TuLiP- A Teacher’s Lesson Planning Tool

1. TuLiP- A Teacher’s Lesson Planning Tool Design of a tool for the rapid development of educational materials and instructional environments. R. Gabrielle Reed Fall, 2002

2. Topics • Call for Research • E-commerce vs. E-learning • Web Technology • Teacher’s Challenges • Meeting the Challenge – TuLiP

3. Call for Research to Support the Use of Technology in Education • In “e-learning: Putting a World Class Education at the Fingertips of All Students”, research in engineering and technology is mandated to provide tools for teachers to meet the “National Technology Goals” (US DEd, 2000)

4. Observations: • Educational uses lag behind applications for e-commerce. • Tools can be developed that capitalize on advances in e-commerce.

5. Definitions: • Template: Empty markup page • Object: Self-contained archive file with markup pages, resources, metadata to allow use. • XML: Extensible Markup Language • XSL: Extensible Scripting Language • Product: Automatically generated Web pages • Cocoon2: Web publishing framework project under the Apache/Jakarta

6. Advances in Technology • XML allows semantic content storage and retrieval. • XSL scripting language integrates logic and presentation with the content • Portal Technology provides relevant storage, retrieval and community services within a web-based environment. • Web frameworks allow rapid development of web environments.

7. Teacher’s Challenges • Recent Laws Impacting Workload • Existing Responsibilities • Tools Available • Hurdles to Technology • Observed Problems with Learning Environments

8. Laws impacting Workload • Federal laws and mandates: • “Leave No Child Behind Act” [PL 107-110, 2002] • “National Education Technology Plan” [e-Learning, 2000] • “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act” [IDEA - PL 105-17, 1997]

9. As a result of the Laws: • Integrating technology in the classroom • Providing accessible information to parents of disadvantaged individuals • Using scientifically based teaching techniques • Accommodating disabilities and student diversity

10. Teacher’s Training: • SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System, "Survey on Professional Development and Training in U.S. Public Schools, 1999-2000," FRSS 74, 2000. • Technology Integration 74% of the teachers, 61% received training less than 8 hrs

11. Existing Responsibilities • Writing and submitting lesson plans • Teaching core curriculum • Grading Papers • Supervising halls and classrooms • Assessing disabilities • Keeping abreast of new teaching strategies • Encouraging parental participation

12. Teacher’s Dilemma • A teacher may spend up to 20% of the time planning • Less than10% of teachers use technology for planning (NCES 2001) • Barriers to the use of technology, cited by teachers (NASA 1998) • time to learn • complexity of the software • lack of training • lack of support

13. Current Solutions: • Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF) provides grants for equipment. • National Science Foundation (NSF) provides grants for research in determining effective teaching methods and technologies • Preparing the Teachers of Tomorrow to use Technology (PT3) provides grants for teacher education programs

14. TuLiP Solution: • Lower the teacher’s technology hurdle • simplify the teacher-centered applications • deal with the day to day requirement of planning and reporting. • Automate the dissemination of information, with “write once, automate display” when and how it is needed.

15. TuLiP : A Lesson Planning Tool • Planning Process • Characteristics • Comparison of Existing Tools • Benefits

16. Teacher Activities in Lesson Planning • Prepare student activities, evaluations, homework, and the equivalents in alternative formats. • Assure instructional materials meet curriculum guidelines. • Provide copies to Administration. • Provide parents with supplemental materials.

17. Characteristics: • Simplified interface • Sharing and reusing components and Lesson Plans. • Automating reporting requirements and alternative student materials.

18. Comparison of Lesson Planners

19. Sample Lesson Planning Page Source: Ohio Schoolnet. Lesson Planning Template. http://tlcf.osn.state.oh.us/blueprint/index.html.

20. What If Teachers Could Use XML? • Use an XML language that uses educational terminology. • Fill in the educational content. • Use predefined XSL pages to display the plan content in a variety of formats. • Upload XML file to a designated location to be used as the source of the XSL transformations.

21. TuLiP - Possible IP Benefits • Dynamic selection of files, files formats, logic sheets through a web interface using URI to control the display of content to meet the needs of different audiences, • Storage of information by descriptive metadata making it searchable and reusable, • Storage of content stored in an XML language based on the needs of the teacher, • Web access to resources, databases and files through a web portal, and • Web Forms and Services for easy upload to the server.

22. How Will This Help? • The content in one Lesson Plan can be transformed automatically: • Administrative curriculum reporting requirements • Information for parents • Homework for children • Information in alternative modes for lesson or review • Instructional plan • Instructional web environment

23. Using Structured Content • Delivers same information across Print, WWW, and CD-ROM. • Provides consistent instructional design and rapid development process with the use of templates • Provides for different learner profiles with multiple paths or views for learners • Facilitates re-purposing and updating of content • Ensures portability and long-term use

24. Perceived Costs of Predefined Styles • Relinquish the desire to “publish”- to “control the way things look”, to be satisfied with minimal but acceptable “look”. The functionality to customize a product is a cause of increased complexity of a tool. • Customization when available is restricted to the defined structure of the elements. • The style must be a widely accepted design. A compliant template form uses existing style templates based on presentation methods to facilitate information distribution research.

25. TuLiP Components • Time-Saving Criteria • Teacher-Centered Tool • Fundamental Learning Objects • Web Architecture • Portal/Repository Design

26. TuLiP Tool- Time-Saving Criteria: • Limited in scope and functionality. • Readily accessible resources, by domain and age group, free of charge and easy to review. • Information stored in a useful format that is portable,able to be bundled or "cut and pasted, " • Internet technologies allows for sharing and distribution. • Graduated help (demonstrations, FAQ, a community of users).

27. Teacher-Centered Tool • A simplified “minimal but sufficient” interface • Web based form • Teacher-centered design determined by user studies and surveys • Set up of custom plan template • Step by step completion • Assortment of templates with examples and • Demonstrations of use

28. Components Facilitate Use. • Portal Design • facilitates catalogue and search of resources • supports a community of users • enhances teacher participation & collaboration • Repository • simplifies saving and retrieval of files

29. Organize Instructional Content • Metadata and files packaged for sharing • Use of Learning Objects • A markup language that describes the Learning Environment and Planning (LEAP) content

30. Types of Template • Planning Templates facilitate complete teacher planning information • FLO Component templates to assist in producing complete components • Diverse KTT Component templates provide suggestions for a range of objectives

31. Cocoon2 Framework • A rapid-development web-site platform • Uses XML, XSL, XSP, Java Servlets • Web interface for administration of lesson plans and learning environment

32. Cocoon2 • Uses an architecture that allows dynamic generation of webpages: a script describes the servlets, sources and transformation information needed to process a certain request. • A generator converts the text input into the XML using the Simple API for XML (SAX) creating events, which are then processed and transformed according to XSL script to serialize the output.

33. Cocoon2 Sitemap Example

34. Cocoon2 Pipeline • Source at the right is an XML page. • Style sheet is in XSL. • Multiple processed pages of XML may be aggregated in “one page”. • Output is specified format like html, PDF, WML or Vox ML.

35. Aggregation • Assembling of component pages • Differs from cinclude; parts are processed then assembled. • Informative page followed by Illustrative, then Cognitive FLO’s

36. Learning Environment And Planning (LEAP) Markup Language • XML Language development • Current Markup Languages for Educational Content • Characteristics of LEAP

37. XML Markup Languages • Document Marked with Semantic Elements • Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and Schema define the Elements, sequence and order of the elements and Attributes • XML Schema allow Modularization by the use of Namespaces

38. Existing Markup Languages • Publication Languages such as Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) • Learning Material Markup Language (LMML) [http://www.lmml.de] • Tutorial Markup Language (TML) [http://www.ilrt.bristol.ac.uk/netquest/about/lang/] • Missing Semantic Elements with respect to the “Lesson Planning Process”.

39. Plan is coded with semantic elements. Reusable translation instructions are used to filter, format and display information for each product. XML content can be catalogued and searched. Plan can be designed with reusable parts. Translation instructions are used for instructional control and sequencing. Instructor has more instructional control. What Are XML’s Advantages?

40. Characteristics of Leap (Learning Environment and Planning Language) • Uses definitions for independent educational task components • Describes components to be created, edited, stored or retrieved for inclusion in plan • Includes Plan, FLO and KTT elements • Allows aggregation of components to be used in creating the Web environment • Based on Categories of Use and a Grammer

41. LEAP Characteristics

42. Fundamental Learning Objects (FLOS) • Classes of FLO’s • Metadata Requirements

43. FLO’s are defined as the smallest object containing educational information. Educational Lesson Information is categorized into classes, based on Instructional Functionality. The classes contain content described as: Informative Illustrative Collaborative Cognitive Evaluative Cooperative Adaptive Fundamental Learning Objects

44. Lesson Plan Objects • Characteristics

45. Characteristics • Contains Descriptions of: • Metadata to allow retrieval • Calendar information • Lesson Sequence • Activity, Evaluation and Homework Lists • Resources needed for the Lesson • Locations of Information, Illustrations, Demonstrations, etc. • Applications to be used by students to complete lessons

46. Knowledge Type Templates (KTTs) • Templates for the most common objectives by type of knowledge being taught

47. Aggregation of a variety of FLOs The proposed KTT’s include: Fact Event Skill Process Experience Analysis Experimentation Cognitive Process Knowledge Type Templates (KTTs)

48. XSP and XSL Pages • Logic and display formats need be designed only once: pages are reusable with different content. • Examples are: • Test Logic may be re-used for many tests • Practice/homework sheets may be designed to provide immediate feedback • Lesson Plans use teacher-preferred format • Administrative or Parental information can be provided by date

49. Components • Facilitate Reuse, Sharing, Completeness and Orthogonality (FLOs) • Learning Objects, • MetaData, • Portals, • Web Communities and • Repositories

50. Definitions: • Learning Objects: Educational materials in various formats • Repository: Location for storage and retrieval of Learning Objects, Plans and Teacher Materials • Reusability: The object can be easily used or incorporated into an existing learning environment. • Sharability: Sufficient information is provided for confirmation of validity and allows use. • Orthogonality: Components are independent of others. • Completeness: The educational intent of one basic objective is contained in one object. • MetaData: Information stored to describe an object