Metadata is a set of data that describes

Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. n Metadata is necessary for enabling the storing, retrieval, reuse, repurposing etc. of objects. n When an object is intended for use by many users, there is a need for agreement regarding the metadata. (That’s where standards might come in(… n

מסגרות תיאורטיות Teaching programming n Mindtools n Metadata and Ontologies n User defined ontologies, Collaborative Tagging and Communities of Practice n

Some characteristics of the course n n The course "Introduction to Expert Systems" is an elective course for students in the Computer Science and Information Systems in Emek Yezreel College, Israel. The course is taken mainly by third year students. Students are introduced to issues of knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation and expert systems design along with actual implementation in CLIPS, which is an expert system shell. This rule-based system with a declarative programming paradigm is very different from programming paradigms that the students are familiar with.

Some characteristics of the course (cont(. n n n The course includes a hands-on laboratory and students are presented with many (!) programming examples. Examples play an important role in teaching programming and the use of a library of annotated examples is highly advocated by computer science educators. Students find themselves with a multitude of files of potentially useful code examples, which they have difficulties to retrieve when needed. This is an example of a case where students feel the need for a knowledge management tool.

The unique learning activity – Metadata creation (for the code examples(

Potential advantages of learning activities based on metadata creation n For a learner: n For a community of learners: – A feel of “ownership” – Better chance of objects being revisited/reinterpreted or reused/repurposed. – Deeper understanding through explicit refinement of concepts and relations of the subject-matter. – Flexible (growing understanding, change of perspective) – An external representation of learning that supports awareness of the learning process. – Provide an anchor for meaningful discussions – The negotiation of meaning enable the development of a community of practice.

Potential advantages of learning activities based on metadata creation (cont. ) n For a human tutor or a tutoring (Elearning) system: – Enables finer assessment and diagnosis of the learning process. – Enables finer adaptation. – Provides an anchor for various tutoring possibilities – Enables more support for collaborative learning.

Study of the learning process as reflected in the students’ gradual process of metadata definition.

The study n Goal - An investigation that focuses on: – Metadata definition as a gradual process: n Expanding and structuring the tags’ set (metadata scheme) n Refining the vocabulary for the tags – The role of collaboration (throughout the process) n Tools: – Individual written assignments/homework of a metadata scheme with demonstration of retrieval use. Students were expected to use CLIPS formalism of a deftemplate with slots and their characteristics (such as possible values, range, default), a list of facts (for code examples) and rules for desired retrievals. – Individual written reflection reports: explanations about the choices and the respective considerations that were employed and how the scheme captures similarities and differences between specific given programs. – Observations of teams during laboratory/class assignments: Team discussion for elaboration and modification of suggested metadata schemes.

(defrule area (side ? s ? x) => (printout t "The area of the square " ? s " is " (* ? x) crlf)) (deffacts data (side A 6)(side B 2)(side C 10)) ________________ Use of a user defined deffunction square function / use of the (? a) (* ? a)) “deffunction” construct (defrule area (side ? s ? x) => (printout t "The area of the square " ? s " is " (square ? x) crlf)) (deffacts data (side A 6)(side B 2)(side C 10)) _____________ (deffunction square Getting input from the user / use of the “read” function. (? a)(* ? a)) Output that adds a fact. (defrule length (initial-fact) => (printout t "What is the side length? " crlf) (assert (side (read)))) (defrule area (side ? x) => (printout t "The area of the square is " (square ? x) crlf))

Findings n n The collaborative context encourages more thinking, reflection etc. , and it also enables better inspection into the learning processes. A shift from objective to subjective metadata: from issues like date and lesson number towards issues like the program topic and the CLIPS constructs that are involved; and then towards more subjective characteristics such as expected contexts of use, comparisons with other programs, associations etc. A shift towards more consideration of retrieval during tags' definition instead of just the storage. The activities of metadata creation brought students to revisit, rethink and reinterpret the various code examples and the various relations between them.

Findings (cont(. n n n The iterative processes of metadata modification encouraged and supported reflection activities regarding programming related concepts, constructs, examples etc. ; and the way they can be further employed. Critical events of learning were observed; especially when discussing redundancy of slots and when discussing slot versus value representations (abstraction activities) Students came to appreciate the way the collaboration influenced the on-going refinement of concepts and also how they improved their collaboration skills.

/ מסגרות תיאורטיות מטרות הפעילות Teaching programming n Mindtools n Metadata and Ontologies n User defined ontologies, Collaborative Tagging and Communities of Practice n