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| TECHNICAL STANDARDS FOR THE DIGITAL EDUCATION REVOLUTION NEWSLETTER |
| July 2009: Issue 1 |
ITinteroperability is a newsletter aimed at informing you about technical, standards and interoperability projects pertinent to education in Australia. It includes news items on local interoperability projects as well as summarising activity in international standards bodies relevant to education in Australia.
New editions of ITinteroperability are published once every two months.
If you wish to subscribe to this newsletter, please send a blank, plain text email to: join-itint@edna.edu.au
(92 KB)Australian News
SIF Australian Pilot Program Established
Systems Interoperability Framework Australia has announced a pilot program to test accessing and managing information across the many software packages now used in schools and delivering learning using the Systems Interoperability Framework (SIF). The program is testing the Australian version of the SIF and developing an online Knowledge Base to assist sharing and collaboration. Additionally a load and robustness test of SIF infrastructure will be undertaken along with an analysis of the Australian Data Model. More information on the pilot program is available from the SIF-AU website (doc format).
Student Induction to e-Learning (SIeL)
A comprehensive report based on Australian contribution to the IMS Student Induction to e-Learning (SIeL) project is now available. The SIeL project investigates a methodology for student introduction (i.e. Setting Expectations, Preparation, and Induction) to the e-learning environment.
A major output from SIeL will be a peer reviewed framework of Best Practice Areas for introducing first year students to online learning environments. Unsurprisingly, investigations to date have found that a focus on providing and developing technology is not enough to foster best practices in online education. E-learning environments need to be underpinned by the same principles of effective pedagogy and curriculum design as any other learning environment.
Learner Identity Management Framework (LIMF)
Australian Information and Communications Technology in Education Committee (AICTEC) work on Learner Identity Management Framework (LIMF) continued in the latter part of 2008 with specific work concentrating on an investigation into conversion of the current manual SDTN (Student Data Transfer Note) system into an electronic one. More than 180,000 students transfer between systems/jurisdictions each year and the current manual system of transferring information to assist in a smooth learning transition is not well utilised. The results of this investigation delivered a comprehensive report (March 2009) that is currently being considered by the National Interoperability and Digital Architecture Advisory Group (NIDAAG).
ANDS Persistent Identifiers
The Australian National Data Service has launched its Identify My Data service, allowing researchers and research organisations to create and maintain persistent identifiers for their data through a national identifier infrastructure. A national identifier infrastructure is a need keenly felt in the e-learning sector, and has been identified as a Digital Education Revolution goal; so this initiative points a way forward to developments in the education sector as well.
The USQ-Link Affiliates team has been contributing documentation and business analysis to the ANDS work, building on the work of the PILIN project. Documentation on persistent identifiers in research is already available, at Awareness level and Working level; Expert level documentation is forthcoming.
Themes for the Technical Standards - Digital Education Revolution (DER) project
The USQ-Link Affiliates team recently finalised a work plan of activities to provide standards support to the Digital Education Revolution. It focuses on the following themed activities:
- 21st Century Curriculum Content
- Engage with W3C Accessibility guidelines
- Curriculum Description incl. competencies
- Lesson Plans
- Learning Content Discovery and Exchange
- e-Portfolio Technologies
- Integrated Learning Environments and 21st Century Learning incl. SIF-AU
The work plan was developed in consultation with Australian school sector and the National Interoperability and Digital Architecture Advisory Group (NIDAAG). More details, including information on how to get involved in the themed activities, are available at the project website.
New technology trials to explore future e-standards for VET
Five new technology trials will help to establish guidelines and e-standards to support the development and use of emerging technologies in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector. Technologies under investigation include geo-tagging, cloud computing, mobile devices, and web 2.0. More information on the trials and the organisations running them is available from the Flex e-News newsletter.
IDEA10
It is anticipated that IDEA10, the next conference in the series of successful IDEA conferences, will be held in the first quarter in 2010 - an update will be sent out in the next newsletter and advertised on the Link Affiliates website.
News from Standards Bodies
IMS Global Learning Consortium
creating standards for the development and adoption of technology-enhanced learning
- The recently released SOA paper - Adoption of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for Enterprise Systems in Education: Recommended Practices - is still under public review.
- Highlights from the July 2009 IMS quarterly meeting in Montreal included workshops to move forward work on LODE (Learning Object Discovery and Exchange), Common Cartridge v.1.1, Learning Tool Interoperability v.2.0, and the integration of Curriculum Objectives and Learning Plans into Common Cartridge.
More information can be found through the IMS Public Dispatch (April /May) and IMS news Archive.
MASIE (Learning Lab & ThinkTank)
... focused on how organizations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce
- Learning Budgets & Resources Barometer: a quick participatory survey.
- How-To Videos Abound!: a look at the growth of short 3 minute instructional videos.
- MASIE Learning CONSORTIUM members have access to Learning Perspectives - Summer 2009 video. Although only accessible by members this video references two interesting and worthwhile public reports that were published earlier on this year:
- The MASIE Center (USA) has also just released the Learning Leaders Fieldbook (June 09). This is a comprehensive and insightful document that can be downloaded for free.
More information can be found through the recent MASIE news threads.
NISO (National Information Standards Organisation)
information industry standards ... where communities are able to collaborate on mutually accepted standards
- NISO's August webinar will be on the topic of E-Books: A Rapidly Evolving Marketplace. While e-books have been slow to garner wide adoption, their use is growing in U.S. higher eduction. This webinar will explore several key aspects of the e-book community: sales and licensing models for libraries, and developments with e-book file formats.
More information can be found at Newsline 2009 Archive.
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)
... driving the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society
- OASIS has approved new standards in Web Services - enabling secure Web service messaging, discovery, description, and eventing on resource-constrained endpoints:
- OASIS has approved new standards in digital identity specifically IMI which allows users to manage their digital identities as "Information Cards" for accessing online services:
- OASIS are promoting the Identity Management 2009: Transparent Government - Risk, Rewards and Repercussions conference to be held on 29-30 September in Maryland, USA. Identity management is a global hot topic and attention to standards and interoperability a driving force.
More information can be found at Oasis (News - July 2009).
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
... developing interoperable technologies
- W3C has published advice on the relationship between the Mobile Web (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility (WCAG).
- W3C has announced it will stop work on XHTML 2 by the end of 2009, instead refocusing it's web mark-up work on HTML 5.
More information can be found at W3C Home Page News Archive and the W3C weekly public Newsletter.
About ITinteroperability
This newsletter is an output of the Technical Standards and Specifications: Development and Deployment for the Digital Education Revolution (DER) Project - funded by the Australian Government's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).
The Link Affiliates team who contribute to the newsletter are part of the Australian Digital Futures Institute (ADFI) at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). To keep up to date with Link Affiliates activities go to:
Please send feedback and suggestions for news items to: linkaffiliates@usq.edu.au
Unless specifically indicated, the views expressed in this newsletter are the personal opinions of the contributors and may not represent the opinion of the University of Southern Queensland or any associated projects or funding bodies - please refer to the Policies/Disclaimers page.
