Off Course-On Target

My LEGO™ Epiphany

In my posting Happy 50th birthday, LEGO blocks!, I mentioned that the genesis of my model of Learning Objects started with one of those wonderful epiphany moments—in this case, from watching my children play with LEGO blocks many years ago. With thanks to those of you who asked, here is the short version of that story.

As with children in most families, my son and daughter have very different needs and styles: one loves clear instructions, directions, and a pre-determined end state (in this case, it was a castle as I recall), and the other wants complete “artistic” freedom and creativity when constructing whatever he can imagine. 

One day, my son was busy creating yet another LEGO masterpiece, and he was having trouble creating just the right nose for his robot. Wandering into his sister's room, he found her busy playing with the LEGO castle she had just put together. She was enjoying rescuing the people in the castle who were under attack from the terrible dragon she’d also built. My son's eyes came to rest on the PERFECT nose for his robot—the LEGO blocks that made up the turret of his sister’s castle. I think you can figure out the rest of the story!  <g>

Once I'd settled the “block war”, it struck me how incredibly well LEGOs, these simple blocks of plastic, met each of their wonderfully different needs. Even better, these LEGOs included blocks that were from my childhood, when LEGOs first came out, and some were purchased literally days earlier. Some came from collections of just an assortment of different size “plain” blocks and others were from specialized kits made to create a specific scene, theme, or object. I began to get that feeling  when you know you’ve stumbled serendipitously upon something really significant, and you just need to figure out what it is.

Was there more to this?  Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could apply this same basic model to other situations and things in our “adult world”?  And so I began a long and winding multi-year journey of refining this dream of a world where everything exists at just the right and in the lowest possible size, much like the individual blocks that make up LEGO systems. 

Some people may find the most value in taking a pre-assembled unit and putting it to direct use; others will want to assemble their own, possibly from scratch, but more likely from sub-assemblies. Some will want instructions and guidance on how to assemble the blocks, while others will want to determine their own results.

The empowerment of literally every individual by such a world full of metaphorical LEGO blocks (no matter how they may be applied) remains as staggering and as exciting to me as that epiphany moment when I watched the wonder of my two little "snowflakes" having their unique needs so wonderfully met by these simple yet powerful blocks.

I will post a more detailed explanation soon of the original model for Learning Objects and how this model can be applied to any type of content and really almost anything else. Stay tuned.

Happy 50th Birthday, LEGO™ blocks!!

Those who know me, have heard me speak, or have read my writings know that one of my longtime favorite models and metaphors is that of LEGO blocks.

Actually, it was my children playing with them 20 years ago that caused one of my greater epiphanies and led me to develop the concept of Learning Objects back in 1992 and I plan to post this fun story on the origin of Learning Objects here on OCOT.

Although my LEGO block model is often criticized for being too simple, I still find it to be a powerful and profound one precisely because of its simplicity.

So how could I NOT mention this is the 50th anniversary of the ubiquitous blocks that were introduced in 1958? According to a January 28, 2008 article on Gearlog, "There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world's 6 billion inhabitants" and "7 LEGO sets are sold by retailers every second around the world."

• Check out this fun timeline that Gizmodo put together on the illustrated history of LEGO.
• View this list from Jennifer DeLeo at PC Magazine of "The Ten Coolest LEGO Inspired Gadgets"?  The list includes everything from LEGO iPod Stereo Speakers, a homemade LEGO MP3 player, a hard drive, a watch and a USB charger. 

What fun!

I've also previously written about  "The LEGO of Gadgets" and the LEGO-like attributes of the fun electronic components from Bug Labs that you can literally snap together to create your own new devices. Check it out!

In the abstract and from my perspective, the LEGO block model:

• Makes infinite scalability a practical reality. It addresses what I've previously referred to as "Living in a World of Exponential Change" and "The Snowflake Effect" of mass personalization at a global scale by enabling you to create infinite new combinations or "assemblies" that are entirely (though not necessarily) created from pre-existing blocks.
• Is based on having a large collection of very, very small "blocks" that can be created in advance of a given need or use. This is a key part of enabling a strategy of "readiness for the unexpected" and dealing with exponential rates of change.
• Adds to the "pool" of blocks for future reuse and re-purposing, because in many cases the creation of new assemblies causes new blocks to be made.
• The "blocks" can come from any source at any time and with no need for any pre-agreements or design.
• Is based on a low-level and simple standard that enables each block to be "snapped" to any other block (size of "pins" in actual LEGO blocks is always the same)
• Each block is "just right" in terms of size—as small as possible, but not one bit smaller (to misquote Einstein)—when it meets two criteria:
  • It can stand by itself, ready for use.
  • It would almost never be used by itself, since it is too small to be of value on its own.
• It enables models that cover both ends of the spectrum, providing for maximum repurposing AND maximum relevance and personalization.

And just to be clear, these "blocks" and this LEGO block model can be applied to literally anything and is certainly not limited to content. For example, I've worked with others to develop applications of this same model for human competencies, software, music. You can also see examples of "hard" objects, such as those in the top ten list mentioned at the beginning.

What applications or ideas do YOU have for the application of this LEGO block model?

Happy 50th Birthday, LEGO!  I, for one, am planning on using you more than ever in the next 50 years AND I plan on being here to help celebrate your 100th anniversary! 

Moving aLOM

If you are a regular visitor here at Off Course - On Target, (OCOT) you know that metadata—characteristics that describe anything and everything—has been a major part of my life and a major focus for many years. If you'd like the full story of my initial recognition of metadata and its value, you can listen to or read my previous posting "Wayne's Wine Epiphany".

What is metadata?

Sometimes metadata is more commonly called "tags", such as the information you provide for things like photos that you upload or blog entries you create and search for. At a simple and personal level, metadata would include your name, phone number, address, family members, your likes and dislikes, skills, knowledge, etc. These are all of the literally millions of characteristics that describe, and to some extent, define you and the world around you.

Among many other benefits and uses, metadata is critical for improved "findabilty" and discovery, as opposed to searching. It is largely via metadata that we are able to find the "right"  people, places, and things (with "right" referring to our individual situations, context, and needs). This also works in reverse by enabling other people, places and things to find us, where appropriate and wanted.

What's been my involvement?

One of my more significant commitments to metadata started back in 1997 with the creation of the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee or LTSC, and within this committee, the formation of the Learning Object Metadata Working Group or LOM. LTSC is a group of volunteers who are devoted to development and implementation of standards for interoperability for use within the worlds of Learning, Education and Training (LET). LOM is a set of standards focused on the metadata required for more effective learning and performance.

I've had the honor of being the Chair of the LOM Working Group for over ten years, and this has afforded me the privilege of working with some of the most dedicated people I know. They have worked tirelessly, and often thanklessly, to produce several fully completed standards for metadata such as the IEEE 1484.12.1 standard for the LOM data model and the IEEE 1484.12.3 standard for the XML binding of LOM to enable the exchange of LOM instances (metadata records).

You may not understand or even be interested in these specifics, which is as it should be for most standards. How much do any of us care or know about such things as TCP/IP, HTTP, or the other standards which make the Internet possible? In a similar way, standards for metadata—of which LOM is but one—are part of what has enabled the improvement  of the creation and interoperability of metadata (though much is still needed).

To our surprise, LOM standards have been implemented broadly, both within the context of learning, education, and training, as well as within an eclectic and extensive list of other domains, including art, history, archives, and human relations. I know of no way to count the amount of such LOM-based metadata nor the number of implementations of LOM, but the numbers are globally dispersed and easily numbered in the millions and beyond.

What's Next?

Now it's time for both LOM and I to move on into our respective next stages and hence the title of this posting. As of January 1, 2008, I will be stepping down as Chair for the IEEE LOM Working Group, and I'm delighted to publicly congratulate Erik Duval for being appointed as the new Chair of LOM. I am about to make some significant changes in my roles and responsibilities, both personally and professionally (more on this in a future posting), and it is time for LOM and metadata overall to evolve to best fit the "Brave New World" we now live in. In spite of his relatively young age, Erik Duval has been one of the longest serving individual experts focused on metadata for learning, education, and training. Based on his work in metadata since the early 1990's, such as the creation of the ARIADNE project which is a large European based consortium focused on knowledge sharing and reuse, Erik was instrumental in the creation of the IEEE LOM WG from its very beginning.  Officially, Erik has served all this time as the Technical Editor of LOM and, along with Tom Wason, they created the initial kernel that grew into the full LOM standard. I could not be happier or more optimistic about the future of LOM and of the advancement of metadata than I am with turning over the leadership to such a capable individual and someone who has become one of my closest professional colleagues.

While those of us who first began to put this focus on metadata knew it was important for the future, I'm not sure that any of us could have imagined the degree to which this would be true or the scale of use and generation of metadata. To meet these new needs and scale will require both the evolution of metadata as we know it, as well as a complete rethinking. Some new leadership and energy will be of great assistance in making this happen. As such, the other main purpose for this posting is to bring your attention to some important and recent developments in the area of metadata; the first is a series of new activities within and related to the current LOM standards, and the second is addressing the longer term future of metadata developments—it's worth keeping your eyes on.

Where is LOM heading?

Here's a short overview of the new activities related to LOM:

• Reaffirmation of the 1484.12.1 LOM standard, which is largely an administrative action required by IEEE for all active standards every five years.  As the name applies this is merely a check that an existing standard is still in active use and will continue to be so. As the millions implementing LOM can attest, this is very much the case.
• Corrigenda for the 1484.12.1 LOM standard, which will provide a list of all the minor (but important) technical corrections and edits to the original LOM standard, which have been discovered by those previously implementing LOM.
• Two New Parts for LOM:  After several years of work led by Mikael Nillson, the Joint DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative) / IEEE LTSC Taskforce has just initiated work on two new IEEE standards.  The previous link will provide you with access to all details of the work to date, previous meeting notes, and ways to contribute to these efforts.  As briefly and coherently as I can put it, these two standards are for:
  • Developing a Recommended Practice for Expressing IEEE Learning Object Metadata Instances Using the Dublin Core Abstract Model to meet the growing demand for interoperable definitions of Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) metadata terms and IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) data elements, which allow these to be used together in metadata instances.
  • Developing a Standard for Resource Description Framework (RDF) Vocabulary for IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) Data Elements. In simpler terms, this standard will  address the increasing demand for definitions of IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) data element semantics, which allow the expression of IEEE LOM instances in applications using Semantic Web technologies such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF). For some data elements, this expression can be achieved using existing, stable RDF vocabularies. The purpose of this standard is to define the semantics of data elements not covered by such vocabularies. This standard forms an important basis for making IEEE LOM useful in this larger metadata context.
• LOM next:  Over the last year or so, we've discussed how we want to make LOM evolve over the longer term. The time has come to consolidate that discussion, gather requirements, and start thinking about how to meet those. Erik and the LOM Working Group have begun a series of open, regular, synchronous discussions in order to first bring everybody up-to-date on these activities, develop a plan of action, and then to begin the necessary new work.
  • These meetings are open to ALL and will be virtual meetings accessible both online and via phone.
  • If you are interested in participating, please either contact Erik Duval directly via e-mail (Erik.Duval@cs.kuleuven.ac.be ) or subscribe to the LOM mail list on the LOM web site. 
  • While those with metadata expertise would be especially welcome, it is equally valuable to get input from a diverse range of others who want to use and benefit from significant improvements in metadata for LET in the future. Please consider adding your input to this important effort.

Trends in Metadata

Metadata is often unnecessarily limited by the popular "data about data" description, but it is so much more than this.  Metadata is perhaps most often applied to "nouns", and my simple minded recollection of the definition of a noun is a person, place, or thing. To date, most of the focus has been on metadata for content (which has been very beneficial and for which much more work is still needed), but the future will include much more attention on the other "nouns"—people, places and things. This post would go on for much too long were I to do justice to any one of these or countless other areas that would benefit enormously from improvements in their related metadata aspects, so I will only list a few areas and provide you with a glimpse of the future potential within. Watch for future developments in metadata for some of the following:

Metadata about PEOPLE

This kind of metadata, especially pertains to our skills, knowledge, abilities, experience, attitudes and competencies.

In one small example, the IEEE LTSC Working Group 20 recently completed a standard for "Reusable Competency Definitions" or RCD, and this Working Group is now looking at other aspects of competencies that would benefit from standards. 

Metadata about PLACES

For example, we are seeing the recent surge of metadata in the use of maps, and GPS metadata is being added to things like Google Earth", which will enable us to answer questions such as:

• "Where are you now?"
• "Where was this photo taken?" 
• "What does this location look like?" 
• "What happened here in 1782?"

Imagine the possibilities as more locations become "smart" with metadata about them and related to them. Photos and video might show what they look like now and in the past. Metadata will be increasingly available for every building, its contents, furniture, features, hazardous materials, fire extinguisher and escape information to name but a very few metadata elements.

Metadata about THINGS

Metadata about things provides the characteristics of all the physical objects in the world, such as machines, parts, equipment, food, furniture, music...well you get the idea. 

Add to this all the non-physical things, such as objects created in virtual worlds. Now imagine if all these "things" were connected and could start to share this information and "talk" to each other.

You are already familiar with bar codes, which contain the metadata for everyday things, as well as the more recent use of RFID tags to electronically capture and broadcast all of this metadata. This is sometimes referred to as "the Internet of things". See the 2005 executive summary of the Internet of Things for one perspective and more detail on this concept.

For example, imagine if all the ingredients in your kitchen made all their metadata available, such as how full or empty they are, when they are about to expire, which combinations might let you make a dinner along the lines of what you desire, and without a trip to the store.  It's all just metadata!

To learn more:

• Wikipedia provides this brief overview on the related topic of object hyperlinking.
• This short BBC article from 2005 discusses how the United Nations was predicting such a "network of everyday objects".

AUTOMATED metadata generation (AMG)

Once you start to consider the massive amount of metadata that is required and possible for each and every person, place, and thing, you quickly "do the math" and realize the overwhelming problem of "How will all this metadata ever be created?" Our initial tendency has been to assume that metadata is all human generated—literally "typed in" to forms. If this were true, there would not be much of a future for metadata, since there is most likely more metadata than data and certainly more metadata than there are people, places, or things! 

While human generated metadata, especially the more "subjective" metadata elements, will always play an ever more critical role in the future, it will become the minority of the overall volume of metadata. Increasingly, metadata will be generated automatically.

To learn more:

• See this article on AMG which comes from one of the many groups that Professor Erik Duval leads at KU Leuven, a prestigious Belgian university.

USER GENERATED metadata

Did you know that literally all the metadata for all the CD's and music you see displayed on your MP3 players, iPods and computers, artist name, title, album name, etc. is generated by other listeners, such as yourself and NOT by the record companies or publishers? What if we could tap into the metadata that each one of us (eventually all 6.6 billion of us) are probably generating every day, such as the tags and captions we add to photos, the PowerPoint slides we create, and search terms we use, to name but a few?  Such is the power of user generated metadata and there will be much work in the future to increase the generation of, capturing, and putting to effective use the flood of metadata that will result.

ATTENTION metadata

Attention metadata is a common term for all the metadata that captures your likes and dislikes, and which can help you find everything from great music to listen to, people to get together with, TV shows and video to watch, etc. We can think of it as the things we "pay attention to"...hence the name.

Attention metadata is what recommender systems are based on. One such effort to address some of the needs for better capturing and interoperability of this type of metadata is that of the attention.xml group. You can listen to this 2004 podcast with some of the originators of attention.xml and this podcast and blog from Alex Barnett discussing attention related topics.

Why would you need this? Consider shopping sites that track your buying patterns, and your opinions and preferences after such purchases, and use these to help you find additional items that you may want (if you let them). How does the system know if you are buying the item for yourself or as a gift for someone special? Currently they do not, and therefore the recommendations become less relevant and you likely stop using them. However as these issues begin to be addressed, there will be more and more "decision support" to help us deal with the growing problem of an economy of abundance and too much choice for those of us privileged enough to live in such situations.

Metadata UNIQUE and SPECIFIC to LET

While some of the metadata standards, such as LOM, are intended to cover the application to LET, most of the initial work to date has been much more general and largely applied to content. There is an enormous need for much greater focus on metadata that is unique and specific to learning, education, and training. This would include metadata to assist with evaluation and assessment—matching learning styles with teaching styles, and helping each of us as unique individuals to have LET options that are just right for us at just the right time and in just the right way.

And trust me, this is but a minor scratch on the vast surface of but one slice of metadata and its very exciting future! 

So LOM, for now....

I certainly have mixed emotions about reducing my direct involvement in LOM and the development of some of these future metadata related topics. However, I can't imagine leaving LOM in better hands than those of Erik Duval and the many, many other dedicated individuals, old and new, who have such dedication and passion for improving learning, education, training, and performance and indeed the world in general, through better use and generation of metadata.

Whether or not you consider taking an active role in this future development of LOM and metadata standards and specifications, I certainly encourage you to pay more attention to the role of metadata and how it serves as a fundamental principle in the future of your life, both personal and professional, and the future of the world around us.

Wayne

Ambient and Informal Information Filtering

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If you are reading this, then you are probably aware of the growing challenge that we all face of information overload. Even if you don't suffer (as I do) from the medical version of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), a global level of ADD seems to be affecting us all, because we simply have too many things to pay attention to. 

The Internet has helped us to discover that the more you learn, the more you find things that you don't know, but are interested in. On a daily basis, we are discovering more people, places, things, topics, professions, gadgets, and problems through more avenues than ever before. 

How many times do you find yourself asking "How did I get here?" after following some thread of interesting and related web links? How often do you ask a similar question in a conversation with a colleague or friend?  At least for me, this opportunity for overload on the Internet is one of those love/hate relationships...yet I want more!

BUT I also want to do more RELEVANT finding and learning. Now, I don't want anyone or anything to MAKE the decisions for me, but I'm desperately seeking assistance in making more decisions, faster and better. In other words, I'm looking for "decision support" that is designed to match the exponential increase of learning and information out there. 

This is hardly a trivial problem, nor is it one I suspect we'll have mastered anytime soon, but what I'm finding is that there is an increasing amount of decision support available. So I wanted to bring two kinds to your attention today (if you've got the time and attention?!).

I like to think of information as "that which informs".  It is a simple yet profound perspective that I've found extremely helpful. Claude Shannon, often referred to as "the father of information theory", put it best when he said "information causes change; if it doesn't it isn't information"  For me, information can take almost any form—text, people, drawings, graphics, machines—literally anything I can sense, I suppose. And it is only information if it is new to me, which could mean it is something I've seen before, something that itself might be very old, but is now in a new context, or now I'm able to understand it or see it in a new light. In other words, information is something relevant to what I'm thinking about or working on at the time. 

You can see how this is topic is such an important part of my focus on mass personalization, the Snowflake Effect, and getting everything "just right" as in just the right information to just the right person(s) at just the right time in just the right way, etc.

Because if what IS information is all so personal and contextual, then information filtering is itself a tricky business. We only want to filter out the irrelevant stuff, yet that saying about "one person's garbage is another person's treasure" certainly applies to information and ideas. But I worry that serendipitous discoveries of great things will get lost in these information filters.

Therefore, I think that we humans will be a significant part of the process of successful information filtering, and at least right now, what we need is that decision support layer between us, along with the delightful deluge of choices. We need something to act as our personal agent to bring us more things which have a high probability of being relevant, while providing some tools and techniques that help us make better decisions faster.

Ambient Information?

Some of the best information filtering today seems to work very informally or indirectly. I've heard this referred to as "ambient information" by some and I think it's a good description. Ambient information is aimed at reducing data overload. It acts as a "decision support device" by moving the information into the world around us. It is a bit like staring up at the night sky and discovering that you can see clusters of stars best when you don't look at them directly but rather, off to one side. Here are two examples of what I'm referring to as informal information filtering and ambient information:

PARTiCLS:  Paying Attention to Personalized Aggregation

PARTiCLS is a web-based RSS application that appears on your desktop as a constantly scrolling set of headlines for you to consider. It's a bit like a scrolling stock ticker. Developed by the Australia-based startup behind APML, its co-founder Chris Saad described PARTiCLS as "an attention management engine for busy people who deal with a constant stream of incoming information." "Particls to take RSS Mainstream" by StartupSquad provides a more detailed review. I've been experimenting with a "pre-beta" version for the past few months and now it is available as a public beta (fascinating how the whole beta phenomena has evolved, isn't it?).

PARTiCLS is also a good example to me of the maturing of RSS. In particular, it provides a very "Grandma-friendly" interface (this is a reference to my recent "Going after Grandma" post). While RSS is popular with some audiences, it has not been at all friendly to the true masses, who have been slow to use it. Nor has RSS even begun to reach its potential. I'm convinced that RSS will continue to grow and evolve in importance, and applications such as PARTiCLS will help it to make inroads with the masses. It's worth a look.

I'm recommending that you try "learning by doing" with PARTiCLS is so you can experience a form of informal information filtering that I referenced at the outset of this post. To get started with PARTiCLS, you can simply enter any number of words, in any order. No syntax, no forms, just stream of consciousness; whatever comes to your mind at the time. The entry box is available at any time.  It lets you see what your terms are, and you can add or delete them as your interests change.

What I was REALLY hoping to see in future releases of PARTiCLS is the ability to monitor my "attention" and then for it to either start automatically adding appropriate terms to my list or recommending ones for me to add. I'm delighted to see that they have started down this path with "Auto-detected interest" and "Auto subscribe" features that scan your browsing history and detect some of your attention data, and then automatically subscribe you to new sites that you are visiting regularly. 

Something else that really sets PARTiCLS apart from other RSS readers and applications is its ability to sort out how important new information is to you and then use proportionally different means to alert you to it. For example, general information might be displayed on the news ticker that I mentioned earlier, whereas more important items might appear as a popup alert, and urgent information might be sent via SMS to your phone. PARTiCLS has also just added a new "inTouch" option that enables you to embed a PARTiCLS link on your web site or blog. When readers click on it, they can automatically use PARTiCLS to monitor topics that you cover.

I recommend that you take it out for a test drive, and let me know what your experience is like when you do. Does it have the right balance between being a form of "ambient information" or is it too distracting? How well does it help you sort out the important and relevant stuff for you?

Orbs

Even more indirect, informal, and perhaps effective are some emerging "ambient information devices" such as the Ambient Orb pictured here, as well as an ambient umbrella that glows when rain is likely to occur.  Ambient Devices (the company) positions this as being the best of both worlds of "push" and "pull" types of information distribution. In their article about the orb device, the New York Times said :

"This is ambient information''—the newest concept in how to monitor everyday data. We've been cramming stock tips, horoscopes and news items onto our computers and cell phones—forcing us to peer constantly at little screens. What if we've been precisely wrong?"

Since their introduction, some of which were dismissed as "just a fad", there have been some very successful and "serious" implementations. For example in the recent (Aug/07) Wired magazine article "Psst! You're Wasting Electricity", reporter Clive Thompson thinks that "the desktop orb could reform energy hogs".  His article cited the growing use of orbs or other forms of ambient information by power companies to help customers reduce their bills and their energy consumption. For example, Southern California Edison power company got its customers to reduce energy use by 40 percent. This was also after several very unsuccessful attempts using automated phone calls, text messages, and emails. 

With this success, I noticed that Ambient Devices is now selling this "Energy Joule" device that plugs into any wall socket and provides up-to-date readouts of the cost of the energy you are currently consuming. 

But it is this success at changing behaviors that I found to be most interesting and promising here. It fits very nicely with my previous notions of "decision support", since these devices are helping to manage the information overload and helping us make better decisions. 

You may have experienced another form of this if you have ever driven a vehicle with some a real-time fuel consumption readouts on the dashboard. Even better might be one that added the current cost of the fuel and read out in units that we all seem to understand very well and react to—money! 

Thompson goes on to suggest:

"Maybe the real killer app for ambient information isn't alleviating data overload or tracking investments. Maybe it's taming global warming. To improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions, we first need to make omnipresent the hidden facts about our usage—paint them on the world around us." 

Sounds a lot more effective and immediate that many of the other ideas out there and it is one that I could see actually changing behaviors and trends.

Already one company, DIY Kyoto has a device called Wattson that both monitors your energy consumption AND sends the data to a web site so you can compare your usage with others worldwide. As Thompson astutely notes in his Wired article: 

"The hope is that it could spawn a cascade of conservations. It's fun seeing your personal energy tab go down by kilowatts but just imagine watching the world's usage plunge by terawatts or petawatts.  Now that's fun."

For whatever purpose you might have, I'd strongly encourage you to do some experiential learning with these new forms of information filtering and decision support. I'd love to hear about your use of these models and how successful or not they are at changing behaviors and improving decisions.   

In future posts, I'm going to pick up on this idea of using fun for serious purposes, while it seems to produce important results. Stay tuned.

w
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This is GREAT Learning Design, is it “Knot”?

One of my passions is sailing, and recently I’ve been preparing my steel mono hull sailboat for some long-term offshore sailing and discovery. I named the boat Learnativity, because one of my motivations is to experience some serious learning as I prepare for and embark upon this new adventure. To date, the boat is certainly living up to it's name!.

Sailboats require lots of ropes, so knots become a very important and significant part of your life aboard. I was a boy scout once (actually a Queen Scout, as they are called in Canada) and so I used to know how to tie lots of knots, but I’ve certainly forgotten most of them. This is the forgetting part, not the UNLearning part!  So I was delighted to find some assistance with learning and practicing various knots in the form of a web site called Animated Knots created by Alan Grogono who is known as “Grog”.

Whether you care about knots or not (sorry, couldn’t resist), I would STRONGLY encourage you to check out this site, because it is a fantastic form of great content design and design for learning. As with many powerful designs, this one is elegantly simple and is something that can be easily implemented and used for a wide variety of skills and applications.

Alan has provided a simple way for the learner (in this case, someone who ties knots) to see very clearly how the knot is tied. He breaks up the process into individual steps that he has photographed, but instead of laying these out as static graphics with supporting text (as I suspect most learning resources would do), he came up with a very smart and simple layout and method that shows each step AND lets the you see each step in sequence or as a fluid animation. 

He does this with a series of step-by-step photos, displayed in a single window. A set of numbered boxes is displayed below the window.  Rolling over a box brings up the photo for each step one by one.  By running the cursor over the series of numbers, you can tie and untie the knot at any speed you like, focus on just one or two steps of the process, and pause anywhere along the line.  You can also choose from a fast and slow automated animation that is a repeating loop of each step.  Smart, simple and it works!

As usual, pictures are much better than words for both tying knots and understanding this model, so check out this example of how to tie a bowline, a very handy knot for creating a secure loop at the end of a rope, or on any point along a rope or line. And for all you overachievers, check out how to tie a bowline with one hand!

I imagine that we can all benefit from knowing a few knots. The site has knots for boating, climbing, fishing, scouting, search and rescue, household, and decorative applications.

It’s VERY much worth checking out. You’ll “knot’ only learn how to tie some knots, but you’ll see a very effective way of designing content to help people understand and learn. What other applications can you imagine for this great design? 

As always, be sure to send me your comments, reactions and experiences.

w
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Mashed Up Snowflakes?

One of my main objectives here at Off Course – Off Target is to share and explain some of the key concepts and models that I have developed or adopted, and then provide examples that show how these concepts are becoming a reality.

The Snowflake Effect

Those who are familiar with me through my blog, my presentations, or just casual conversations know that I am driven by my passionate belief that personalization at the global level—what I call “the Snowflake Effect”—can now be achieved.  I’ve often described this effect as getting it “just right”, as in just the right content, to just the right person, at just the right time, in just the right context, on just the right medium or device, and any number of other “just rights” that you might imagine.

One of the fundamental enablers that make this Snowflake Effect possible is the universal application of a “Lego block” conceptual model—having a large collection of very small individual components (the Lego blocks), each of which has an equally small set of common standards (such as the common “pin” size of each block), so that it is possible for any block to be “snapped” together with any other block. 

You can choose any combination of blocks and assemble them together to form a unique result matched to a unique purpose and context. A finite set of blocks can be combined together in nearly infinite combinations, providing the potential for massive amounts of personalization. And talk about scalability!  As the number of blocks grows linearly, the number of combinations grows exponentially.

Mashups

This same idea is at the root of “mashups”, a term commonly used to refer to a unique combination of software code. But the notion of mashups is MUCH more universal, and can and will be applied to more purposes. I’ve made several presentations on this idea in the past few years. You can read more about it in my previous post The Future is a Marvelous and Monstrous Mashup. I believe that restricting mash ups to software code is completely arbitrary. When we treat it as a concept and apply it to many other things, it becomes truly powerful and profound. My personal definition of a mash up is simply:

A mash up is a unique assembly of bits and pieces from more than one source into a single integrated whole.

So “mashup” as a concept can and already does apply to almost everything. Some examples previously noted included:

• Music: Pandora.com, Last.FM
• Content: wikis, blogs, rich media
• Events: Mashup Camp, Tim O’Reilly’s Foo Camp
• People: Finding the right ones for a project team via their competencies, preferences, etc.

The Universal Widget API

So I was so intrigued to read the recent announcement from Netvibes.com called  the “Universal widget API”.  I see this as a very significant step towards this more universal application of mashups and an example of the Snowflake Effect.

What is a Universal Widget API? One of their bloggers said:

"It’s simple: Write once. Run everywhere.

• Open source JavaScript runtime
• Netvibes UI library to help make widget building quick and easy
• Connects communities together across all platforms and APIs"

If you are not familiar with this use of the term “widget” it has most recently been used to describe a bit of software code that can be embedded into any Web page and creates a little onscreen element that the user interacts with, such as a YouTube clip. For example, I’ve used the SlideShare viewer “widget” here on Off Course – On Target to embed my slides directly into a posting. You have probably seen and used examples of widgets that display a clock or maps on a page.

If you’d like to check out more examples and start using some of these widgets, you can look at:

• Yahoo widgets
• Konfabulator Widget Gallery
• Apple Dashboard widgets
• Wordpress Widgets
• Google Maps API

API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, a set of tools that makes it easier for programmers to build a software application by providing all the building blocks (that Lego approach again!). The Webopedia definition of API is:

“Abbreviation of application program interface, a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks. A programmer puts the blocks together.”

In his recent  “e-Clippings” blog entry about Netvibes Universal Widget API, Mark Oehlert said:

“I do have to wonder though, how one company will develop a universal API....good for Netvibes for taking the lead on this.” 

I certainly agree. Whether Netvibes pulls this off or some other group does so later on, any step toward a more universal and standard API for widgets would be welcomed. A standard would allow for:

• The universal development, sharing, and reuse of such marvelously useful widgets.
• Help make their use much more ubiquitous.
• Shift the focus onto the actual content and usefulness of these widgets.

To learn more about the Netvibes Universal Widget API, check out Niall Kennedy’s detailed explanation “Universality of the web widget”.

What I would ask YOU to think about and comment on, is what widget would you most like to have? If we were to have a giant repository of widgets, what would you want to find there?

Let’s get creative and start building the demand for widgets, so as they become more ubiquitous, the supply will match our demand and real needs. To help you do so, be sure to try out some of the widget libraries I already noted and the many others you can easily find online. They will help you see their underlying power and value. Soon you’ll be saying, "This is great, but if I could only find one that would let me ………."

Happy finding and learning in widget world!

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More on Metadata

While catching up with my online reading after a very hectic and productive week in Berlin, I was delighted to find that my posting in October about a keynote I presented on the Future of Metadata and Learning Objects at the International Conference on Digital Archive Technology (ICDAT) in Taipei had stimulated a series of comments in other blogs. I was particularly interested in comments by Scott Wilson and Andy Powell who are very well versed in metadata, and by Stephen Downes, a prolific blogger and presenter on related topics.

I always find it interesting how others interpret what I’ve written or said. Their comments serve to remind me that posting slides from one of my talks without the accompanying audio can make it difficult for the reader to know what I intended. When I posted the slides, I tried to fill in the missing audio using supplemental text. Stephen, perhaps wisely, often posts his presentations by capturing the audio portion, and then offering it as an MP3 file for downloading.

After reading my postings again several times, I’m still puzzled as to why the slides and accompanying text were sometimes misinterpreted, but since each of their postings made several good observations and since more discussion about the important topic of metadata is much appreciated, I encourage you to read them.

• Scott Wilson's comments are at http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott/blogview?entry=20061130132607

• Stephen Downes posted two comments at http://www.downes.ca/archive/06/11_29_news_OLDaily.htm and
  http://www.downes.ca/archive/06/11_30_news_OLDaily.htm

• Andy Powell joins in at http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2006/11/index.html

To further the discussion, over the next week or so, I plan to expand on some of these comments. Thanks again to Scott, Stephen and Andy for taking the time to read and comment on my previous postings.  I hope this will stimulate even more discussion by others.

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Erik and Ecuador

While our time together in Guayaquil Ecuador only overlapped by a few hours, it was a treat as always to meet up with my great colleague and friend, Erik Duval. I won't even start to try to list Erik's many accomplishments, positions, and leadership, but suffice it to say that Erik is easily one of the brightest stars I know (and I mean that both figuratively and literally!).

In his "day job" when he is not out traveling, leading and speaking, he is professor of the research unit on Hypermedia & Databases, at the Computer Science Department of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven located just outside Brussels. You can find out much more about Erik on his home page.

Erik is largely responsible for the recent development of a Latin-American network of learning object repositories. One of his many talented grad students, Xavier Ochoa is from Guayaquil and he organized the first Latin American Conference on Learning Objects (LACLO). As per my previous posts, I had the privilege of being asked to give the opening keynote at this event last week and Erik was the other keynoter on Thursday. Erik's presentation on "Open Learning" has some excellent points, and you can find his slides (using the very handy new SlideShare utility BTW) and his comments on his blog.

Be sure to check out Erik's other posts and sites. I think you'll want to subscribe and be a regular visitor. I know I am!

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LACLO: A Perfect Storm in the Making?

My keynote to the first Latin American Conference on Learning Objects (LACLO) noted a series of events and factors that exist in this region, which I believe may well lead to unprecedented progress. The net result for the region will not only be getting "on the map", but becoming a leader in the area of Learning Objects, learning, and performance.

Here is an easily viewable version of my presentation using the very handy new SlideShare utility (see www.slideshare.net for more info). And for those who would like to reuse and repurpose any of these slides, covered by Creative Commons license as always, you can download LACLO.ppt. 

One of the factors that may lead to unprecedented progress in this region is their opportunity to "leapfrog" over past and current technologies and models to create an entirely new one. Rising oil prices have provided a tremendous increase in funding in this region because they have been using the revenue in part to create a region wide infrastructure of technology and wiring up the whole area with unbelievable amounts of bandwidth. In Ecuador for example they have a government policy that anything over $25 a barrel goes exclusively to funding four key areas: education, agriculture, science & technology and nuclear medicine. Think about what sort of budget increase that has been in the last few years!

By creating a focus on Learning Objects (and what is essentially mass amounts of content development, management, and sharing across the whole of Latin and South America), this region has the very real potential to jump from almost no presence in these technologies, methodologies, production, and use, to a true leadership role. In my keynote, I noted this potential, as well as the fact that this event was largely initiated by the close partnerships they have been forming with consortia in Europe, such as the ARIADNE Foundation.

In my keynote I encouraged them to avoid standing beside or behind those who have gone before them, and instead, leap up and practice the art of "standing on the shoulders of giants"--using all the lessons learned by other pioneers to start from this point and go beyond. I also encouraged them to consider NOT repeating or improving upon what others have done, but rather, to focus on new areas that need to converge for a more holistic, systemic, and substantial approach to learning and performance. These areas include more automated metadata generation, pattern recognition, a very granular treatment of human competencies, and creation of personalized performance objectives. 

All of these factors and events bode very well for their success in creating of a whole network of repositories of content based on mass contributions from with this vast region and within a global framework of sharing and reuse.  While one never wants to mistake potential for reality, the promise is very real based upon the energy and commitment I witnessed. I encourage us all to keep an eye on the progress made by LACLO and to join in contributing to and benefiting from this exciting new development. I know I will.

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The Future of Metadata

My recent presentation at the 2006 International Conference on Digital Archive Technologies (ICDAT 2006) in Taiwan, dealt with the connection between content, competencies, and context, and how these domains are based upon a foundation of supporting metadata.  Below is a SlideShare version of the slides I used and if you would like to reuse or repurpose any of the slides you can download ICDAT2006.ppt

Some of my key points for the future of metadata included:

• Automated metadata generation (AMG) for producing the vast majority of metadata
• Augmenting AMG with the manual metadata from both mass contribution (consumers) and experts such as librarians, indexers and the like
• Making metadata much more transparent to the end users and remember that metadata is a means to the end of finding (rather than searching!)the "right stuff"
• Metadata "beyond text" to include the vast majority of content which is in the form of video, audio, photos, etc.
• Getting rid of the limiting default definition for metadata as "data about data" and extending it to include such things as metadata on people (e.g. competencies, skills, knowledge), places (e.g. GIS, location based), and equipment
• The power of inferred and implicit metadata, that which can be inferred from existing metadata by their relationships, such as if we know that daughters = female then all instances of daughter are also instances of female
• Capturing and automating "Attention metadata" (patterns of preferences, practices)
• The critical role and need for capturing and using Contextual metadata

After covering some of the history and current myths and misconceptions, I addressed the topic of the future of Learning Objects and covered some of the following points:

• The mass contribution phenomena of consumers providing massive quantities of metadata. Examples include all the metadata for music such as that on CDDB and the metadata being generated by the millions using Flickr and del.icio.us
• The mass customization and personalization of Learning Objects, such that we are able to have "just the right" content at the just the right time, on just the right device or medium, etc.
• Automating the assembly of content in general and Learning Objects in particular
• The inclusion of contextual metadata to enable content assemblies that are ideally matched to the unique situation of each individual

Given that I managed to do the whole presentation without a voice and yet got a rousing applause and extended session of questions afterwards, it appeared that they were able to hear me, and the comments resonated strongly with this audience.

Till next time,

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