Briefing Paper: 21 Century Content
This paper provides an outline of key technical challenges for utilising new ways of technology-enabled collaboration and learning in Australian schools. Emerging web 2.0 functionality and tools including wikis, blogs and other collaborative online environments offer many potential benefits for learners, however there remain a number of serious challenges that require investigation. This paper focuses on the technical challenges facing Australian schools in moving to more technology-enabled teaching and learning practices. These challenges should also be considered within a wider context of challenges for school education including a national curriculum and professional development for teachers.
© Copyright 2009 University of Southern Queensland
(63 KB)Business drivers
- There is growing pressure for schools to offer engaging and collaborative technology-supported learning
- Web 2.0 tools offer many potential benefits to learners by introducing new ways of collaborating and communicating. However, such possibilities are not being fully realised in schools partly due to safety and security concerns
Interoperability challenges
The Australian schools sector faces a number of technical interoperability challenges for utilising emerging technologies and tools in education:
- Integration of functionality that enables more engagement, collaboration and communication with teaching and learning content;
- Ability to use and re-use e-learning content incorporating Web 2.0 functionality across the Australian schools sector nationally;
- Identifying safeguards and technical solutions for controlling the use of Web 2.0 technologies.
Scenarios
The following scenarios are set in the future. They highlight the potential benefits that could be realised through better integration of technology across the schools sector to facilitate and embed technology in education.
Scenario 1: Incorporating Web 2.0 tools in teaching and learning practice
Adrian is a year 11 history teacher in Tasmania. He is preparing a group project for his students where they will study the history of Federation in Australia 1. Specifically, he is planning to divide his class into groups and ask each group to imagine they have been given the task of dividing the country into new political regions. He will be marking students on their collaboration and teamwork as well as the final outputs from each group. To facilitate this, Adrian is planning to set up a wiki for each group of students to collaboratively develop a report. Students gathering information on the internet will also be expected to use a social bookmarking tool so they can share and tag resources together.
Once he has mapped out the learning design, Adrian consults the wiki guidelines that his school provides for all teachers. The school also has access to wiki software that has been set up specifically for use by Australian school students. This allows collaboration between students within a particular school, or with students in other schools. Adrian sets up the wiki environment via the school Learning Management System (LMS), which manages and controls access to the wiki. He is now ready to get his students started on their group work. The wiki will enable him to see what each student has contributed to the final assessment piece.
Scenario 2: Integrating Web 2.0 capabilities into reusable digital content
Lien is an instructional designer who is working with Kim, a web developer, to develop some e-learning content for primary school (grade 4 and 5) students on the lifecycle of butterflies2. Lien determines that collaboration is a key aspect of the learning design. She also plans to incorporate the use of mobile devices that students can use to gather evidence (such as photographs) of butterflies and their habitats. The students will then tag their photographic evidence with information about the location, time and context of the image and will share it with classmates.
Lien explicitly maps out the learning design for this exercise and provides generic information about the types of technologies a teacher may use to support the learning design. However, the lesson is designed to be generic enough to be used in any typical school context and is not dependent on specific hardware or software requirements.
Interoperability and technical analysis
Each of the scenarios described above has consequences for the technical systems and underlying standards that are required to support them. There are a number of technical areas that require research and collaboration.
Systems interoperability
Software systems used in schools and jurisdictions should be capable of supporting and running e-learning content that is developed both locally in a different jurisdiction, nationally or beyond. Such content should include informative and engaging e-learning content, and also collaborative web 2.0 enabled functionality. Collaborative functionality needs to be designed and implemented so that it facilitates appropriate interactions and collaboration for teaching and learning. However, this requires software systems that are able to run content as well as interpret and enforce policies on access and use.
Content interoperability
There is growing demand for content that is engaging, dynamic and enables and supports collaboration. Currently, such content is specialised, expensive to develop and may have safety/security issues by allowing unauthorised access to student virtual collaborative spaces. The development of appropriate content for enabling the use of technology in education can be better facilitated through a collaborative approach to technical requirements at a national level. Further work is required to identify more effective and efficient ways of facilitating emerging functionality into e-learning content while facilitating its safe use. Developers of e-learning content should be able to embed rules around use and functionality, which can then be read and executed by software systems.
Relevant standards and specifications
There are a number of relevant standards for developing, packaging and describing interoperable e-learning content:
Developing
- The Learning Federation Content Specifications
A set of specifications for developing content maintained by The Learning Federation.
http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/for_jurisdictions/content_development_process/learning_objects/specifications.html
Packaging
- IMS common cartridge specification
A technical specification which facilitates the use of interactive functionality and tools with e-learning content.
http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/ - SCORM
A widely used specification for developing e-learning content.
http://www.adlnet.org - IMS Content Packaging
A specification used for packaging e-learning content so that it can be moved, imported, exported, etc. across systems.
http://www.imsglobal.org/content/packaging/
Describing
- ANZ-LOM (Australia/New Zealand Learning Object Metadata)
Descriptive information for e-learning content developed for the schools sector by The Learning Federation called ANZ-LOM Metadata Application Profile.
http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/verve/_resources/ANZ-LOM.pdf
The Technical Standards for Digital Education project is funded by the Australian Government's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).
