29.2 "Phrase Animee" (2 of 5)
29.2.1 IntrocuctionAs discussed in the earlier section of this thread, Chapter 28, section 11,"Phrase Animee" is the name I chose for a computer-based learning materials (CBLM) software package which I proposed to the Ministry of Education early in 1986.29.2.2 Informal Negotiations, Summer, 1986After a period of informal negotiation there was agreement in principal in August, 1986, this event marks the beginning of this chapter. The Ministry representatives drew up the agreeement formally on their standand contract form. The details, and amounts to go on to this contract were still to be clarified. All the while, during this Summer, we kept working on the process of developing the software. We had to, or we would never have been able to meet the deadlines required by the Ministry. The alternative would have been to lay off stay and re-hire them (if they were still available) to continue the work. Each day meant going deeper into debt paying everyone's salary, and so there was a great incentive for me to simply agree to anything the Ministry incisted upon, rather than prolong the negotiations to get what I wanted.29.2.3 Formal Negotiations, Fall, 1986What followed after the August informal agreement in principal was an intensive period of negotiation, revision, addition and compromise which finally ended on 5 December, 1986. All the while, during this Fall, we kept working on the process of developing the software. We had to, or we would never have been able to meet the deadlines required by the Ministry. The alternative would have been to lay off stay and re-hire them (if they were still available) to continue the work. Again, each day meant going deeper into debt paying everyone's salary, and so there was a great incentive for me to simply agree to anything the Ministry incisted upon, rather than prolong the negotiations to get what I wanted.29.2.4 The Contract, December, 1986The lenghty contract was finally signed 5 December, 1986, and assigned the contract number CBLM 84-165-2163. But I had received a promisory approval in principal back in August, 1986. On the basis of this committment from the Ministry, we had started work much earlier. Officially, however, as far as the Ministry of Education was concerned, my work for the Ministry of Education started 5 December, 1986, with signing of this contract.As chapter 28 showed, however, to get to this point, required that the software package had to be largely worked out, not just planned, in terms of all of its stages --or otherwise I would not be able to know whether I was committing to something which I could not deliver. Some aspects of the software were in fact, cutting edge and had not been done before. The staff had to also be assembled, otherwise I would not have known for certainty that I would be able to carry out the development. And all aspects of the budget had to be worked out, so that we could settle on a price for the whole project. An indication of the extent to which much of the work was completed ahead of the Ministry's schedule was the "deliverables" for the first stage of the project (what the Ministry called "Stage 1A" were given to the Ministry on the day the contract was signed. I received official confirmation of reciept of this component on 11 December, 1986.
29.2.6 Approach to How Students LearnThe approach that I took, in designing Phrase Animee, to how students learned was based on giving them guided opportunities for them to ask the question: "what happens when I do this or that?" To learn by trying out, or by doing, I felt was motivating and kept the students' interest. It would be "show and try" rather then telling the students. There would also an immediacy to the students using whatever was shown to them --without a long learning curve. They would act on the new things shown to them to immediately apply what they have learned. Feedback would be immediate and dynamic. There would also be many levels of difficulty, so that the program could be used over and over again, and also by various levels of learners.29.2.7 EmployeesWith all of the additional attributes to "Phrase Animee" which appeared during the Fall, 1986, negotiations process, I knew I could not do the project alone. I hired one person, Soren Jensen, to work closely with me developing and managing other employees. I hired ten computer graphics animators and seven programmers, most noteably Martin Lamb, Jim Martin, and Emieka Geldoff. Some worked for only a few weeks and others for a few months. We worked intensely and within six months the project was completed. The salaries alone for these people cost over $ 100,000. We were working out of my home, 485 Manning Ave. with computers rented from the University of Toronto. The staffing organizational structure of the project is shown below:
29.2.9 VocabularyA frequent source of humour was the fact that the day to day development of Phrase Animee required my learning a whole new vocabulary, including re-defining a number of words to describe what it was exactly that I was trying to do. Some new words were Ministry of Education words, such as their "toolkit" and their "Ambience" user interface with which my program would have to be compatatble.There were also esoteric words which were common only to computer programmers and software developers, such as;
There were even words we had to invent or at least re-define (for the purpose of our in-house use in our communication while developing the software) included:
29.2.10 Timing and the Various Steps of DevelopmentThe development and programming of "Phrase Animee" had to be very well planned out in terms of timing, administration, and detailed specifications of the many different aspects of the project. The timeline below, from June, 1986, suggests the level of detail of my planning to which I had to commit (click to enlarge):
With eleven steps altogether, this period saw the completion of steps three through seven.
29.2.11 Step ThreeOn 10 February, 1987, the Ministry approved what they called "Stage 1A", and gave me approval to proceed to "Stage 1B".The Ministry approved what they called "Stage 1B" and gave permission to proceed to "Stage 2". 29.2.12 Doing Graphics with "Graph Pac Toolkit", Summer, 1987By the Spring of 1987 we had a clear idea of what we wanted and we turned to the question of exactly how we would do it. One of the issues was how to create the graphics. I decided, through negotiation with Martin Lamb of the UofT Ergonomics Lab's Innovation Foundation, that I would pay $4,500. for a licencing agreement to use the graphics toolkit of their "Graph Pac" software.29.2.13 Sample Screens of Phrase Animee
29.2.14 Revisions to Phrase Animee and New ProposalsIn January, 1988, the Ministry revised Ambiance specification requirements, and we had to re-work parts of "Phrase Animee" to respond. During this period, much of my work was responding to Ministry requests to consider new projects. It seemed that Phrase Animee was going so well that they wanted me to do additional projects. In hindsight I see that they had nothing to loose by my signing a contract to produce something. After all, the contracts were such that they did not have to pay unless it pleased them. Addtional projects being discussed included computer-based learning materials in the fields of art, architecture, and geography.29.2.15 GEMS Peaks in Ontario Schools in 1989By 1989, 51 % (61,822) of computers in Ontario schools were GEMS and each one was supplied with my "Phrase Animee". This achievement of a narrow majority of computers was a peak for GEMS. But this majority was short-lived. The problem was not so much with the number of computers (the hardware) but with the software. 202 computer-based GEMS learning materials packages had been locally produced by Ontario software developers under contract with the Ministry under the program. The costs of the Ministry's computers program had been about $ 40 million per year. It peaked at $ 40.9 million in 1991, but the Ministry was getting less and less for their expenditure. Ontario teachers liked the GEMS but they wanted the freedom to take advantage of the wide variety of other systems and software available. This desire was being manifest in their choices of hardware purchases.29.2.16 The Problem With GEMS HardwareBy 1991, the hardware environment was changing rapidly and the trend would never reverse its direction away from GEMS. The number of GEMS had increased to 88,109 but the choices of schools was mostly for non-GEMS computers. The number of non-GEMS computers had tripled.29.2.17 The Problem With GEMS SoftwareWhile the Ministry had been some-what successful initially in attracting software developers such as myself, they had difficulty in interesting these same developers to take on new contracts. In my case, I was not going to take on new contracts until the decision was made as to what my additional funding was going to be for all of the extra work I had done on Phrase Animee. Some more senior software developers were more familiar with the larger picture. They saw the writing on wall and were jumping ship. While I was waiting, and while my new proposal were on hold, the entire system was self-destructing. The software pipeline was drying up.Meanwhile, it was becoming more and more apparent that foreign hardware platforms such as IBM and Apple, supported by tens of thousands of software programs, could be purchased easily and quickly without the need to spend years and millions of dollars to be developed. It seemed that the local decisions that individual teachers were making in not supporting GEMS and the Ministry program to standardize was the correct choice. 29.2.18 Failure of GEMSThe idea of the standardization of computer use in Ontario schools and control of their specifications by the Ontario Ministry of Education died in March of 1990. A report was released that there simply was not the critical mass necessary for successful implementation of the Ministry's goals. With this, funding of computer software collapsed and no further work was done on the proposals I was considering. The dead body of the system continued to twitch and appear to move for several years to come, but those of us close to the funding mechanism knew that it was toast. In 1992, only eight GEMS software packages are released. On 30 June, 1992, SDAC formally closed.
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