The PALO Language: A Cognitive Approach of Educational Modelling Languages

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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
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Contents

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

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What is an ELM

• An EML is a declarative description of
• Educational content
• Components
• Activities
• Scheduling
• Organized in courses or Units of Study

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Inmmediate benefits of an EML

• A technological independence from the final
  delivery format
• CD-ROM, PDF, E-BOOK,
• Interactive WEB SITE...
• Higher level of abstraction in the authoring
  process.
• Maintainability Reusability.

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How The description of an Instructional system

• Generic EMLs
• XML file
• Technology independent description

• Structure
• Domain knowledge
• Activities tools
• Model of use
• Instructional Model

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Why do we need this?

• Interoperability
• Interchangeability
• Maintainability
• Reusability
• STANDARDS

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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.

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Domain Knowledge

• The content matter of the learning scenario,
  Course or Unit of Study
• Different approaches (REUSABILITY and
  GRANULARITY)
• 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

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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
• Collaborative / Individual
• Interactivity
• Management of tools

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Individual/Cooperative paradigm

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

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Instructional Model

• Some features of the EML could allow the creation
  of learning scenarios with a given pedagogical or
  instructional model
• 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)

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EML vs. PALO
EML PALO
Learning Model Individual/Cooperative Individual
Structure Unit of Study Courses
Domain Model Knowledge Object Domain Ontologies
Theories of instruction Explicit Embedded Instructional Templates
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Authoring Process
lt!DOCTYPE cea system " gtltcea
nombrecea.dtd con Linux" dir"ricli9900"
ltgestiongt ltbdobjetos tipo ltbdobjetos tipo
ltbdtareas tipo" bdtareasgt ltmetainformacion
tipo"dc" cod"rfc2731"gt
ltcontenidogt ltambitogtUNEDlt/ambitogt...
Creation of the PALO description
Selection of a DTD According to the Pedagogical
model
Instance of the Domain Model
Design of the Domain Model
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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)
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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
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An example Models and Meta-Models
Model
Involve
Con 031
Prob001
Prob002
Prob003
Prob004
Instance
Is Solution
Sol 023
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PALO production cycle
PALO Template (DTD)
PALO File (SGML)
Domain Knowledge Base
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Editing Process
Student Scenario
PALO Document
PALO Compiler
Tutor Scenario
Domain Model
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Information models
Management Use Work
(Dymanic)
Domain Knowledge Model (Static)
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History

• Started in 1997 in the framework of a CICYT
  project (Spanish Ministery of Education)
• Development 1997-2000
• 1998 ? PALO v1.0
• 1999 ? PALO v2.0
• Actually ? PALO v3.7
• New releases include new tags or new
  instructional templates (DTDs)

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Actual uses of PALO

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

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Future developments

• Migration from SGML to XML
• New parser tools in java
• New ideas
• 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 DiViLAB project
• Software freely available with GPL
• Content Definition language for Tec-Infor
  platform (http//www.uned.es/iued)

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Some references...

• PALO Web site http//sensei.lsi.uned.es/palo
• DiViLAB Project http//www.divilab.org
• UNED Dept. Languages and Computer Systems
  http//www.lsi.uned.es
• Thanks!