The whys and wherefores of Wookie widgets EEE, Valladolid November 14 th 2011 Professor David (Dai) Griffiths The Institute for Educational Cybernetics The University of Bolton [email protected]
A presentation made to the EEE project in Valladolid, 14th November 2011, talking about ways of thinking about widget services, and describing work carried out in the iTEC and Omelette projects
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1. The whys and wherefores of Wookie widgetsEEE, Valladolid
November 14th 2011Professor David (Dai) GriffithsThe Institute for
Educational CyberneticsThe University of
[email protected]
2. What is Wookie, and why am I talking about it? At IEC we
have developed a technical infrastructure for the delivery of
services and resources using Widgets It is now in the Apache
incubator, & has created a lot of interest in TEL and in mobile
telephony. It is a potential enabling technology for the
orchestration for EEE I will not go into technical detail, which is
available through Apache. I will discuss four ways that I think
about the usefulness of the infrastructure I hope that over the
three days we can talk about If and how the technology I have
described is relevant to EEE The research questions which are
raised by the perspectives I offer
3. Four perspectives on Wookie(& widget based services in
general) Non-exclusive perspectives which we can use to understand
why this generic infrastructure has resonated, and what importance
it may have as a learning design intervention an interoperability
tool a support for teachers orchestration of the classroom an
articulation of institutional / personal technology No implied
hierarchy in the list
4. a) A learning design intervention Common sense tells us...
some learning activities are better than others we find ourselves
enthused or bored we achieve our objectives or we fail to make
progress This suggests we should we be able to... identify
activities which are effective describe them provide guidance
instructional designers which will enable them to create optimal
courses Cognitivism, and constructivism are both problematic for
this approach
5. Koper defined the underlying approach (building on
Reigeluth) ...learning design knowldedge consists of a set of
prescriptive rules with the following basic structure: if learning
situation S, then use learning method M, with probability P.
Situational, so distance learning is easier A good rule improves
the probability of desired outcomes in a situation Probability is
inexact, because it is situation dependent. Rules are not value
free. People prefer certain learning outcomes and methods above
others. When alternative methods can be used, the learning designer
has to evaluate the various methods available and choose between
them.
6. Orchestration of learning activities Take the idea of
learning rules Formalise them (lots of issues here!) Instantiate
them in computer systems so that they could orchestrate activities
IMS LD was intended to do this It was the starting point for much
of the work I have been involved with over the past ten years
7. The technological problem... An implemented rule has to be
both context free (abstracted, so it can be run repeatedly) and
context specific (so that it can make use of the services which are
available to each individual user) How can this be achieved? A
number of groups worked on this in different ways, but our solution
was Wookie
8. Wookie is a widget server for W3C widgets (reference
implementation), and largely compatible with Open Social Built by
IEC by my colleagues: Scott Wilson, Paul Sharples and Kris Popat
Now in the Apache incubator, and building a wider developer
community http://incubator.apache.org/wookie/ Developed for IMS LD,
but the problem of generalisable / localisable services had very
wide application
9. How Wookie balances the general and the specific Like any
trade-off, the Wookie resolution to the problem has costs and
benefits A single server providing multiple services One
integration for many services You choose your Wookie server, which
has default services on it Could be at the level of a University, a
school authority, a country, the world... Specify the server when
you set up the course No guarantee you will find what you need, but
set up of Wookie and its services is simple A disk image available
if you want to try it out. Contact me
10. b) Interoperability enables Wookie to provide LD services
Widgets are simple: HTML and Javascript, so they will run in any
browser. So does an LD player. Much widget content is delivered
across the network, so they provide a tunnel between environments
which can be used to provide services from a single source to
multiple consumers We added multi-user capabilities, roles and
server side data storage to enable more sophisticated functionality
Delegated authentication to the container
11. Interoperability generates applications for Wookie As a
matter of policy and convenience we used interoperability
specifications: W3C widgets We ensured that our extensions of the
specification were aligned with the W3C We positioned Wookie as an
open source reference implementation for W3C widgets, and
successfully applied for admission to the Apache Incubator As a
result Wookie could be used in many environments and platforms, for
many purposes The system we developed for IMS LD is now a focus of
quite different research and development activities
12. Thanks to Chuck Severence
13. c) Support for teachers orchestration of the classroom
Learning design hoped to help the teacher by off-loading the
responsibility for orchestration onto the computer An alternative
approach is to provide systems which amplify the teachers ability
to orchestrate the classroom A different balance between planning
and response to evolving situations
14. The educational environment is highly standardised... We
have a standard curriculum We have professionally produced learning
materials We have pedagogic guidance and inspection And with IMS LD
we have a standard way of analyzing and specifying activities
15. but we still have great teachers and bad teachers We give
them awards, and we fire them We ascribe the difference to
inspiration, personality, experience. But it often seems to be some
kind of magic teacher dust This may (or may not) be OK for
traditional classroom teaching But when we design computer systems
we have to be very explicit
http://www.anthonyshome.com/images/Monica%20&%20Karla%27s%20Party/Karla%20Gets%20The%20Magic%20Dust.JPG
16. A working hypothesis: teaching asmodulation of activity and
discourse The magic dust is composed of coordination and
micro-coordination of activity and discourse It is too detailed to
show up on IMS Learning Design and similar activity designs It is
not well understood, even by teachers... ...but good teachers have
a good rhetoric applied at this level and deployed on-the-fly If
so, how can we describe it? identify it? analyze it? support it
with computer systems? Wookie provides a means of exploring these
questions
17. iTEC iTEC: large scale pilots to promote innovative use of
IT in the school classroom Wookie delivers services across
platforms Scenario is a Learning Story, supported by a Learning
Activity Resource Guide Like an LD environment & activity
instruction Leaving the teacher to carry out the coordination
18. Moodle example ITEC target enviroments include LRN,
Liferay, Moodle The VLE is a means of controlling access to a set
of services Resolves problems of legality and complexity for
teachers adapting Web services in the classroom. The same widget,
the same instantiation, can exist in multiple locations and
platforms (whiteboard, phone, PC, tablet...) The widget can be
controlled by the teacher who can position learners (in Harrs
sense) with tools which are to hand Change state learners device or
access to resources (e.g. widget simulation) Provide learners with
opportunities for collaboration (forum, shared text...) Enable
learners to provide input (e.g. a clicker, vote...) Enable learners
to control devices (embedded widgets? remote control?, RFID / near
field...?)http://itec-moodle.eun.org/course/view.php?id=9
20. ITEC App Store The iTEC services and resources need to be
Stored somewhere Described Curated Made available The iTEC App
Store does this Major effort, in collaboration with ROLE and OU UK
removing widget management from Wookie revising the APIs developing
the new App store server Working prototype, full release summer
2012
21. d) Articulation of the institutional / personal The idea of
a Personal Learning Environment originated with Oleg Liber and his
collaborators in IEC Bolton Technology is increasingly in the hands
of the learner, not just the institution The institution provides
services which can be consumed and amalgamated by the learner at
their choice of time place Platform But we didnt want to build
one
22. Omelette Uses Wookie, but not in eLearning: mobile mash-ups
combining web and telecoms Provides functionality which move us
towards PLE style services which are situated in the users own
environment Wookie can provide the same instance to a number of
different platforms. The same chat with the same participants can
be in your blog on Moodle and on your phone IEC is working on
Wookie Mash up definition software Specification for collections of
widgets and their display Apache Rave, a lightweight container for
widgets
23. Rave
24. Some Omelette widgets Some widgets from Scott Wilson
International Campus Education - Students Map Video (back to
coordination) Monstermath Widgets working with the phone Phone
pollhttp://demo.ict-omelette.eu/wookie/http://labs.cetis.ac.uk/
25. Some final comments Widgets are just one strand in a number
of interwoven technological developments, including HTML 5
Websockets NodeJS I have related the technology to education, but
educational certainties are also being challenged In IEC we move in
an ongoing dialogue between these two areas How we model the causal
efficacy of our interventions and their different aspects is a
major challenge Not a proposed truth about widgets but a suggestion
for approaching a discussion of the technology
