Welcome to The IMPALA Project
IMPALA Support Tools
To support the IMPALA project and the partners a variety of online resources have been made available, including a Website, Blog, Wiki and many others. This is a brief introduction to the tools and how you can access them.
1. IMPALA Website
You can access the site at www.IMPALA.ac.uk . This is an overview of the project, which has information about the research being carried out and the project partners.
If you would like anything to be added to the site contact Palitha Edirisingha by email or Matthew Mobbs by email .
On this site if you select the Project Blog Tab it gives a brief overview of what the Blog is and where it is found. If the http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/impala link is selected it will take you to the Website seen here.
This site has several links to documentation and support material to assist the project. I will now introduce these tools and how to use them.
2. Impala Blogs
On the Webpage seen in Fig 2 all of the items with this folder symbol are Blogs. Blog sites are like an online diary, and can be used to discuss anything to do with the project, from meetings and presentations, to raising points about the successes and difficulties you have with Podcasting.
Thus-far we have two Blogs one about Impala Events which allows discussion about workshops and meeting held. The second is the Technology Blog which allows discussion about the technology used to support Podcasting and the successes and problems with it. As the project progresses we hope to create more Blogs, including one for each project partner.
To view these Blogs click on the link. If you would like to raise any points of interest, start a new thread or comment on existing threads click on the comment link. This will first appear to have directed you to the same Webpage, but if you scroll to the bottom of the page it requires you to login. This requires your CFS username and password.
The comment screen appears as seen in Fig3. It requires you to add a title to your comment and the content. It is important you put your name at the end of your comment to get accreditation, or you can remain anonymous.
3. Imapala Wiki
The other feature of the project site (seen in Fig 2) that we would like to introduce you to is the Impala Wiki. A Wiki is a very powerful tool that runs alongside a Website. The important thing to point out is a Wiki is not a Website in the true sense, it is more like an online encyclopedia or glossary, and is a collection of related Web pages that all live within the same file store directory in which relating pages can be interlinked.
The structure of a Wiki can be seen in Fig 4. Every Wiki has a FrontPage, which acts like a seeding page, the contents are the main topics explored in the Wiki.
In the discussion on one of these topics the writer could include a piece of terminology or discuss a relevant topic relating it. However, to avoid the article turning into an essay, the explanation of the terminology or related topic is written separately and then linked to in a second tier, and this growth progress can continue into many tiers.
When writing the information the Wiki constructs itself into a tiered structure (but actually each topic written about is relevant in its own right) leading to an interlinking structure. When writing a Wiki if a reference is made to a page that already exists then a link is automatically created to the existing content.
The power of a Wiki is it can be edited by any user, and as partners of the IMPALA project you all have the right to edit it. You can write your own article or edit existing articles.
Using the Wiki
The Wiki is accessed from the Webpage shown in Fig 2. When selected it appears as shown in Fig 5, and you can read any of the current content by clicking on the links.
If you wish to edit or add material select the edit tab on the top menu. When this is selected the edit screen will appear as shown in Fig 6 (Fig 6 shows the MP3 topic in edit mode) there are some critical features to point out at this stage.
To edit what is said in the text you simply type as you would in any word processing package. The other feature are:
Creating a new topic article
When writing your article if you put [square brackets] around some text and a entry relating to that link has not been created the Wiki knows, and then when viewed in the normal view it will appear like this:
[square brackets]?
This represents the Wiki saying “you wanted to create a link but there nothing to link to”. To create the article relating to this link click on the question mark (?) and it will take you to the edit view where you write the article, making sure you use the features pointed out above, and create furthers links if you so wish.
If you would like more information on Wikis and how to use the MoinMoin Markup go to:
https://www2.le.ac.uk/institution/merlin/
Another Wiki is the process of being constructed by the University of Leicester.
4. Folders
The remain content on the Website seen in Fig 2 are Folders, which are called Presentations, Useful Documents, IMPALA research instruments, News Items, Resources and tools for creating Podcast and IMPALA project partners. All of which are self explanatory and in them we would like you to assist us in compiling relevant documentation.
5. Blackboard
We also have an IMPALA Blackboard site, which can be accessed through www.le.ac.uk. To enter the site you require your CFS username and password.
I’m aware the majority of the partners are used to operating Blackboard, so in this section I’ll just describe a few of our features.
The main features of the site are displayed on the left hand side of the screen these include:
Announcements: / In this section an new and relivant announcement can be made.Project Overview: / An overview of the project
Project Partners / Descriptions and resources created by all partners, to which we would like all to contribute.
Podcasting / This will include examples of Podcasts and relevant supporting resources.
Workshops / In which we will provide all the materials and and presentations used in workshops.
Communications and Discussion Board / These are methods of communication which can be used through blackboard. The Discussion Board is very useful to share and pool ideas from all partners.
External Links / Are web links to useful relevant webpages.
Unfortunate at this time only Gilly Salmon, Palitha Edirisingha and Matthew Mobbs can add to the majority of these items. Therefore if you have anything to contribute please contact us.
Thank-you
These are some of the tools that have been put in place, please use and get as much from them as you can, as all contributions will add to the success for the project, and thank once again for joining us on the IMPALA project.
Matthew Mobbs
May 30, 2006
5