Interactive Audio Comprehension Materials (IACM) II

Date: 2002

Role: Systems developer (as Project Officer in the Academic Computing Development Team (ACDT), Oxford University Computing Services)

Brief: My colleague in ACDT, Paul Groves, had already coded phase 1 of the IACM project, which was an online system for students in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages to sit aural comprehension tests. The system used XML to store the data and XSLT to deliver a series of pages; this included SMIL, delivered using RealAudio. The main weakness was the technical requirement for academic staff to create and maintain XML files using a tool like XMetal. For phase II I was required to develop a more user-friendly web-based system for creating and editing these tests.

Solution: I devised and implemented an extension comprising a series of web forms, whose back-end generated XSLT dynamically based on the web form submissions. The slides below provide a walkthrough of a test version.

References:

• Original project proposal
• Joint paper before this project started (co-author with Sarah Porter et al): Building flexible language-learning systems: Perl and HTML vs. XML and XSL

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Multimedia CD-ROMs for Chinese and Japanese (two projects, one system)

Date: 2001-2003

Role: Systems developer (as Project Officer in the Humanities (later Academic) Computing Development Team (HCDT), Oxford University Computing Services)

Brief: A former member of HCDT, Peter Karas, had already produced a multimedia Chinese website for the Centre for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language at Oxford University. His system used CGI/Perl with Java applets for character drawing exercises. Now the department wished to distribute the materials on a CD-ROM.

Solution: I devised and implemented a CD production system, CD2Go, including a limited administration dashboard. It comprised a new set of Perl scripts that effectively used the existing site as a set of web services, sending output to a mapped folder hierarchy with a predefined naming convention. All anchors were adjusted accordingly. For example,
http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/char.pl?character=wang&charstr=jie,che,xiao,wang,ni,hao,mang,ma,bu,wo,gang,xia,ke,zhe,shi,de,a,xian,zai,yong,xiang,yi,xie,qu,you,ju,mai,piao,o,na,er,ne&home=http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/lesson1.htm
was mapped to:
http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Chinese/lessons/1/char/wang.htm

The successful output was made available for sale in Blackwells and prompted a further project with new teaching structure for Japanese and new web templates created by Joseph Talbot.

URLs (partial content):

• http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Chinese/index.html
• https://ijss.orient.ox.ac.uk/

Formally, I have given a nod to lifelong learning by undertaking a postgraduate degree as a mature student, though these days I am largely an autodidact. I also try not to neglect physical health — what the Romans referred to as mens sana in sano corpore (sound mind in a sound body) — as I enjoy rambles in the Oxfordshire countryside, where many of my ideas surface. Spiritually, I’ve been trained to know that one’s mind is the book.

My main subject areas have been mathematics, computer science and religious studies, whilst maintaining an interest in any academic field that can address important problems in life.

• A mixture of ‘O’ levels and ‘A’ levels (Maths, Further Maths, Latin and General Studies) from King Edward’s School, Birmingham, which was probably the most formative period in my formal education.
• B.Sc. Mathematics, 1990, Southampton University. A straight honours degree in pure and applied maths, having transferred from Maths with Actuarial Studies after the first year
• M.Sc. Mathematics (Number Theory), Norms of Ideals in direct sums of number fields and applications to the circulants problem of Olga Taussky-Todd, 1992, Glasgow University. Supervisor: the late Prof Robert Odoni, who was truly a dedicated mathematician. Download: Glasgow theses repository
• Ph.D. Computer Science, The use of Formal Methods for Safety-critical systems, 1997, Kingston University. Supervisor: Dr Kate Norrie. Download: British Library’s Electronic Thesis Online Service.
• M.St. Study of Religion[s], 2009, Oxford University (St Cross). Course co-ordinator: Dr. Sondra Hausner. For the course I submitted several essays and one dissertation:
  • Essay: Religion and Healing: Miracles and the Shrine of St. Frideswide in the late Twelfth Century
  • Essay: Visions Within: Spiritual Development and the Evolution of Imagery in Teresa of Àvila’sThe Interior Castle
  • Essay: The Catholic Church and Inter-religious Marriages: Reflections on Pastoral Theology and Practice after Vatican II
  • Dissertation: Avoiding pamāda: An analysis of the Fifth Precept as Social Protection in Contemporary Contexts with reference to the early Buddhist teachings    

I have also studied aspects of the following:

• Languages:
  • Pali: completed a 10-day Pali Summer School in summer 2008, delivered by Prof. Richard Gombrich for the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies.
  • Thai: I use various tools to support my rudimentary knowledge (being half-Thai) to translate Thai texts.

Among the various certificates from IT short courses, I have ITIL Foundation v.3 certification.