lodeStar Learning Web Journal

By Robert N. Bilyk

LodeStar 6.0 has arrived. To get a quick overview of its new capabilities visit LodeStar on YouTube

In order to best understand our latest release and where we are headed, let me take a moment and reflect on LodeStar's historical mission.

The LodeStar eLearning authoring tool has been pressed into service for nearly a decade. In all of that time, although the interface has remained relatively the same, it has continued to integrate with new and emerging technologies. LodeStar is built on the premise that eLearning instructors are strapped for time and don't want to continually master new tools for every new technology that comes along. In its earliest pre-SCORM days, LodeStar integrated with Lotus Notes Learning Space and then with Microsoft's Class Server. LodeStar understood the IMS+ protocol and how to create a Microsoft Learning Resource Module (LRM). Teachers who used LodeStar didn't need to understand anything about IMS+ and LRMs. They simply followed a five step process: choose a template, insert content, save, preview and then publish.

This familiar five step process stayed the same as LodeStar became more tightly integrated with SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model). The basic processes stayed the same, but we added an IMS Manifest editor, which made it easy for instructors to add their metadata to their project. Through the IMS manifest, instructors added a description of their project and information about target audience, objectives, authorship, key search words and more.

When Creative Commons came along we added an intellectual property editor that taught instructors just -in-time what all of the Creative Commons licenses meant and how to apply them.

As each new technology emerged during the past decade, LodeStar made it easy for instructors to blend them into their projects. Here is a listing of some of the technological developments over the past decade and how LodeStar integrates the technology for the benefit of teachers and students:

Flash
All of LodeStar's templates (with the exception of SimTimeline) output to Flash objects. In LodeStar 6.0, we provide a graphics editor that enables the Flash Player to display graphics as vectors. Vectors retain their sharpness regardless of the zoom level.

SCORM
Almost all of LodeStar's projects report student performance and completion status to an underlying Learning Management System like Moodle, Blackboard, Desire2Learn, and Sharepoint Learning Kit. LodeStar 6.0 represents an even tighter integration with the SCORM specifications.

LodeStar 6.0 improves on the ability to create a resource that can be imported into eFolio, provided by eFolioWorld. http://www.efolioworld.com

Video
All of LodeStar's newer templates (Brancher, Panner, Syncher, Mapper, and Flasher) support all types of Flash Video (FLV), including high definition.

PodCasts
All of LodeStar's newer templates can import an MP3 audio file or stream in a Podcast. LodeStar's Syncher template enables an instructor to synch the podcast with images, video, text, graphics and animation. New to LodeStar 6.0 is the ability to add a question, which automatically pauses the podcast to allow the student to consider the question and provide an answer.

Mapping
The Mapper template allows instructors to integrate their content with Google Maps. Mapper also uses the latest in the new Flex technology. In the near future a new version of Mapper will be available for download, which will make the Mapper template even more versatile.

Web Services
LodeStar 6.0 performs image searches through web services. It also communicates to the Equella Learning Object Repository through web services. Web Services are essentially rules that enable a client application like LodeStar to communicate to a server and make use of its published services.

Assistive Technology and Accessibility
All projects publish a file that makes it easy for the JAWS screen reader to read out the content to a visually impaired student.

eReader
eBooks are all the rage. Sony and Apple and even Barnes and Noble have come out with eReaders that work in devices like the PRS 700, Nook, iTouch, iPad and iPhone. LodeStar 6.0 has kept up with its improved eBookMaker template, which enables instructors to create their own eBooks that will run in these devices.

Web 2.0
LodeStar 6.0 improves on its ability to integrate all embeddable Web 2.0 applications with its newer templates.

3D Television
Well not yet, but why not. The point is that LodeStar's interface and process remain virtually the same, but new and emerging technologies are added all of the time.

More on LodeStar 6.0
LodeStar 6.0 balances convenience and immediacy with the ability to leverage the power of other tools. On the one hand, LodeStar 6.0 expands on its native text and image editing capabilities. The text editor supports bullets, indents, inline images, inline math expressions and multiple undo's. The new image editor supports the creation of vector graphics: arcs, lines, rectangles, polygons, chords, dimensioning, labeling, resizing of images, labeling of images and much more. On the other hand, LodeStar 6.0 makes communicating to external services and importing multiple media types very easy.

LodeStar includes text and imaging tools as a convenience. It doesn't attempt to be a premiere word processor or image editor. LodeStar 6.0 does a much better job, however, of importing pngs, gifs and jpegs created in other programs. LodeStar 6.0's routines for resizing, re-sampling, and importing a broader range of image types suggests our renewed focus to make LodeStar not only the easiest eLearning authoring tool, but the best at integrating the products of other tools.

Consider images as an example. LodeStar's new search function can be accessed by simply clicking on an image area and selecting search. The author types in a key word and LodeStar communicates with a popular search service and produces a tray full of image thumbnails. The author then chooses the image best suited to the topic. The images returned by the search service are similar to those that might be returned by a web search but far more convenient. A URL is provided for every image so that authors can secure the rights or credit their sources.

Another LodeStar 6.0 feature is its expanded question types. The Brancher and Flasher templates now support true/false, multiple choice and the newly added matching, categories and short answer question types. The LodeStar Brancher template also supports branching based on case studies or problem solving scenarios.

Here is an illustration of each type:

True/False
Author chooses a Multiple Choice Question type but only fills in two choices: one for true, and one for false.

Multiple Choice
Supports images, video and animations as well as text. When the author supplies only one correct choice, radio buttons appear. When there are multiple right answers, check boxes appear.

Categories:
Author provides two categories. One category appears in the left column; the other , in the right. The author places all matching items in their respective columns. Upon playback, the choices appear in a list in random order.

Matching:
Author types in an item and its match on each row. Upon playback, the items in the left column remain in their original position. Their matches appear in random order in a list.

Short Answer:
Author types in a question and its answer. LodeStar offers a both a simple way of judging answers or a complex method using regular expressions. Regular expressions are limitless in their potential but difficult to master.

Branching:
The Brancher template enables the instructor to set up a series of questions and branch according to the student's answers. Students can be presented with information and then asked to make decisions based on their knowledge. Case Studies and problem solving scenarios can be developed using LodeStar's branching capability.

To view a resource created in LodeStar 6.0, visit http://www.engagelearner.org/lodestar/Curriculum_First/TimeManagement

The near future
Future builds in the LodeStar 6.0 release family will focus on completing work to make the LodeStar authoring tool compatible with the MAC operating system. As importantly, future releases will expand on LodeStar's ability to integrate with other tools. More on that in a future web journal entry.

LodeStar 6.0 is available for one month on a trial basis. Continued use requires a LodeStar 6.0 license which requires an upgrade from previous licenses. LodeStar 6.0 is available at http://www.lodestarlearning.com/lodestar-30-day-trial.html

By Robert N. Bilyk

From its first pre-alpha release, a week before 911, the LodeStar authoring tool has been a perpetual work in progress and that is how we still regard it to this day. We have just completed LodeStar 6.0, which addresses some of the areas where we needed improvement and, as importantly, lays the foundation for some of the things we want to build in the future.

Our imaginations are still on fire. In this journal entry, I'll cover what's new in the alpha release. For those interested in diving a bit deeper, I'll cover the value proposition of LodeStar 6.0 that lies just under the surface. The first showing of LodeStar 6.0 will be at Realizing Student Potential/ITeach 2010 in Minneapolis on February 27th. If you're interested in receiving the beta release when it is available, get on our list by emailing support@LodeStarLearning.com

LodeStar 6.0 Features

Simpler interface

The port over to the MAC isn't quite done for the alpha release, but we're moving in that direction. In preparation for the MAC and a more universal design, many of the image and text area functions are available in toolbars that pop-up when the user double-clicks on an image or html text area. All of LodeStar's reliance on dynamic link libraries and other operating system dependencies have been removed.

In addition to interface changes that make LodeStar more MAC friendly, the work area is larger and the buttons are labeled. The help pages appear under the Help menu so that they don't confuse instructors who return to their projects and see a help page instead of their data.

The Text Editor supports indents and bullets and inline images and makes use of Flash Player 10's expanded capability.

More efficient search

LodeStar's built in search function is based on web services. The instructor types in a key word or search phrase with or without boolean logic. LodeStar efficiently retrieves the thumbnails without delay. The instructor can then immediately transfer the image to the image area with a button click or display the original website. The instructor retains control over how the image is transferred (i.e., automatically scaled, crop-able, or preserved.)

Cleaner resizing of images

We received many comments that LodeStar doesn't scale down images well. A lot of this is purely the limitation of scrunching down a large image into a small box. Nevertheless, we tackled the problem to the extent that we could and that has resulted in a marked improvement in image quality.

Vector Graphics editor

LodeStar 6.0 has a built-in vector graphics editor. Vector graphics retain their sharpness and look great regardless of how much they are zoomed in or out. Instructors can import images into the editor and add labels, arrows, and other basic features. They will be able to construct diagrams and charts with lines, rectangles, polygons, arcs, chords, pies and more. The graphics are automatically imported into the activity as flash graphics, which look great. Optionally, instructors can print their graphics or save them as jpegs or png image files. In the near future, the editor will support saving graphical objects to a library or uploading them to the Equella repository.

Native support for tools

In earlier versions, LodeStar required Internet Explorer to preview activities. In 6.0, LodeStar previews in the user's default browser whether it be Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE or some other browser. This is the first step to integrating LodeStar more closely with the desktop. In the future that will extend to editing images, audio clips, and other media.

Question Types

In the alpha release, Brancher supports two additional question types (i.e., Matching and Categories) that can be used in a variety of ways. More question types will be added as LodeStar progresses from alpha to beta to its gold release.

With Matching, for example, instructors can label the anchored tiles as 1, 2, 3, etc, and then ask the student to drag randomly ordered tiles to their matching number in a sequence. Secondly, instructors can list terms and ask students to drag their matching definitions to the correct spots. Optionally, instructors might list only one term and have a randomly ordered list of possible definitions. This would work as a drag and drop multiple choice question.

With Categories, instructors can create labeled columns and a list of items that need to be placed in either the left or right column. The activity can start simple and then increase in difficulty from page to page. One page might stress generalities so that students easily see how items fit into one category or the other. But later pages might practice students against over-generalization. Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables, for example?

Create eBooks

LodeStar 6.0 now fully supports the International Digital Publishers Forum .epub specification for eBooks. The alpha release enables instructors to publish eBooks from the eBookMaker and Brancher templates. In the future, more templates will be included. With LodeStar 6.0, instructors can disseminate eBooks (flowable text, graphics, and chapter headings) to students who use the following devices:

• Apple IPhone, ITouch and IPad
• Sony Reader
• Barnes and Noble Nook
• And many more. For a full list, see http://www.epubbooks.com/ebook-readers

And More
In addition to the features listed, LodeStar 6.0 represents improved support for the Equella repository, Web 2.0 integration, and SCORM.

Diving a Little Deeper

With the upcoming release of LodeStar 6.0, it is time to reconnect to the original concept of LodeStar and invite more institutions to share in the full realization of what LodeStar can be.

We invite institutions to share with us their instructional design needs and how we can work together to leverage LodeStar's innate capabilities and realize some common goals.

At its very core, LodeStar is a mechanism for simplifying a complex set of tasks. LodeStar understands how to step an instructor through a series of tasks by reading an xml file that is embodied in a template. LodeStar's output is xml that can be translated into anything, on the fly. LodeStar also has the ability to load in code, dynamically.

One practical outcome of this architecture is that universities could potentially use LodeStar to translate one-off projects based on JAVA, Flash, Flex, AJAX or whatever into reuseable projects that can be re-configured by faculty.

An example is the MIT Simile Timeline project. To work with MIT's Timeline, an instructor would need to understand a little about AJAX and XML. With LodeStar, instructors step through the SimTimeline template and repurpose the MIT timeline according to their own needs, without knowing a jot about AJAX.

Technically, the steps that guide an instructor are defined in XML. The output is translated into something that the MIT program understands through XSL.

The key point is that instructors don't need to know anything about the technologies named in the previous two paragraphs.

A little background might be helpful here.

LodeStar had its roots in a tool called VisiQuiz but, more importantly, in a framework called Jet (Java in Education and Training). The Jet Framework was first installed in an implementation of Lotus' LearningSpace. The idea was to provide a framework that would enable instructors to do more with educational content than simply present text and graphics. The idea was to provide a framework wherein one could transform educational content into activities that promoted learning of concepts, rules, procedures and principles.
Frameworks can mean anything. In my early days of computer-based training, frameworks ranged from simple programming languages, which represented the events of instruction at a higher level than C or PASCAL, to visual programming environments. My first step away from C programming into an authoring system was with TenCORE, which at the time was totally language based. The author used a set of commands and parameters to display text, draw stick figures and ask questions.

In the late 80s, a number of visual authoring systems appeared: HyperCard on the MAC (circa 1987), Course of Action (Authorware) on the MAC (circa 1987) and then, with the advent of Windows (1990), Authorware and Toolbook and many others. One of my favorites was Authorware because with nine simple icons or building blocks, one could create the rich learning experiences that involved the learner in interacting with LaserDisc video, reading text, dragging and dropping objects, categorizing, making decisions, navigating through virtual worlds and anything else that the author imagined. The icon, like the Lego® brick, performed a simple, discrete function but when used in combination with other icons, the resulting compositions seemed limitless. But more importantly, Authorware could be taught to non-programmers - to teachers and instructional designers.

Through the 90s, we established programs at Saint Paul College to train not only its own teachers in Authorware but to train teachers all across the state through on-site classes, interactive television and satellite broadcasts. We also trained developers from companies like 3M, West Publishing (Thomson-Reuters), EMA, Hutchinson Technologies, Department of Human Resources, Department of Revenue and many others. Many successful corporate training products emerged from those trainings but on the public side, one tough realization emerged: teachers were rarely afforded extra time to develop computer-based activities. Once the grants ran out, teachers were left squeezing products out of their own time.

In 1997, I was invited to start Cyber Village Academy. Our first learning management system was Lotus LearningSpace; our first authoring tool was Authorware. Each week, teachers were given three full days to develop lessons, post activities, help students online and perform the many tasks that teacher do. Two days per week, teachers taught students on-campus. Our teacher were busy. They were inventing a school from the ground up. No authoring system, however simple, was going to work for them. There just wasn't enough time.

In the evenings, I returned my attention to the JET framework and how that might apply to solving the problem of time and productivity. The vision was a tool that was independent of any specific learning management system - a tool that would enable teachers to match an appropriate instructional activity to a learning objective. I imagined teachers selecting from a host of templates, applying their content and involving students in categorizing, defining, analyzing and investigating, and climbing up the taxonomy ladder toward applying their knowledge with problem-solving, synthesizing and evaluating.

This vision of LodeStar was further enhanced, refined and amplified when I joined forces in 2002 with Mark Burrs, a Flash programmer and instructional designer. We incorporated LodeStar Learning in 2003 and released the tool to the general public for the first time.

The vision of LodeStar has not changed. Today, LodeStar is as important as ever. New technologies that emerge seemingly on a weekly basis underscore LodeStar's role rather than displace it. New, emerging technologies are redefining how learners can potentially interact with content. Activities can pull in content from RSS feeds, Web Services, Web Mapping Services, podcasts, embedded Web 2.0 applications and more. Something needs to make it easier for instructors to leverage these real-world possibilities. A lot of very useful content, for example, is beyond the ken of traditional teachers because it is on the internet but not plainly viewable through browsers.

One concrete example is real-time data. It is one thing for a teacher to summarize in a paragraph that there are many earthquakes of a certain magnitude and they occur most frequently along specific fault lines; it is quite another for the data to flow into a lesson and be visualized on a map and present students with the opportunity of drawing their own conclusions. Let's take a step further. Now the teacher, by design, offers students the ability to merge in data about population centers or other geographically locatable data that is germane to the learning objective. In addition, the teacher mashes in activities that help the students not to over generalize or under generalize or draw the wrong conclusions about their interactions with real-time data.

LodeStar 6.0 can potentially make it much easier to integrate real-time data because it understands how to work with RSS feeds, Web Map Services, REST and other web services. The code is in place but some of it is still not fully accessible to instructors through simple templates. That work remains to be completed. LodeStar 6.0, however, moves us far down the path. We look for future collaborations with academic institutions to leverage LodeStar's internal capabilities and put them to use in real projects.

In summary, LodeStar has the innate ability to pull in images and data feeds; draw vector graphics; format text; format pages; incorporate sound, video and animation; and engage students in a variety of activities and instructional strategies. It also has built-in wizards to build IMS manifests and apply Creative Commons licensing.

In the future, it will live up to its full potential and broaden the number of instructional activities and experiences that instructors can generate for their students. In the meantime, all of us can enjoy some of the new features of LodeStar 6.0 that bring us closer to the full realization of our instructional design goals.

Educational content produced with the LodeStar eLearning authoring tool now has a new home. We're pleased to announce the integration between LodeStar and the EQUELLA Digital Repository from The Learning Edge North America.

Educational institutions who use the EQUELLA Digital Repository to house learning objects and manage learning content can now offer a seamless integration with content authoring. Instructors use LodeStar to build interactive learning content that includes games, problem solving scenarios, webquests, assessments, timelines, podcasts, eBooks, and more. They can now choose EQUELLA as their export target. LodeStar communicates directly to EQUELLA and makes it effortless to upload directly to a digital collection.

Users of LodeStar pre-configure the authoring tool with their EQUELLA institution (learning object repository) and credentials. Once they have completed creating a learning object, the export wizard displays all of the collections that that they have rights to, and supports one click upload to the collection. The learning object supports SCORM 2004 and can be accessed by a student from any of the major learning management systems.

A key advantage to educators is that the content lives in the repository where it can be properly managed. The repository supports metadata, search and retrieval and integration with leading learning management systems. The content isn't trapped in an LMS, giving institutions full control over their digital assets. The key advantage of using LodeStar is that instructors can not only create highly interactive learning activities that engage students but can also attach information to their work that relates to SCORM conformance, intellectual property, ADA compliance and more.

The next generation of LodeStar software will continue to leverage the EQUELLA APIs and raise the level of integration to a new standard.

LodeStar's connection to EQUELLA builds on its vision for educational technology. Using LodeStar, teachers can create a wide variety of interactive learning activities. The learning activities can be published directly to Desire2Learn, Moodle, Blackboard and other learning management systems. They can also be published to the EQUELLA learning object repository and accessed from any of the major learning management systems with single sign on, or accessed from the world wide web.

By Robert N. Bilyk

The 2009-2010 flu season officially gets underway on October 4, 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No school principal will be surprised that the number of 'pre-seasonal' H1N1 flu cases already amounts to the tens of thousands. In our region alone (region 5, which includes Minnesota and five other states), CDC reports 8,632* cases and, tragically, 18 pediatric deaths as of September 12. A colleague of mine reported that on the third week of September, 30% of his child's school went absent.

The story unfolds in the news, in personal stories and not surprisingly in a very urgent discussion that touches on instructional technology. This week we've heard from several school leaders. The question resurfaces. "How do we continue schooling our students after our buildings are closed?" We heard the same question shortly after 9/11. In fact, after 9/11 our school (Cyber Village Academy) hosted the first meetings between the Minnesota Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health.

We founded Cyber Village Academy in 1997 to solve a similar problem with a different twist. "How do we continue schooling our students when they can't come into a building?" The issue we wrestled with was serious and chronic illness. That's how Cyber Village Academy, an elementary charter school, got its start. Our mission at first was to serve serious and chronically ill children. (Today, Cyber Village Academy is something quite different: an International Baccalaureate Organization school that serves all students with a blend of online and on-campus learning.)

In the early days of 1997, however, special electrical contacts were built into the pupils' seats, which foiled our efforts. To our interminable vexation, student funding came as a direct result of the number of hours a child's posterior was in the seat. A child's seated backside completed the electrical connection, kept the meter running and kept the money flowing. We didn't have the technology at the time to put the same electrical contacts into hospital beds or the homes of agoraphobic children or wherever they were needed.

But times have indeed changed. In Minnesota many folks worked endlessly to support legislation that placed online learning in the statutes and displaced this notion of 'seat time', which I'm told was never in statute in the first place.

So, politics and outmoded schooling aside, at Cyber Village Academy we learned many things about educating children outside of the building walls. These are simply my observations. To be brief, I'll list them but look forward to expanding these ideas with you in person - at conferences, in our technology workshops or at your request.

Here they are:

A need for online learning must be identified
The need can range from a high number of homeschoolers in a district, to students disadvantaged by unavailable classes and unavailable teachers, to chronically ill children. In our hometown, my eldest son who loved to program computers could not take a single programming class. None was available in the district -- an affluent district -- and none was available online at the time. In his senior year, he became the first student to make up a missing credit in an online class but didn't start taking computer classes until college.

In reference to identifying a need for online learning, I contend that we can use blended classrooms to live up to the potential that Clayton Christensen holds for technology in his book 'Disrupting Class'. Today's instructional technology enables us to differentiate or customize education for students like never before - but alas the old models prevail.

A few faculty, at least, must be onboard with the idea of online learning
These are the early adopters. Without them as trail blazers, mentors, change agents and advocates, very little progress is made. When you can build a small cohort of professionals, amazing things get accomplished. I would much rather work with a small but smart team in effecting change than press into service an entire teaching body.

The administration and faculty must think in shades and not in stark black and white
It doesn't have to be online or nothing, on-campus or nothing. Blended online and on-campus classes offer the opportunity to make a deeper connection between teacher and student. The student who is muted by the class of thirty suddenly finds expression in a discussion thread. The student who is bored to tears in class is given a challenging 'asynchronous' assignment for him to complete on his own terms, outside of class.

In my composition classes, I broke the students into groups. Some students worked at the computers around the perimeter of the classroom. They worked on sentence combining at a level that matched their experience. Other students worked at tables in middle of the room, editing, peer critiquing, brainstorming. They could then continue their studies and their work online and at home. This was a blended environment.

A learning management system/course management system is today's new infrastructure
A learning management system like Moodle, Blackboard, Desire2Learn or eCollege is critical to a school's ability to function outside of the school walls. A popular learning management system brings flexibility and freedom to the school. It offers the school the opportunity to purchase packaged content from publishers and it offers teachers the opportunity to create their own resources and combine them with publisher's content. It is the new text book, but with the flexibility to insert teacher inspired content.

Schools won't be able to make the shift overnight from text books to learning objects. Schools still buy textbooks and subscribe to integrated learning systems to the tune of millions of dollars each year. But at the same time, a few traditional book sellers have gone bankrupt and many are rethinking their business.

A learning object repository is today's modern library
Few schools of sufficient size can imagine being without that magical, mystical, and sometimes musty place we call the library. The technologies of the past - from the Gutenberg Press and the bindery to the Dewey Decimal System -- have conspired to enable this wonderful melding of mind and material.

But now we have learning objects and images and podcasts and digital documents of every kind. They are not suited for the library shelf. A new place is needed, and that is the learning object repository. Every school must have access to one.

In Minnesota, a significant effort is underway to enable one-stop shopping for online courses, careers, college information, digital library information and on and on. It also includes a statewide learning object repository that enables teachers to share their work. The effort, called the Minnesota Learning Commons is a collaboration of the University of Minnesota, Minnesota State College and University System (MNSCU) and the Minnesota Department of Education.

http://www.mnlearningcommons.org

I'm very proud of Minnesota's achievement and have been loosely connected to a number of the services under the Minnesota Learning Commons umbrella. Years and years ago when I was a college teacher I wrote the first prototype that got key decision makers interested in online course searches. Before I left Cyber Village Academy, I assisted Karen Johnson (Minnesota Department of Education) in the initial organization of the K12 Online Clearinghouse. Our school was one of the first members of the Minnesota Online Learning Association, along with Trio Wolf Creek, Northern Star Online, Spring Lake Park Online Learning, Minneapolis Public Schools Online, and a couple others.

We also have other connections to the Minnesota Learning Commons. Our LodeStar authoring tool is used in all 37 colleges of the Minnesota State College and University System. eFolio (another major initiative) supports direct upload of LodeStar objects and LodeStar can upload directly to the underlying learning object repository.

Students must publish or perish
Student publication comes in many forms -- art shows, journals, plays, history displays, science fairs, showcases of every kind. When students reconstruct meaning from teacher-led presentations and represent them in the form of animations, movies, newspaper articles, plays, history day and science fair exhibits or whatever, the ephemeral nature of knowledge is replaced with something much more rooted in our brains.

In our school, we began adopting the electronic portfolio system (specifically Minnesota's eFolio) as a means for students to publish the artifacts of their school experience. We were becoming an International Baccalaureate Organization school and the personal portfolios documented the students' progress through the program.

http://www.efoliominnesota.com/

A best-of-class Electronic Portfolio can be interwoven with the fabric of the school like no social networking site can.

An authoring tool turns teachers into participants.
Everything mentioned so far requires some form of content. Content gets published in a learning management system, a learning object repository, and an electronic portfolio. The learning management systems and the electronic portfolios have their own editors and methods for creating content. Authoring tools expand those possibilities. Authoring tools enable teachers to contribute and to participate in this digital revolution above and beyond the native capability of the learning management system, the learning object repository and the electronic portfolio.

Participation means not substituting a textbook's table of contents for a curriculum and not substituting a purchased online course for a curriculum. It means teachers building things of instructional value and exercising their choice of content, strategy, and assessment. Participating means sharing something of the teacher, rather than the teacher proctoring someone else's content.

Conclusion
We don't welcome H1N1 and all the misery that it brings to people. The only silver lining to this very dark cloud is that it gives our leadership pause -- to imagine schooling beyond the walls of the building. I look forward to an engagement much more profound than replacing school seat time with home seat time. I imagine schooling beyond the constraints of one size fits all, where the needs of every individual child can be attended. We now have some of the tools to accomplish that vision.

*http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

By Robert N. Bilyk

As we announced at the 2009 Efolio Summit, the source of LodeStar Learning's energy in the upcoming year will be in activities that represent opportunities for synergy. In the eLearning/digital story-telling industry, synergy comes in a variety of forms: partnerships and alliances, adoption of new standards, integration with new products and a few surprises!

Alliances

Last October, LodeStar Learning announced its alliance with EfolioWorld. LodeStar Learning Corporation’s eLearning authoring tool(LodeStar™ ) has been configured so that it can be fully integrated with the eFolioWorld portfolio systems. This month, EfolioWorld has released eFolio Version 2, with built-in upload support for LodeStar Objects.

eFolio is a wonderful tool for teachers and students alike. It is a must-have for every school district, college and university. It enables teachers, students and institutions to tell their story, including goals and accomplishments, personal and institutional history, and much more. And now, with the easy upload of LodeStar objects, individuals and institutions can tell their story as never before, with multimedia-rich presentations, timelines, podcasts, slideshows, eBooks and the rest of LodeStar's many templates.

Continuing along the vein of new partnerships, in November LodeStar Learning hopes to announce its alliance with one of the world's premiere Digital Repository companies. Of course, in the meantime, our company will strengthen its existing connection with Curriki, Merlot, Digital Library for Earth Science Education and the Merlot Africa Network projects.

New Standards

LodeStar Learning has already integrated support for the International Digital Publishing Forum's eBook standard into its present product. Sony and Adobe have announced support for EPUB in their respective releases of the Sony Reader Digital Book and Adobe Digital Editions. LodeStar Learning is currently testing its implementations of the EPUB eBook in these new releases and making adjustments as needed. Any issues with these technologies -- and there are some -- will be resolved before LodeStar's next major release.

New Products

Just underneath the surface of the internet, made visible by the browser, is a world of data accessible through web services, RSS feeds and other web technologies that are seemingly just beyond the reach of the instructor with average technical skill. The data represents earthquakes, volcanoes, forest fires, weather patterns, pandemics, automobile traffic, satellite images, topographical images -- all available in real time. Our goal within the next year is to put that data within the reach of both teachers and students, so that learning objects can come alive with up-to-the-minute datacasts or historical data snapshots. So stay tuned. This is an exciting area, and a pet project of mine.

Surprises

LodeStar Learning has been seeking partnerships with colleges and universities with programming talent. That's no surprise. The goal is to continue accomplishing what we've done in the past. In a few cases, we've partnered with both institutions and companies to produce templates that all of our subscribers can use. We're hoping to continue that practice. If your university or college has in-house Flash or Flex programmers, consider underwriting a project that the entire LodeStar Academic Community can use. In exchange for sharing your talent, LodeStar Learning will provide access to its authoring tool, its templates and the work of other colleges who make a similar commitment. Flash/Flex programmers need to know nothing about LodeStar or its data models. LodeStar can be adapted to any project that separates the presentation layer (rendered in Flash or Flex) from the data layer (XML, JSON, flat files, and other formats). Contact bob.bilyk@LodeStarLearning.com for more details.

The surprise comes in how we are expanding our goal. In the past, LodeStar Learning has stayed committed to Flash and Flex technologies because of the ubiquity of the Flash Player - over 90% saturation on the PC, MAC, Linux and Unix platforms. But in its most recent project, LodeStar Learning has wrapped a template around the work of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Simile Project. The Simile project is based in large part on the Asynchronous JavaScript and XML methodology known widely as AJAX. This is a proof-of-concept project that demonstrates that LodeStar templates can assist instructors in configuring AJAX applications as well as Flash and Flex.

AJAX became popularized after its adoption by Google in its Gmail and Google Maps applications. Today, AJAX is the underlying technology for scores of business applications so the likelihood that colleges and universities will have faculty, IT personnel and students schooled in its use is perhaps higher than the same schooled in Flash and Flex. In any case, LodeStar supports AJAX, Flash and Flex.

I'll conclude with a screenshot of LodeStar SimTimeline template based on MIT's Simile project. Keep us in mind for more partnership opportunities. The resulting synergy benefits everyone in our academic community.