TuLiP- A Teacher’s Lesson Planning Tool

Design of a tool for the rapid development of educational materials

and instructional environments.R. Gabrielle ReedFall, 2002

Topics

Motivation E-commerce use of Web Technologies vs.

E-learning Teacher’s Challenges Meeting the Challenge – A design for

TuLiP- A Teacher’s Lesson Planning tool A Proposed XML based language for

Learning Environment and Planning (LEAP) TuLiP Tool Components and Benefits

Motivation

In “e-learning: Putting a World Class Education at the Fingertips of All Students”, research in engineering and technology is mandated to provide tools for teachers to meet the “National Technology Goals”– “All students will have technology and information

literacy skills.– Research and evaluation will improve the next generation

of technology applications for teaching and learning.– Digital content and networked applications will transform

teaching and learning." (US DEd, 2000)

E-commerce vs. E-learning

The use of Extensible Markup Language (XML), Web services and architectures has fueled recent changes in e-commerce.

Educational uses lag behind applications for e-commerce.

Tools can be developed that capitalize on advances in e-commerce, in particularly Internet Protocol (IP) Technologies.

Teacher’s Challenges

Recent Laws Impacting Workload Barriers to the use Technology

Increased Workload Due to Recent Laws and Mandates: Integrating technology in the classroom Providing accessible information to parents

of disadvantaged individuals Using scientifically based teaching

techniques Accommodating disabilities and student

diversity

Teacher’s Dilemma A teacher may spend up to 20% of the time

planning Less than10% of teachers use technology

for planning (NCES 2001) Barriers to the use of technology, cited by

teachers (NASA 1998)– time to learn – complexity of the software– lack of training – lack of support

Current Solutions:

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF) provides grants for equipment.

National Science Foundation (NSF) provides grants for research in determining effective teaching methods and technologies

Preparing the Teachers of Tomorrow to use Technology (PT3) provides grants for teacher education programs

Meeting the Challenge - The TuLiP Solution: Lower the teacher’s technology hurdle

– Simplify the teacher-centered application– Deal with the day to day requirement of

planning and reporting.– “Write once, Automate Upon Request” with the

use of Cocoon2 Web Architecture

TuLiP - A Lesson Planning Tool Planning Process Comparison of Lesson Planners Structured Content using XML Time-Saving Criteria Teacher-Centered Tool Cocoon 2 Web Architecture Organizing Instructional Content Portal/Repository Design TuLiP Benefits

Planning Process

Prepare student activities, evaluations, homework, and the equivalents in alternative formats.

Assure instructional materials meet curriculum guidelines.

Provide copies to administration. Provide parents with supplemental

materials.

Comparison of Lesson PlannersDescription Examples Format Sharability Reusability

Journal/Calendar

ScholasticLesson

PlanningBook

Weekly/ Daily/Class PeriodPaper/ Bound

Limited due toeveryday use,may be copied

Used as a reference,but new datesrequire rewriting.

Planner Palm LessonPlanner

Palm/ PDA Files are not designedto be separate from

calendar

Digital copy oflessons can be

copied to next yearcalendar

CurriculumGuides and

Lesson Plans

Officeproductionsoftware

Applications inproprietary

formats

Must have sameapplications

Easier to updatefrom year to year

than paperWeb and

MultimediaDesignerSoftware

WebQueststudent

activities

Website – somehtml template

pages available

Format and navigationmust be acceptable for

reuse. Unloadable

Due to the scope ofsite, files are noteasily located orbundled. Need

HTML editing skills.Applications Java applets

and programsNo standardformat

Packaging and ease ofincorporationdetermines use.

Ease of usedeterminesreusability.

LearningObjects

e-learn(Microsoft),SCORM

No standardformat

Directories, catalogsor search engines areneeded.May need proprietaryapplications

Used as is.Size or format of theobject may notmatch need.

Sample Lesson Planning Page

Source: Ohio Schoolnet. Lesson Planning Template. http://tlcf.osn.state.oh.us/blueprint/index.html.

What If Teachers Could Use XML? Use an XML language that uses educational

terminology. Fill in the educational content. Use predefined XSL pages to display the

plan content in a variety of formats. Upload XML file to a designated location to

be used as the source of the XSL transformations.

How Will This Help?

The content in one Lesson Plan can be transformed automatically to provide:– Administrative curriculum reporting

requirements– Information for parents– Homework for children– Information in alternative modes for lesson or

review– Instructional plan– Instructional web environment

Gains Using Structured Content

Same information across Print, WWW, and CD-ROM.

Rapid development with templates and consistent instructional design

More learner options by profile with multiple paths or views for learners

Re-purposing and updating of content Portability and long-term use

Perceived Costs of Using Predefined Styles Relinquish the desire to “publish”. Customization is restricted to the defined

structure of the elements. This would be an ongoing process to cover the need.

The widely accepted styles options.

Time-Saving Criteria:

Scope and functionality needs to be limited Resources need to be readily accessible Directory should be available by subject and age group Portable Information can be bundled or "cut and

pasted" Internet technologies allow for sharing and distribution Graduated help provided (demonstrations, FAQ, a

community of users)

Teacher-Centered Tool

A simplified “minimal but sufficient” interface Web based form Teacher-centered design determined by user

studies and surveys – Set up of custom plan template

– Step by step completion

– Assortment of templates with examples and

– Adequate help including demonstrations of use

Cocoon 2 Web Architecture Web interface and rapid-development web-site platform

Cocoon servlet uses sitemap to determine action.

Uses extensible Markup Language(XML), eXtensible

scripting Language(XSL), eXtensible Server Pages (XSP),

JAVA Servlets

Versatile output to various devices based on processing.

Stores the valuable educational content from the

presentation.

Apply navigation, presentation to content at time of use.

Organizing Instructional Content

Review of current Markup Languages for Educational Content and Metadata

Use of Learning Objects(LO) A proposed markup language Learning

Environment and Planning (LEAP) for the planning and distribution of educational content

Templates for rapid development

Table 4.2: The Summary of a Review of Languages Used to Create Instructional Materials, their Features, Drawbacks and the ProposedSolution in LEAP.

Language Features Drawbacks LEAP SolutionLOM/SCORM

Metadata Lacking educational contentdescription

Include instruction and teacher-specific metadata.

HTML Static web pages;easy to use in theClassroom,independent ofplatform

Not easily reused;Incorporates navigation andlesson control

Output product in HTML, but store content, style and logic in XMLstructures.

JSP, ASP,PHP

Dynamicfunctionality with"types of pages"and variablecontent

One-pass process with logicand style together

Develop the logic and style to be applied independently.Produce "types of objects" consistent with the FLO attributes andfunctionality.

RIO/RLOLMMLTML

StandardizedContent

Includes element labels fromextraneous domains in DTDs;Limited to teaching facts,skills and processes;Size too large for easy reuse

Use lesson planning and teaching terminology, consistent with the FLOdesign. Allow plan templates to be parsed into usable sizes of objects forreuse.Develop structure for experimentation, exploration and experiences.

SGML Course or Unittemplates usedfor consistentdesign;Built-inalternativematerials

Based mostly on presentationstyle information.Incorporates logic with style

Use templates of the most common set of FLO (teaching task) andKTT(teaching objective).Develop FLOs to use agent, web services and servlet technologies.Incorporate the alternative materials structure.

LMML Example

Use of Learning Objects (LOs)

Learning Objects are packaged with logic, format and content that is difficult to modify and limits its reuse.

Problems with Aggregation of “Learning Objects”– lack of instructional control, – lack of a uniform navigation and – lack of cohesion in the presentation

Leap (Learning Environment and

Planning Language) Uses definitions for independent educational task

components Describes components to be created, edited, stored

or retrieved for inclusion in plan Includes Plan, FLO and KTT elements using

namespaces Allows aggregation of components to be used in

creating the Web environment Based on Categories of Use and a Grammer of use

Types of Template

Planning Templates facilitate complete teacher planning information

Fundamental Learning Objects (FLO) Component templates assists in producing complete components

Diverse Knowledge Type Templates (KTTs) provide suggestions for different objectives

Planning Template

Metadata to allow retrieval Calendar information Lesson Sequence Activity, Evaluation and Homework Lists Resources needed for the Lesson Locations of Information, Illustrations,

Demonstrations, etc. Applications to be used by students to

complete lessons

Fundamental Learning Objects(FLO) FLO’s are defined as

the smallest object containing educational information.

Lesson Plan is categorized into classes, based on attributes and Instructional Functionality.

Functionality: – Informative – Illustrative – Collaborative – Cognitive – Evaluative – Cooperative – Adaptive

Knowledge Type Templates (KTTs) Based on the most

common objectives by type of knowledge being taught.

Aggregation of a variety of FLOs

KTT’s include: – Fact– Event– Skill– Process– Experience– Analysis– Experimentation– Cognitive Process

KTT Aggregation

Assembling of FLOs Differs from “cinclude”

or “embed”; parts are processed then assembled.

Informative page followed by Illustrative, then Cognitive FLO’s

Portal

An adaptive, customized environment:– Displays information of interest

• National, Core and State Curriculum Requirements• Planning Tools and Teacher Resources

– Repository for storage and retrieval, with sharing options– Catalog and search of resources– Enhances teacher participation & collaboration through

the supports a community of users

– Communication tools for collaboration in Lesson Planning

Repository

A Physical/Virtual Data Store Simplifies saving and retrieval of files Set of Services

– Naming,

– Management,

– Discovery and Recovery,

– Security,

– Migration, and

– Reporting Source: Harvard University Library Digital Initiative (LDI),

<http://hul.harvard.edu/ldi/slides/repository/sld003.htm>

TuLiP - Benefits

Dynamic selection of files, files formats, logic sheets through a web interface using URI to control the display of content to meet the needs of different audiences,

Storage of information by descriptive metadata making it searchable and reusable,

Storage of content stored in the LEAP language based on the needs of the teacher,

Web access to resources, databases and files through a web portal, and

Web Forms and Services for easy upload to the server.