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The dutch framework of educational semantics. Serving Education Through Semantic Cooperation EdReNe Conference, The Hague, December 11 th , 2012. Introduction. Jacob Molenaar NL based independent consultant in educational technology and educational publishing - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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THE DUTCH FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL SEMANTICSServing Education Through Semantic Cooperation
EdReNe Conference, The Hague, December 11th, 2012
Introduction• Jacob Molenaar• NL based independent consultant in educational
technology and educational publishing• Chair of the Working Committee of the Dutch Framework
For Educational Semantics (OnderwijsBegrippenKader)
But I’m not going to do this alone…
Tryptich Of Presentations1. Jacob: The Strategic Background Of The Dutch
Framework Of Educational Semantics2. Jos van der Arend: The Information Design Of The
Dutch Framework Of Educational Semantics3. Jacob: An Experimental Application Of The Dutch
Framework Of Educational Semantics
Topics / Themes• A little bit about the nature of Educational Content for a
start• A little bit more about the Semantic Web and Linked Open
Data• Much about the Dutch Framework For Educational
Semantics (OnderwijsBegrippenKader)• Much more about the Dutch Framework For Educational
Semantics by Jos!• A demo and discussion of the Linked Data Trial Prototype
Actual Content
Textbook paragraphs, tables, YouTube clips,
quizzes, exercises, etc.
Educational Design
Which learning goals, which subjects, what
type of students, which learning activities, how
much learning time, etc. Educational Content
70%
30%Is normally associated with
Is mainly determined bymetadata
data
The Nature Of Educational Content
Educational InformationAll information that is generated in the process of designing, planning and delivering (formal) education to learners:
• Formal curriculum (learning goals, teaching subjects)• Rationale of this curriculum
• Additional achievement standards• Rationale of these standards
• Exam Standards (in NL we have national exam standards)• Body of Knowledge (concepts, terms, theories, etc.)• Educational Designs:
• Learning trajectories• Textbook structures
• ‘Lore of teaching’ (didactics, pedagogy)• Learner Data (profiles, tracking & tracing)
Educational Information• Comes from many sources• Is expressed by a variety of experts using a variety of idioms• Is structured in many different ways• Is difficult to find and access; it lives in many different
websites, databases and documents• Is ‘narrative’ (complex and often verbose)
Connecting all these information sources is very hard for a teacher, a curriculum designer, a textbook writer, etc.
What we therefore need is a shared framework of meaning, a common semantics.
Sharing semanticsWe don’t want to create a top-down generic framework• Too much 18th/19th century style (Diderot,
Encyclopédistes)• Too much Soviet style• Too complex and costly to develop and maintain
We need a loosely coupled but reliable network of semantic connections between different and distributed conceptual frameworks.
This is where the Semantic Web comes into play.
Semantic Web“A set of standards and best practices for sharing data and the semantics of that data over the web for use by applications.”
Bob DuCharme, Learning SPARQL, 2011
Semantic Web In Education“A set of standards and best practices for sharing educational data and the semantics of that data over the web for use by educational applications.”
Jacob Molenaar, EdReNe Conference, The Hague, 2012 ☺
The Five Stars Of Linked Open DataMake your information available on the web (whatever format)Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel instead of scan of table or even PDF)Make it easy to access (e.g. use open, standard data formats, provide an API)Use persistent unique identifiers so that people can point at your stuffLink your data to other data you have or to other people’s data to provide context
Linked Open DataMake your information available on the web (whatever format)Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel instead of scan of table or even PDF)Make it easy to access (e.g. use open, standard data formats, provide an API)Use persistent unique identifiers so that people can point at your stuffLink your data to other data you have or to other people’s data to provide context
Linked Open DataMake your information available on the web (whatever format)Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel instead of scan of table or even PDF)Make it easy to access (e.g. use open, standard data formats, provide an API)Use persistent unique identifiers so that people can point at your stuffLink your data to other data you have or to other people’s data to provide context
Linked Open Data Level Of Educational Information…
Make your information available on the web (whatever format)Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel instead of scan of table or even PDF)Make it easy to access (e.g. use open, standard data formats, provide an API)Use persistent unique identifiers so that people can point at your stuffLink your data to other data you have or to other people’s data to provide context
Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics
• OnderwijsBegrippenKader (www.onderwijsbegrippenkader.nl)
• Outcome of the Educatieve Contentketen Programme (www.educatievecontentketen.nl)
• Service of EduStandaard (www.edustandaard.nl): Dutch Body For Standardization In Educational Technology
• Started in Spring 2012• “The aim of this service is to gather all distinct formal and
informal conceptual frameworks or classifications used in Dutch education into one referatory, link all the information entities together and give it back to the educators as a comprehensive semantic landscape of linked open data.”
Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics
• It houses all the formal and informal concepts of the Dutch educational system (learning goals, school type classifications, grades, levels, competencies, subjects, etc. etc.)
• And all of their relations• It publishes these information entities in RDF form• Using unique, persistent identifiers• It is accessible through:
• An online user interface (for humans!)• Offline controlled vocabularies (using VDEX)• Online application programming interface (API): SPARQL Endpoint
Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics
Initial contents (2012-2013):• National curriculum for secundary education (learning goals
and detailed drilldown, subjects and detailed drilldown)
Soon followed by (2013):• National curriculum for primary education• National curriculum for vocational education• National Achievement Standards for Language and Math
Skills• Common European Framework of Reference for Lanuages
(EU)• Common Core State Standards (US)?
But why?Why invest all these efforts, all this time and (public) money on ‘just another database’?
(cliffhanger)
But why?Why invest all these efforts, all this time and (public) money on ‘just another database’?
Well… maybe because the Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics supports…
Cooperation!
Semantic Interoperability*Semantic Interoperability supports:1. Retrieval (e.g. of learning objects)2. Compliancy (e.g. of a textbook to a national
curriculum)3. Cooperation (e.g. a mashup of a publisher’s textbook
and an examination body’s guidelines or examples of exam questions – or cooperation between a textbook publisher and a public institution for audiovisual heritage)
* Thank you Stuart!
Linked Data Trial Project• An example of user centred cooperation enabled by the Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics: the Linked Data Trial Project
• A prototype / proof of concept• Part of www.educatievecontentketen.nl• Developed in the spring and summer of 2012
Information DomainsThe prototype combines and presents the expert knowledge of:
1. Textbooks (developed by experts of both profit and non-profit developers)
2. Formal Curriculum (NL government ordered, developed by SLO curriculum experts)
3. National Achievement Standards for Language and Math Skills (NL government ordered, developed by experts of the NL expertise centers for language and math)
4. Edurep (Dutch national learning object metadata repository)
Linked Data Trial ProjectThe prototype offers:1. An automatically generated ‘curriculum
compliancy statement’ for a) textbooks and b) teacher tailored sets of learning objects from the NL educational repository Edurep
2. Automatically generated metadata for additional online resources accompanying textbooks
http://linked-data.kennisnet.nl
Semantic Network
Textbook(Sections)
Formal Curriculum
(Intermediate Learning
goals)
National Achievement Standards for
Language and Math
Skills
Learning Objects in
Edurep
New Learning Object
Connected byteachers
Connected by textbook developers
Connected by learning object developers
Connected by experts
The Linked Data Trial Prototype
OutputCurriculum
Compliancy Statement
InputList of Learning
Objects or a Textbook
NL Repository for Learning
Object Metadata
Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics
The Linked Data Trial Prototype
OutputNL-LOM Metadata
Record
InputNew Learning Object
NL Repository for Learning Object Metadata
Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics
Textbook Metadata
Conclusions• If you want to collaborate in creating, distributing and
using online content you need a shared semantics• First proofs of concept show that it is perfectly possible to
use Semantic Web technologies for creating such a shared semantic framework
• First proofs of concepts show that the end user can benefit from this framework through practical applications that offer him added value in everyday classroom work
• However, it takes a determined effort from all parties involved to establish such a framework (and its standards and best practices). The semantic network will not grow out of itself…