SoDIS Symposium and SoDIS Beta Workshop
Don Gotterbarn & Tony Clear

SoDIS Symposium (This session will run in the morning)
Purpose - The SoDIS symposium will enable current and prospective participants in this CITRUS sponsored collaborative research programme to meet and share experiences, materials, practices and plans. Industry members, educators from polytechnic and university sectors, local and overseas, and students have all participated in previous symposia. This symposium will demonstrate the latest developments in the SoDIS process and software and is an opportunity for existing members to showcase their work, discuss achievements and projects in progress, and for intending participants to attend and to acquaint themselves with the software, the process and to join in the current projects including research grant funding applications.

SoDIS Beta Workshop (This session will run in the afternoon)
Purpose - The SoDIS Beta workshop is particularly intended for those unfamiliar with the SoDIS process, who may be interested in learning about it or using it in their teaching. Also, for those symposium attendees already involved in using SoDIS, the workshop will provide an opportunity to trial the new commercial Beta version of the SoDIS CASE tool. This hands-on workshop will enable participants to acquaint themselves with the SoDIS process. The SODIS Concept will be briefly introduced, followed by an introduction to the tool, which embodies the concept. In a guided process participants will then work through a particular example that they may use in class. Copies of the software will be provided to participants for their own further evaluation and use.

Full day or two half day sessions Tuesday 6th July 11.00am – 2.00pm ; 2.30pm - 5.30pm

Using Virtual Computers in the Classroom (VMware #1, Morning)
Convenors: Ricky Watson, Eddie Correia, and Mark Lyons
Objectives
To introduce virtual computer technology through the use of VMware and provide a better practical understanding of this technology, its uses, benefits and limitations.
This workshop will introduce participants to the benefits of virtualisation, by providing an overview of VMware, its functionality and its application in the teaching of various computing courses.

The workshop is targeted at people who teach operating systems, networking and programming. They may have heard of VMware but do not know how it works, how it can benefit them in their own environment and how it can serve their own specific needs. If you are new to VMware, this session is a pre-requisite for the afternoon session. (VMware #2)

Using VMware for Scenario-Based Project Work (VMware #2, Afternoon)
Convenors: Ricky Watson, Eddie Correia, and Mark Lyons
Objectives
To provide participants with some experience of VMware through the use of specific student projects, so they can gain a better practical understanding of its potential role in the teaching of polytechnic computing courses.

This workshop explores the networking capabilities of VMware through the use of specific scenario-based student projects that form an integral part of various courses offered at CPIT. The participants will be introduced to the projects themselves, how they are deployed and how VMware can be used not only to enhance student learning generally but also produce specific learning outcomes.

The target audience are people who teach level 5, 6 or 7 operating systems or networking. They may have heard of or even used virtualisation technology and are interested to see how this tool can be employed for practical student projects. Attendance at the preceding morning session will provide essential background for newcomers to VMware.

Post Graduate Seminar
Convenor: Brian Cusack
Purposes:
This is a help seminar for people involved in post-graduate research and an opportunity to grow knowledge resources. All participants are invited to contribute formally or informally to the discussion sessions, and to share their stories of experience, methods, and theories in computing research fields. As in previous years there will be a range of invited Keynote addresses and research in progress presentations. Papers are to focus on methods and reflections from research action, and the ways people go about researching in our field. It is expected a full range of approaches will be represented and ample time will be available for feedback in discussions. Formal blind review is available for all papers and as in 2003 reviewed papers will be published as a chapter in an ISBN numbered proceedings

Tips and Tricks when using a Managed Learning Environment (MLE) Half-Day Workshop (Morning)
Presenters: Dr. Stuart Young and Mae McSporran
Objectives:
To share strategies, which minimise tutor workload to ensure the success of an online course. To invite participants to try out a range of strategies that participants will find useful for the following:

1. Encouraging Student visits to the website
2. Increasing student learning
3. Minimising student errors when using the website
4. Increasing the usability of the website

These will be covered in the form of specific tips and tricks for using Blackboard.

International Students in the Mainstream Classroom: Issues and Solutions
Presenters: Barbara Chamberlain, Linda Way, and Beverley Hope
Purpose:
The purpose of this workshop is to discuss and share strategies to maximise the learning opportunities for all of our students when tutoring both domestic and international students in mainstream courses. Many issues arise that are not in the control of the person in front of the class. How do we cope with these issues? We will consider and discuss strategies that we can employ to assist.

Endnote
Presenter: John Wells
Academic staff in tertiary institutions are under increasing pressure to undertake research and produce scholarly output. One of the chores involved in this kind of work is keeping track of reference material you have consulted and producing in-text citations and reference lists. EndNote is a software tool designed specifically for these tasks. It allows you to maintain a database of references that you can sort, search and filter. It simplifies the process of producing in-text citations and references lists in hundreds of different styles. It also contains tools for searching for appropriate reference material and downloading the bibliographic data directly into your EndNote database. More information on EndNote is available from http://www.endnote.com/.

Objectives: By the end of this half-day hands on workshop participants will be able to

1. Manually enter bibliographic details into EndNote
2. Download bibliographic details from online and CD databases
3. Select and Filter references
4. Add in-text citations and reference lists to a Word document

Curriculum & Quality Workshop
Convenor Janne Ross

Half day Workshop (Afternoon)

CIC, DipICT L5 & L6, NDBC
The qualifications documented, maintained and presented by NACCQ in the well established “Blue Book” publication remain modern, up-to-date, industry focused and academically sound. Since the late 1980s this publication has been regularly reviewed to accommodate the rapid change inherent in education for one of the world’s fastest evolving fields. This is a major achievement and remains a key responsibility for NACCQ.

The tenth edition of the New Zealand Qualifications in Information and Communications Technology (Blue Book) is due for release in November 2004. This will incorporate new prescriptions and changes and updates to the regulations and to existing prescriptions for all the qualifications. Renaming of two of the original Blue Book qualifications to Diploma in Information and Communications Technology Level 5 and Level 6 respectively was implemented in the current (nineth) edition as was inclusion of the Certificate in Computing. The contents of this edition, available on the NACCQ web site reflect the needs of the three stakeholders: industry, students and academic staff.