The PALO Language A Cognitive Approach of Educational

The PALO Language: A Cognitive Approach of Educational Modelling Languages CEN/ISSS EML PT Meeting Miguel Rodríguez Artacho EML PT Technical Editor Torino October 2, 2001 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) Dept. Languages and Computer Systems http: //www. lsi. uned. es

Contents Definition and Use of an EML n Components of Instructional Systems in the PALO Language n Description levels n Examples n Authoring Process with PALO n Experiences n

What is an ELM An EML is a declarative description of: Educational content n Components n Activities n Scheduling n Organized in courses or Units of Study

Inmmediate benefits of an EML n A technological independence from the final delivery format: CD-ROM, PDF, E-BOOK, Interactive WEB SITE. . . Higher level of abstraction in the authoring process. n Maintainability & Reusability. n

How: The description of an Instructional system n n n Structure Domain knowledge Activities & tools Model of use Instructional Model Generic EML’s XML file Technology independent description

Why do we need this? + + + = Interoperability Interchangeability Maintainability Reusability STANDARDS

Structure Defines the organization of the learning material, resources and activities. Ex. “Course”, “Module”, “Part”, “Subpart”, . . . Depending on the delivery format, this can describe the “table of contents” (printed delivery format), the navigational model (HTML delivery format), etc.

Domain Knowledge The content matter of the learning scenario, Course or Unit of Study Different approaches (REUSABILITY and GRANULARITY) n n n Local Resources (labelled with metadata) • Ex. IMS Content Packaging Distributed resources (id. ) • Ex. ARIADNE KPS Knowledge representation based on an ontology • Cognitive approach used in PALO Language

Activities and tools Describe the work with the learning material and the interaction of the communities in the Instructional System Classification of activities depend on the pedagogical approach of the learning scenario n Collaborative / Individual n Interactivity n Management of tools

Individual/Cooperative paradigm Description of the of comunities, and roles of the participants in a given activity n n Explicit description of the communities involved in an activity Based in the description of Activity Theory (Nardi, 96)

Instructional Model Some features of the EML could allow the creation of learning scenarios with a given pedagogical or instructional model n n Pedagogical model is implicit in the DTD (Instructional templates) Explicit elements of the EML (tags) can define scenarios based in a given instructional theories (constructivist elements in PALO)

EML vs. PALO EML PALO Learning Model Individual/Co operative Individual Structure Unit of Study Courses Domain Model Knowledge Object Domain Ontologies Explicit Embedded Instructional Templates Theories of instruction

Authoring Process <!DOCTYPE cea system " [] > <cea nombre=“cea. dtd” con Linux" dir="ricli 9900" <gestion> <bdobjetos tipo <bdtareas tipo=" Selection of a DTD According to the Pedagogical model Problema Design of the Domain Model Es Solución bdtareas> Creation of the PALO description <metainformacion tipo="dc" cod="rfc 2731"> <contenido> <ambito>UNED</ambito>. . . Ejercita Concepto Instance of the Domain Model

Labels in PALO DESIGN LEVEL LABELS ATTRIBUTES Management Level Gestión (management) Bdobjetos (objectsdb) Bdtareas (taskdb) Metainformación (Metadata) Tipo (type) Lugar (host) Sgbd (dbms) Scheduling Level Fecha (date) Structure Level directorio (directory) apartado (part) modulo (module) subapartado (subpart) tema (part) subtema (subpart) Sección (secction) Nombre (name) Etiqueta (label) Traza (trace) Task Level Tarea (task) Calificador (calificator) Nombre (name) tipo (type) Puntuable (assesable) peso (weight) traza (trace) Content Level Talcual (as-is) Lista (list) Elemento (element) Relación (relation) Glosario (glossary) tipo (type) sujeto (antecedent) dominio (domain) faq Nombre (name) Categoría (category)

Cognitive Design Process Conceptualisation Phase Creation of a generic domain to describe content matter = ONTOLOGY Instantiation Phase Creation of one or more instances for a particular domain matter

An example: Models and Meta-Models Problem Involve Is Solution Prob 001 Prob 002 Prob 003 Prob 004 Solution Is Solution Sol 023 Model Concept Involve Con 031 Instance

PALO production cycle PALO Template (DTD) PALO File (SGML) PARSER Domain Knowledge Base

Editing Process Student Scenario PALO Document PALO Compiler Domain Model Tutor Scenario

Information models Management Use Work (Dymanic) Domain Knowledge Model (Static)

History n n Started in 1997 in the framework of a CICYT project (Spanish Ministery of Education) Development 1997 -2000 1998 PALO v 1. 0 n 1999 PALO v 2. 0 n Actually PALO v 3. 7 New releases include new tags or new instructional templates (DTD’s) n

Actual uses of PALO n Open Courses n n n 4 annual courses (Wap technology, Linux Administration, Internet Technologies, web DB -backed sites) More than 650 students Regular matters n Support to regular students with • Didactic Guide • Programming practise environment • Evaluation environment

Future developments n n n Migration from SGML to XML New parser tools in java “New” ideas: n n n Resource and tool (Not implicit in the TASK definition) Cooperative activities Definition of communities and roles that perform an activity Concept of “active Document” leaves the door open for Adaptability Framework: Di. Vi. LAB project Software freely available with GPL Content Definition language for Tec-Infor platform (http: //www. uned. es/iued)

Some references. . . n n n PALO Web site: http: //sensei. lsi. uned. es/palo Di. Vi. LAB Project: http: //www. divilab. org UNED Dept. Languages and Computer Systems: http: //www. lsi. uned. es Thanks!