Can we discuss/share/develop a good list of possible subject areas for learning?
This
sort of taxonomy is probably something that varies around the world,
but can we come up with something "good enough" for everyone?
This is to be used in a number of future Moodle projects that will allow sharing and communication between Moodle sites.
Yes, good idea with good justification! Though, hmm .. how would you feel being faced by this ...?
What are the big learning object repositories using?
And yes, multiple categorisation is no problem - one still needs a list of categories to draw from though!
- News, Internet, Museums & Magazines
- Psychology, Witchcraft & Philosophy
- Religion & Mythology
- Education, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Social Sciences
- Language
- Sciences & Mathematics
- Technology, Health & Cooking
- Arts, Sports & Recreation
- Literature
- Geography, History & Travel
- Biography
What are the big learning object repositories using?
And yes, multiple categorisation is no problem - one still needs a list of categories to draw from though!
I would feel scared... especially of the witchcraft ;) though the news can be frightening as well... 
But it might be useful to have it... in many countries it seems to be a standard way to classify things... might as well introduce people to it...? I don't think anyone likes it
But it might be useful to have it... in many countries it seems to be a standard way to classify things... might as well introduce people to it...? I don't think anyone likes it
Today Australia, tomorrow the world??
Shouldn't we leave most of this to wikipedia's and let our brilliant students deliver pages to that system? (thanks for the wikipedia block!)
Lets restrict our work/fun to Moodle centered topics:
- How to setup a modern course(modul) of 10 weeks?
- How to copy sections from one course to another (without multimultistep-backup-restore
- What is the idea of section zero?
- How can I setup a student multistep project with a blueprint like Big6/WISE/webquest/languageQuest?
- How to coach students with their multicourse-planning while using the calendar?
- How to coach students in/around the wiki, the workshop...
- How can our students on our moodle-intranet share experiences with students on your moodle-intranet.
- How to administer in a catalog for the institute the competences of moodlecourses in our curricula? (How to store/share/update/search moodle-course-RUBRICS)
BUT allthis in a Moodle simple/clever/elegant/natural way....
Most of these things are not relevant to this discussion, Ger, except for your last two points. Anytime we try and connect lots of students and teachers from different Moodles then a common taxonomy of some kind will make that easier for them.
I wonder if we should write our own yellow book, or just collect references to GEM MERLOT ARIADNE etc...
A very very nice (old!) example of a lone ranger, worth a link on his own: http://host.explorelearning.com/ESClassic/download.htm
Question: how would your taxonomy handle this example?
(Spotting is not enough, Google or Copernic or.. are always more up to dat for spotting. Embedding in a Moodle context would make the difference)
Martin,
Dump old models and go for Google?
http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html
It seems like a lofty goal, and one that the Moodle community might want to support?
This is how their current search directory looks:
I'm sure Yahoo fans might object, and Yahoo does have a library project...
Dump old models and go for Google?
http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html
"As a part of our mission to organize the world's
information and make it universally accessible and useful, Google is
working with several large libraries to scan their collections, bring
that information online and make it searchable."
It seems like a lofty goal, and one that the Moodle community might want to support?
This is how their current search directory looks:
| Arts Movies, Music, Television,... Business Computers Games Health | Home Consumers, Homeowners, Family,... Kids and Teens News Recreation | Regional Asia, Europe, North America,... Science Shopping Society Sports | |
| World Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Japanese, Korean, Nederlands, Polska, Svenska, ... | |||
I'm sure Yahoo fans might object, and Yahoo does have a library project...
Nice statement from Google, I have just read an article about the power of "information asymmetry" in economy...
Hmm, that looks very much like dmoz.org (which itself was providing an alternative to Yahoo!) I'm actually an editor at dmoz.
Dmoz used to be the basis for Google Directory until they stopped using it a year or so ago. It always annoyed me how Education, as important a subject as it is, is relegated under "Reference" along with Maps and Libraries.
I actually like Yahoo's organisation better!
Dmoz used to be the basis for Google Directory until they stopped using it a year or so ago. It always annoyed me how Education, as important a subject as it is, is relegated under "Reference" along with Maps and Libraries.
I actually like Yahoo's organisation better!
This is also a bit strange. Two different categories: Education and Science & Mathematics 
I always thought that mathematics has something to do with education
Just to categorize it in a hierarchical way will always lead to such oddities. It's a network (a graph) with no top node but many entry points.
I always thought that mathematics has something to do with education
Just to categorize it in a hierarchical way will always lead to such oddities. It's a network (a graph) with no top node but many entry points.
There may be legal problems with using Dewey. Check out the disclaimer on this Wikipedia page.
Concerning mathematics there is
http://www.ams.org/msc/ (main branches)
and
http://www.ams.org/msc/classification.pdf (the entire classification)
However I am not sure if you want to go that much into details in a specific subject field.
http://www.ams.org/msc/ (main branches)
and
http://www.ams.org/msc/classification.pdf (the entire classification)
However I am not sure if you want to go that much into details in a specific subject field.
I think that is a really difficult challenge, and might vary at different stages of education, primary, secondary, etc (different sub-divisions in different countries). In UK HE, a number of subject networks were established for the Institute for Learning & Teaching, now subsumed into the Higher Education Academy, see http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/474.htm
These networks were established top down with funding, but you may be looking at a community-led model.
Maybe for this a networked model might be better where each "thing" (site, content, whatever) could have multiple keywords (maybe one major). I experienced this in technology with Lotus Notes and Learning Space. It was really useful to be able to multiply categorise resources.
In the context of site-sharing it would help communication between clusters - what Etienne Wenger calls boundary-crossing objects.
These networks were established top down with funding, but you may be looking at a community-led model.
Maybe for this a networked model might be better where each "thing" (site, content, whatever) could have multiple keywords (maybe one major). I experienced this in technology with Lotus Notes and Learning Space. It was really useful to be able to multiply categorise resources.
In the context of site-sharing it would help communication between clusters - what Etienne Wenger calls boundary-crossing objects.
I agree there needs to be a way to multiply categorize resources that is in some way community-defined from the grassroots level. Almost anything under the sun can be a subject for learning.
Having said that, I just stumbled on this W3C project for the OWL Web Ontology Language that may be relevant to developing a "taxonomy."
http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-guide/.
Abstract:
"The World Wide Web as it is currently constituted resembles a poorly mapped geography. Our insight into the documents and capabilities available are based on keyword searches, abetted by clever use of document connectivity and usage patterns. The sheer mass of this data is unmanageable without powerful tool support. In order to map this terrain more precisely, computational agents require machine-readable descriptions of the content and capabilities of Web accessible resources. These descriptions must be in addition to the human-readable versions of that information.The OWL Web Ontology Language is intended to provide a language that can be used to describe the classes and relations between them that are inherent in Web documents and applications.
This document demonstrates the use of the OWL language to
- formalize a domain by defining classes and properties of those classes,
- define individuals and assert properties about them, and
- reason about these classes and individuals to the degree permitted by the formal semantics of the OWL language.
The sections are organized to present an incremental definition of a set of classes, properties and individuals, beginning with the fundamentals and proceeding to more complex language components."
Hi,
as Frances stated it should be very useful to be able to multiply categorise resources: as example adding some provision to link to Cyc 6,000 concepts and 60,000 assertions where applicable even if their taxonomy is not retained.
Another example adding some provision for using some form of Bloom's taxonomy for categorizing level of abstraction required by each subject areas for learning will permit to give better automated feedback if wanted/required.
Thanks,
Bernard
as Frances stated it should be very useful to be able to multiply categorise resources: as example adding some provision to link to Cyc 6,000 concepts and 60,000 assertions where applicable even if their taxonomy is not retained.
Another example adding some provision for using some form of Bloom's taxonomy for categorizing level of abstraction required by each subject areas for learning will permit to give better automated feedback if wanted/required.
Thanks,
Bernard
Really, really impressing.
ideal woudl be to ask such a system questions like: show met the resources & activities where students of level W can exercise/test competences X and Y in the domain Z... ..and that are available in the educational design formats A, B or C.
(A stands for Moodle of course )
Hi Ger,
and it will be possible to add another criteria at the end of your query:
and that take between 2 and 3 hours of work per student
Merry Moodling!
Bernard
and it will be possible to add another criteria at the end of your query:
and that take between 2 and 3 hours of work per student
Merry Moodling!
Bernard
Hi Martin,
In the UK schools sector there is already a well-established taxonomy. For details go to:
http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/SupplierCentre/Metadataguides.htm
All Learning Platform (aka LMS, VLE etc) and content vendors are being encouraged to incorporate this taxonomy in their products. See the Learning Platform Conformance Regime at:
http://www.learningplatforms.org.uk/docs/regime.doc
All the best,
Mark
In the UK schools sector there is already a well-established taxonomy. For details go to:
http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/SupplierCentre/Metadataguides.htm
All Learning Platform (aka LMS, VLE etc) and content vendors are being encouraged to incorporate this taxonomy in their products. See the Learning Platform Conformance Regime at:
http://www.learningplatforms.org.uk/docs/regime.doc
All the best,
Mark
Maybe beside of a classification regarding subject areas it would also be helpful to classify by education levels (primary, secundary, tertiary), although I do not know if this is the same worldwide.
In addition what about a general taxanomy that can be extended (plugged-in) by each specific subject field? Then you do not have to bother too much how detailed someone would like to have it (some have posted a very detailed one, see the guy somewhere above)
Btw, I think libraries have an international subject classification. I can have a look if you think this would be helpful (tomorrow, not now... it's late here
).
In addition what about a general taxanomy that can be extended (plugged-in) by each specific subject field? Then you do not have to bother too much how detailed someone would like to have it (some have posted a very detailed one, see the guy somewhere above
Btw, I think libraries have an international subject classification. I can have a look if you think this would be helpful (tomorrow, not now... it's late here
).
MANAGING SELF
PERSONAL EFFICIENCY
· Time Management
· Improving Your Memory
PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
· Innovative Thinking
· Mind Mapping
· Problem Solving and Decision Making
· Effective Speaking
· Personal Image Projection
· Advanced Presentation Skills
· Performing Under Pressure
MANAGING OTHERS
MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS
· Understanding Interpersonal Relationships
· Assertiveness Skills
· Team membership
· Motivating Staff
· Effective Leadership
· Effective Influencing skills
· The Positive Use of Power and Influence
· Improving Staff Performance Through Coaching
· Counseling skills and Follow-up
· Negotiating Skills
TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
· Team Management
· Team Building and Team Leading
MANAGING IN THE
ORGANISATION
PLANNING
· Project Management Foundations
· Effective Planning Meetings
· Project Management Conversions
· Project Management in Practice
SUBJECT EMPHASIS
MARKETING
· Marketing in a Competitive Environment
· Marketing Application and Practice
· Marketing Strategy
· Marketing Planning
· Marketing Communications
· Retail Marketing
PURCHASING
· Contract and Facilities Management
· Purchasing Goods and Services
· The Part-time Buyer
· Negotiating Awareness for Purchasers
· Quality Assurance in Services and Facilities
We can add more to the list
Nagarajan
This is a lot more detail than we need for these applications ... I think a flat list of twenty items or so that covers all of human knowledge would be enough for starters.
One reference list might be Wikipedia's categories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Browse). This might be a bit "nerd-driven", as it has eight main categories, and among them are "Science", "Mathematics" and "Technology". "Education" is under "Personal Life". Worth a look, still.
Hi everybody-I'm a new user to Moodle but jumping on board enthusiastically. I have been working with caching servers in my role as a school librarian and I have been cataloging useful websites first by Dewey and then by our British Columbia "learning outcomes". A standard that is emerging is Dublin Core
http://dublincore.org which GEM seems to be using. It would be graet to see a taxonomy module.
keep up the good work Martin
http://dublincore.org which GEM seems to be using. It would be graet to see a taxonomy module.
keep up the good work Martin
Dublin Core (which has been "emerging" for decades, seemingly ) is really about different things and merely describes technically one way to describe resources (rather than providing any particular taxonomy).
Nevertheless, it's useful to keep in the discussion, thanks, and the reference to GEM is very useful - here is their taxonomy.
Nevertheless, it's useful to keep in the discussion, thanks, and the reference to GEM is very useful - here is their taxonomy.
Some interesting work exists from UNESCO, cataloguing both learning areas and learning levels.
Anyway I think that DEWEY is widely used in a lot of repositories and libraries, UNESCO in libraries and I didn't know about GEM, but it sounds reasonable and short.
Perhaps some mappings could be done across these classifications? In my work, we have some systems working with our own categories (less formal), then, when we are exporting information to other systems (OAI,...) we re-map our categories with their "official" counterparts.
Only one idea! Ciao
Anyway I think that DEWEY is widely used in a lot of repositories and libraries, UNESCO in libraries and I didn't know about GEM, but it sounds reasonable and short.
Perhaps some mappings could be done across these classifications? In my work, we have some systems working with our own categories (less formal), then, when we are exporting information to other systems (OAI,...) we re-map our categories with their "official" counterparts.
Only one idea! Ciao
A way to create a simple/organic reference system: http://wikindx.sourceforge.net/ ?
(or mimic it in eWiki?)
I have always thought the Encyclopaedia Britannica's Outline of Knowledge was easy to follow and to understand. Their broad outline looks like this:
Matter and Energy
The Earth
Life on Earth
Human Life
Human Society
Art
Technology
Religion
The History of Mankind
The Branches of Knowledge
Of course, each of these are broken down into sub-categories, but you get the idea.
Matter and Energy
The Earth
Life on Earth
Human Life
Human Society
Art
Technology
Religion
The History of Mankind
The Branches of Knowledge
Of course, each of these are broken down into sub-categories, but you get the idea.