[WikiEducator] Re: Keep the architecture open for bells and whistles
I am fascinated by the whole concept of content checking!!! It could be very useful - I can see. Savithri 2009/4/12 Wayne Mackintosh wmackint...@col.org Hi Scott, Jim, Maria et al. I promised to ping David Wiley about the status on the Mediawiki readability project. David (now at BYU) refered me to Joel Duffin @ Utah state who has provided us with an update on their work (copied below with Joel's permission). Take look -- I'm pretty impressed with what the team have got right so far --- its still very beta, but you'll get a good idea of its potential. In my view this kind of technology will take OER reuse to a new level of productivity --- It would be great to have a solid funding proposal to work with so that we can turn this vision into reality. Cheers Wayne *Update from Joel* You can see where we made it to at http://www.send2wiki.com just click on the Analyze readability link in the toolbox on the left when looking at an article. That will take you to a page that shows the reading level of the page. If you click on one of the boxes next to Target grade, it will highlight terms that are below that grade level. For example, see: http://www.send2wiki.com/readability.php?page_id=370 There are various strategies to reducing the reading level of an article including word replacement, reducing sentence length, and summarizing. In the work I did we were only able to get a start on the first strategy. Here is a good article summarizing the issues and research in this area: Producing and Transforming Text in the Readability Principles article (pp. 37-41 http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/019b/80/1b/bf/46.pdf) On Sat, 2009-04-11 at 09:29 +1200, Wayne Mackintosh wrote: Hi Scott, Jim, Maria et al. The notion of a content checker to assist with recontextualisation of OER for reuse or as a support guide for authoring new materials is a great concept! About a year ago David Wiley shared with me some ideas and use cases that would analyse the readability of a wiki-based OER against the reading age of the intended audience. (I include copies of the use cases below.) I'll ping David and find out whether any of the code development got off the ground. Jim -- I think you're right - At the concept level --- content at the primary and secondary schools levels are reasonably portable -- particularly in the natural and physical sciences. At the same time, educational materials which incorporate / embed examples, learning activities and formative assessments are less portable in different contexts (The Reusability paradox -- the more pedagogy included in the OER, the more effective it is likely to be in supporting learning, but less reusable in different educational contexts.) On approach to overcome this challenge is to identify educational elements as discrete objects within the content which provides greater flexibility for reuse, for example exporting content without the activities. As we speak, I'm working on a funding proposal to improve WikiEducator's capabilities in addressing the reusability paradox. We practice open philanthropy -- and encourage the development of funding proposals as free content :-) You can take a peek at the current proposal as its been drafted over here which includes a short summary of the reusability paradox : http://tinyurl.com/c3kwff Open question --- would any of you be interested in starting a draft funding proposal building on the content checker concepts? I think that its both a smart and doable project. With the right level of funding we can make it happen. At least -- I think we should capture these ideas -- albeit in the form of draft use cases. If you're interested, you can link your page from the Funding proposal node: http://www.wikieducator.org/Funding_proposals Cheers Wayne *David's use cases* *Example 1* Mr. Squire, a 6th grade elementary teacher has heard about Wikipedia and would like to use an article on Motzart for his students. However, after looking at the length of the article, and noticing that many of the words are beyond the understanding of a 6th grader, he decides the article is of no use to his class. Before he exits the page he notices a button that says 'simpler versions'. Curious, he clicks on the button and sees the message a simpler version for this page does not yet exist, would you like to create one? There are three radial buttons; a 12th grade version, a 6th grade version, and a 3rd grade version. Mr. Squire chooses the 6th grade version and clicks submit. Behind the scenes an exact duplicate of the Wikipedia article is created and posted to a new page. Using a dictionary developed by the National Science Digital Library, words that an average 6th grader does not understand are highlighted. In addition, sentences that are very long are highlighted since longer sentences can be overly complex to a
[WikiEducator] Re: Keep the architecture open for bells and whistles
Content in most subject areas in primary and secondary school is fixed. How it is developed is not. Your “subjective and contested” is referring to the “how”, and not the “what”. Textbooks (or regional syllabus where textbooks are not available) define the content that is to be taught. If we examine those sources by given age levels (grade levels), we will find more consistencies in what content is present than inconsistencies. But how the content is developed by given age levels (grade levels) varies widely. A “content checker” captures the “what and how” to provide a utility that acts like a “spell checker”. The “content checker” is activated when a user directly (or indirectly as the system becomes more sophisticated) tells it the language being used, subject area and learners age (or age range). For example, a developer typing in English is working on a mathematics lesson for a seven year old. This information will activate the checker. The developer is typing away and puts the words “natural number” in the lesson. Like a “spell checker” the “content checker” will highlight the words “natural number”. The developer using their mouse will right click on the highlighted words, and a menu will open. The “content checker” will caution the developer that this term is not normally part of the vocabulary of a 7 year old mathematics learner. The checker may suggest the words “whole number” or “counting number” maybe more appropriate for this age level. The checker will also provide links to places like WE’s mathematics glossary and links to other prepared lessons which may help the developer understand why the term “natural number” is not used. A “content checker” need not be activated for a negative reason, but just to provide useful links and information. I am not aware of any publicly available system, because “content checkers” require the accumulation of a lot of information on a lot of different publishers’ works. Sharing collected information is not profitable, so most of these systems stay in-house. The type of collected information is like that on my website www.k-12math.info . Jim Kelly http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Jkelly952 On Apr 8, 3:22 pm, Maria Droujkova droujk...@gmail.com wrote: Jim, Can you make a few examples of the manual content checkers being developed? Isn't age appropriateness very subjective and contested? On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 12:16 PM, jkelly952 jkelly...@sbcglobal.net wrote: Manual “content checkers” exist and are being developed, it is only a matter of time when the people who brought us the “spell checker” will have the enlightening moment and create “content checkers”. Jim Kelly http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Jkelly952 -- Cheers, MariaD Make math your own, to make your own math. http://www.naturalmath.comsocial math sitehttp://www.phenixsolutions.comempowering our innovations --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Keep the architecture open for bells and whistles
Thank you very much for the reply. This content checker is a fascinating idea that seems doable, and your site is a great resource. On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 1:14 PM, jkelly952 jkelly...@sbcglobal.net wrote: Content in most subject areas in primary and secondary school is fixed. How it is developed is not. Your “subjective and contested” is referring to the “how”, and not the “what”. Not all schools and homeschools use the same fixed content, though. To use American examples only, Key Curriculum materials, Hawaii Measure Up, the Life of Fred series, A Beka series, or Saxon Math are pretty different from one another not only in how, but also in what. For a particular topic example, some curricula include sizable amounts of early algebra and others do not have any whatsoever. If we look at other countries, well, the differences are even larger. Moreover, with distance and virtual learning becoming more available, there is more and more variety and customization in scope and sequence. How can a content checker support this variety? A “content checker” captures the “what and how” to provide a utility that acts like a “spell checker”. The “content checker” is activated when a user directly (or indirectly as the system becomes more sophisticated) tells it the language being used, subject area and learners age (or age range). For example, a developer typing in English is working on a mathematics lesson for a seven year old. This information will activate the checker. The developer is typing away and puts the words “natural number” in the lesson. Like a “spell checker” the “content checker” will highlight the words “natural number”. The developer using their mouse will right click on the highlighted words, and a menu will open. The “content checker” will caution the developer that this term is not normally part of the vocabulary of a 7 year old mathematics learner. The checker may suggest the words “whole number” or “counting number” maybe more appropriate for this age level. The checker will also provide links to places like WE’s mathematics glossary and links to other prepared lessons which may help the developer understand why the term “natural number” is not used. A “content checker” need not be activated for a negative reason, but just to provide useful links and information. I am not aware of any publicly available system, because “content checkers” require the accumulation of a lot of information on a lot of different publishers’ works. Sharing collected information is not profitable, so most of these systems stay in-house. The type of collected information is like that on my website www.k-12math.info . Jim Kelly http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Jkelly952 --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Keep the architecture open for bells and whistles
Would it make sense then to create a content checker which is more focused on consistency within a set of materials, instead of between different sets? For example, if I were to start up a set of resources on teaching programming in WikiEducator, I would set up a content checker to look just at the content within the pages that I'm working on. It would tell me when I use terms that I haven't introduced properly yet. It could also be set up to give feedback based on many sets of material, so it would tell me when I use a term I haven't introduced and also inform me that most educational materials (in Canada, or wherever) targeted at that level don't use that term. Think of it as less of a checker, and more of a helpful reference. Scott On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Maria Droujkova droujk...@gmail.comwrote: Thank you very much for the reply. This content checker is a fascinating idea that seems doable, and your site is a great resource. On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 1:14 PM, jkelly952 jkelly...@sbcglobal.net wrote: Content in most subject areas in primary and secondary school is fixed. How it is developed is not. Your “subjective and contested” is referring to the “how”, and not the “what”. Not all schools and homeschools use the same fixed content, though. To use American examples only, Key Curriculum materials, Hawaii Measure Up, the Life of Fred series, A Beka series, or Saxon Math are pretty different from one another not only in how, but also in what. For a particular topic example, some curricula include sizable amounts of early algebra and others do not have any whatsoever. If we look at other countries, well, the differences are even larger. Moreover, with distance and virtual learning becoming more available, there is more and more variety and customization in scope and sequence. How can a content checker support this variety? A “content checker” captures the “what and how” to provide a utility that acts like a “spell checker”. The “content checker” is activated when a user directly (or indirectly as the system becomes more sophisticated) tells it the language being used, subject area and learners age (or age range). For example, a developer typing in English is working on a mathematics lesson for a seven year old. This information will activate the checker. The developer is typing away and puts the words “natural number” in the lesson. Like a “spell checker” the “content checker” will highlight the words “natural number”. The developer using their mouse will right click on the highlighted words, and a menu will open. The “content checker” will caution the developer that this term is not normally part of the vocabulary of a 7 year old mathematics learner. The checker may suggest the words “whole number” or “counting number” maybe more appropriate for this age level. The checker will also provide links to places like WE’s mathematics glossary and links to other prepared lessons which may help the developer understand why the term “natural number” is not used. A “content checker” need not be activated for a negative reason, but just to provide useful links and information. I am not aware of any publicly available system, because “content checkers” require the accumulation of a lot of information on a lot of different publishers’ works. Sharing collected information is not profitable, so most of these systems stay in-house. The type of collected information is like that on my website www.k-12math.info . Jim Kelly http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Jkelly952 --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Keep the architecture open for bells and whistles
Jim, Can you make a few examples of the manual content checkers being developed? Isn't age appropriateness very subjective and contested? On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 12:16 PM, jkelly952 jkelly...@sbcglobal.net wrote: Manual “content checkers” exist and are being developed, it is only a matter of time when the people who brought us the “spell checker” will have the enlightening moment and create “content checkers”. Jim Kelly http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Jkelly952 -- Cheers, MariaD Make math your own, to make your own math. http://www.naturalmath.com social math site http://www.phenixsolutions.com empowering our innovations --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
