My slides from Moodle Moot Australia 2015. I discuss ideas about how we can use the Internet of Things to enhance eLearning. I discuss my experiences in building a wearable that displayed information from Moodle.

1. If you know about how the web works,
you know that when you request a webpage…

2. …you get sent back a response code.

3. “200” means everything OK, so you never see that one.
That’s why most people don’t know about these codes.

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

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

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

7. 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.

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

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

10. How odd…

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

12. April 1, 1998

13. It’s an April Fool’s Day joke.

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

15. 2015: An time when an old April Fool’s Day joke can be mistaken for
prophecy.

16. Moodle Moot Australia 2015
Moodle and the Internet of
Things
Kenneth Scott Huntley
Miller College of SWSi TAFE
Miller, NSW, Australia
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

17. My name is Scott.
I’m a Canadian-Australian from Miller College, part of South Western Sydney
Institute of TAFE (SWSi), Sydney, Australia.
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

18. 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.
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

19. 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.
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

20. So What is “The Internet of Things”?
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

21. 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?
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

22. #MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

23. #MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

24. 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?
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

25. 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?
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

26. 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. Cool things I could make right now using a microcontroller board.
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

27. 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.”
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

28. 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

29. 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.
~$15
Adafruit Metro.
~$30

30. 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. Cool things I could make right now using a microcontroller board (that’s
connected some how, some way to the Internet).
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

31. Does it come in purple?

32. Does it come in purple?
Yes!
(and no)

33. #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.

34. But is this the Internet of Things?
Well… funny thing about that…
The Flora board was the one I selected for the tie…
#MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott

35. #MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott
The “Backend” The “Frontend”

36. But is this the Internet of Things?
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…
#MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott
Adafruit “Bluefruit”

37. But is this the Internet of Things?
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.
#MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott

38. #MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott
The “Backend” The “Frontend”
So let’s just quickly
swap out the backend so
I at least have something
to show…

39. 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.
#MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott

40. 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
#MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott

41. 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
#MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott

42. #MootAU15 #UglyTie @MillerTAFEScott
The “Backend” The “Frontend”
So for a Sydney PHP
Meetup, a few weeks
after I got home, I
decided to make a new
Backend

43. 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. 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.
#MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

44. #MootAU15 @MillerTAFEScott

45. 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?

46. 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/