LOM Comments

1
LOM Comments

• Dan Suthers
• Dept. of Info Comp. Sci.
• University of Hawaii at Manoa
• suthers_at_hawaii.edu

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Applications

• Hawaii Networked Learning Communities Database
  of SMET resources for K-12
• We tried to describe a diversity of resources and
  stakeholders involved in technology-supported
  standards-based systemic reform
• NetLearn technology supported professional
  development at a distance
• Considered adequacy for describing professional
  development resources

3
Outline

• Structural Issues
• Restricted and See_Classification
• 5.7 Typical Age Range Grade
• Dependency of 5.4, 5.8, 5.9 on Age (or Grade)
• 5.5 Intended End User Role Beneficiary
• 1.7 Coverage
• Other Structural Issues (KnowledgePlanet)
• Vocabulary Issues
• 5.1 Interactivity Type
• 5.2 Learning Resource Type
• 1.9 Aggregation Level
• 1.8 Structure

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Structural Issues
5
Restricted and See_Classification

• See_Classification not allowed for Restricted
  elements.
• No automatable way of knowing when a Restricted
  element has been augmented with an improved
  vocabulary
• impedes interoperability
• impedes identification of improvements to LOM
• See_Also_Classification
• Convert Restricted to Recommended where not
  absolutely sure!

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5.7 Typical Age Range

• Many (e.g., most US K-12) educational materials
  are targeted to Grade, not age.
• This measure may differ between locales
• Allow locale-appropriate measures of
  developmental level with tuple
• 5.7.1 Measure (e.g., Age,US Grade)
• 5.7.2 Value (e.g., 5-7)

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5.4 Semantic Density, 5.8 Difficulty, 5.9
Learning Time

• Suitable for a two semester undergraduate
  sequence or a fast-paced single semester graduate
  course
• Thus Learning Time depends on 5.7 Typical Age
  Range (or 5.6 Educational Context but this is not
  precise enough)
• True also of Semantic Density and Difficulty
• restructure to capture this dependency

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Proposal 5.x Challenge Levels

• Reorganize 5.4, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, and 5.9 as
  follows
• 5.x Challenge Level (Unordered list of 4-tuples)
• 5.x.1 Developmental Level (formerly 5.7)
• 5.x.1.1 Measure (e.g., Age, US Grade, )
• 5.x.1.2 Value (e.g., 7-8)
• 5.x.2 Semantic Density (formerly 5.4)
• 5.x.3 Difficulty (formerly 5.8)
• 5.x.4 Learning Time (formerly 5.9)
• Values of 5.x.2 through 5.x.4 depend on 5.x.1

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5.5 Intended End User Role

• Help professional development staff to provide
  professional development to their teachers Are
  the PD staff Teachers or Learners? (E.g.
  NetLearn)
• Train teachers to better manage mainstreamed
  students (learning disabled, ADHD, etc.) in their
  classrooms Is the teacher a learner, a teacher,
  or a manager?
• Prepare working scientists to better understand
  State Content and Performance standards so that
  they can better mentor teachers in their content
  area?
• Used by teachers, potential mentors, and
  matchmakers to form mentoring relationships?

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5.5 Intended End User Role

• Open the vocabulary
• Include GEM Audience in recommended vocabulary
• Distinguish User (ToolFor) from Beneficiary

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GEM Audience
Who is the Ultimate Beneficiary? Administrators
Adult education students Advanced placement
students African-American students
Asian-American Students At-risk students
Bilingual students College/ University
Instructors Culturally diverse classroom
Curriculum supervisors Developmentally disabled
students Disabled students Economically
disadvantaged students Elementary school
teachers Emotionally disabled students English
as a second languages (ESL) students Female
students General Public Gifted or honors
students Hearing-impaired students
Hispanic-American students Learning disabled
students Librarians Limited English proficiency
(LEP) students Male students Middle school
teachers Minority students Native American
Students Other educational professionals
Pacific Islanders Parents Physically disabled
students Policy-makers Remedial students Rural
students Secondary school teachers Students
Students with multiple disabilities Student
teachers Suburban students Supervisors
Teachers Teacher educators Teaching
professionals Urban students Vision-impaired
students
A Tool For Whom? Administrators
College/ University Instructors
Curriculum Supervisors Elementary School
Teachers General Public
Librarians Middle School Teachers
Other Educational Professionals Parents
Policy-Makers Secondary School
Teachers Student Teachers
Students Supervisors Teacher
Educators Teachers Teaching
Professionals Technology Coordinators
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Dependency of other Elements on User versus
Beneficiary

• Suppose I want to describe professional
  development materials for an 8th grade teacher.
• What is the Typical Age Range?
• 13-14? Not the end user!
• But say 21-65 and you have not captured the
  population that is intended to benefit!
• Dependency of other elements on user /
  beneficiary.
• No proposed solution yet.

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1.7 Coverage

• Currently is a partial specification of content
  (time and place only)
• Why cant I say CoverageACM CS7 curriculum, or
  Finite Groups, or
• allow taxon paths, or
• eliminate it (handled by Classification).

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Others (KnowledgePlanet)

• Ambiguity Multiple classifications within a
  Source
• Make multiple 9Classification with same Purpose
  and one taxon path each?
• Or make one 9Classification with multiple taxon
  paths?
• Is there a semantic difference?
• Structuring Taxonomic Paths (cannot)
• Example Ordering media types from most to least
  common
• I do not have a solution

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Vocabulary Issues

• Note I am advocating
• opening currently restricted vocabularies
• adopting existing and well tested vocabularies,
• NOT taking on the additional work of building our
  own

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5.1 Interactivity Type

• Blatantly and pathetically inadequate.
• Will lead to rejection of LOM by educational
  community.
• Doomed to be uninformative. All resources will be
  interactive because we know that expository
  does not work well (and does not sell). What
  vendor in their right mind would say otherwise?
• Open the vocabulary
• Adopt existing practice (e.g., GEM Pedagogy
  vocabulary)

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GEM Pedagogy

• Teaching Methods Advanced organizers,
  Brainstorming, Computer assisted instruction,
  Computer simulations, Contingency management,
  Cooperative learning, Demonstrations, Dialog
  journals, Discovery learning, Discussions,
  Dramatic play drills, Experiential learning,
  Guided design, Hands-on learning ,
  Interdisciplinary , Integrated instruction, Lab
  procedures, Learning modules, Lecture, Montessori
  Method, Multiple activities, Multimedia
  instruction, Museum education, Peer Tutoring,
  Programmed instruction, Project-based learning,
  Questioning techniques, Role playing, Self
  directed groups, Self-paced learning modules,
  Simulations and games, Teaching guides, Team
  teaching, Thematic approach, Tutorial programs,
  Visual instruction, Whole language approach
• Grouping Cross age teaching, Heterogeneous
  grouping, Homogeneous grouping, Individualized
  instruction, Large Group instruction, Non-graded
  instructional, Small group instruction
• Assessment Alternative assessment, Authentic
  assessment, Curriculum based assessment, Informal
  assessment, Observation, Peer evaluation,
  Portfolio assessment, Self evaluation,
  Standardized testing, Testing

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1.9 Aggregation Level

• ICS ALN Degree Program
• Hawaii Content Performance Standards
• Need larger aggregations (but restricted OK)
• 0raw media
• 1collection of atoms into "molecules (e.g.,
  html page)
• 2collection of molecules (e.g., web)
• 3collection of 2 (e.g., course)
• 4collection of 3 (e.g., curriculum)
• 5systemic
• Not a good idea to say map it as you wish
• those with more levels to describe are forced to
  have less discriminatory power
• unnecessary differences in semantics of levels

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5.2 Learning Resource Type

• Many common resources are missing
• Use union of LOM and GEM vocabulary
• Activity, Artifact, Best practice, Catalog
  record, Community, Course, Curriculum, Data set,
  Educator's guide, Environment, Event, Form, Image
  set, Lesson plan, Literature, On-line book,
  Primary source, Project, Realia, Reference,
  Research study, Secondary source, Service, Story,
  Study guide, Tool, Unit of instruction
• Possibly a few others, e.g. Mentor

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1.8 Structure

• Who would say give me a Branched resource?
• A solution looking for a problem.
• Show us the utility, or
• remove it.
• doesnt hurt?
• Then allow me to make the same argument about
  other elements I would like to add ?

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Final Comments

• IEEE LTSC has no mechanism to involve public
  (especially primary/secondary) education
  stakeholders
• If you do not actively seek (and fund) their
  input, the blatant naivete of the result will
  turn them off immediately.

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GEM Pedagogy
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Objectives

• Semantic Interoperability
• Address needs of all stakeholders
• Expedient approval of standard

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Assumed Principles

• Use Restricted vocabulary for
• closed world
• at sufficiently fine granularity
• Else use Recommended
• Leverage existing standards
• Codify existing practice
• Provide for extensions

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Resource Types

• LOM
• 3Exercise 4Simulation 5Questionnaire
  6Diagram 7Figure 8Graph 9Index 10Slide
  11Table 12Narrative Text 13Exam
  14Experiment 15ProblemStatement
  16SelfAssesment

• GEM
• Activity, Artifact, Best practice, Catalog
  record, Community, Course, Curriculum, Data set,
  Educator's guide, Environment, Event, Form, Image
  set, Lesson plan, Literature, On-line book,
  Primary source, Project, Realia, Reference,
  Research study, Secondary source, Service, Story,
  Study guide, Tool, Unit of instruction