumie is one of the content projects of TU
  Berlin)
• Automatic content production by selected
  lectures
• Integration of standard application software
• Use of existing tools for motivation and
  illustration
• Specific application software for specific fields

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Moses Organization

• Cooperation of independent research groups
• Semi-Homogeneous hardware solution
• Homogeneous standard application software
• Heterogeneous specific software solution
• Heteregenous content solution
• ? de-/central software support
• ? central hardware support

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Conclusions
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The ... Commandments

• Strict separation technology/infrastructure
  content
• Search for highly motivated and experienced team
• Define competences between involved groups
• Work in teams dissemination of knowledge
• Information/motivation of users
  (teachers/students)
• Documentation!
• The worst decision is a decision never made

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The Future at TU Berlin

• New general information communication
  technology concept is being developed
• Infrastructure
• Integration of administration
• Mobility hardware
• Content production
• Integration into teaching/learning scenarios

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Thank you for your Interest
See you next year ...
erhard_at_math.tu-berlin.de