Do you speak my language: M is for MySQL, MAC address, Malware, MashUp, Metadata, Middleware

M is for MySQL, MAC address, Malware, MashUp, Metadata, Middleware

This is an easy one, MySQL. I don't know where I would be with my online teaching without MySQL.

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a database (see D - Do you speak my language: D is for Database, debug, DNS) program. It is a very powerful and fast database and is very useful in teaching set-ups, but it does lack of user-friendly interface.

Like a lot of things I have mentioned in this series of posts the chances are you have interacted with a MySQL database today, and not known it. I don't know what software this blog is using, but it might have a MySQL backend (see B - Do you speak my language: B is for Blog, Backend, Basic, Backbone, Backup, beta software, bash, bug), and if you have visited a blog that is using Wordpress (see W in this series), then that blog will be using a MySQL database to store the posts.

Another common use is in wikis, that is, the wiki entries are stored in a MySQL database.

How can I use MySQL in my teaching?

You might already use a MySQL database in your teaching and not realise it. A number of VLEs (see V in this series) use MySQL, and if you run a teaching blog or wiki then there is a good chance that those systems are using MySQL.

I use MySQL in my teaching to do everything from running my student blog and wiki, tracking which students have handed in essays, tracking student responses to surveys and formative assessments, and running a very complex summative assessment system, which is 'powered' by PHP (see P in this series) and AJAX (see A - Do you speak my language: A is for AJAX, Apache, API, Array, alpha software). MySQL is easily powerful enough to cope with hundreds of students interacting with it.

MySQL can be difficult to use, but it is well worth the time and effort to get to know the software as it has so many potential uses in teaching.

The other Ms in the list:

MAC address: A unique identifier code (so, a bit like a GUID - see G - Do you speak my language: G is for GUI, Gopher, GUID, GPU) that is 'hard-wried' in to a computer (not to be confused with your IP Address - see I - Do you speak my language: I is for Injection, IP address, IMAP). Your WiFi card has a MAC address, as does your ethernet port (socket) on your computer.

Malware: A program (or script) that is designed to do something nasty to you computer, e.g. crash it, steal your personal data etc.

MashUp: I like MasUps and I think they have great potential in teaching. To me a MashUp is when you create a webpage that pulls in information from a number of sources. This information can be a mixture of material that is added as part of the page (i.e. you have typed it in) and a material that is automatically added (at your request) to build on the content (see R in this series for RSS).

An example of a MashUp may be a webpage on a lecture that contains an embedded video of the lecture (the video is hosted on another machine), along with links to additional reading, a panel that automatically updates with your latest Tweets (see T in this series) on the subject area, a stream of photos from Flickr etc. That is, the page is dynamic and constantly updates with the latest information available.

Metadata: This is a personal favourite of mine, and if it wasn't for the fact that MySQL and MashUp (see above) also starts with an M then metadata would have been the subject of this post.

Metadata is data that describes data with which it is associated, and is not part of the actual data itself. That sounds confusing, so here is an example - a form of metadata that most people have encountered is the data that digital cameras embed in to photographs. If you look at the actual image file, as opposed to the picture it contains, the camera will have added a lot of additional information, such as time and date, and on some cameras metadata such as exposure, and even the latitude and longitude at which the photograph was taken.

It is also possible to add metadata to files (that is, it is not always as automatic as suggest above with the camera) and this can be useful in teaching as it can help computers to index files for later retrieval in searches. (Some Universities even embed metadata about students in documents. For example, if a student creates a document on their university account then local IT guys may have the system configured in such a way as to embed the student ID in the document. This can be handy in sorting out cases of plagiarism or cheating, but it should be noted it is not full-proof as it is very easy for a student to edit the information.)

Middleware: This is a term you will occasionally hear IT guys mention. It really has nothing to do with teaching, and is a term that describes equipment between the user and the server (hence the middle).

Protein: 3LMI

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Do you speak my language: M is for MySQL, MAC address, Malware, MashUp, Metadata, Middleware

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