XplanaZine

We’ve been talking all week about digital content in education and how we will arrive at a future where content is easy to create, store in a coherent fashion, and distribute (Click here to read Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , or Part 4 of this series).

In the previous articles in the series I have written about taxonomies and organizational structures for content, learning object repositories (LORs) and why these content libraries are critical, and about distributing content to multiple software platforms. The goal, keep in mind, is to allow teachers to focus on teaching and students rather than on technology and content management. Ideally, within five years, all teachers will be able to create, store, share, and distribute content easily and according to a common or standard system. Teachers will think about educational technology the same way they think about their microwave ovens — as a useful appliance that is reliable and that does not interfere with their normal daily tasks and interests.

During the week I’ve talked about the gaps between where we are now in each of these areas and where we need to go to realize the future of education. As a concluding vision, I’d like to share two scenarios that, hopefully, will put all of this in perspective.

Scenario #1

Description — A state (let’s say 5,000 teachers for the sake of simplicity), wants to leverage the thousands and thousands of handouts and analog activities that its teachers have. These materials exist, predominantly as Word or other text files and their use is limited to the individual teachers that own them and are stashed away in personal filing cabinets. The goal is for these to be shared among all teachers and for these materials to serve as the groundwork for new and improved materials over time.

Requirements and Solution:

1. Roles — Roles for users need to include State, District, School, Department, and Teacher
2. State Standards — State standards must serve as the primary taxonomy for content classification
3. Metadata for Search — Other metadata must include file type, permissions, book associations, etc.
4. Rights Management
5. Sharing — Users must be able to mark their items as public (things they want to share with everyone), district or school use only, or private (just for their personal use)
6. Authoring –
   1. Teachers must have a convenient text upload system that will ingest all existing text documents and convert them to usable electronic activities or learning objects
   2. Teachers must have access to a robust but simple authoring tool that allows them to cerate new activities/assessments
   3. All items authored into the system must be as SCORM conformant as possible.
7. Creating Collections — Users must be able to create individual and shared collections (a la iTunes)
8. Exporting — Users must be able to export individual objects and/or collections
   1. As print material (handouts or transparencies) for use in the classroom
   2. As HTML or Web-based object(s)
   3. As SCORM-compliant object(s)
   4. Grouped with other materials
   5. Importable to LMS platforms, e-portfolios, etc.

Scenario #2

Description — A state university and college system wants to set up a digital marketplace via which instructors can create, store, share, and purchase digital materials for their classes. The marketplace should serve as a system for private storage, public sharing, and as an e-commerce site through which content from multiple commercial providers (a.k.a. publishers) can be sold. Finally, a portion of the marketplace should be devoted to students so that they can obtain the necessary digital materials for their classes at a discounted rate (negotiated by the state).

Requirements and Solution:

1. Roles — Roles for users include Super Administrator, Institutional Administrator, Instructor, Student, Vendor
2. Discipline taxonomies — The universal classification system used in the system is a discipline taxonomy that is broken down into disciplines, levels, courses, topics, and sub-topics
3. Metadata for Search — Other metadata must include file type, permissions, book associations, etc.
4. Rights Management — All content must be validated for permissions and all appropriate use and distribution rights must be associated with with each object
5. Sharing — Users must be able to mark their items as public (things they want to share with everyone), or private (just for their personal use)
6. E-commerce — The system must allow for multiple vendors to market their learning objects, as well as allow instructors to market their content for a price if they so desire
7. Authoring –
   1. Instructors must have a convenient text upload system that will ingest all existing text documents and convert them to usable electronic activities or learning objects
   2. Instructors must have access to a robust but simple authoring tool that allows them to cerate new activities/assessments and simulations for their courses
   3. All items authored into the system must be as SCORM conformant as possible.
8. Creating Collections — Users must be able to create individual and shared collections (a la iTunes)
9. Exporting — Users must be able to export individual objects and/or collections
   1. As print material (handouts or transparencies) for use in the classroom
   2. As HTML or Web-based object(s)
   3. As SCORM-compliant object(s)
   4. Grouped with other materials
   5. Importable to LMS platforms, e-portfolios, etc.
10. Marketplace UI — The Marketplace UI must allow for
    1. Registration
    2. Instructor and student access with the appropriate materials viewable by each
    3. Search by keywords and categories
    4. Shopping cart
    5. Collection creation and export
    6. Feedback
    7. Metrics for object usage

Most of the things mentioned in these two scenarios exist in one for or another. That’s the god news. The bad news is that we still lack a few of the pieces and that many of the processes and cooperation involved to deliver such systems in a common or shared capacity are still missing. Within the next three years, however, we will see these pieces come together and such systems will likely become the primary method for creating, storing, and distributing content in the education space.