Rationale ACM defines Information Technology (IT) as the field "meeting the needs of users within an organizational and societal context through the selection, creation, application, integration and administration of computing technologies." The project's outcomes include the student's ability to use and apply current technical concepts and practices in the core information technologies; design effective and usable IT-based solutions and integrate them into the user environment. < FONT COLOR="#0000FF"> The project's IT courses include required core areas of the ACM IT standard curriculum. This curriculum standard expects students to develop independent critical thinking and problem-solving skil ls, to collaborate in teams to accomplish a common goal by integrating personal initiative and group cooperation. The wireless tablet PCs helped us develop prototype courses that implement the ACM definition of IT and meet its standards. In addition, the equipment gives IT students opportunities to use and understand current mobile technology, an experience they will add to their skills portfolio as the enter the workforce.

CMPT 250 - Presentation of individually researched topics Implementation (pedagogy) The class activities were redesigned, ranging from minor modifications (s uch as reordering) to substantial ones (development of new interactive exercises, tests and evaluation tools). We h ave redesigned the CMPT 320 course to include an interactive analysis of current IT security models and tools. Students were asked to play various roles in the security design: requirements, model design, implementation, vulnerability testing, maintenance and documentation and use state of the art security testig applications such as Nmap, Paros Proxy, Wireshark, Cain and Abel, Netstumbler, Hacme Bank, etc. Additional exercises included class efforts in breaking security, with each student testing a subse t of the possible attacks and the class interactively combining the results. The students were asked to work on hands-on activities in and outside of the class. In the CMPT250/CSIT470 courses, the traditional approach to analyze individual web technologies and design small applications was enhanced by the mobile environment through activities that allowed students to e xperiment with real-word systems such as My SQL, Ajax, Perl, PhP, etc. Students were also encouraged to research additional web related topics and present them to their peers. All courses required students to work on and present a term project that involved use of mobile computing.

CMPT 470 - Lecture Setting Faculty The participating faculty worked together to redesign (goals, objectives, measurable outcomes, new teaching tools, e.g., Integrated Development Environments) several courses such as CS I/II. They continue to support the development and delivery of the IT degree that includes the redesign of the IT core courses. Pictured here, John Jenq is the first faculty to teach web design and web tools courses at MSU. Dr. Jenq received a MSU Sokol faculty/student resear ch award in 2004 for developing a secured internet teaching and learning system for CS I/II that provides automatic code handling and grading. To improve student understanding of industry computer security, Stefan Robila incorporated guest presentations o n application security and security administration in his Data and Computer Security course. These practices stay at the basis of the IT course overhaul.

Impact on Teaching The courses were originally taught in a traditional setting with lecture style i nstruction. Many of the current class activities were redesigned, ranging from minor to substantial modifications (development of new interactive exercises, tests and evaluation tools). An increased emphasis on collaboration in the term projects was also anticipated. Performance appraisals of group oral presentations also gives a direct measure of collaboration and team work skills. A survey about the student's change in technical knowledge from an activity and his/her satisfaction with the activity pedagogy will accompany each activity. At the end of Fall 2006, students taking CMPT 470 (Advanced Web Tools) were asked what activities they found the most useful in understanding the c oncepts. Here are some of their answers: "Actually being able to do steps alongside the instruct or." "Hands-on projects....creating somethi ng step-by-step." "Applying what is learned in class on the computers." "Preparing an environment for java servlet applications, and overall setting up the servers myself was very useful rather than just following the slides." < LI style="margin-left: 20px;">"Being able to run the examples myself instead of just watching the professor do it" In CMPT 320, the students were exposed to tablet based instruction in the second part of the semester. At the end of the course, they remarked: "practical exercises. they are the key to solid understanding of the topics, I believe." "The idea of running the sniffer/proxy programs first hand really gave you a gauge of what happe ns." "during lectures, i would quickly sear ch and read about a topic/word that Dr. Robila used that i didn't understand so i would be able to follow" "Using different application to intercept network traffic" < FONT FACE="Georgia" SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">"paros, ethereal, any of the apps, none of them are exactly user friendly, it really helps to watch someone who knows what's going on." "How to run the programs demonstrated in class" "The most useful activities were the ones using different applications so we could understand the material." "demos and hands on activities" "Using all the applica tions that you have worked with in this class" & quot;using certain network packet sniffing programs such as Nmap/wireshark" "The hands on applications were most useful in my opinion because it acted as an eye opener that there were many vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an attacker on the Internet." "actually running the different programs" Note that many of the students mention specific applications taught during the course. This informal feedback displays a better understanding of the practical topics, supported by the use of technology.

CMPT 320 - Student Work

Contact Us Stefan A Robila< /A> robilas@mail.montclair.edu (973) 655-4230 RI-301 Computer Science Montclair State University Montclair, NJ 07043, USA Project Link: http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~robila/Mobility/

Quick Facts Dept: Department of Computer Science - cs.montclair.edu Courses Impacted: Fall 2006: CSIT 470 Advanced Web Tools (Instructor: J. Jenq) Spring 2007: CMPT 320 - Intranet and Internet Security (Instructor: S. Robila) CMPT 250 - Web Design (Instructor: J. Jenq) Spring 2008: CMPT 250 - Web Design (Instructor: J. Jenq) Total Number Students Impacted: 80 (mostly CS and IT majors) Faculty Involved (with links): Stefan Robila John Jenq Dorothy Deremer Keywords: Information Technology, Computer Security, Web Des ign, Advanced Web Tools

References Tablet Technology Microsoft Corp. Windows XP Tablet PC Microsoft Research. < A HREF="http://research.microsoft.com/erp/tec/default.aspx" TARGET="_blank">Tablet Based Computing U. Washington Classroom Presenter UCSD Ubiquitous Pres enter Educational and Curriculum Guides< /I> SRI International, Measuring Learning: A guidebook for gathering and interpreting evidence, Linda Shear, Geneva Haertel, Corinne Singleton, Sarah Zaner ABET, Assessment Planning, Gloria R ogers ACM, IT Curriculum Volume ACM, Computing Curricula 2005 Hands-on Tools Insecure.org Top 100 Security Tools Foundstone Inc, Free Tool s OWASP, Download Center

Visibility The MobiITy project and its results have already been promoted in a variety of venues. T hese include: "Mobile instructional laboratory environments and their use in computing sciences", Stefan A. Robila, Bert G. Wachsmuth, Christelle Scharff, and Jeffrey L. Popyack, panel discussion in the Consortium of Computing in Colleges Eastern Conference, October 2007, Patchogue, NY, also to be published in the Journal of Computing in Colleges. "MobilITy - Using Tablet PCs in the IT", Stefan A. Robila, John Jenq, Dorothy Deremer, CSAM Newsletter, Fall 2006, pg. 8 "Mobil ITy - Tablets and IT", Stefan A. Robila, John Jenq, Dorothy Deremer, Poster, HP Technology for Teaching Global Conference, February 2007, Monterrey, CA. Use for teaching and learning in the educational venues for NSF Researc h Experience for Undergraduates iMagine by students from eight universities

Implementation (technology) A common thread in the selected courses is the drive for collaboration and interaction in analyzing problems and designing solutions and the need to stimulate students' creativity and initiative. The HP technology enhances the student learning experience, resulting in better understanding of technical topics and improved pro fessional skills. The tablets were used in Fall as wireless reconfigurable devices for the Advanced Web Tools course. In Spring, we used available software (i.e., Ubiquitous Presenter) enhancing the faculty's ability to manage con tent delivery and interact with students through ink annotation submissions throughout the course. An important component of the courses was the student's ability to work on hands-on tasks. With support from the regional IT office, the tablets were re-imaged to accommodate a variety of web applications and security tools. Most of the time the students were introduced to the applications during the class time. They were provided with download, install and test information. The class room exercises were followed by take home assignments. For example, in CMPT 320, after learning how to install and use various security modules, the students were asked to test the module on targeted lab machines. See snapshot belo w.

Sample hands on assignment based on in class exercises

CMPT 320 - Classroom Moment Impact on Student Learning The goals are to increase student learning and to increase student/facul ty and student/student collaboration in required core IT courses. One Year Ago - Advanced Web Tools was not taught previously. The remaining courses were taught in traditional manner with some hands on activities. Today - Tablets used in class. Fall students indicate an essential need for mobility. Spring students face an enhanced environment that includes ink-based collaboration. One Year From Now - A dedicated 'hardware / hands-on' laboratory is designed allowing for expansion of the exercises to testing of new technologies in a dedicated 'sandbox'. Several concrete objectives were associated with this project. Below is one example o n how the associated learning outcomes were measured (examples are from CMPT 320).

Objective: Students should know how to use specific practical tools To achieve this objective, many of the teaching modules were redesign to increase the hands-on work in the classroom. Here, Nmap, a ports scanning tool used for computer security was presented in class. Students worked with the tool by downloading it on their laptops, installing it and then testing it. The assessment of this activity was done in several ways: Survey: The students were asked to indicate if they believe system vulnerability detection is possible through port scanning. The top graph displays the results with most of the students expressing confidence in this approach. Next, the students were asked which tool would they use. More than three quarters correctly identified the tool. The students were also asked about their confidence in using the tool for vulnerability detection. Their answers are indicated in the bottom graph. Graded Assignment: Students were asked to use the tool on their own and submit the results. Almost all were successful.

The top graphs shows the student's opinion on the use of hands-on examples. The bottom graph shows the student's awareness of the aplications demo-ed in the class. We note that the lowest scored applications (from the point of view of student confidence) are marked in red. Both correspond to situations when the aplication was discussed, demonstrated but the students were not provide d with explicit opportunity to practice in class.

Overall Student Feedback Need for Technology in Classroom The above graphs summarize the student feedback on the need for mo bile learning technology in the coourses covered by the project.

This project is supported by an HP Technology for Teaching gra nt.