Web services plug-in to implement "Dispositives" on Web 2.0 applications Pierre-André Caron Team NOCE, Trigone/LIFL laboratory, University of Sciences and Technology, Lille, France E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract. This paper presents an engineering process in order to build pedagogical "dispositives" on Web 2.0 applications. This engineering process relies on three tasks: modeling the "dispositive", defining its context and building it. The main feature of our process is to wrap the building functionalities of a Web Application by Web Services. To consume these services, we use the Model Driven Engineering approach. This approach guarantees the easy implementation of every specific Web application modeler and constructor considered. Experimental results have already been obtained on the WikiniMST platform. Keywords: e-Learning, Web 2.0, Model Driven Engineering, Web Services.
1
Introduction
An essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain. [1]. New applications like Blogs, Wikis, Social networks, Collaborative Map of Tags, Forum, Search engines, are examples of new uses set up by active users. These users build their environment collaboratively and the way to use it. E-Learning 2.0 is about the pedagogical use of theses applications [2]. The use of such applications in the field of education brings about a change of paradigm for ELearning. This document aims to clarify this new paradigm. The pedagogical uses of Web 2.0 applications challenges the type of community of practice teachers build, the type of creativity they use, the type of learning they implement, the learning object they agree with. The aim of our paper is also to offer the tools and objects which may assist teachers in their preparatory work with Web 2.0 applications. For the specific case of a small team of teachers using pedagogical "bricolage", we will show that it is possible to define an infrastructure allowing "dispositives" building on Web 2.0 application. This paper is organised as follows. In the next section we present a new paradigm for E-Learning 2.0. This paradigm uses new concepts as "Dispositives" and "Bricolage", presented in section 2. Section 3 will present our conceptual approach, addressing platforms as services describing its functionalities, and then call these services via the model driven engineering. Section 4 will detail our experimentation's. Finally, section 5 will present related work and Section 6 our conclusions and future work.
2
"Bricolage" and "Dispositive"
To describe a pedagogical use of Web 2.0 application, a new paradigm is necessary. Its users are small scale teaching teams who do not have access to an Instructional Designer. The software they have to choose from does not match their pedagogical purpose. This "make do" process resembles more "Bricolage" than an engineering process. "The bricoleur is adept at performing a large number of diverse tasks; but, unlike the engineer, he does not subordinate each of them to the availability of raw materials and tools conceived and procured for the purpose of the project.[...]. The bricoleur may not ever complete his purpose but he always puts something of himself into it" [3]. This parallelism between teachers and craftsmen has been used for years to describe pedagogical design, since teachers are always on the lookout for a middle way between craftsmanship and engineering. It can be applied to E-Learning in so far as "Bricolage" is not defined by its output but by the way it has been achieved: using several times -and if necessary diverting them from their original use- texts, activities, and materials [4]. For teachers, making the choice of a Web 2.0 application, because it is available and offers some of the functionalities they wish to use can be considered as sheer "pedagogical bricolage". To facilitate this "pedagogical bricolage" on Web 2.0 applications, teachers have to be provided with Learning Objects that are sufficiently weak to be handled within the frame of controlled improvisation of his teaching. We believe that such objects –that can be manipulated and constructed- can be technically implemented in a Web 2.0 application thanks to a pre structuring device, which represents the technical aspect of a more complex entity the "pedagogical dispositive". The word "dispositive" is used in French to describe a system set up for a specific purpose. According to Michel Foucault a "dispositive" is a" decidedly heterogeneous ensemble ", "a resolutely heterogeneous assemblage, containing discourses, institutions, architectural buildings, reglementary decisions, scientific statements, philosophical, moral, philanthropic propositions, in one word: said as well as nonsaid, those are the dispositif's elements. The dispositif in itself is the network that we can establish between those elements." [5]. This definition underline the twofold nature of a "dispositive": organizing…/ …with a special intent. A "dispositive" is a cluster of elements organized with a special intent. "Dispositive" is an open object, that teachers and learner can interpret in its usage. It can be seen as possibility space as opposed to a scenario that is a planning space. For that reason "Dispositive" notion is particularly suited to pedagogical "Bricolage". "Dispositive" provides a conceptual framework for teacher, it leverages meaning making by the part of learners. "Dispositive", from engineering point of view, is a computational object; it can be modeled, manipulated and built in a Web application. Finally its open feature makes a "Dispositive" an excellent support for "teaching bricolage". This triple adequacy between "dispositives" and teachers is the reason we propose to provide an infrastructure to assist teachers when designing a "dispositive". "An infrastructure can be defined as a social and technical substrate that stabilize and permit creating
instrumental and intentional activities in a given area" [6]. We propose to define a computing infrastructure to model, to contextualize and to build "dispositives" in Web 2.0 Applications.
3
Our proposition
The use of generic web applications implies the acceptance of the fact that there are not completely adapted to the teaching project the teacher wants to carry out. We propose to plug on these applications a pre-structuring model facilitating their use in an educational context. Platform Metamodel
definition
1
definition
2 Specific Modeler
3 Modeling dispositives
Specific Constructor
Web Services Plug-in
4 Contextualizing dispositives
Dispositives on Web 2.0 application
Fig. 1. From modeling to building
Our approach is founded on the definition of an infrastructure that allows building pedagogical "dispositives" on a Web 2.0 application via the Web Service call. To achieve our goal, we will define a pluggable web services module for every application. This Plug-in is inspired from IMS enterprise standard [7] and is a wrapper for Web 2.0 application. From this plug-in, we will define the metamodel of the application (1). This metamodel, expressed in Meta Object Facilities [8] language, enables us to parameter a specific modeler of the application, and to build a "dispositive" constructor (2). Then, it is possible to express a specific "dispositive" model of the application (3). The engineering process, we want to set up, is able to structure an application in order to promote its pedagogical use. Web 2.0 applications single out emerging structuring mechanisms; witch is why our infrastructure identifies a context defining phase. This phase allows a dialog between "dispositive" models and the emerging structures (4).
4
Evaluation and experimental results
The experiment was conducted as part of "collaborative distributed practice for learning using the Internet" project. This project aims to enable more active forms of learning over the Internet. This experiment has been carried out as a part of the task: Collaborative-construction and evolution of an infrastructure, deployment and realization. It intends to be used by undergraduate students and concerns the remote collaborative trainees’ tutorships and the production of a professional master thesis.
The first phase of the project was described previously in [9]. To carry out this tutorship, the teacher designs a set defined by the name "Personal and Collective Actions Browser" (PCAB). In the whole potential workspace of the PCAB, each student should be allowed to create his own personal workspace. This personal workspace has to be singled out (automatically) by the identity of the student (name, surname and year). To use PCAB, this personal workspace must be pre-structured in 5 “tasks”: investigate, build the tutorship, formalize the mission, conduct conceptual investigations and gather references. On the basis of these “task workspaces”, a student will be allowed creating all the pages he wishes. For the second phase of the experimentation, we have defined a new metamodel from fusion of metamodels previously made, in order to simplify modeler uses. It is now possible to refine and contextualize a pedagogical model. The expected "dispositive" has been modified: personal workspace is already in use, some group space and management aspects have been defined. The figure 7 summarizes our engineering process in order to build specific infrastructure and the use of this infrastructure in order to model, contextualize and build a "dispositive". Computer scientist and pedagogical community
To
s ol
To define platform metamodel in order to parameterize ModX and GenDep
Specific modeler
Specific constructor
Web Services Plug-in for WikiniMST
Construction
Teacher
Contextualisation
es Us to express dispositive model, in natural speaking
To define several aspects of a dispositive model
To use GenDep in order to build the dispositive on the WikiniMST platform
Dispositive on WikiniMST
Fig. 2. Engineering process and use of a specific infrastructure
Transformations are now automatic. They generate the operational model without the intervention of the user. Finally, we have introduced the possibility for a model to call web services in order to take into account the emerging structuring mechanisms in Web 2.0 applications. This possibility not only defines the context of a "dispositive" with an emerging use but also allows the composing of the "dispositives", while separating the different aspects of a global "dispositive".
5
Related work
Many standards permit to construct objects automatically on the Learning Management System. The Sharable Content Object Reference Model [10] allows to design Learning Object sequencing and to deploy it on platforms. The deployment tool is often provided by the e-learning platforms. However it’s not possible to match package SCORM with elements (person, group, service) already present on the platform. The IMS Learning Design [11] permits to express under multiple sequencing process, various activities that pupils and teachers can lead in an educational script. However, in spite of many works achieved to simplify understanding of this standard, its complexity makes it difficult to use [12]. In a general way, besides the fact that these standards are destined to be used in eLearning platform and not in Web 2.0 application, they don't offer a possibility to match their elements with the elements or services already defined on the platforms. Our approach is less ambitious because it only handles "dispositives" and not activities. Besides the advantages of the "dispositive" approach (previously explained), our proposition permits to define the context for a modeled "dispositive". A specific constructor permits to match model with existing elements and services, and with other "dispositives" (already deployed). It's up to a specific feature of our modeling environment to provide this possibility. It permits to divide a global "dispositive" in interdependent "sub-dispositives".
6
Conclusion and future work
Our approach allows building pedagogical "dispositives" on web applications. It’s set on a three steps process: modeling, defining context and building the "dispositive". To make these steps operational, we propose to develop a web service plug-in for each application. This plug-in builds the "dispositive", in the context of the application, via its services. To implement it, we make use of the IMS-ES specification; we define for each application a specific modeler and a specific constructor. Our proposal is to easily build these tools with an MDE approach. In this way, we offer a method for defining the interaction model of the platform. This model is the base of conformity for our modeler. For a classic web application, the simple interpretation of the web services and the model generates nearly 6000 code lines automatically; only 300 lines are left to be implemented (statistics from WikiniMST project). We think that, web services plug-ins will be easier to implement when Web application will be based on the SOA architecture. In the future, we aim to factorize our work and propose a coherent framework of service permitting educational "dispositives" construction on web applications. The experimentations we conducted, allowed us to evolve our approach from explicit transformation mechanism used in the first phase to fusion of models. We are entering now into a new phase of experimentation on the Claroline and Moodle platforms, and e-Portfolio Web applications [13]. These various experimentations aim to study the use of our
engineering processes, as well as to explore new ways with the possibility to express methodologies and to bind these methodologies to the generated models.
7
Acknowledgements
The author wished to thank "la Direction de la Technologie du Ministère de l'Education Nationale" and "l'Agence Nationale pour le Recherche" for their partial financial support.
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