28:15 ('84-'86): Phrase Animee; Poland-2; 485; Doris; Second Homes;

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28.15 Computers in Education:
"Phrase Animee" Stage 2 of 8

28.15.1 Introduction

"Phrase Animee" is the name I chose for a computer-based learning materials (CBLM) software package I developed in the mid-1980s for the Ministry of Education for in-school use. Phrase Animee, however, represents much more to me than this. It is what I associated with my whole experience of becoming an educational software (lessonware) developer. In this case, the client was the Ontario Ministry of Education, through their Software Development Assistance Centre (SDAC). There is some history to the Ministry getting into the software business, and this section will briefly review this story.

Click to make Phrase Animee jump

28.15.2 The Time Frame of This Project

As far as the Ministry of Education was concerned, my work for the Ministry of Education started August, 1986, with signing of the contract. But to get to this point, the software package had to be largely worked out, planned in terms of all of its stages, staff assembled, and all aspects budgeted. All of this work was done between late 1984, and Spring, 1986. The bulk of this work was done in the summer of 1985, and then a stage of negotiation with the Ministry was entered. This culminated in acceptance of the proposal in June, 1986. The project was finally considered completed by the Ministry of Education with the submission of the last of the "deliverables" in June, 1992. In fact, work associated with the project carried on well into Fall, 1994. And so, "Phrase Animee" in fact was an ten year project, from late 1984 through to 1994.

28.15.3 Stage 2: 1984 to August, 1986
The aspects of "Phrase Animee" to be discussed in this chapter are the first two of many stages of this project, the conception stage, from Fall, 1984 to Fall, 1985, and the negotiation stage, from Fall, 1985, to Spring, 1986. The development and programming of "Phrase Animee" had to be very well planned out in terms of timing and administration of the many different aspects of the project. The timeline below, from June, 1986, suggests the level of detail of my planning (click to enlarge):

"Phrase Animee" was one of my multi-chapter projects. This was the second of five stages, as shown below:

Stages of
the Development of
"Phrase Animee"
1984 - 1994

Chapter
and Dates: Stage Description:

27
1983 to 1984 Stage 1: Preliminary research and initial proposals Research moving towards preparing a fundable proposal

28
1984 to August, 1986
Stage 2:
Proposal and Negotiation of Contract Writing my proposal, detailing the project, and negotiating with the Ministry to revise and cost the project.

29
August 1986 to November,
1987 Stage 3:Start of Development
(called by Ministry "2") Basics of the program developed, initial graphics.

30, 31, and 32
November, 1987
to June,
1990 Stage 4: Final Programming and Evaluation
(called by Ministry "3") Final Programming, start of in-school testing and process of revisions.

33, 34, and 35 June, 1990 to 1993 Stage 5: Documentation Final revisions, final evaluation, and writing of Teachers' manual

28.15.4 Back History of the Development of Ministry Policy and SDAC

To give some context to this negotiation, some history is required. In 1982, the Ministry of Education determined that policy would emphasize the creative use of computers: to write, compose, design, and analyze. The next year they made the decision that computer use in the province would be standardized. This would allow them to centrally fund the development of computer software which could then be used in all schools in the province. The Ministry published "Functional Requirements for Microcomputers for Educational Use in Ontario Schools" (1983) which outlined what a microcomputer would have to be like to receice public funding. This led within the next year to the first ICON computer by CEMCorp and guidelines for software to complement it. CEMCorp was approved as the first Ontario Approved Educational Microcomputer (OAEM) and guaranteed purchases of at least $ 10,000,000. worth of computers. A new window manager was developed which refined functional requirements. To fund the local development of new software, the Ministry created in March, 1985, the Software Assistance Development Centre (SDAC). In June, 1985, the Ministry announced "Ambience" --its approved user interface specifications. With decisions concerning the hardware, the funding mechanism, and the user interface made, the Ministry was then ready to tender out development of software that met these specifications.

28.15.5 Hindsight Concerning Call for "GEMS"

In Fall, 1985, SDAC put out a tender (they refered to as a "call") for proposals for a wide variety of software which met the specifications outlined. They invented a new acronym: "GEMS" to refer to the software they wanted. Grant Eligible Microcomputer Software (or Systems) would be the only projects funded. To make a proposal for funding, I had to first read the shelf-full of documents which had to be considered. To be funded, a proposal would not only have to address the Ministry's priorities, but be in conformance with all of the published specifications.

28.15.6 Hindsight Concerneing the Initial Proposals, Summer, 1985

My first GEMS proposal was to develop an computer-assisted design (CAD) program in which students would be helped to draw and design in three dimensions. It was a small and manageable project, which I imagined I would do on my own. There were so few proposals from developers that rather than simply refuse me, the Ministry called me in, gave me coffee, and started to recommend changes. They informed me what their priorities were and what new specifications decisions and maintenance guidelines were to come on line in the near future. For example, I was told that in June of 1986 GEMS were to be required to have networking capabilty and a layered Software Portability Environment (SPE). This meant that any software developed would have to work on more than just one platform. Over the period Spring, 1985 to Spring, 1986 I entered into negotiations in regards to one proposal after another.

Over this period, my orientation in creating and presenting proposals evolved from a CAD program to a language program. In hindsight it looks like a huge leap, but some of the basic programming ideas were common to both the original and the final program proposal. For example, the "constructivist conception" and the "in-betweening" (see below).

28.15.7 Hindsight Concerning Conception stage, Fall, 1984 to Fall, 1985

28.15.8 Hindsight Concerning Negotiation Stage, Spring, 1986

Once I had moved in the direction of creating a proposal which the Minsitry liked, negotiations moved quickly. By the Spring, 1986, I had a draft proposal which detailed everything I was to do. It then had to be costed. Here I made a huge mistake by believing a promise made by the Ministry officials. The Ministry knew that this was a difficult task: that is, to estimate what it was going to cost to develop something new that presently did not exist. It was not going to be simply putting together existing components. To create what I was proposing would require new programming to be done. For example, "in-betweening". Inbetweening is the term I used to describe the program which would take two graphic images as starting points, and have the computer create a number of in-between graphic images such that when played, the viewer would see a smooth flow of images. This was essential to reduce the number of images required to be stored in the computer memory.

In the face of the difficulty of estimating a cost, the Ministry agreed that they would contract for a certain fee which was to be a ball-park figure and that as the development progressed this figure would be bumped up. My understanding was that this would be accompanied by small additional requests that the Ministry may make. They knew that they would come up with new demands, and so they wanted my pre-approval that I would incorporate them and that this would justify the additional funding.

28.15.9 Hindsight Concerning the Contract, August, 1986

With this understanding I signed the contracts on __ August, 1986, and they were assigned the contract number CBLM 84-165-2163. Technically the contract was with Queen Elizabeth (see right) with the Ministry of Education, Centre for Curriculum Resources and Technologies, as her agent. I committed to develop "Phrase Animee" for $ 120,000. My mistake was to become apparant very soon as the additional demands of the Ministry came fast and furious. With respect to funding, however, the Ministry simply stalled and informed that additional funding requests were being processed. It was not until years after the software was developed that all of the additional funding requests were refused --AFTER all of the extral work of meeting the Ministry's demands had been done.

28.15.10 Hindsight Concerning the Original Constructivist Conception

My educational software proposal, was conceived as an outgrowth of an innovative educational philosophy known as "Constructivist" pedagogy. This philosophy grew out of cognitive science research of the early 1980s. I personally was exposed to it through my research into personal construct theory The program is based in the constructivist premise that children learn through playfully creating sentences from their own immaginations. Such constructions are retained in meaningful ways. Thus "Phrase Animee" is a student-centred tool specifically designed to support knowledge construction -in this case knowledge of the French language.

28.15.11 DF&A Corporate Structure to Develop Phrase Animee Project

28.16 Chess During This Period

28.16.1 Introduction

See also my chess resume and chess theme page.

28.16.2 Chess at Home

28.16.3 My Chess Tournaments During this period (really since 1970) I played in many chess tournaments.

28.17 Family During this Period

28.17.1 Introduction

28.17.2 Introduction to Fletchers at this Time

The generational position of the Fletchers alive at this time are shown in bold below within the context of the many individuals discussed in this chronicle.

           G:   Richard
              (1520 - 1590)
                   !
                   !
                   !
                  ___________________________________________
                   !                                         !
           H: ........  Fletcher                         Gilles Fletcher
                 (1550-1620)                            (1548-1630)
                   !                                         !
                   !                                         !
           I: ...... Fletcher                           Phineas Fletcher
                                                        (1582-1650)
                   !                                         !
                   !                                         !
           J:  ...... Fletcher                          A..... Fletcher
                (1573-1650)                             (1612-1680)
                   !                                         !
                   !                                         !
           K:   Andrew                                  B.....Fletcher
                (1596-1650)                              (16
                   !                                        see 2.4
                   !                                         !
                   !                                         !
                Robert                                  C....Fletcher
           L:   (16.. - 1665)                            (   )
                and Catherine Bruce                      see 2.4
                   !                                         !
                   !                                         !
                   !                                         !
            M:  Henry I                                D... Fletcher        
              (1658 - 17..)                              (      )
                see 2.4                                   see 2.4
                   !                                                !
                   !                                                !
            N:  Henry II                                            !
               (1675-1730)                                          !
                   !                                                !
                   !                                                !
            O:  Archibald                                           !
               (1697-1773)                                          !
                   !                                                !
                   !                                                !
            P:  William I                                           !
               (1721-1769)                                          !
                   !                                                !
                   !                                                !
                   ________________________                         !
                   !                      !                         !
                   !                      !                         !
            Q:  William II             David I                      !
              (1747-1778)            (1770-18..)                    !
              see 2.                  see 2.8.6                     !
                   !                                                !
                   !                                                !
                   ______________________________                   !
                   !            !               !                   !
                   !            !               !                   !
            R: James I       Richard        David I              D Fletcher
            (1774-1854)     (1768 - 1813)  (17..-18..)           (      )
            see 3.           see 2.11          see 3.            see 2.4
                   !
                   !
                   !
                   _______________________________________________
                   !                                              !
                   !                                              !
            S:   James II                                     David II
               (1815-1864)                                   (1811-1881)
                 see 3.                                       see 
                   !
                   !
            T:   John II
               (1845-1943)
                   !
                   !
                   _______________________________________________
                   !                                              !
                   !                                              !
            U:   James III                                    William
               (1878-1972)                                    Jessiman
                 see                                         (1885-1955)
                   !                                          see 4.
                   !
                   !
                   !
            V:   John III == Esther Mackness
               (1911-2002)       (1913-)
                              !
                              !
                  ____________!______________________________
                  !                     !                    !
                  !                     !                    !
                  !                     !                    !
            W:   Ron                  Bern                David III
               (1945-)               (1949-)               (1955-)

28.17.3 John

On 16 June, 1985, we got together for an enjoyable Fathers' Day at 51 Beaufort Road. Ron, Bern, Esther, and I were there, but Doris was in Trois Rivieres. See Chapter 18.

28.17.4 Esther Mackness-Fletcher

28.17.5 Ron

Work for Ron
The Spring of 1985 I gave brother Ron a lot of help on some projects he was working on. He had bought several houses and intended to do renovations. For this he first needed some designs and building permits. There was one on the West side of Woodbine Avenue, and another on Cassales Ave. I did these drawings for him, and by 18 April, 1985, they were ready for Dad to take down to the City Hall for the permit application.

28.17.6 Bern

Big Birthday Party for Bern, 1985
On 13 July, 1985, Doris and I hosted a big birthday party for Bern on the second floor of 485 Manning Avenue. Parents John and Esther came, as well as Bern, and Ron.

28.17.7 Barbi's Wedding, 1985

On 2 August, 1985, we all attended Barbara Macknesses marriage to Michael Eykens at St. Lukes Church in London.

28.18 My Art During this Period, 1985 to 1986

28.18.1 Introduction

28.18.2 Manifestos

There are three manifestos for this period:

28.18.3 Painting

28.18.4 Sculpture

28.19 Zeitgeist: Politics and Society 1984 to 1986

28.19.1 Introduction

At this time, Toronto had a population of 2,500,000; Ontario: 9,000,000; Canada: 28,000,000; and the world: 5,500,000,000.

28.19.2 Ontario Politics

2 May, 1985, the provincial election results were as follows:

P.C 52 (Miller)
Lib 48 (Peterson?)
NDP 25 (Rae?)

28.19.3 Canadian Politics

28.19.4 Toronto Municipal Politics

28.19.5 Air India Bombing, 1985

On 23 June, 1985, an Air India jet, flying out of Toronto and then Vancouver, exploded over the Pacific killing all 329 people. It turned out to be a bomb and convictions were later brought down against anti-Indian Seek terrorists.

28.19.6 "Rainbow Warrior" Sunk, 1985

For several years, the environmentalist organization "Greenpeace" had been opposing nuclear testing in the South Pacific by France. On 11 July, 1985, French secret service blew up the ship in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, killing one crew member. Also that summer throughout France, Greenpeace offices were harassed and closed.

28.19.7 Fossey Murdered, 1985

The famous naturalist and gorilla specialist Diana Fossey was murdered by poachers, 26 December, 1985, in Rwanda.

28.19.8 "Challenger" Disaster, 1986

The space shuttle "Challenger" exploded after take off on 28 January, 1986. One of the seven killed was Christa MacAuliffe, a school teacher.

28.19.9 Continued Violence in Lebanon, 1986

Early in 1986, a car bomb attack on Christian Phalangist headquarters in Beirut killed 330. Another attack was aimed at their leader Amin Gemayel. His brother President Gemayel had been assainated two years earlier. Both bombings were later attributed to Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, --also responsible for the Rome airport bombing in January, 1986, and the 2 April, 1986, bombing of a TWA jet.

28.19.10 Americans Bomb Libya, 1986

In January, 1986, Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi announced plans to expand bases to train and arm Arab terrorists for missions against the West. The U.S. responded on 14 April, 1986, by bombing bases and co-ordinating centres in Libya.

28.19.11 April, 1986: Chernobyl Disaster, 1986

On 26 April, 1986, the nuclear power station at Chernobyl exploded because of an experiment gone wrong. "Chernobyl" means shooting star. 30 were killed in the initial blast. Soldiers died because they were sent in to deal with the problem without adequate protection. By 29 April, Western authorities knew about it through spy satelite images of the plume coming from the reactor. They had photographs of the reactor in ruins. Radioactivity was being noticed all over Poland, Sweden, and other European nations. By 30 April, everyone in the West knew about it, but the Soviet authorities still denied any problem for several days. Fortunately for Ukraine, the cloud of radioactive dust drifted Northwest to Belorus and Scandinavia. Another cloud travelled West into Austria. The Soviets keep it secret even from people in the area: insisting people celebrate May Day in Kiev as usual, meanwhile families of Communist Party members were quickly evacuated out of the country. Within weeks, 4,000 more were dead.

It soon became known that the health of millions of Ukrainians and other Soviet citizens were put at risk by the regime in order to keep the Chernobyl disaster a secret. In addition, common people were not allowed to leave the region. Only the immediate area was evacuated the next week. These decisions, typical of Soviet authoritarianism, more than the accident itself, sounded the death knell of the CCCP. Capitalism was re-introduced that Spring from the bottom up in that common people spent their life savings to buy on the black market anything that would proport to prevent radiation poisoning. Medicines such as iodine tablets became so expensive that fake tablets were sureptiously manufactured and marketed. Quack medicines and superstition also dominated, as desparate people bought special stones and all manner of cures.
Go to next section in this thread, 29_XX

28.20 Culture, Books, Films, TV During This Period

28.20.1 Introduction

28.20.2 Books Read

Amongst the books that I read during the period, the ones that in hindsight had a lasting impact on me were as follows:

28.20.3 Films Viewed

Amongst the films that I saw during the period, the ones that in hindsight had a lasting impact on me were as follows:

28.20.4 TV Viewed

Amongst the television programmes that I saw during the period, the ones that in hindsight had a lasting impact on me were as follows:

"Johny Cash Show",
"All in the Family",

28.20.5 Other Social / Cultural Influences

Amongst the television programmes that I saw during the period, the ones that in hindsight had a lasting impact on me were as follows:

28.21 Poland: Solidarnosc,
and My Second Visit

28.21.1 Introduction

28.21.2 Gorbachev: Change From Above

The changes in the Soviet Union from 1985 onwards (discussed in Chapter 27, section 9) made the task of building Solidarnosc easier. Gorbachev would not order forces of the state to kill demonstrators the way earlier leaders did. Throughout the 1985 and 1986 political prisoners were being released. The Spring of 1986 a general amnesty was being discussed. Finally on 11 September, 1986, the much-anticipated general amnesty was declared for all persons sentenced or arrested for "crimes and violations against the state and public order". More political prisoners were set free: 225 on this one day.

28.21.3 Second Visit to Poland, Summer, 1986

Thus the atmosphere of my second visit to Poland was quite different from what I had encountered in 1984.

28.21.4 Further Developments in Poland

Whereas in the past Solidarnsoc appointments to office were done secretly, on 29 September Lech Walensa publicly appoints the members of the "Temporary Council of Solidarnosc. This marked the beginning of the process of coming out into the open of national and regional structures of the union. Later that fall of 1986 Solidarnosc was accepted as member organizations into the ICFTU and WCL. This was another step in the beginning of the end for the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. This will be seen in Chapter 31, section 5.

28.22 Expo 86 in Vancouver

From 2 May to October, 1986, Vancouver was the venue for Expo 86.

28.23 Summary, Conclusions,
Connections, Goals,
Omissions, and Regrets

28.23.1 Introduction

The end of every chapter is associated with a time in my life during which a major life-affecting decision was made. A decision at a crossroad in which I chose to go one way and not another. The decision I had to face at this time, which determined that this would be the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next, was the decision to make a determined effort to complete Phrase Animee, to complete my Masters thesis "Home as Hazard", and to move more in the direction of narrowing my focus down to two goals: 1. continuing my architectural studies and 2. high school teaching.

28.23.2 Summary

28.23.3 Conclusions

28.23.4 Connections

28.23.5 Goals

Any consideration of specific goals, should be seen in the light of my mission statements.

See: Mission Statements

28.23.6 Omissions andRegrets

The bulk of this chronicle concerns things planned, experienced, written, won, acquired, painted, accomplished, etc. This section concerns those which were only desired, thought of, considered, not completed, lost, and perhaps regretted.

28.15 Computers in Education: "Phrase Animee" Stage 2 of 8