I have been wanting to spend some serious time searching online for learning objects; seems that this is a skill worth developing. Today, I revisited the Maricopa Learning eXchange (MLX) to take a better look. Scanning the 'popular' category of the these plain-wrapped learning packages led me toCreating Forms in MS Word. Seems that this could be a useful tool for some teachers: the ability to create a document template whose contents are selectively modifiable. As an example, I am thinking of the ubiquitous lab write-up for a fifth/sixth grade classroom... Give the students a form! ("Go to my website and download the Lab_form.doc. Name it using your period number and group name, then save it to disk.")

posted by john on 5/20/2005 08:06:00 PM
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Ali, a teacher who lives somewhere in the Middle East, frequently posts threads at FlashKit. He is learning to use Flash to create games for his students. Finding his new post today, I made a demo to take his version to the next level.

The last few weeks have been consumed by learning about learning...It was good to get back to the drawing board.



posted by john on 5/15/2005 10:41:00 PM
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Based on what I have learned from recent study of e-learning, interoperability standards, and learning objects and their repositories, it seems there may be a niche for consultating K-12 districts in how to identify (and implement) interactive content. Evidence of this came in a comment from the Director of Curriculum Design and Development at the software development company where I am doing product testing. [If there were a < loosely > HTML tag, that's how I would mark up "product", in this case. Note: Said company will heretofore be referred to as The Braindrain.]

During a meeting there, conversation moved to a fantastic wish-list of features for their application. It was then that the Director of Curriculum Design and Development said "it would be great if [their application] could somehow find only the lesson plans that met specific state standards" on the Internet. The Chief Technology Officer*, I noticed, wasn't saying a word - if I had looked sooner, I'd have probably seen his eyes roll. It is basically an administrative tool under development, not a LMS.

I waited a bit, then suggested that a certain structure would be necessary in the lesson plans, with labels to identify those aspects, included by the authors, before a lesson could be recognized this way. [Read: 'interoperability' and meta-data. But, it's hard enough for me to discuss the weather with curriculum administrators - let alone technology - so I let it go as "structure".]

Not sure how she took my comment.

Further evidence came from the district that contacted me last week. Mention was made of the lack of pricing information on my website. They are apparently looking to purchase the use of lessons on the Internet. That will be expensive, no matter who does it. With a couple of exploratory meetings, followed by several sessions in workshop mode, I think a district faculty could begin to develop their own content search and review program, even begin to fill gaps with original material.

* Today, I noticed the mention of SIF compliance in the company website. Asking the Chief Technology Officer about this, I received a disgusted "Do not waste your time with that." Apparently, to an educational software developer, making software that enables the customer is a bother...

Lift-off!

Stopped by the nearest computer store yesterday and purchased a PC-microphone. Together with a free download of Windows Media Encoder, two hours of new knobs and dials and reading the manual (yes, I read the manuals), and at least another hour to get a decent take without recording any clock chimes, phone rings, cat yowling, or other noises, and that $16.95 bought me one screencast (.wmv file: Windows Media Player only - well, the encoder was free).

It's a start.



posted by john on 5/10/2005 08:29:00 PM
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Learning Activity Management System

I have long been interested in developing an interactive website for teachers - a website that allows a user who is not familiar with HTML to maintain a site with dynamic content. My first model simply allowed modification of text on a site, using server side includes (SSI) to keep a site 'updated'. A good start; but, that required entry into the server files; or (worse) the sending of 'new' files to a webmaster for upload.

With the current model, a teacher can modify text, images, and links; providing a flexible environment for posting news, lending topical support for a current lesson (go to this link and do that), even piecing together a complete lesson. This model has one basic one limitation, however: images must already exist on the WWW and have a unique URL. Teachers could upload original images to a server directory (or again, send them to somebody else) and provide the URL as a link in their lesson content; but, if they are able to do that, they can probably write their own HTML, removing any need for the facility I am trying to develop.
[Enter, stage-left: the Learning Activity Management System]

LAMS has been released as open source software by Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

This seems to offer the ability to connect content development and the data management of an LMS/CMS.

"LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities.
...Rather than being sold as proprietary software, LAMS is being released as freely available open source software for the public good of education by the non-profit LAMS Foundation."

Maybe if I download and learn to use that tool, purchase Camtasia and start creating screencasts about K-12 content development...

posted by john on 5/8/2005 12:42:00 PM
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"This guy is nuts!"

I have discovered Jon Udell's weblog, and today I am a screencasting disciple. He writes:

"...I didn't know what to call this medium I've been working in. So I posted a call for names on my blog, and a couple of days later, I collated the responses and settled on the term screencast. It looks like that name is going to stick.

The potential here, in K-12 education, seems tremendous. I imagine Mr. Udell's demonstrations are sparkling nerves throughout the e-learning community. In today's blog entry, Mr. Udell points to a zen of development:

"Instead of laying down sidewalks, the builders of a new university campus waited for footpaths to emerge on the lawns. Then they paved the footpaths...We typically lay down the sidewalks first, and when footpaths emerge we profess surprise or try to ignore them.
"Of course it's easy to criticize information systems that fail to embrace sloppiness. It's much harder to explain how they should."

Take his "Password Generator Bookmarklet" as an example. In just over four minutes he managed to engage this viewer to an extent that, I cannot help but wonder: How long would it have taken to get the message on my own; reading an article online, following a couple of links, looking up the definitions of terms...? Granted, the time he took to develop the lesson must have been considerable; but, isn't that characterstic of any good teacher?

Mr. Udell also has begun a series of articles at the O'Reilly Network. There, he offers a glimpse behind the curtain with Heavy Metal Umlaut: The Making of the Movie, the subject of which I linked in an earlier post. Finally, another lesson, "Content, services, and the yin-yang of intermediation", IMO, demonstrates an evolution in his own use of this teaching tool (note the artistic closure).

Thank you, sir.



posted by john on 5/8/2005 09:38:00 AM
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Hoorah!

edParadigm received its first telephone inquiry regarding content development from an Arizona school district. Seems a curriculum administrator was told about "Sessions" by Dr. Michael Frank, a tech-savvy teacher I met last year at the AZ Science Teachers conference. Completely surprised by the call, and lacking any business sense about this project, I am sure that I convinced her of at least one thing:
my amateur status.

No problemo.

Talk about a virtual B-12 injection. A district administrative curriculum support technology liason officer, interested in digital curriculum development, saw the demo lessons and decided to call. I am now level-jumping along several trajectories in how edParadigm might evolve. The question here becomes: "What is optimal for a K-12 school district's content development program?"
Some initial thoughts:

1. increased tech-involvement of faculty vs. immediate development of learning objects
2. stimulating developmental dialog
3. brainstorming the future
4. campus/community decisions
5. identifying key faculty members
6. features:
   • teacher web pages
   • blogging in the classroom
   • forums (it's this easy)
   • learning objects and interactive, integrated content
   • learning object repositories [ 1, 2 ]
   • not reinventing the wheel

What do you think?

posted by john on 5/5/2005 10:43:00 PM
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The EduSpecs site led me to CAREO. Had visited the site before, but this time discovered the 'Featured Object': The irYdium Project - an interactive chemistry workbench (an extremely well-crafted, learning object in which I performed my first titration since 1988). Site developed by the Department of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University.

I wonder if the inertia in development of K-12 sharable content is due to the fact that it can be assumed that most K-12 students are not true e-learners; they are not all learning online, and none are only learning online. Why invest in e-learning for students who are in classrooms anyway?

posted by john on 5/5/2005 12:31:00 AM
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Received a generous response from Scott Leslie that will help clear my view of interoperability standards and technologies (see previous post). Chiefly, a link to Industry Canada's EduSpecs Initiative - "Trials and experiments in the use of shareable digital objects for learning" -

"...Canada's contribution to international efforts to develop common technical specifications and standards for e-learning.
The underlying vision is to provide Canadians with universal access to quality on-line education and training resources to support their individual and collective learning needs and interests."

...quite promising.

And, taking a cue from ADL and their design of a sharable content object about sharable content objects, I have begun developing an interactive lesson about developing interactive lessons.

Could this become my first sharable content object?

posted by john on 5/3/2005 11:48:00 PM
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There has been a curious convergence of interests lately in sharable content. Along with my own recent online inquiry, the subject came up today in a meeting at my current freelance gig; and, it may be what another developer is looking for as a part of his project (.NET - a real programmer).

Newly discovered: The Le@rning Federation - an Australian initiative to develop sharable content.

The Le@rning Federation is an exciting and innovative project that employs emerging new technologies to produce online curriculum content to encourage student learning and support teachers in Australian and New Zealand schools.

Click through at TLF to the 'Showcase' and examples of interactive lessons can be found that should marry well with a LMS [defined]. The project is discussed in "Elements of Effective e-Learning Design" published by the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL).



posted by john on 5/2/2005 11:03:00 PM
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