What can we learn from this? A request for participation

Background
Boing Boing has posted

an interesting tale of an enterprising web page developer, [Mr. Hank Mishkoff] who had set up a fan page for a local mall. The mall developer sued to shut him down, he registered a number of *sucks.com sites (including one directed at the developer's attorneys) and represented himself pro se in the litigation (he eventually had the assistance of counsel) and WON. [I recommend reading the condensed version...the full version is extremely detailed]

[quote taken from http://nip.blogs.com/patent/lawsuits/index.html]

The counsel assisting the Mishkoff is Paul Levy with the Public Citizen Litigation Group who was introduced to Mishkoff by Ronald J. Riley of www.InventorEd.org and also President of www.PIAUSA.org. Riley has an account of his story at a comment to false positve (the second comment).

Request for participation

This is an interesting story and I have spent 6 hours reading through the web pages.

Without legal training myself, I must have picked up a few legalese along the way. But it would be more interesting to note what I have learnt from this reading. The point here is that different people, with different background and interest will read the story and gathered different key points. I am using a technique I used before here. I shall write the lesson I learnt in the next few paragraphs and rendered them in white. If you want to read them, just high-light them. However before you do this, please do the following:

• do NOT read any comment to this blog until you have done the rest of these bullet points


• bookmark this page so that you can come back later


• go and read the story (mind you, it is a long read)


• come back here and post your lessson(s) learnt in the comment


• high light the white space below to read my lesson learnt

If sufficient people pick up my request and post their comments here too, you should be able to compare the differences of these different lessons learnt. Say after a week, I may ask you to come here again and post a background about yourself and explain why what you have learnt is relevent to you. I hope it will be a vivid demonstration of the importance of learner's background to learning to those who are still struggling in the instructivitic domains.

-- Start of my lessons learnt, read by high-lighting the following "white space" --

I have a web-site http://www.scormplayer.com [in order to prevent the links from appearing and instead of creating a different CSS class, all the links to websites are not linked here!]. SCORM is a registered trademark of ADLnet.org. Interestingly, http://www.scorm.com exists and is operated by Rustici Software, LLC. apparently not related to ADLnet. The use condition of ADLnet for its name and logo stipulated that
[quote]While ADL encourages organizations to describe their adoptions of SCORM in their product descriptions and literature, the use of SCORM in a product name is strictly prohibited.[/quote]
Hence, the product for SCORMplayer.com is called Course player and usually prefixed by SCORM Course player because this is a player specifically designed to deliver SCORM-compliant courses.

I read with interest this story, trying hard to verify from the legalese that my use of the reference to SCORM does not violate any trademark owned by ADLnet.

I learnt that, by selling course player's professional license (the course player itself is NOT open source, but is free to use), the fact that I am in Australia does not remove my potential of being sued by someone in a USA court in civil proceedings if anyone in USA has brought any one of my license.

Although Mishkoff eventual won the case, it is obvious that corporate with a huge legal war chest has a significant upper hand. Without the help of Levy, the result of the case would be very different.

Another case I remembered is Lindows vs Microsoft. See for example http://www.linspire.com/lindows_news_pressreleases_archives.php?id=2&all=1 and the series of press release about the ligitation between Lindows and Microsoft. Even with a first bag of gold from mp3.com, the founder of Lindows could not fight against Microsoft when MS started court proceedings in whatever countries that Lindows try to sell to. Although failing to apply an injunction in American proper, by initiating proceedings in various countries were defined a huge blow to resource of Lindows. Eventually, the case was settled (see their press release http://www.linspire.com/lindows_news_pressreleases_archives.php?id=69&all=1 on 29th September, 2003) and Lindows is now called Inspire.

Another interesting case to watch will be SCO against IBM.

When I first incorporate Fablusi P/L into a separate entity last year (before that, it was a business unit running under Digital Learning Systems P/L), the legal fees involved in the transfer of rights of the Fablusi software (i.e. move something I have from my left pocket to my right pocket - ok, there also involved different people who can put the hands in left pocket from the right pocket) was huge (relative to the resource we had at the time).

My unease feeling is whether that is all necessary? and if yes, to what cost? Can small independent people, like me, ever able to do anything?

The Mishkoff case, on the surface, is a positive note - but when I think slightly more, I think he was basically very luck that help was there when it was really critical. For me, being in Australia and with our government leaning towards USA so much, if anything happens to me, the result would be quite obvious. Filing chapter 11 or declaring bankruptcy is a very likely prospect.

Hence another lesson learnt is that I should avoid any ligitation at all cost. I may have chosen to settle the case when Mishkoff was offered the 1000 dollars compensation despire of the additional "after-the-fact" addition of conditions of the proposed settlement.

-- end of my lessons learnt --

Welcome 20,000th Visitor

Last Wednesday, I thought I would welcome my 20,000th visitor in a day or so. It happened today, a week later!

When I last checked, the counter is 20,005. So I went to the log and located my 20,000th visitor who did not leave me a message. However s/he has spent 68min 55sec on this blog, visiting 9 pages using Internet Explorer 6.0 running on a Windows XP.

My offer of a one year free subscription (6 issues) to "E-Learning Magazine" is still on the table. Please come forward to claim your lucky prize. If it was you, please identify yourself by telling me your entry page and your exit page in the 20,000th visit to my blog and leave a way for me to contact you.

Claiming my feed at Feedster

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

Towards a Players' Education

In Fablusi, we refer to play in three ways: play as in "playing with fun", "play acting" and "play with possibilities".

We believe that we learn better when we are having fun learning.

From the post linked to this title (by Patrick Mark Kane), it touches on most of the aspects of the way we see play, not necessarily group the concept in the same way as we do. For example:

The role of play for the grand theorists of educational psychology – Piaget and Vygotsky – was to act as a 'practice venue'. Playtime was the zone where children could ready themselves for more organised kinds of representing and symbolising (reading, writing and arithmetic).

To us, this is the notion of "play acting" where the role play simulation acts as a backstage where a player (taking on the persona of a role in the simulation) practices the behaviour in preparation for real world tasks.

As long as the "game", or simulation in Fablusi's case, is engaging, the challenge and problems faced by the gamers/player are part of the challenge which the gamers pay to enjoy. This point brings out clear and sharp by Patrick.

game designers depend on millions of people being prepared to undertake the serious amount of learning needed to master a complex game. If their public failed to learn, they'd go out of business. Kids who talk about 'hard fun' don't mean it's fun in spite of being hard. It's fun because it's hard. Learning happens best when one is deeply engaged in hard and challenging activities.

[my emphasis]

Game designers risk a lot of money in designing games that are engaging. Educators may learn a lot from the game designers.

Yet, the key message from Patrick is that traditional educator should not fight against the game culture.

Australian educational thinkers Allan and Carmen Luke have proposed that the strong emphasis on print literacy in early years education, right across the northern and western world, is actually a kind of generational backlash. And it is directed against new forms of techno-literacy, mastered by children yet mostly baffling to their adult teachers.

and later Patrick continues:

Yet the wider societal context to this is important. This new techno-literacy – which kids are assembling by themselves in their own largely unregulated time and space – is an honest response to a fundamental shift in the structures of post-modern life: the life of flows and networks, the power of culture and ideas, summed up by the 'information age'. Almost entirely autonomously, children are using play to make themselves imaginatively capable for this new world.

Let me just summarise, using Patrick's words again:

The post-modern labour market isn't just constantly producing new and unexpected kinds of job; it also allows children to think about creating their own kind of productive life, one that blurs or morphs all existing categories. The potential life journeys of these young players, full of surprises and performances, should be inspiring for teachers – and especially for those new teachers who might also happily regard themselves as 'digital natives'. How can they develop children's capacities, energies and resilience to thrive in this much more open, risky world?

One further tradition of play, properly recognised and identified, could begin to dissolve those fetters. In the process, we could begin to comprehend the kinds of destructive (and self-destructive) alienation from education that growing numbers of young people exhibit. For the one value of play not yet mentioned is that of play as selfhood and freedom – the protean spark, as it were, that animates our embrace of and participation in all forms of play. Just as those who must play, cannot play, can we adapt this for education: those who must learn, cannot learn?

Learning using Portable device

Elliott Masie sent out a "xLearn Lab Video report" on Device Based Learning on SONY Portable Playstation.

Here is the specification of the Portable Playstation from a SONY press-release:

It has 16:9 widescreen TFT LCD (16.77 million colors) on a 480 x 272 pixel screen. The dimensions are 170mm x 74mm x 23mm with a weight of 260g. It also comes complete with the basic functions of a portable player such as built-in stereo speakers, exterior headphone connector, brightness control and sound mode selection.

PSP also comes equipped with diverse input/output connectors such as USB 2.0, and 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless LAN, providing connectivity to various devices in the home and to the wireless network outside.

PSP adopts a small but high-capacity optical medium UMD™ (Universal Media Disc), enabling game software, rich with full-motion video and other forms of digital entertainment content, to be stored. The UMD is 60mm in diameter but can store up to 1.8GB of digital data. There is a build-in copyright protection system has been developed which utilizes a combination of a unique disc ID, a 128 bit AES encryption keys for the media, and individual ID for each PSP hardware unit for content protection.

With that capability in an affortable price range (US250 according to the media), Sony Portable Playstation may be a good device for e-learning. However, how can be used and for what it can be used are still at a very early stage. Elliot suggested that it may be used as a new employee orientation device, or a sale's information/training as well as presentation tool.

He mentioned several times that SONY Portable Playstation can also communicate with nearby SONY Portable Playstations creating a possibility of collaboration, albeit in a small geographical range.

The immediate question I have is how available is the information needed to develop material on such a device and is there any "blank recordable" UMD and the associated writing device available for us to put our training material on it.

ps After doing a bit more research, here is the specification of the UMD:

UMD Specifications
Dimensions: Approx. 65 mm (W) x 64 mm (D) x 4.2 mm (H)
Weight: Approx. 10g
Disc Diameter: 60 mm
Maximum Capacity: 1.8GB (Single-sided, dual layer)
Laser wavelength: 660nm (Red laser)
Encryption: AES 128bit
Profile: PSP Game (full function)
UMD Audio (codec ATRAC3plus, PCM, (MPEG4 AVC))
UMD Video (codec MPEG4 AVC, ATRAC3plus, Caption PNG)

Look like we can burn UMD using a DVD writer if we can the media in that size and the appropriate software!

Pedagogy-Agnostic Standards and a Much Needed Rant

For a title like this, the first thing I need to do is to look up the meaning of "agnostic", especially, its religious implications. [English is my second language!] Here is what I find:

Suppose you are to answer the following two questions:

(1) Does the sentence "God exists" express a proposition?
(2) If so, then is that proposition true or false?

If you say no to the first question, then you may be classified as a noncognitivist with regard to God-talk. If you say yes to it, thereby allowing that the given sentence does express a proposition, then you are a cognitivist with regard to God-talk. (Let us henceforth abbreviate these expressions, simply using the terms "cognitivist" and "noncognitivist".) All theists, atheists, and agnostics are cognitivists, so the second question applies to them: is the proposition that God exists true or false? You are a theist if and only if you say that the proposition is true or probably true, you are an atheist if and only if you say that it is false or probably false, and you are an agnostic if and only if you understand what the proposition is, but resist giving either answer, and support your resistance by saying, "The evidence is insufficient" (or words to that effect).

(from http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_drange/definition.html)

This is a bit long, but it gives us a good understanding of what is agnostic. Wiley continues to write:

I purposely choose “agnostic” because of its religious implications: a pedagogy-agnostic standard “doesn’t know if there’s a pedagogy or not.”

Unfortunately, I am not only religiously agnostic. I intend to ask one more question. If after showing that question 2 is true, there is a question 3.

(3) How many gods are there?

I am polytheistic - pedagogically speaking. Different people learn best differently under different situation with different subject matter.

IMS-LD is an instructional design expression. I would not call it a pedagogical design language. What is the difference? Instructional designs describe how instruction(s) is/are delivered. They do not address how learning actually occurs, what kind of learning has occurred and how effective is the learning. After all, learning happens between the ears. Short of opening of the skull and taking some measurements before and after the process expressed by the IMS-LD, can we tell if there is any change? If yes, is the change will be useful for the individual later in his/her life?

Wiley pointed out an interesting use of IMS-LD:

A key to good empircal work is replicability, which we almost never get in educational research reporting. You get garbage like “our constructivist approach worked better than traditional classroom instruction” without enough detail to ever dream of replicating either approach, let alone the study. If all reporters of educational research used IMS-LD to describe their methods, it would go a long way toward bringing needed rigor to our field.

One of the reason given by Wiley for any use of IMS-LD would be to automate "human activity". He gives an example, asking

Is it because people are so excited to use the automated support option when they call Dell after their Windows machine blows up?

Terry Anderson, in a comment to the post asks

how many people would perfer to use a human teller at a bank – especially one with a long linup in front of it, compared to using an ATM.

I would decide to use or not to use LD, in fact, any learning technology based on the subject matter and the context. Whether the learning partner at the other end is a real human or a software agent is not the issue.

One of the great promise of learning technology is "re-usability" and the ultimate objective of lowering the cost of providing effective instructions (ie situations that result in valid, enjoyable and memorable learning experience). I am not optimistic in the current approach to the design of learning standards and processes. In a previous post, I suggested that we should

forget about the notion of "pedagogical free" learning objects and framework. Let us try the other way around. Identify powerful and effective pedagogical approaches (learning structure) and implement solutions to these approaches. Instructional designers/teachers/course developers who subscribe to a particular pedagogical approach will be supported by the implementation solution based on that pedagogical approach. Hence there will be little or no compromise in terms of delivering the best pedagogy.

E-learning, What are we talking about?

Just like the term "learning object", I believe we can start a debate on what is "e-learning" and will never end with an overwhelmingly acceptable conclusion.

Are we talking about the use of learning technology (information & communication technologies in particular) in formal education? Are we talking about building innovative companies, supporting the growth of the bottom-line of these companies? Are we talking about the informal, life-long growth of a personal nature, taking any direction an individual desire?

Sure, these are all "learning". Sure, information and communication technology are being used, to varying degrees.

Some thinkers emphasis the "information" part of ICT. Communication is the "delivery" of information.

Others advocate the "communication" part of ICT. It seems that by providing a group with some social software, learning will happen magically.

Some see ICT as an agent of change. They want to push some other agendas along the way.

Other feel the changes introduced by ICT being fundamental. They are struggling to look into the future and figure out what the new future will be.

I AM CONFUSED. Can some wise soul enlighten me?

Welcome 20,000th visitor

This blog will be welcoming the 20,000th visitor in the next day or two. Can this lucky person leave me a message? I will give him/her a free 1 year subscription (6 issues) of e-Learning Magazine.

BECTA's Packaging and Publishing LOs: Best Practice Guidelines

via Stephen Downes.

I share with Scott Leslie that it is

frustrating about documents like this and its ilk is that the various standards and specifications are presented to users as something to be concerned about outside of the context of specific content development tools and practices... there's neither an overwhelming array of good development tools which support this standards-based vision, nor well documented (or well practiced) instructional design processes that marry reusability with learning effectiveness as dual goals of the content creation process.

I am also quite disappointed that this "Best Practice Guidelines" does not make the distinction between "learning object" and a special case of "learning objects" - SCO as defined by SCORM. Narrowing down the over generalised "learning object" concept to a specific implementation (i.e. SCO) is a step forward, but we need to acknowledge that distinction and should not confuse readers in thinking that SCO is "learning object".

The guideline does point out important aspects of VLE (page 9).

VLE has five other core functions:
• content is mapped against an appropriate curriculum
• learners can be assessed
• learners’ progress can be tracked
• it offers methods of communication (e.g. a discussion forum)
• it provides tutor support tools.

Unfortunately, I don't see how VLE can map content against any curriculum. It is the course designer's job to map the course against any curriculum.

Via SCORM, VLE can capture the responses of the learners' assessment and track learners' position relative to the course. Again, knowing the position of a learner in a course is NOT the same as knowing the progress of this learner. Together with some formative evaluation, we may know a little about the progress of the learner.

The reporting of the assessment data and "progress" are implemented differently among VLE. The interpretation of the data, if available, is an art than a science. Much has to be learnt in this area.

Equally, most VLE implements the communication differently. Some offer discussion forum as a global cafe type of space where everyone can join. Other offer course related discussion forum limited to the participants of the course. Yet some have both. However, most of the discussion forum is offered in parallel to the SCORM course and the integration/linkage between the course content and the discussion is non-existent. It is up to the tutor to bring the content into the discussion area.

That also brings to the last point - tutor support tools. I am yet to see good implementation of tutor support tool. I would appreciate anyone pointing out some implementations for us to have a feel of what tutor support tool is.

Standardisation in the level of SCORM course and SCO is a tiny step forward. However the limitation imposed by such standardisation is already overwhelming. We need to think outside the current square to come up with a better inter-operability approach. The first thing I would suggest is to forget about the notion of "pedagogical free" learning objects and framework. Let us try the other way around. Identify powerful and effective pedagogical approaches (learning structure) and implement solutions to these approaches. Instructional designers/teachers/course developers who subscribe to a particular pedagogical approach will be supported by the implementation solution based on that pedagogical approach. Hence there will be little or no compromise in terms of delivering the best pedagogy.

The most fundamental idea of inter-operability is to reduce redundancy in development efforts. But when standardisation equals compromises in innovation and effectiveness, we need to think again. Which is more important, standards or effectiveness?

ps The current SCORM model does do a good job for a particular pedagogical model - delivery of information. So we should keep it that way and use it appropriately.

SCORM delivery in alternate format

Susan Nash's comment to my last post prompted me to open up the can of worms which I have been avoiding so far. Ok, the devils are out!

About 9 months ago, I started a project SCORMplayer which will enable delivery of any SCORM compliance course from a CD. Running beta is available on the website. [Note, the download version has timed out, but if you download the sample course, the player in the sample course has the timer switched off. So get a sample course and replace the SCORM sample course in the SCORMcourse directory with yours to run.] The project was put on hold because of my over-commitment in other areas/projects. I hope I can have a break from some of my current work so finish off the CoursePlayer soon.

Here are some of my thoughts about SCORM delivery in alternate formats.

CD/DVD based delivery It can be done and is available for free via the SCORMplayer website!

The major issue is the collection of AICC interaction data captured from the learners and the sending back of these data to the institute/instructor. CoursePlayer does that using email. AICC data is captured and encrypted. At the end of the session, the learner is asked to initiate an email to send the data to the designated email account. CoursePlayer uses a template concept to handle the look n feel of the course. It automatically reads in the manifest file [a file which defines the course structure using IMS content packaging standards] and generates two simple navigations: a table of content type of tree for going to any SCO and a Previous-Next navigation. By using SCORM-SSS, the SCOs also pick up the look n feel from the template.

Another issue in CD/DVD based delivery is the fact that the whole course is on the CD/DVD. While I don't have any problem with that, some vendors do feel that their content may be copied by others. Here is my response. CoursePlayer is able to encrypt the HTML part of the SCOs so that only the CoursePlayer with the correct accompanying license will be able to decode the SCO. The media (any graphics/flash etc) used in the SCO, unfortunately, cannot be encrypted. After all, CoursePlayer is still using the regular web-browsers to display the content. I suggest that for maximum reach of potential learners, graphics should be used sparingly and only used when they contribute materially to the content delivered. In this case, graphics and flash will be content specific. Any body taking your graphics without the content will find the graphics out of context. OK, eye candies may be important in some cases, but please treat them as such and consider them disposable.

Portable devices I don't have any experience in this area. My feeling is that there are two additional considerations we must take into account when delivering SCORM courses to a portable device: display and connectivity limitations. I would love to see some discussion in this area.

The Problem with Learning Objects in Courses for the Military

When I first saw the title, I have the expectation to see some unique references to the special needs of military education/training. As I read through the article, the use of the word "military" in the three places I can find is completely unnecessary. The statement(s) apply to non-military situations as well.

That said, it is a good overview of the state of "learning object" - some times ago.

I believe that the military, at least the US, has standardised on SCORM. Hence, to the military, we can now narrow "learning object" to SCO - shareable content object in the SCORM palance.

In the SCORM context, the SCOs have solved ONE major interoperability issues: the ability of any SCORM-compliant content to engage a standardised usage tracking via the SCORM communication API with the learning management systems. Of course, any SCORM package should be able to be delivered by any SCORM compliant LMS.

I have solutions to two other impediments of reuse of SCO: the look n feel issue of SCOs in relationship with the new course in which it will be used, and hosting of SCO from machines/domains other than the that of the LMS. (see various papers in Implementation Issues of SCORM)

In a papers, we argued that reuse also depends on the role one takes in the production chain of courses. SCO is not an ideal unit of reuse for developers, but I would suggest it is a good unit for people responsible to assembling lessons into a course. For people responsible for creating a bundle of courses to meet an identified skill gap, finding SCORM courses may be a solution. In this case, the reuse unit is a course by itself.

That is the fundamental problem in finding things. If a repository claims to contain everything, it contains nothing useful. Consider two specialised repositories (assuming that they exist), one stores courses, and only SCORM courses, and the other SCOs. I would expect the schemas for them would be very different, with highly specialised tags and values catering for the need of the special users they each serve. As pointed out in the paper Single Instance Reuse of Sharable Content Objects, there are significant advantages in using a repository to store the SCOs of a course, hence the course repository I referred to above may actually not store any actual SCOs, but pointing to the SCOs selected by the course designers from the SCO repository.

Given the similarity of the underlying software to support resource discovery, there is no reason why an instance of a repository cannot be both a course repository AND a SCO repository. However, this conceptual partition (based on the role of the designer in the course design/assembling chain) be made clear. So, the fundamental problem I was referring to in the last paragraph is a logical/preception/schema issue, rather than a software implementation issue.

Susan Smith Nash also touched on the issue of "modifying learning objects". Again, if we boarden to address the yet-to-be-agreed learning object, we shall be going nowhere. Put in the context of military application, i.e. within the SCORM environment, it is an achievable goal and it also relates to the issue of course maintanence.

SCO is the basic unit of tracking by the LMS. It can be as large as a whole course (if you don't want to know anything about how a student is advancing within the course) or as small as a page. Up to SCORM v1.3, the LMS will only track one SCO at a time for each user (for an instance of a course). So the smallest unit of a SCO is a webpage. It is hardly the best reuse unit for course developer.

Technically, SCORM has solved the interoperability issue of SCOs, i.e. in the smallest unit sense, inter web-page interoperability. But it is completely silence on the interoperability of building blocks within a webpage, intra-page interoperability. I have proposed a "virtual apparatus" framework couple of years ago (and the website has disappeared too) which was based on "liveconnect" and some javascripts to support communications of web page building blocks created by common web-based technology. It has been a couple of years now. I suppose a better method of doing the same thing may be available today.

These are technical level interoperability issues. Nash pointed out that the "educational" and "culture" levels of interoperability have not been addressed. We shall leave for another occasion.

Separation of look N feel and content

I wrote about using CSS and Learning Objects back in September last year. In that post, I referred to a beautiful website called CSS Zen Garden. Now a book The Zen of CSS Design has been written describing how each of the designs were done. See a review of the book here. Here are the interviews of the authors Dave O'Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag.

CSS is an important technique for separating content and look and feel. Fablusi makes extensive use of the technique. Here are two views of the same simulation using different CSS template:

You may notice that the look and feel of the two screen captures are very different, but the content is exactly the same. The navigation is also different, one has the communication tools on the top while the other is at the end of the menu blocks.

CopyRight or RightToCopy?

My rescension from altLaw Forum:

A comic that talks about copying as culture, and how art, music and other forms of creativity rely on copying. This comic is a rescension/parody/counterdrama of the comic published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

from http://www.altlawforum.org/lawmedia

*rescension = A re-telling, a word taken to signify the simultaneous existence of different versions of a narrative within oral, and from now onwards, digital cultures. Thus one can speak of a 'southern' or a 'northern' rescension of a myth, or of a 'female' or 'male' rescension of a story, or the possibility (to begin with) of Delhi/Berlin/Tehran 'rescensions' of a digital work. The concept of rescension is contraindicative of the notion of hierarchy. A rescension cannot be an improvement, nor can it connote a diminishing of value. A rescension is that version which does not act as a replacement for any other configuration of its constitutive materials. The existence of multiple rescensions is a guarantor of an idea or a work's ubiquity. This ensures that the constellation of narrative, signs and images that a work embodies is present, and waiting for iteration at more than one site at any given time. Rescensions are portable and are carried within orbiting kernels within a space. Rescensions, taken together constitute ensembles that may form an interconnected web of ideas, images and signs.

Effective corporate e Learning

Anol Bhattacharya, author of SoulSoup, has posted some good guidelines on elearning for the corporate world. While Harold Jarche found resonance with the first point "The business world is not about learning, it’s about doing business". I found the fourth point being a topic I have been looking at repeatedly.

4. It’s not about Technology - it’s about effectiveness and culture
During the first era of e Learning, we made an egregious mistake of treating e Learning in the same way as CRM, ERP or any other enterprise technology. We forgot that e Learning is about LEARNING and not about the ‘e’. It is about learning to be more effective in today’s complex knowledge economy - an ecosystem that is continuously changing and evolving. Learning is not a system, which can be installed be done with.

[my emphasis]

It is not useful (if not wrong) to focus on the technology instead of the learning. It is also not correct to assume that by using one tool (or a particular technology) will automatically qualify you to be an elearning promotor of one particular pedagogical inclination. I agree with Anol with the speed of change in the environment we are in. It is almost like there is no more room for a prescription which will work more than once. As Marie Jasinski always says: Improvise!

Invitation to participate

Like to take up a challenge? I have set up a little competition here with a small prize attached.

It is about the creation of a demonstration animated PowerPoint (theme: "how to use animated PowerPoint to teach story telling") All the instructions to get the technology free are in the post. This competition closes on 28th March 2005. My decision of the winner is final, OK?

e-learning Magazine

Yours truely is the executive editor of a new print magazine for the e-learning community in Australia. The first issue will be in the news stands in June 2005 for AUD7.95.

This magazine is trying a new copyright arrangement. Since the magazine is bimonthly at this point, the articles will be published in print form with all rights reserved for the first two months after publication. After two months, we shall put the articles online with some form of creative common license as chosen by the author(s). We hope this will balance the need of the print media as well as making the article available.

If you like to contribute an article or two, please contact me (albert AT elearningmagazine.com)

Our world is changing, our schools are failing,....

"Why the current education system (at least for the developed countries) fails" is not the question we should be asking.

The question should be

What should the education system be?

Meta Meta Meta Data Draft 0.3

Previous drafts are 0.1, 0.1b and 0.2.

A theory of metadata

Say we have a collection of learning resources. Let call it S with elements s₁, s₂, s₃, ... s_n.

S = { s₁, s₂, s₃, ... s_n} --- (1)

Now, apply a "meta" operation, μ_j on each of the element in S which will produce a set M with elements m_1j, m_2j, m_3j, ... m_nj where m_1j is the metadata of s₁. These elements (m_1j, m_2j, m_3j, ... m_nj) are the metadata of the learning resources.

M = { m_1j, m_2j, m_3j, ... m_nj } where m_ij=μ_j(s_j) μ s_j ∈ S --- (2)

Note that elements of m_ij are data as well. These resources may themselves be learning resources and hence we can apply "meta" operation on these as well to produce another set of metadata. This is infinitely recursive.

What is interesting, and perhaps confusing, is that there exist more than one meta operation. In fact, there are infinite numbers of meta operations.

∃ j for μ_j where j ∈ {0,1,..,n,..} --- (3)

Explanation: Up to here, each element of any metadata schema (e.g. LOM or DC) is a meta operation because the result of the operation of each of the element is a specific characteristic of the underlying resource. For example, DC-creator extracts the "creator property" of the learning resource.

An agreed set of meta operations is a metadata schema, ∏.

∏ = { μ₁, μ₂,.., μ_n}

Applying all or some of the operations in ∏ on a learning resource produce a metadata record for the learning resource.

Since metadata record may be learning resources, applying all or some of the operations in ∏ is allowed. This is infinitely recursive. [Note: this concept goes beyond just a single reification, e.g. when the metadata operation is the DC creator. A second application of DC creator on the metadata is the creator of the metadata (not the original learning resource). Hence we can also describe the creator of the creator of the metadata of the learning resource.]

A subset of elements S_i in a set of learning resources may have an easily identified common characteristic or property. We further define an operation, Λ, as an operation on a set S_i which will extract the common characteristics/properties among all elements in the set S_i to produce ζ.

Λ( S_i)=ζ --- (4)

Explanation:A subset of learning resources, e.g. thesis, will have common characteristics such as "degree awarded", "Institute granting the award" or even some characteristics of the content structure. By applying an Λ operation on a set of learning resources, some learning resources will fail the Λ operation (i.e. ζ = null) while some will produce a valid value (e.g. thesis). Here we are only interested in the cases where ζ ≠ ∅ by looking at more general characteristic that applies to all learning resources or a subset of the learning resources.

Each meta operation will also produce a set of metadata carrying the implicit characteristics of the meta operation. We can

Λ( M_i)=ζ --- (5)

If all possible value of ζ is finite, we say that the meta operation μ is listable and can be constrained by a finite set of value. This set of value can be defined by a set of controlled vocabulary. In other situation, ζ may have been well defined in other community, we can leverage on the work of these communities and create better inter-operability.

Explanation: The remark on this note "In education, some resources are inter-related (e.g., academic papers may be related by citations; a PhD thesis may be related by some commonly accepted formats). In other situations, there may be dependency among resources (e.g., a lesson plan may include dependent resources such as reading material, testing items, examples)" is an application of equation 5 above.

Video-casting

In my post yesterday, I jokingly predicted that video-casting may be coming soon. This was shared by Robin Goods (OK, his was published on 18th Feb, that's 19th Australian time - so he made the prediction before me).

We like to activate all our senses, audio, video and others. This driving force of video-casting is part of our human nature.

As Robin pointed out, the production side of video-casting is becoming ubiquitous - mobile phones increasing come with built-in video camera. He quoted his collection of images and videos released to the public free soon after the tsunami on Boxing day last year. (BTW, the first photo on the page WAS not a tsunami photo, as correctly labelled, it is the backward flow of Qian Tang Jiang River in China.)

At the receiving end, there are, again, a range of devices. There is even a blog focussed on portable video player news. There are flash-memory based players, with 2.2 inches screen; or cheap ones (it said it would cost under USD100 and available in the 2003 Holiday Shopping season. I think it may be a vaporware!) There are hard-disk based video player with screen up to 8 inches.

Video-casting has advantages and limitations over podcasting. With images and video, some content/context can be explained/reviewed better. I don't think I will use a video-casting a lot myself because my motion sickness problem which will limit my use of video-casting during travelling which would be the best use of the technology.

Podcasting and video-casting is a big step forward in delivering content, but again is a step backward in pedagogy sense. This is a broadcasting mode (hence casting, I suppose!). But again, every device and technique will have its value when properly utilized.

Podcasting

Derek Morrison has a series of posts on "Recording online audio interactions - the easy way?" Part 1, part 2 and part 3. Amy Gahran has a post on How to Receive and Listen to Podcasts. Now, we can quite easily create Podcast (see Podcast defined for what is a Podcast) and subscript to them and listen whenever we want to.

I have motion sickness. I cannot read while on a moving vehicle. That would be the best time to listen to this interesting edutainment. The intro music (usually there is one), the voice of the author and the background sound gave you an audio context seems to be better than just reading. This is also a great way to use up your excess bandwidth.

Reading is about 10 times faster than speaking. So, listening to a medium (which if it is available in text) in order to grasp the same amount of information, podcast is 10 times less efficient time wise. Text is much cheaper to deliver - both computationally and communicationally (ok, we have excess computational and communication bandwidth!). So, why we still prefer listening to podcast?

I believe that it is basic human nature that we constantly seek new information, new stimulation and enlightenment. We like to "experience" new things. So there is a "novel" factor here for the podcast. But more fundamentally, podcast gives us an experience which is unique. Not just reading dull text. It is easier to connect to the author via the voice (may be we shall see video-casting soon). Information delivery alone cannot explain the uptake of podcast. The additional value of podcast over the same written text, while inferior in efficiency for the recipients to gather the information, is superior in terms of delivering an experience - the feeling of a more intimate relationship with the author.

That brings me back to my notion of advancing e-learning as an experience industry, rather than a content-creation, content-delivery and distribution. It is the delivery of experience.

what it means to be literate in the digital age

I especially like the notion that digital divide is not just technology.

Given all the best technology, if a student cannot effectively manage and process information through the technology, there is not much help here.

Do we have "proficiency divide" among the students? Sure!

Is testing the best method to measure the divide? If yes, how the scale is designed? What are measured? When should it be measured? How long will the scale be valid?

How can we bridge any proficiency gap, if any?

The Hybrid Challenge: Activities, Approaches, Pitfalls

E-learning Queen, aka Susan Smith Nash, posted a fairly comprehensive administrative guide for teachers and lecturers to plan and structure a teacher-centred blended learning situation.

Most universities, if not all, have some sort of LMS for teachers and lecturers to use. Some even may mandate that the LMS must be used in their courses. This is a real challenge to really use the face to face and online environment effectively.

Online environment offers so much flexibilities to the students that it is compelling - anytime anywhere. Comparatively, face to face is an expensive meeting and it is very important to make sure that the additional value (paid both by the students and instructors) has good return. In order to understand that, I would start by looking at the things which the online environment cannot provide or is inadequate. I would make use of the rare and expensive face to face opportunities to provide such things.

Take online role play simulation as an example. We run pre-briefing^*. During pre-briefing, we aim to achieve two things:

1. The students are introduced to the system, ensure that they can log on, they know how to navigate and generally overcome their technical anxiety. We make sure that each and everyone is able to get onto the simulation, can log in using their own user name and password and can interact via the environment. (Hence there is great value to do this face to face in a computer laboratory environment.)

2. Orientation to the new form of learning. Some students may have anxiety when they are taught in a non-traditional way, especially if this online role play simulation activity is part of their assessment. Proper orientation, telling them in clear terms what is expected of them, which and how activities within the simulation will be assessed and most important of all, give the student a "face" that there is human moderator behind the system who will monitor the simulation as well as give them help.

The simulation is then conducted online. The online simulation leverages on several key advantages of the online environment. Being asynchronous, the students can think through, research, plan and formulate best strategy to tackle problems and issues presented to them in the simulation. They can look at the textbook, they can discuss with their team members (online or face to face). Learning is now happening.

As role play simulation is a mentally intensive. After playing a role for a couple of weeks, it is very important to de-role and de-brief. A lot of emotions may have built up and this is best released in a face to face environment. In most cases, we ask the students to dress up as their role and come to a meeting (which is planned within the online simulation environment). This is kind of the finale of the role play simulation. The last stages are acted out and the emotions released. This also signals an official end of the role play AND the end of the role the student is playing.

Other necessary debriefing steps may be continued online, e.g. writing up a reflective account of what has happened in the simulation, how the player has applied the theory he has learnt, how effective is the strategy and so on. However, these activities no long take place as roles, but as a learner.

Students appreciate our arrangement. We recognised that their time are valuable and meeting face to face is an expensive exercise. The first face to face meeting is obviously full of expectation and anticipation. The last face to face meeting is fun, engaging and rewarding.

I believe it is the way blended learning should be - recognise the extra effort the learners have to put in in order to meet face to face. We should design the face to face meeting around the learning in the online world. Make use of the characteristics of these different situations and do high value activities in face to face meetings.

^*See our procedure in conducting online role play simulation at a previous post here.

JSON and its implementation gotcha

Douglas Crockford stopped by and leave a comment to my post of JSON and its implementation gotcha. Woo Hoo!

That's what I wrote:

1. Internet Explorer generally fails to initialise an object in JSON notation. However, it loads an array of objects correctly. So if you want to initialise a JSON object in cross browser application, use this pattern:
thisObj=eval("[{'membersName':'MemberValue',...}]")[0];
i.e. transfer using an array instead of an object, or add the square brackets at the client side before conversion.

2. There are other even lighter weight mechanism for transferring a set of data of the same object. (by not repeating the membersName many times..., but require some software support at the receiving end.)

3. the evaluated object does not have any methods. It is data only. This can proved to be quite difficult to use the object effectively.

4. Eval is a depreciated Javascript method. :-(

and this is his comment:

1. I have not found this to be a problem.

2. By light-weight, we are talking about programmer efficiency, not payload size.

3. This is not a problem. Think of a JSON object as a sort of hash table. Uncoupling from a brittle class structure can be more efficient in many applications, particularly in class-free languages like JavaScript.

4. The object.eval() method is deprecated, but the global eval function is not. :-)

By the way, his JavaScript Lint "is a JavaScript program that looks for problems in JavaScript programs." I used it together with HTMLKit and have healed a lot of my headaches. Instruction to install of JS Lint with HTMLKit can be found here.

Interoperability state of play at IMS Melbourne meeting

Here is another blog entry related to Melbourne's !dea workshop. But it did not cover the metadata workshop I participated which is covered here.

Connectivism

Finally, I have a bit of time to read George Siemens article and posted a comment or two in Learning for 2020.

Where do you publish your research output?

I was asked this question by a librarian during the !dea Metadata workshop.

I asked her back, "Where did you see any of my research output?".

She said, "your blog".

I said, "my blog".

That aside, I do believe that publishing one's research output in blog has several advantages if you do not need the academic points for your promotion (and I don't):
1. timely
2. at least you know someone will have read it (unlike paper based publishing, other than the reviewer and editor, no one may have read your paper)
3. cut down from the "academic" fillers (I know a number of word-crafts who are so skilled in recycling fillers that if you read one of their papers, you have read ALL of their papers!)
4. conversational

Metadata framework

I attended the Melbourne !dea metadata workshop chaired by Jon Mason yesterday. The workshop is covered by Derek's Blog. See here and here.

The first part of the workshop, we heard from leaders of current DEST funded projects on their metadata implementation issues and experience. It was eye-opening.

The second part of the workshop, we brainstormed, trying to start the process of developing a "generation-2" metadata framework in response to the ISO SC36 initiatives. The e-learning Australian Standards Committee (IT19-1) will be drafting our Australian response in the next few months.

Being a framework, I believe we should not get bolted down by the details. We should examine the overall metadata requirements of all educational institutions. We should then "dice and slice" the requirements and identify those which should be deal with by the "education community" and those which may overlap with other communities of practice. I further believe that we should concentrate our effort on those educational specific requirements and collaborate with others on the common parts.

Several different ways of dice and slice were suggested. At this point, I still prefer my own version which may change when I think it through again.

Here are my board grouping of the functional requirements of metadata in order to support the metadata needs of any educational institutions.

Support Resource Discovery

Intellectual Property & Digital Right Management

Learning Objectives & Competency

Context Descriptions

Trust-related Descriptions

People¹

Preservation requirements

Resource dependence

Annotation/management of metadata

Linkages and aggregations²

¹By people, I meant both the intended audience and the role of the creator when the resource is generated. Let consider the role of the creator when digital data is generated. What I am trying to say here is that we should not narrowly define educational resources to those generated by institutes and "teachers". Students generated data, during their learning process, may have re-use value that some sort of metadata attachment may be appropriate (especially when the cost of generating and storing these metadata are near zero).

1. as a record of student's work for subsequent verification (may be for qualification or for later skill matching)


2. for researchers to analysis the learning process


3. for researchers to analysis the related content. For example, for item analysis in item bank in formative evaluation.


4. The output of Master/PhD level (strictly speaking is student's work) is of high value to the global "knowledge pool"

²may somehow expose citations/bibliography within the resource in order to trace development history of the subject domain (e.g.)

There are significant overlapping of elements which may serve more than one functions in the above scheme. In order to ensure orthogonality of elements, some significant decisions and discussions need to take place.

One of the thing I like to do in the near future is to apply my meta-meta-meta data model and see what I can get out of this in the education context. Please keep watching this space.

Kung Hei Fat Choy

Wednesday is Chinese New Year. May I take this opportunity to say "Kung Hei Fat Choy" to you.

The single character above is the word "luck". It is upside down. Some of us do this deliberately because "inverted" in Chinese sounds like "arrive". Hence, it means "luck arrive". Since we don't have tense, so it applies to all possible combination of is, will be, was, has etc.

The Fai-Chun on the left literally is "one sail wind smooth" meaning smooth sailing. The one on the right is "heart/mind think thing success" meaning whatever you wish will come true.

On the left: "out in safely (last two characters combined"
On the right: "business (first two characters) prosperous (last two characters)

n the left: "as you wish (first two characters) lucky and in harmony(last two characters combined"
On the right: "body (as in health)(first two characters) healthy(last two characters)

On the left: "peace (first two characters) make money(last two characters combined"
On the right: "everything (first two characters) better than you wish for (last two characters)

On the left: "luck longevity health calm"
On the right: "study(first two characters) improve (last two characters)

On the left: "dragon horse spirited(last two characters)"
On the right: "your whole family(first two characters) safe (last two characters)

Wishing you all a happy and wealthy Chinese New Year of the Rooster.

What will her future be - 2?

Couple of months ago, I asked What will her future be? as a way to try to look into the future and hope to find a direction to educate my daughter.

Starting from an economical view, I have concluded our future in the developed world is

a future where

repetitive tasks will be replaced by computer and machinery,

creativity and innovation are critical,

communication skill, team work and problem solving skill are important,

productivity must be so high that an average people will support the needs of parents who had inadequately funded their retirement and children of their own

Today, I am not any wiser. However an article in McKinseyQuarterly Don't blame trade for US job losses points out that in USA (as an example of developed countries), the manufacturing job market share has been falling for at least half a century - and I believe it will continue to fall. Godfrey Parkin also shared my concern and noted that

To some, this was going to be The American Century with the US as the hub of a booming knowledge economy. Lower-paid menial jobs would go, and Americans would upgrade to higher-paid knowledge jobs. George Bush, when asked what he would say to someone who had just lost his job to someone in India, said he’d give that poor worker some money to get a better education in a community college. But many of those losing jobs to offshore companies don’t need community college educations, because they are already graduate engineers or PhDs in computer science. The White House has become an Ivory Tower.

and further worries that instead of "The American Century", it may become "The Chinese Century":

A very high percentage of everything that US consumers buy comes from a factory in China. What happens when Chinese entrepreneurs wake up to e-commerce and disintermediate the entire US retail sector? Why would you pay $500 for a designer suit at Macy's when you can get the same suit from the same factory online for $50? $35 for a blender at Target, or $5 for the same thing online? A couple of Chinese Amazon.coms and a Chinese FedEx could cripple one of the few sectors in the US where employment is currently growing. And it could happen overnight.

I am delighted to heard Richard Florida from ITconversation talking about The Rise of the Creative Class. A light seems to shine through. This century is a new century where the economy is no longer driven by manufacturing. How important creativity will be in the future economy is anybody's guess. If Richard Florida is right, at least we should start cultivating creativity, diversity, communication skills and in dependent learning ability in our next generation.

Game and Learning

Michael Feldstein did a book recommendation on "A Theory of Fun for Game Design". He wrote:

Most interesting of all, though, is that the book is really about teaching and learning as much as it is about games.

Couple of days ago, I have pointed to another article published by Gamasutra Educational Games Don't Have to Stink! which have suggestions to create educational games.

These are writing from experienced game designers.

On the other hand, we have also writing from educators interested in using games in teaching and learning, such as: What Video Games Have to Tell Us About Learning and Literacy: A Brief Look.

A new study is forming, see LUDOLOGY and its website

I also found the following interesting websites:
Game Research with a collection of good articles on games, edutainment and education.
Tom's Phd website which is

A blog documenting my work on the rise of the global computer game 'audience'.

And, of course, my own work on understanding how game can be used to drive interesting role play simulations at roleplaysim.org

Comment to "Permanent Injustice: Rawls' Theory of Justice and the Digital Divide"

In the recently published Educational Technology & Society Journal (Vol 8 Issue 1), Elizabeth Hendrix argues that

Rawls’ theory of justice does not work in practice with regard to technology, or as a way to solve the digital divide and the inequalities in school funding. She argues that another ethical theory should guide technological funding and policies in schools, embracing theories by Levinas, Noddings, Davis, Freire, Nkrumah, and Buber, in order to open scholarly discussion on the issues of injustice and technological funding inequities.

I have no previous reading of any papers on "justice" and I declare total ignorance in this area. However, I do feel that whatever a funding policy may be designed, digital divide, or different levels of technology access by different population groups, is an unavoidable fact in life. Again, I am not arguing designing a "fairer" funding policy, I just want to remind ourselves that we should not take technology access as a given. For many, it is far from the true. See my previous post, The Fallacy of Digital Equality.

Online Jigsaw Class - an alternate use of Fablusi

I have posted a way of implementing the Jigsaw technique in my other blog: Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Activities.

Educational Games Don't Have to Stink!

This is a wonderful article from Gamasutra. Free registration required to read the article.

After telling an experience during his graduate stage, some insightful comments appear:

A teacher's two greatest tools are charisma and attention, both things that computers cannot offer. A teacher uses his charisma to create interest and excitement in the student, and uses his attention to reward, punish, and compel attention back from the student.

My heretical view is simply this: computer games don't teach. I think the idea that you can teach using computer games is based on a flawed analogy between gameplay and learning. Here's how the analogy goes. Players of games have to overcome obstacles in order to achieve victory. They do this by learning the weaknesses, or limitations, of the opponents they face. Similarly, students learn knowledge in order to pass tests. So learning a fact is equivalent to defeating an enemy, and passing a test is equivalent to achieving victory. ...

In short, it's my belief that games don't teach, they illustrate. That's an important distinction. Games are not useless in the educational process, but they're not good at teaching per se. Games are good at creating understanding of knowledge the student already has. And they're excellent at transforming abstract ideas into concrete experience. Games don't teach, but they can help people learn.

With all these explained, here are some of the suggestions to create "educational games" from the author:

Admit that games don't teach, they illustrate.

Don't make games that are too much fun.

Don't make games that aren't fun enough.

Don't make games that take too long.

Don't make games that obscure the principles you want to illustrate.

Include advisors.

Don't forget the value of creative play.

Don't try to serve chocolate-covered broccoli.

These ideas are good ideas. Since my interest in more in collaborative type of learning (e.g. role play simulation), I cannot agree to one of the design guidelines here. For example, the duration of the game need not and should not be confirmed to the duration of a 50-minutes class. Let us bring the educational process into the learners' home. Let them learn at any convenient time. But, again, this is not the kind of game the author is talking about.

Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Activities

I have started a new blog which is focussed on " Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Activities". The first entry is related to how we may modify debate for asynchronous online use. Hope you enjoy this and please give me comment and support.

JSON and its implementation gotcha

Stephen points to a slashdot post about JSON (Javascript Object Notation) promoted by Douglas Crockford.

Fablusi replies heavily on JSON for its communication with the server and inter-module communication. However during our implementation, I discover a few issues which are not discussed anywhere else known to me. (Please point me to any discussion of JSON, if you know of any).

1. Internet Explorer generally fails to initialise an object in JSON notation. However, it loads an array of objects correctly. So if you want to initialise a JSON object in cross browser application, use this pattern:
thisObj=eval("[{'membersName':'MemberValue',...}]")[0];
i.e. transfer using an array instead of an object, or add the square brackets at the client side before conversion.

2. There are other even lighter weight mechanism for transferring a set of data of the same object. (by not repeating the membersName many times..., but require some software support at the receiving end.)

3. the evaluated object does not have any methods. It is data only. This can proved to be quite difficult to use the object effectively.

4. Eval is a depreciated Javascript method. :-(

Current Fablusi v2 users will notice that the save format of the simulation data is in traditional Javascript object initialisation format - NOT JSON because I need the initialised objects to have methods defined in the system.

While JSON is a good idea and I look forward to seeing how JSON-RPC may work, use with an understanding of its limitation. The benefit (light weight) outweighs its limitation.

Meta Meta Meta Data Draft 0.2

Previous drafts are 0.1 and 0.1b.

For your viewing convenience, I have copied the essence of the 0.1 draft below:

Say we have a set of data, let call it S₁ with elements s₁₁, s₁₂, s₁₃, ... s_1n. These elements was referred to as type 1 data in the previous paper.

Now, apply a "meta" operation* on each of the element in S₁ which will produce a set S₂ with elements s₂₁, s₂₂, s₂₃, ... s_2n where s₂₁ is the metadata of s₁₁. These elements ( s₂₁, s₂₂, s₂₃, ... s_2n) was referred to as type 2 data in the previous paper.

Note that elements of S₂ are data as well. These elements are themselves type 1 data and hence we can apply "meta" operation on these as well to produce another set of type 2 data. This is infinitely recursive.

What is interesting, and perhaps confusing, is that there exist more than one meta operation. In fact, there are infinite number of meta operations. Each meta operation will produce a set of Type 2 carrying the implicit characteristics of the meta operation. We further define a meta-meta operation as an operation on a set S which will extract the common characteristics all elements in the set S₂ to produce M₁. Since there are infinite number of possible meta operations, there exists infinite number of characteristic, M₁, M₂, M₃,... M_n,... Each of these characteristics, when expressed in as data, is what we refer to as type 3 data in the previous paper.

An example of M_i may be the Dublin Core specification, which defines a particular meta operation. The process of producing M₁ is the meta-meta operation. Different community of practice will obviously have their own variations of meta operation (adoption and extension of DC) producing M_i.

Meta-meta operation applies on data elements. Since type 1 data is data, we can also meta-meta operation on type 1 data. One of the possible characteristics of type 1 data is the link information among the elements. This link information has been an important information to determine the "page-rank" in Google's search result. Again, there are other meta-meta operation which can be applied to type 1 as well as type 2 data.

The utility of this data model may be used to understand the work in metadata....

*A meta operation may be the extraction of metadata from the type 1 data, such as assigning dc.creator (in type 2 data of this post) to the value "Albert Ip" (for this particular post, which is type 1 data in this case). Another meta operation may be to create the frequency count of all the words used in this post.

David Gibson has sent a comment regarding the idea (on Mon, 24 Jan 2005 09:18:13 -0800 (PST)):

What prevents there being an infinite number of meta-4's (pardon the pun). You have defined up to the meta-meta-meta right? It seems that third level is mining the metadata schemas. And it seems that one could keep positing operations on the previous level. Why does it stop with 3 levels?

Thank you, David, for this very thought-provocative comment which helps me clarify some points in this concept.

The first meta operation (which applied on S₁) is like the "traditional" metadata extraction. The operation applies on the individual elements of the Set S₁. This model recognizes that there are many different types of meta operations, including the variation of the metadata schemes, or fundamentally different alogrithm, such as using inverted index.

We can say:

S₂ is the result of operation m on S₁ if and only if

for each element s_2i in S₂, s_2i=m(s_1i)

The meta-meta operation (or should we write it as Meta operation) operates on the set S₁ to provide a datum m₁ (was M₁ in draft 0.1). Again, we note here that there are many different M operations resulting in m₁, m₂,...,m_i,... which collectively are members of the set M₁.

Since M₁ is a set of data, we can apply meta-operation on it to produce a set of metadata for each element of M₁. Alternately, we can apply a Meta-operation on the set M₁ to produce one datum representing a common characteristic of the set M₁.

I think the last paragraph here is the unclear point in draft 0.1.

The Fallacy of Digital Equality

Digital divide existed, exists and will continue to be there no matter what best effort we put in.

I am stating a fact, not advocating that we should create greater inequality. On the contrary, by recognising that digital divide is an inevitable fact, we should learn to develop learning for ALL, not only those best equipped.

Technology is advancing too quickly. Even with unlimited resources (in the unlikely political situation that the government is willing to fund all under-privileged areas to "catch-up" with the other areas in technology), the rolling out of the technology will take time. Some will get better technology *before* the other. That may be 1 year or two. This time different is already one or two generation difference in the technology. But the time the last region gets "updated", the other region has already fallen behind. If you look slightly further, in the un-developed world, they are not talking about education. They are struggling to get by the day without feeling thirsty or hungry!

I am not proposing to solve the world's problem. I just want to remind myself that inequality is a matter of hard life.

Developers are typically equipped with fast machine, huge amount of RAM, unlimited bandwidth, largest and highest resolution monitor. It is quite easy to get used to these environment. In the seeking of job satisfaction, it is easy to fall into the trap of using "cool" technique which requires in-proportionate amount of computing power just to display something irrelevant to the learning objectives. I fell into the same trap myself - just have to constantly remind myself that my philosophy is to give everyone opportunity to learn from your own work - not just those having the greatest technology.

But I am still an e-learning participant.

10,000 visitors

This blog will welcome the 10,000th visitor today. Thank you for your support. If you are the lucky 10,000th visitor, please drop me a note. How to know if you are the 10,000th visitor, scroll down a little to look at the site counter, please.

I started this blog in August 2004. The past 6 months have been an incredible learning journey for me. I have learnt a lot, sharpened my ideas and made a lot of online friends. It is amazing to look back and see how much I have improved in my own thinking. This is a vivid illustration of the hand-on approach of self-learning and self-reflection.

I learnt my computing skill the same way. I entered the world of online role play also in a similar way. Learning and exploring as I go, making small discovery, progress and just continuous to amaze oneself, and be amazed, by new things that we discover. The writing of the blog helps to reflect on the ideas and helps to internalize the idea. What a great way for self-development, especially you know that you are sharing this with a lot of people.

Welcome to my 10,000th visitor. You are truly amazing!