discovering and using learning resources across contexts: eqnet

www.europeanschoolnet.org - www.eun.org

Using and discovering learningresources across contexts: eQnet

Dr. Riina Vuorikari, European SchoolnetSeptember 28, 2010 Barcelona

www.europeanschoolnet.org

• Background: different ways to organisethe world around us

• Why discovering multilingual learningresources is hard?

• Bridging across contexts

• Why datasets can help here?dataTEL and eQnet

Presentation outline


Cataloguing and metadata


Stigmergy





• Why datasets can help here?eQnet and dataTEL



Example of multilingual searchfor learning resources


Why should I discover learningresources across countries?


Discovering learning resources across language boundaries is challenging!

Main problem: the resource & its metadata description are madein a different context from where the resource is discovered

and/or actually used

Problem statement


Tried Google for multilinguallearning resources?


What do we know from theliterature reivew?

Mukherjee, R., & Mao, J. (2004). Enterprise Search: Tough Stuff• Why searching intranet is so much harder than

searching the Web? Content is oftentimes notcross-referenced and lack the typical link-structure of the Internet

Halavais, A. (2000). National borders on the World Wide Web• Web sites in most cases are more likely to link to

another site hosted in the same country than tocross national borders

Berendt, B., & Kralish, A. (2009)• Show that the smaller the language is, the smaller

the relative percentage of in-links is


Learning resources from

different countries and

in different languages rarely cross-reference via hyperlinks!

Problem statement


The Economist (Sep 2nd 2010)• “People are online what they are offline:

divided, and slow to build bridges.”• This seems to be the case for commerce,

news and social networks!


But «social web» for sure haschanged something?

“Sure, the web connects the globe,

but most of us end up hearing mainly

from people just like ourselves.”


The Economist (Sep 2nd 2010)• “People are online what they are offline: divided, and

slow to build bridges.”• This seems to be the case for commerce, news and

social networks!

Zuckerman on Google data, 50 top websites in 30 countries• Almost every country reads all but 5% of its news from

domestic sources

Zuckerman on “Peace on Facebook”• Only 1-2% of the combined total of friendships on

Israeli and Palestinian accounts. For Greece andTurkey, his estimate was 0.1%



John Kelly (Morningside Analytics) examined linksbetween blogs and twitter accounts in India andPakistan

• Discovered two hubs that link the twocountries:• South Asian expats in London link freely

to each other and to their home countries.• And cricket fans in both countries link up

spontaneously.



Add a rating

New kid on the block - tagging

Add a tag


New patterns emerge


Social

tags

make

digital

trails

visible!

by Stiphy


Spanish resource

Tag«interactive»

Tags create link-structures beweencontent in different languages

Finnish resource

Slovakian resource


Austria

Hungary

Finland

Resource that«Travels well»

Tags create link-structures beweenusers in different countries


Resource provider

Tag «optics»

OERCommons

EUN

Tags create link-structures beweenrepositories in different countries


«Social» helps bridge acrosscontexts

=• Language• Country• Repository

• Curriculum ...

This opens novelways for bettercross-language

discovery of learningresources


dataTEL (under Stellar)

• Dataset challenge in the TEL context• http://www.teleurope.eu/pg/groups/9405/data

tel/

• Aim: challenges around domain specificdatasets– formal education dataset,

– an informal education dataset,

– mixture of both

• un-conference stylein Barcelona,– RecSys 2010

– ECTEL 201029


• Context = country, language, educational system,

curriculum...

• We have gained understanding that some content is

more useful than other..

• e.g. science, cross-curriculum

topics, language learning

eQnet: Can resources be used acrosscontexts?


Where to find « travel well » attributes?

2. Easyness to find theresource

(e.g. metadata & searchability)

4. Actual use of resources(e.g. evidence that LO is used in

different contexts)

1. Creating resources(e.g. visual, easy translation,

language independent,..)

3. Selecting « travel well »resources

(e.g. personal choice vs. basedon criteria)

Gut feeling?


Search for «travel well» attributes:top-down and bottom up

• Checklists on quality of learning resources,

technical aspects, usability, ....


eQnet teachers network (10 countries)


Collections of « travel well » resourceson LRE


Collections of « travel well » resourceson KlasCement


Interested in trying out?

www.eqnet.eun.org

Lreforschools.eun.org

http://www.unilearning.eu

Thank you!

discovering and using learning resources across contexts: eqnet

Education

different ways

different context

different countrieswww

social web

multilingual learningresources

organisethe world

world wide web web sites

linkstructures beweencontent