European Schoolnet Metadata for Learning Tel Aviv Frans Van Assche Strategy Manager European Schoolnet

European Schoolnet European Schoolnet (EUN) Organisation of 25 ministries of education EUN office: 30 people working in Brussels Lead, share and serve in the field –Educational policymaking Ministries, European Community, Diff Bodies –Schooling Teachers, Students, Parents, School managers, Inspectors, Content providers, IT industry –Educational Network Operation National network operators, International networks

European Schoolnet What Business Are We in Policy MakingSchoolingEdu Network Operation Research Practice Networking Awareness Support offline/online

European Schoolnet Questions and Concerns Does reuse really work? Metadata are something of the past. Now we use Google and no-one is metadata tagging anymore. Why using standards, they are too restrictive. Which standards anyway? The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from You may have these questions yourself or you may encounter people with these questions

European Schoolnet But First Learning technology has redefined terms –Metadata –Learning Object –Reuse Illustrative Examples

European Schoolnet Metadata Late sixties: Origin in database and software development. Originally: Data about Data; e.g. datatype, description, owner, etc 1978: Meta-database driving applications 1995: Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) 1995: Dublin (Ohio) Core Metadata Initiative 1998: European Treasury Browser Project 1999: DC extensions for education 2002: Learning Object Metadata. Now in LT: Data about an object

European Schoolnet Curent metadata schemes for Learning Resources Application Profiles for DC –ELR MES (ETB project) –DC extensions for education LOM –Standard since June 2002 –Various Application Profiles Under construction Ottawa agreement to converge

European Schoolnet Learning Object Origin: The Object Oriented Approach in Software Engineering: encapsulated behaviour, information hiding, inheritance, classification, avoiding the ripple effect Original question: Can we apply OO techniques to the development of multimedia resources to facilitate reuse in education? The LOM standard defines a Learning Object as any entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, education or training.

European Schoolnet Reuse Software Engineering –A software engineer develops a piece of software A; (another) software engineer adapts and integrates it as A’ in his own program. Many users use A and A’ –Find, Evaluate, Obtain, Adapt, Integrate Learning technology –A teacher produces a LO A and uses it in his classroom –The teacher reuses it in another classroom –Another teacher reuses it also in his classroom with or without modifications

European Schoolnet Illustrative Examples Current practice: European Learning Resource Brokerage system Current development with Learning Objects: The Celebrate project Current development for School Administration: The Schools Interoperability Framework

European Schoolnet ICT in education PCs in the school Administration PC’s in the Classroom CD-ROM Networking ResourcesCollaboration Networked School Administration Repositories Learning Resources Brokerage SystemsLearning Objects LMS LCMS VLE Polyhierarchy of Brokerage Systems Palm, Tablet PC Mobile Intelligent Learning Personalised VLEs

European Schoolnet Current practice PCs in the school Administration PC’s in the Classroom CD-ROM, MM Networking MM ResourcesCollaboration Networked School Administration Repositories Learning Resources Brokerage SystemsLearning Objects LMS LCMS VLE Polyhierarchy of Brokerage Systems Palm, Tablet PC Mobile Intelligent Learning Personalised VLEs

European Schoolnet What does it take to work? Resources An application profile for a metadata system A brokerage system Learning Content Management Tools Learning Management Tools Economic, organisational feasibility

European Schoolnet European Learning Resource Brokerage System Result of the European Treasury Browser (ETB) project Dublin Core Application Profile –Extensions to the DC MES –ELR thesaurus of 1200 terms in 9 languages for schools –Controlled Vocabularies –Resource Description Framework (RDF) binding 1st generation brokerage system About 12,000 resource descriptions Quality descriptors Collections of trusted resources

European Schoolnet... I DK D EUN Thesaurus EUN NNTP Network EUN JRC UNI-C LUND Fun. Tel. JRC S F ETB Light

European Schoolnet Present Network INDIRE (Italy) JRC (Italy) UNI-C (Denmark) LUND (Sweden) DBS (Germany) EUN –EUN own repository (KMS) –Central –ETB Native repository

European Schoolnet

DC - ETB DC.Title DC.Creator DC.Subject DC.Description DC.Publisher DC.Contributor DC.Date DC.Type DC.Format DC.Identifier DC.Source DC.Language DC.Relation DC.Coverage DC.Rights Subject Keywords Subject Thumbnail Subject Audio sample Audience – Age Audience – Level Format Medium Format Requirements Format Extent Learning Situation User Comments Aggregation Level

European Schoolnet

Extending the network Educasource (France) CNICE (Spain) Fundación Telefónica (Spain) Pedagogic Center of the Jewish Agency (Israel) FWU München Ministry of Education, Denmark Nordisk Ministerlands Sekretariat Ministry of Education Science and Culture, Iceland Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Netherlands Norwegian Board of Education, Norway Interklasa, Poland National Agency for Education, Sweden CTIE/SFIB, Switzerland Ministry of Education, Finland Ministry of Education Austria Local ministries in Austria: Tirol, Vorarlberg Liechtenstein Northern Italy (Südtirol) Southern Germany - Baden Würtenberg

European Schoolnet Feedback Some have difficulty to use RDF Some don’t want to implement a database yet Some don’t want to maintain a thesaurus or any other vocabulary Some don’t want to use PERL Some don’t want to be dealing with NNTP posts and reads Some start from scratch but don’t want to install a native repository on top of GIST Some prefer not to use XML Some want to avoid developing Repository Management Some would like to own a collection of ETBMES but prefer to avoid to develop anything

European Schoolnet ETB Scenarios Own repository? Ready to use XML? YES Ready to use RDF & Perl? YES Repository Integration Toolkit ETB Light form based NOYES Metadata Toolkit + RIT ETB Light simple XML based NO YES Ready to install perl modules? NO Ready to install a Linux machine? Native Repository Virtual Native Repository NO YES Contact:

European Schoolnet Collections at the EUN EUN ETB posted Collection

European Schoolnet Collection level descriptors Title Subject Description Publisher Collection Type URL Audience Metadata Language Resource Language Logotype Quality Selection Country

European Schoolnet In Development PCs in the school Administration PC’s in the Classroom CD-ROM Networking ResourcesCollaboration Networked School Administration Repositories Learning Resources Brokerage SystemsLearning Objects LMS LCMS VLE Polyhierarchy of Brokerage Systems Palm, Tablet PC Mobile Intelligent Learning Personalised VLEs