Between the ‘e’ and the ‘i’

1. Between the ‘e’ and the ‘i’ Stuck in the middle with u? Sheila MacNeill CETlS/ LT Scotland

2. Some background • Learning Technologist, Learning & Teaching Scotland • “LT Scotland is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Scottish Executive Education dept. to help review, assess and support developments in learning and education, including the use of information and communications technology (ICT).” • http://www.ltscotland.org.uk

3. Some background cont. • CETIS Educational Content (EC) Special Interest Group (SIG) Coordinator • Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards • http://www.cetis.ac.uk/

4. CETIS: Supporting the UK FE/HE community • Funded by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) since 1997. • Established to support the UK FE/HE sector’s uptake and implementation of interoperability standards and specifications. • Represents UK HE/FE on international educational standards initiatives. • Supports JISC programmes and initiatives. (X4L, RELOAD) • Advises universities and colleges on the strategic, technical and pedagogic implications of educational technology standards. • Manages Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

5. What do the CETIS SIGs do?: • Track the development of educational technology interoperability standards and specifications. • Advise the sector on the relevance of different standards and specifications. • Channel the sector’s requirements back to CETIS and international standards initiatives. • Networking, discussion, and involvement of the SIG in deciding on future tasks, feeding back to JISC, etc. • Support development of communities of practice.

6. The CETIS Special Interest Groups • Accessibility SIG • Assessment SIG • Educational Content (EC) SIG • Learner Information Packaging (LIP) SIG • Enterprise SIG • Metadata and Repositories SIG • FE Focus Group • Pedagogy Forum

7. e education e-learning edutainment embedding enhancement i information (literacy) ict internet instant initiativitis The ‘e’ and the ‘i’

8. The ‘g’ factor

9. Information Literacy in Schools • Information literacy not explicit in curriculum - unlike ICT • Roles of teachers and librarians • No common vocabulary (yet!) • Political agenda

10. Putting the pieces together - embedding • ICT and no IL - not possible • Examples of embedding • Online events

12. Case study: Ticket to Space • Ticket to Space • 2002 • 8 week project • 757 registrations • 1,308 messages posted

13. Evaluation - highlights • Transparent integration of ICT into subject area • Flexibility and cross curricular learning opportunities • Motivating for teachers and pupils • Desire for more topics to be covered in this way

14. Evaluation cont. • Technical problems: • local network configuration/admin rights • Need for teacher support/training • Extend opportunities for conferencing (including vc)

15. Pupils Confident – ‘digital natives’ Instant active community No online socialisation processes required Motivated by using computers/internet Teachers Lack confidence – ‘digital immigrants’ Instant community Prefer f2f support Motivated by high quality support materials Evaluation - ICT/IL Literacy

16. 2002 8 week project 757 registrations 1,308 messages posted 2003 6 week project Pre-event workshops Over 1400 registrations 2,393 messages posted What a difference a year makes . . .

17. Next event • Turning the tide ( climate change) • Research project • Cross curricular • IL embedded

18. More Scottish examples • SLIC resources - NQ Information Handling Skills • North Ayrshire Council (schools) • LT Scotland Literacy Project • LT Scotland information literacy resources • Drumchapel project - need for integrated IL/ICT skills linking school and tertiary education

19. Challenges • How to share • Need to develop common vocabularies • CILIP definition of IL - how many teachers have seen it? • Librarians need to shout more! • Recognition of existing skills and develop widespread collaboration • Strategies - do funders really understand IL?

20. VLE Library mgt system SRS / MIS Portal Another ‘e’ - the ELF • Digital resources - learning objects • Digital repositories • Educational technology standards • Typical services that need to ‘exchange’ information • The e-learning framework (elf)

21. VLE Library mgt system Content management Content management Grading Discover Discover SRS / MIS • Managed learning environment systems expanded to show components they contain. • Overlap of functions and data within components means significant data replication required to keep components synchronised. • Virtually impossible to implement single sign on, for example, in this type of environment. Collaboration Cataloguing Course management Course management Course management Authentication Authentication Authentication Authorisation Authorisation Authorisation Packaging Packaging Assessment

22. Content management Packaging Authorisation Course management Authentication Discover SRS / MIS VLE Library mgt system • Typical managed learning environment with common services moved out of applications. • No need to replicate data – all applications using same common data sources. • Individual MLE components smaller so easier to create and maintain. • Shared services need to be based on open standards with well defined interfaces so all components can access them. Collaboration Cataloguing Grading Assessment

23. Service oriented approach • Benefit to institutions: • Allow institutions to develop their own architectures, using a flexible service-oriented approach. • Makes collaboration between institutions easier. • Provides better returns on technology investment. • Enables faster deployment of technology. • Provides a modular and flexible technology base - Swiss army knife approach. • Benefits for teachers and learners: • Supports pedagogic diversity. • Enables pedagogy-driven implementations.

24. JISC e-Learning Programme • Making the service oriented approach a reality. • Aims to “…support effective dialogue between practitioners, researchers and developers of standards and systems to ensure that eLearning systems are flexible and appropriate and meet the needs of learning communities” • Running from 2003 - 2006. • http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_elearning

25. JISC e-Learning Programme • eLearning and Pedagogy • eLearning and Innovation • Technical Framework and Tools • Digital repositories call

26. Technical Framework and Tools • Develop a generic technical framework for e-learning systems to enable: • FE / HE institutions to create MLE architectures to support their particular e-learning strategies. • Produce architectures based on interoperability standards. • Provide a common basis (understanding) for future developments. • Identify gaps or major barriers to progress (pain points) on which to focus development activity. • http://cetis.ac.uk:8080/frameworks

27. The JISC e-Learning Framework

28. The JISC e-Learning Framework Sample User Agents Learning Domain Services Common Services Institutional Infrastructures (TCP/IP etc.)

29. Common Services Messaging Authentication Authorisation Resolver DRM Metadata service registry Logging Identifier Filing Workflow Search Service registry Mapping Presence Rules Harvesting E-mail management Scheduling Content management Packaging Archiving Rating / Annotation Terminology User preferences Chat Federated search Group Person Role Member Calendaring Metadata management Format conversion Alert Whiteboard Forum AV conferencing Context

30. Learning Domain Services Sequencing Activity management Course management Resource list Assessment Grading Competency ePortfolio Learning flow Activity author Marking Curriculum Course validation Quality assurance Personal development Reporting Tracking

31. Sample User Agents VLE / LMS Portal Enrollment portlet Library system Timetabling Authoring applications Marking tool ePortfolio Learning flow

32. E-Learning Framework • International interest: USA, Australia, Canada • Not just ‘academic’ - vendors (Sun) interested too. • Background information on web services: • Altilab white paper on Services Orientated Frameworks • http://www.imsglobal.org/altilab/index.cfm

33. Yet another ‘e’ - the End! • Need to work together to get IL out of the library and into the classroom • Move beyond infrastructure • Context over content