Moodle and the Internet of Things

If you know about how the web works,

you know that when you request a webpage…

…you get sent back a response code.

“200” means everything OK, so you never see that one.

That’s why most people don’t know about these codes.

Occasionally you’ll get a “404”, meaning the HTML file wasn’t found.

Maybe you’ll get a “301”, “307” or “308” if the page has moved…

…or a “504” if the Internet is a little slow today.

You might get a “403 - Forbidden” if you’re not supposed to access that page.

Or a “407” if you have to authorise your proxy connection.

Or maybe you’ll get a “418” if the webserver is actually a teapot.

True story, 418 is the response code if the server is actually a little teapot.

How odd…

This makes more sense if you look at the date the “Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol” was published on.

April 1, 1998

It’s an April Fool’s Day joke.

But now, in 2015, appliances like televisions and refrigerators are connected to the Internet.

2015: An time when an old April Fool’s Day joke can be mistaken for prophecy.

Moodle Moot Australia 2015

Moodle and the Internet of Things

Kenneth Scott Huntley

Miller College of SWSi TAFEMiller, NSW, Australia

#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

My name is Scott.

I’m a Canadian-Australian from Miller College, part of South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE (SWSi), Sydney, Australia.


I’m a “hacker” but not that kind of hacker.❖ Not the cool sneak into systems and hold

governments for ransom hacker❖ In the hack something together quickly sense of

the word.❖ In the “I need more duct tape” sense of the word.❖ In the “Oh God, I hope I don’t have to show my

code” sense of the word.❖ In the “It’s 3 AM the night before the my Invited

Speaker presentation, and everything has broken” sense of the word.

❖ I more often identify with the right side of this picture.


Also, I hacked together this presentation

❖ I only submitted for a 20 minute talk.

❖ I presented this talk at Moodle Moot Japan in February, to a much smaller crowd.

❖ Figured I’d just recycle that.

❖ Recycling is good!

❖ So if this is going bad, I’m going to go hide behind this screen and cry for awhile.


So What is “The Internet of Things”?


So What is “The Internet of Things”?Internet of Things

(according to Huntley’s Consolidated Dictionary)

noun

1. A Thing connected to the Internet.

2. Smart cities, smart building, smart homes and things out of the future that are promised for tomorrow but we don’t have yet, so who cares?






noun






noun






noun


2. Cool things I could make right now using a microcontroller board.


So what’s a micro controller board?So there’s this thing called Arduino

❖ Designed by some Italian guys

❖ Open Source hardware

❖ Often used for DIY projects

❖ It’s totally cool stuff I always wanted to play with

❖ But I’m a web teacher so I always figured this is not for me

❖ Last October, I said “Stuff it, I’m going to buy some Arduinos and start having fun.”


Arduino (and clones)

❖ Turns out one of my hobbies is buying Arduinos and Arduino like things.

❖ I almost have a full spectrum, of varying quality and/or authenticity

An authentic Arduino. ~ $35. I was disappointed it’s a

new green one.Sparkfun Redboard.

~ $25

Some knock off from China. $5, but I had to wait 3 weeks, and download weird

drivers.

A fake! Made to look like an authentic Arduino.

~$15Adafruit Metro.

~$30



noun


2. Cool things I could make right now using a microcontroller board (that’s connected some how, some way to the Internet).


Does it come in purple?

Does it come in purple?

Yes!(and no)

#MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott

Getting the tie working was a very long and difficult process for a software guy.

I experimented with two boards designed for wearables, the Lilypad USB and the Adafruit Flora.

The tie I took to Japan was working* off a Lilypad USB.

But is this the Internet of Things?

Well… funny thing about that…

The Flora board was the one I selected for the tie…



The “Backend” The “Frontend”


Originally the “backend” was hooked up to Bluetooth.

The idea was a message could be sent to the tie.

Like if an RSS feed changed.

And Moodle events can generate RSS feeds…


Adafruit “Bluefruit”


But…

Getting a stable connection was difficult because of Unknown Reason X and “I’m a software guy”.

Actually, I’m pretty sure Unknown Reason X is that Bluetooth and the Neopixel LEDs are drawing too much power at the same time. But I don’t know how to fix that.




So let’s just quickly swap out the backend so I at least have something

to show…

Oh noes

During debugging (on Feb 10th), I actually broke a Lilypad USB.

This day sucked.

I found enough spare parts to sew together another backend.


Oh noes

During debugging (on Feb 10th), I actually broke a Lilypad USB.

This day sucked.

We found enough spare parts to sew together another backend


It turns out I had the answer weeks before…PunchThrough Design’s LightBlue Bean

❖ It arrived mid January

❖ Didn’t play with it much trying to get other demos ready

❖ Four days before I left for Japan, I started playing with it, and realised:

BEAN + PYTHON = MOODLE RSS THINGY I WANTED ALL ALONG




So for a Sydney PHP Meetup, a few weeks

after I got home, I decided to make a new

Backend



noun


2. Cool things I could make right now using a microcontroller board.

3. Cool things I could buy right now that are designed to connect to the Internet.



Time for Answers?

❖ Don’t ask me questions, I don’t know anything.

❖ Tell me answers!

❖ How are you going to use the Internet of Things in your course(s)?

❖ How can we build a bridge between Moodle and the Internet of Things?

Reference Type Thingys

❖ Flinders Street Station by Brian Giesen, I gotta give a Creative Commons attribution, so here it is. https://www.flickr.com/photos/briangiesen/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/briangiesen/

Education

Moodle and the Internet of Things