SUO: RE: Educational Applications
Jon,
I have heard there are 50 R&D teams around the world working on how to
dynamically combine chunks of learning content into something that can meet
the learning needs of unique individuals in unique situations. One problem
is that different chunks (sometimes called learning objects) from different
sources utilize different terms to describe the same thing. Combine and
present them and you'll totally confuse the learner. Today, courses are
long enough to have enough time to redefine the basic concepts, but short
learning sessions can't afford to do this.
A potential solution is for developers to utilize SUO (assuming it
becomes widely adopted) to develop learning objects. This would allow
objects from different sources to be combined without there being
conflicting concepts. Multiple terms for the same concept might be OK if
the learner understand it is the same concept.
SUO could also allow a standard record to be kept of learning. A
learner could learn standard concepts, perhaps directly from SUO or a
compliant domain ontology. He or she could also learn relationships among
concepts. Since this is standard knowledge, it could be recorded in a
Learner Model and would be of value in the next learning session. The next
compliant learning system would know what the student has learned, and maybe
even what has been recently utilized.
For example, a student is learning how to use a computer and learns
how to cut and paste using the <CTRL>C and <CTRL>V key strokes. This could
be stored in the user's Learner Model, and it's utilization monitored. The
next learning session would review the Learner Model and see that these
commands have been learned, and if they have been used recently.
I believe this capability will work fine for the learning of
discreet content (math physics, computers, etc.) but won't work well with
high-level concepts, such as learning when to apply a given type of math.
But often the hardest part of learning high level concepts is having the
discreet low level concepts to build on.
Anyway, I believe SUO has the potential to enable a new way of
learning. I'm unsure how this application will impact how we construct SUO.
I support terms would need to be short enough for people to utilize.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Awbrey [mailto:jawbrey@oakland.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 08:44
To: Stand Up Ontology
Subject: SUO: Educational Applications
Re: Educational Applications
> * Educational applications in which students learn concepts
> and relationships directly from, or expressed in terms of,
> a common ontology. This will also enable a standard record
> of learning to be kept.
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SUO Group,
I am still working my way through the archives at:
<http://ltsc.ieee.org/suo/>
<http://ltsc.ieee.org/logs/suo/>
and the record of votes and comments at:
<http://ltsc.ieee.org/records/suo-votes-2000-07-26.htm>
but I have not seen much mention of the "Educational Applications"
topic, except for the rather tentative and far-afield suggestion
that it might be a tad "far-fetched" (you know who you are, MW).
Is this still, or currently, an active issue, or do people think
that it belongs to another phase of work?
It occurs to me that there is ample room for potential interactions
between the topic of "learner models", that is, the models that the
prospective "educational module" (EM => e-lecture-motive?) of the
SUO system will maintain of learners, in both their generic and
their particular aspects, and the topic of "learning models" for
the whole SUO system itself, in other words, the way that it will
adapt, bootstrap, change, develop, evolve, grow, or learn over time.
So, what do others think?
Jon
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