No more thoughts from the LRC/Learning Technologies for the foreseeable future …. !

In January 2015, initially for nine months, I was seconded to Newcastle University’s central IT Service. My previous IT support role at the Language Resource Centre and School of Modern Languages is now in the capable hands of Dave Masters, with whom I  had swapped roles and effectively filled his role as e-learning systems analyst for the Learning Technologies Group.

It’s now a year on, and, following another internal teams restructuring, I’m now an applications systems analyst within the Applications Support Team, a vital part of Newcastle University’s central IT Service. I am again looking forward to a period of challenge and new experiences. Already, I have been able to get stuck into packaging up a variety of scientific / engineering software for automatic deployment by Group Policy to various central engineering PC clusters on campus. It has been a bit of a culture shock for me – way back when at the Language Resource Centre I was the sole IT professional supporting the School of Modern Language and the LRC. Now, I share an office with three other IT pros; it’s a great experience so far gleaming new knowledge and being in a shared environment!

Over the past year I have been learning new stuff about RAS (Remote Access Service operating under the Citrix XenApp environment), and Specops Deploy – a third party plug-in for Group Policy in Active Directory which allows for more controlled scripted application installations.

As time allows, I will update this blog with further thoughts from my experience here at the Applications Support Team…

One of the requirements of the newly refurbished Language Resource Centre was to have a facility for quickly searching our catalogue of available language learning self-study resources. To this end, I have produced a dedicated system using arm-mounted touch-screen all-in-one PCs locked down to display our very own on-line catalogue search form. The PCs were built using standard Windows 7 64-bit WDS images available on campus (thanks go to our Desktop Infrastructure team for injecting the appropriate HP extensible drivers to the build to enable USB 3.0/ touch screen capability). I locked the PCs down using Group Policy.  Here is a brief outline. Within a newly created Group Policy, I first enabled a specific user account to log on locally (best practise: add it to a security group), and removed the need to logon using CTRL-ALT-DEL ; these settings are found under Computer Configuration/Policies/Windows Settings/Security/Local Policies/User Rights assignment and Security options, as shown in the picture below:

To automatically log this user on at start up, I expanded the Computer Configuration/Preferences section and added the following registry keys and values as shown in the pictures below (all REG_SZ string type):

Under the  User Configuration/Policies/Administrative templates/System/Custom user Interface, I defined explorer.exe as the GUI to replace the normal Windows 7 desktop GUI. I also ensured that under the System/Logon – Run these programs at user logon setting was defined to run the Microsoft On screen keyboard (%systemdrive%\windows\system32\osk.exe).

Also under User Configuration/Preferences/Windows Settings/Registry I created a new registry value called LogPixels (type REG_DWORD) and set its value to 144 – this gave me a nice crisp and highly accessible font DPI size when used in conjuction with CSS em settings in our online catalogue web form.

A couple of invaluable resources I found to help with GPO settings: http://deployhappiness.com/group-policy-kiosk-mode-locking-down/ and a detailed explanation for setting Windows font DPI size: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/windows/en-US/c20c4c47-092d-4daa-b4a8-154b3852e13d/using-group-policy-to-set-windows-font-dpi-size

Well, September is half way through.The refurbishment of the Language Resource Centre has moved along quite quickly, and here I present a few images to show what’s been happening since the start of September ….

Here’s a first early peek at the new user carrels ..

Toughened glass screens provide area division within the Centre …

Talk Shop areas have been partitioned using glass also …

Looking towards the technician’s workshop and new reception area …

This area will contain sixteen PC workstations arranged in two facing rows of eight …

Looking towards the new entrance. Note the glass dividers to the right of the picture …

Some more images from construction work developing at the entrance ..

View of the internals of our new entry barriers …

The new reception desk under construction, viewed from inside the Centre …

More views of the entry barriers …

Reception desk, looking into the Centre …

+++ STOP PRESS! +++ The building work was completed on 12th September. Here are a couple of pictures of the new 16-PC desk area to the left of the entrance as you go in. On Monday 15th September, the Centre will be open to our International students from INTO for registration…

Just before the work began on the refurbishment, I had an opportunity to take some photos of a deserted Language Resource Centre, with very forlorn looking work carrels.

Well, the workmen have been beavering away over the past couple of  weeks, removing all the old furniture and building in the data and network frameworks.

The picture below shows the placement of original carrels round supporting pillars, with mahogany coloured wood cladding. The new-look centre will still feature similar carrels, but without the second shelving layer, more suited to modern computer monitors and certainly more ergonomic for its users. I believe the general mahogany wood colouring will be preserved (the building is listed and some internal features need to remain the same).

The image above is an example of building to incorporate new data and power connections. The new octagonal  desks will surround this allowing for seven computer work positions and a free work area, divided by fogged Perspex to allow a degree of privacy during self-study.

A current plan for the proposed centre, showing a newly-positioned reception area and entry barriers, is found below.

We plan to have large wall mounted television screens for signage and digital video display, using our recently installed Planet DV IPTV system.

More updates to follow!

The Language Resource Centre will be undergoing a complete refurbishment in June this year. Here’s how it currently looks:

Computers and television stations interspersed at various carrells within the LRC

We will be moving temporarily into a new building (possibly the Bedson Building, taking over the Side Computer Cluster there), where a scaled-down LRC will be able to provide limited language learning resources (I will be automatically deploying choice software to the computers  at the temporary location –  wherever we end up on campus!).

Watch this space. For a new look LRC!

This week, I have been looking at automating the installation of Asymetrix  toolbook-based Russian multimedia language  learning titles, from beginner  through to advanced level. Successful deployment has been through wrapping the software in msi wrappers, tweaking registry settings and adding special fonts. These e-learning titles offer lessons in everyday practical Russian, with additional resources (vocab, handy currency tips, etc). Should be a useful addition to the Centre’s language portfolio.

Here’s a nice article which briefly describes five available tools which can be used to create Windows installer (msi) packages. I personally use Advanced Installer, as mentioned in a previous blog article.

This week, I’ve been getting plenty of exercise tearing down one of our oldest Language Laboratories, replacing the ageing RM One Core 2 Duo computers with the latest RM One offering featuring Intel Core i5 processors… as shown here:

A view of part of the upgraded Lab 4.2. The RM One's are secured to each desk and have quite a small footprint. (Photo courtesy Fred Wu!)

Each PC has 8 Gb memory, so I’ll be building them with 64-bit Windows 7 Enterprise WDS images. The language lab has hard-wired audio connected to a central electronic relay in the Teacher console. Audio and video is broadcast to every PC using the Sanako Lab 300 system, which requires very specific audio card requirements (of which true full duplex audio is essential). As such, I’m using the Trust Expert surround sound USB hub at each student PC, which works well with the Sanako system.The older RM One computers had a larger compartment at their rear in which to conceal the hub. The newer models, although wider, are slimmer and the rear compartment is inadequate. So I’ve had to physically fasten every hub to the back of each computer. This works well, but is fiddly and takes a little time to deploy!

Working in the Language Lab 4.2 (Photo courtesy Fred Wu!)

Still, I’m nearly there – the only PC left to place in the lab is the teacher console. Then, the real hard work starts – OS deployment, application software installation, and testing.

I cam across this article today. Wonder if this will help WIndows 8 users long term… http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-adds-a-windows-key-to-its-newest-mice-7000015825/?s_cid=e064&ttag=e064