Technical Standards for Digital Education
A program of work to support the Digital Education Revolution
Background
The Digital Education Revolution (DER) aims to contribute sustainable and meaningful change to teaching and learning in Australian schools that will prepare students for further education, training and to live and work in a digital world.
The Technical Standards for Digital Education project is a program of work to support the DER. It is funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and guided by advice from DEEWR and advisory groups set up under the auspices of Australian Information and Communications Technology in Education Committee (AICTEC) to support the DER. The project team welcomes further feedback from the schools sector.
Purpose of the work
The Technical Standards for Digital Education project aims to enhance information technology system support for the range of teaching and learning possible in the digital world. The project aims to improve the ability of information technology systems in the schools sector to:
- operate: support new aspects of teaching, learning and administration made possible in the digital world
- interoperate: work together seamlessly to support teaching, learning and administration
Period
January 2009 to June 2010
Description of the work
Technical standards work is critical to efficient operation and interoperation of systems. Technical standards aim to document community agreements about how systems work and communicate.
The project will work with the Australian school education community to create technical standards relevant to the Australian schools digital environment. The project will also provide mechanisms for the Australian school education community to influence the development of global technical standards.
The detailed standards work is split into seven themed activities:
| Themed Activities | Resources | |
| 21st Century Curriculum Content Support schools sector use of "safe" web 2.0 content |
Activity Plans | Briefing Paper |
| Engage with W3C Accessibility Guidelines Build capability and assist the schools sector to understand the potential impact, challenges and opportunities the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) could present for the Australian schools sector |
Activity Plans | Briefing Paper |
| Curriculum description Support schools sector uses of machine readable curriculum descriptions |
Activity Plans | Briefing Paper |
| Lesson Plans Support schools sector sharing of lesson plans |
Activity Plans | Briefing Paper |
| Learning Content Discovery and Exchange Support discovery and exchange of learning content between school sector systems |
Activity Plans | Briefing Paper |
| e-Portfolios technology Articulate key technical interoperability challenges for e-portfolios in the Australian schools sector and propose future work on e-Portfolio interoperability in the schools sector |
Activity Plans | Briefing Paper |
| Integrated Learning Environments and 21st Century Learning Support the SIF-AU project and articulate web 2.0 and service oriented approaches to integrating learning environments |
Activity Plans | Briefing Paper |
Themed activities are supported by a focus group of experts from the schools sector and beyond. The focus groups provide advice on the requirements of the schools sector in each themed activity. Inclusion of key non-schools sector projects in the focus groups allows linkages to related work in other education sectors. The focus groups are a key mechanism for the Australian school education community to influence the development of global technical standards.
A component of the themed activities involves participation in working groups in international standards organizations. The project manages DEEWR's membership of key international standards organizations. The key standards memberships managed are:
- IMS Global Learning Consortium
- National Information Standards Organisation (NISO)
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)
Typical membership management activities include:
- Managing the relationship with the standards body
- Reviewing and voting on specifications and proposals for work
- Managing Intellectual property obligations
- Testing and leading development of standards matching the themed activities.
The project also includes a general standards capability providing
- Dissemination of regular updates on the work of standards bodies and other standards intelligence of relevance to the schools sector
- General standards and interoperability advice to the schools sector on topics beyond the themed activities
Outputs
| Themed Activities | Outputs |
| 21st Century Curriculum Content | * Final Report: 21st Century Curriculum Content * Final Report: Demonstrator Activity |
| Engage with W3C Accessibility Guidelines | * Final Report: Web accessibility in Australian schools |
| Curriculum description | * Final Report: Curriculum Description |
| Lesson Plans | * Final Report: Lesson Plans |
| Learning Content Discovery and Exchange | * Final Report: Learning Content Discovery & Exchange |
| e-Portfolios technology | * Final Report: Technical challenges to using e-portfolios |
| Integrated Learning Environments and 21st Century Learning |
* Final Report: Integrated Learning Environments and 21st Century Learning * Guidelines for Web2.0 Integration In the Classroom * IMS QTI Trial Report |
The following paper reflects on the impact that Standards work, over a number of years, has had on the quality of Australian education:
Contact
For further information contact the project team.
