Overview
The MOBILE project at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is developing a mobile/portable software system for delivering hands-on computer intensive educational workshops in any area of computer science and beyond. The project is funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Phase 2 grant awarded in 2008. This project builds on a prior NSF CCLI Phase 1 grant and supplemental grant to develop a laptop-based computer security workshop for computer science instructors (see the CLICS Project.)
The three major goals of the MOBILE project are to:
- develop a mobile wireless laptop-based computer network management system that can be used in a variety of computer science (and other) educational workshop scenarios and can be quickly installed on participants’ laptop computers from a portable storage device (such as a USB drive) given a minimal subset of memory, disk and software requirements,
- package this functionality with an easy-to-use interface that can be used by content developers and presenters, and
- demonstrate the value of this system to educators by presenting mobile hands-on computer science workshop to educators as a demonstration of the power of this system and holding workshops teaching educators how to use this system for their own computer science education workshops.
We are now accomplishing these goals through our project work. We have developed a working version of the MOBILE system, and are presenting the system at regional and national workshops. Basically, MOBILE boots a custom version of Ubuntu Linux through an external USB drive. We currently primarily use small USB card drives such as Passport drives, but we are also investigating the use of smaller USB 3.0 thumb drives. Booting the MOBILE system externally allows us to use participant laptops of any operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac - though Macs require special boot assistance due to proprietary boot restrictions.) Our system boots the common platform, which can be customized by an instructor to hold any desired content, including applications, documents or other files, virtual operating system images, etc. MOBILE supports networking of all participant laptop or other computing systems running it, in order to facilitate participant interaction and educational support as well as the support of educational functions such as a computer security cyberdefense exercise. In summary, MOBILE can be used to generate a hands-on workshop, a laboratory environment, or an outreach session for high school visits, as well as supporting many other educational purposes.
The MOBILE system is currently available for early usage and testing by contacting us. We will have a public release of MOBILE available by summer 2013.