A Teacher’s Tool for Lesson Planning (TuLiP)

Design of a tool for the rapid development of educational and

instructional environments.R. Gabrielle ReedFall, 2002

Topics

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

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)

Observations:

Tools designed for educational uses lag behind applications for e-commerce.

Tools can be developed that capitalize on advances in e-commerce.

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

Advances in Technology XML allows semantic content storage and

retrieval. XSL allows the presentation of content in a wide

variety of output formats. Portal Technology allows relevant storage,

retrieval and community services within a web-based environment.

Web frameworks allow rapid development of web environments.

Teacher’s Challenges

Recent Laws Impacting Workload Existing Responsibilities Tools Available Hurdles to Technology Observed Problems with Learning Environments

Teacher’s New Responsibilities

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]

Recent Requirements

Integrating technology in the classroom Providing accessible information to parents

of disadvantaged individuals Using scientifically based teaching

techniques Accommodating disabilities and student

diversity

Professional Development

Table A.—Percent of public school teachers who participated in professional development activities during the last 12 months that focused on various content areas, by number of hours spent on the activity: 2000 NOTE: Percentages for total hours spent in the activity are based on public school teachers who participated in professional development over the 12 months preceding the survey. Percents are computed across each row, but may not add to 100 because of rounding.

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.

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

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

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

Proposed Solution:

Lower the teacher’s technology hurdle by developing simplified teacher-centered applications to help 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.

Proposal : A Lesson Planning Tool Characteristics Comparison of Existing Tools Benefits

Characteristics:

Simplified interface with sufficient but minimal functionality.

Sharing and reusing Lesson Plans. Sharing and reusing components of the

Plan. Automating routine parental and

administrative reporting requirements. Automating alternative student materials.

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.

Available Planning Tools and Characteristics in Sharing and Reusing Lesson Plans

Description Examples Format Sharability Reusability

Journal/Calendar

Weekly/ Daily/

Class Period

Scholastic Lesson Planning Book

Paper / Palm Limited due to everyday use,

may be copied

Used as a reference, but new dates requires rewriting.

Curriculum Guides and Lesson Plans using office production software

Word processors, spreadsheets, presentation

Computer applications with proprietary formats

Must have same applications

Easier to update from year to year

Web and Multimedia Designer Software

Web Quest student activities

Website – some html template pages available

Format and navigation must be acceptable for reuse.

Due to the scope of site, files are not easily located or bundled. Need HTML editing skills.

Learning Objects e-learn (Microsoft), SCORM

No standard format

Search engines used to find them.

May need proprietary application to run it

Used as is.

Size of the Object may not match need.

Sample Lesson Planning Page

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

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.

Perceived Costs of Predefined Styles Customization of the use forms are restricted to the

defined structure of the elements. A compliant template form uses existing style templates.

Foremost importance is the use of research based style and presentation methods to facilitate information distribution.

Teachers have to give up the desire to “publish”- to “control the way things look”. The functionality to customize a product is a cause of increased complexity of a tool.

To offset this, the style must be a widely accepted design

How Many Different Products Are Needed? The content in one Lesson Plan may be

transformed to meet various needs:– Administrative curriculum requirements– Evaluation of technology effectiveness– Information for parents– Homework for children– Information in alternative modes for lesson or

review– Instructional plan– Instructional web environment

Effectiveness of Structured Content

The "structured" approach is seen to have the following benefits:– allows the same courses to be delivered across multiple media and

delivery environments (Print, WWW, CD-ROM) – supports a consistent instructional design and development process – provides a definitive view, including meta-data, of the components of well

constructed educational resources responsive to different learner profiles – provides opportunities for learners to approach the course material

through multiple paths or views – facilitates the re-purposing and updating of content – conforms to Information Technology standards to ensure portability and

long-term use” Paille, G., Norman, S., Klassen, P. and Maxwell, J. "The effect of

using structured documents (SGML) in instructional design“ source: http://naweb.unb.ca/proceedings/1999/paille/paille.html

TuLiP Components

Web Architecture Portal/Repository Design Fundamental Learning Objects Teacher-Centered Tool

Technological Components of the Tulip Tool Cocoon 2 Web Architecture

– Uses XML, XSL, XSP, Java Servlets

Portal Design– facilitates catalogue and search of resources– enhances teacher participation & collaboration

Learning Objects– packages metadata and files for sharing

Repository– simplifies saving and retrieval of files

Designs in the Full Implementation of the TuLip Tool A simplified “minimal but sufficient” interface A markup language designed for Learning

Environments And Planning (LEAP) A set of Knowledge Type Templates (KTTs) for

the types of knowledge based on objective Components that facilitate reuse, sharing,

completeness and orthogonality (FLOs)

Simplified “Minimal but Sufficient” Interface

Teacher-centered design Set up of custom plan template Web based form Step by step completion Templates

Characteristics of a Simplified Interface Minimal but sufficient functionality Teacher-centered Includes examples and demonstrations of

use Provide an assortment of templates for use. The needs of the teachers are to be

determined by user studies and surveys through the use of the Portal

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

Rapid Development of Web Sites using the Cocoon2 Framework

Web interface for administration of lesson plans and learning environment

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.

Cocoon2 Sitemap Example

Cocoon2 Pipeline

Source at the right is an XML page.

Style sheet is in XSL. Multiple sources of

XML may be used in “one page”.

Output is specified format like html, pdf, WML or Vox ML.

Learning Environment And Planning (LEAP) Markup Language XML Language development Current Markup Languages for Educational

Content Characteristics of LEAP

XML Markup Languages

Data Type Definitions (DTDs) define the Elements and Attributes to be used in the files.

Modularization and Namespace DTDs are used to assure uniqueness of element names.

Existing Markup Languages

Publication Languages Learning Material Markup Language (LMML)

[http://www.lmml.de] Tutorial Markup Language (TML)

[http://www.ilrt.bristol.ac.uk/netquest/about/lang/] These are incomplete languages with respect to

the “Lesson Planning Process”.

What Are XML’s Advantages?

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.

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 Categories/ and Grammer

Document Type Definition (DTD)

A DTD is a file (or several files to be used together), written in XML, which contains a formal definition of a particular type of document. It sets out what names can be used for element types, where they may occur, and how they all fit together. For example, if you want a document type to be able to describe <List>s which contain <Item>s, part of your DTD would contain something like

<!ELEMENT List (Item)+> <!ELEMENT Item (#PCDATA)>

This fragment defines a list as an element type containing one or more items (using the plus sign), and items as element types containing just text. XML is the formal specification language which processors read to automatically parse the DTD and then use that information to identify where every element type comes and how each relates to the other, so that stylesheets, navigators, browsers, search engines, databases, printing routines, and other applications can be used. The above fragment lets you create lists which get stored as:

<List><Item>Chocolate</Item><Item>Music</Item><Item>Surfing</Item></List>

How the list appears in print or on the screen depends on your stylesheet: you do not normally need to put anything in the XML to affect formatting in the way that had to be done with HTML before stylesheets.

In effect, a DTD provides applications with advance notice of what names and structures can be used in a particular document type.

Using a DTD means you can be certain that all documents which belong to a particular type will be constructed and named in a conformant manner.

Source: http://xml.coverpages.org/xmlFAQ15.html#FAQ-DOCTYPE

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

Fundamental Learning Objects

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

Lesson Plan Objects

Characteristics

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

Knowledge Type Templates (KTTs)

Templates for the most common objectives by type of knowledge being taught

Knowledge Type Templates (KTTs) Aggregation of a

variety of FLOs The proposed KTT’s

include: – Fact

– Event

– Skill

– Process

– Experience

– Analysis

– Experimentation

– Cognitive Process

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

Components

Facilitate Reuse, Sharing, Completeness and Orthogonality (FLOs)

Learning Objects, MetaData, Portals, Web Communities and Repositories

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

Examples of Learning Objects Uses(LOs) Instructional Architect (IA) currently uses

the LO’s stored in SMETE and other repositories to produce web pages. (reusabiltiy.org)

Learning Objects, however, are packaged with logic, format and content that is difficult to modify and limits its reuse.

IEEE Learning Object (LO) Initiatives Standardize the metadata associated with

LO’s– LOs are limited to objects containing

educational content.– LOs can be readily shared and reused in whole,

due to the metadata markup language used in describing the content.

Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (The Dublin Core) “a 15 element metadata set that is primarily intended to aid resource

discovery on the Web … The metadata elements fall into three groups which roughly indicate

the class or scope of information stored in them: 1. elements related mainly to the Content of the resource

• Title, Subject, Description, Type, Source, Relation, Coverage, 2. elements related mainly to the resource when viewed as Intellectual

Property • Creator, Publisher, Contributor, Rights

3. elements related mainly to the Instantiation of the resource • Date, Format, Identifier, Language.”

Source:– http://dublincore.org/documents/1999/07/02/dces/

Qualifiers are documented in : – http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmes-qualifiers/

SCORM

"The SCORM spec is going to be successful almost by default, but unless all e-learning specifications turn the focus from infrastructure to pedagogical soundness, they are in danger of becoming instructionally irrelevant." So says Thor Anderson, director of developer support at the Instructional Management System Global Learning Consortium (IMS) in Burlington, Mass.

Source: Welsch, Edward, “SCORM: Clarity or Calamity?” Online Learning Magazine, August, 2002 http://www.onlinelearningmag.com/onlinelearning/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1526769

Portals

An adaptive environment:– Displays information of interest, which is

gathered and made available for use.• National, Core and State Curriculum Requirements

• Planning Tools and Teacher Resources

– Provides a facility for sharing, using a Repository

– Enables collaboration in Lesson Planning

Web Communities

Learnitivity BlackBoard Moose Crossing ERIC

Educational Repositories

ERIC SMETE

References

LMML (lmml.org) TML( Instructional Architect ( reusabiltiy.org) Steps (UWF) IEEE Learning Object Initiative XML, XSLT Cocoon2 web development framework http://www.saxproject.org