Subject: Re: IFETS-DISCUSS Digest - 24 Feb 2000 to 25 Feb 2000
From: Stephen Downes (stephen.downes@ualberta.ca)
Date: Fri 25 Feb 2000 - 22:22:54 MET
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 14:22:54 -0700 From: Stephen Downes <stephen.downes@ualberta.ca> Subject: Re: IFETS-DISCUSS Digest - 24 Feb 2000 to 25 Feb 2000
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Details of current discussion: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
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Another short note:
As Clark Quinn <cquinn@knowledgeplanet.com> discusses descriptions of
difficulty levels, he writes, in part,
<< This is now in the IEEE dictum, but I think it's problematic. First, our initial work seems to
indicate that there are more contributions to difficulty in problem level, including at least:
the concept, as you indicate; the problem statement in it's clarity and relevance; the amount of
scaffolding provided for solution; and the way the responses are to be indicated.>>
I think it's unrealistic to expect or require only one 'difficulty' metric. First, as Clark
correctly observes, 'difficulty' is a derived metric, based on a number of other
factors. But second, both 'difficulty' and these derived metrics vary from domain
to domain. What is difficult for a Grade 10 student is easy for a college graduate.
One would hope.
Designations like 'difficulty' and even 'level', 'context', 'scaffolding' and the like
depend on schemas of associated words within a given context. As such, they
act like RDF parameters, wherein the definition of a parameter refers to the
schema or ontology from which it is drawn. Thus, instead of metadata like this:
<difficulty degree="hard>
You get metadata like this:
<rdf: RDF
...
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core#">
<dc:difficulty degree=hard>
where in this case, 'difficulty' has a precise meaning, as defined in the schema established
by 'dc' (Dublin Core) and located at http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core#
Purchasing institutions (Points of Collection, to use the terminology of my previous
email) will determine which schema to use when sorting for 'difficulty'; smart
originators will rank 'difficulty' across a number of different schemas.
-- Stephen Downes - Information Architect - University of Alberta stephen.downes@ualberta.ca http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/downes--------------------------------------------------------- Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/ Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html ---------------------------------------------------------
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