lodeStar Learning Web Journal

As educators, we are hopeful that technology can help make meaningful connections between the subjects that we teach and the relevance to students' lives. We look for students to be inspired and to inquire into the historical, political, geographical, scientific, literary, technological, artful, physical world around them. We look for students to be motivated, civic minded and connected and on and on.

Lately, in that pursuit, we are the beneficiaries of a frenzy of development around the concept of Web 2.0. On a daily basis we redefine what is possible based on a new tool that has popped up on the web and that has a different take on collaborating, cataloguing, referencing, presenting, and storing. Web 2.0 tools are often free or inexpensive, easy to use and what they produce can be publicly accessible and can help our students.

The bonanza of Web 2.0 tools is like the Wild Wild West, a rapidly changing and expanding frontier. We look onto these tools from the relative comfort of our 'East Coast' establishments -- our learning management and content management systems, our authoring tools …our pedagogy.

Of course, this is not an either-or proposition. Learning Management Systems serve a very powerful function. They afford privacy and protection. Faculty can submit their intellectual property and not fear having their rights vanish into the public domain (although, of course, there is Creative Commons). Faculty can use material copyrighted by others and be, to a greater degree, protected by an LMS that gives students a look at that material for a finite period of time and a passworded log in. Students are guided through material by design. The sequence of the material, how it is 'chunked', how the students are assessed -- are all part of that design.

But LMS and authoring systems that contribute to LMS's can be rather stagnant compared to the daily new opportunity that Web 2.0 affords. Moodle and Blackboard offer a handful of approaches to presenting and collaborating on content. The wild wild web 2.0 offers dozens.
LodeStar Learning has long had its eye on Web 2.0 technologies. A little background is helpful here to show that our commitment to harnessing the power of Web 2.0 didn't happen overnight. You may be interested in some of the milestones.

In May 2004, we first began using the Google Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable instructors to query the Google databases from within our LodeStar eLearning authoring tool. We used a powerful technology called Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Services to enable the LodeStar client to leverage the power of Google for the benefit of teachers and students. We still use Web Services, and it’s at the heart of a powerful new collaboration between LodeStar Learning and a major Learning Object Repository vendor. (But that's the subject of another article.)

In September 2005, we began using Representational State Transfer (REST) through services provided by companies such as Yahoo. From the teacher's point of view, he/she simply typed in a word and got a tray of images - whether we were using SOAP or REST was of no consequence to the teacher.
The point of introducing this alphabet soup is to make one point clear. Teachers were interested in efficiently finding resources across the web. We were interested in using available technologies to make that happen. In the very near future, we will once again implement a powerful new approach to making this happen more efficiently.

In the spring of 2008, we introduced Mapper, which enabled instructors to match their instructional content to points on a Google Map using latitude, longitude and zoom level. Students could navigate a Google Map and see matching content in the form of images, text, animations, video, audio and quiz items or they could navigate through content and watch the Google Map pan, zoom and display the appropriate location markers.
In the summer of 2008, we introduced Syncher, which enabled instructors to synch up an audio podcast (streamed in from any source) with instructional content that either resides in a learning object or in external services such as Blip.TV and TeacherTube videos.

For the past year, LodeStar has had the capability of embedding Web 2.0 applications, but we have not built the needed easy-to-use interfaces for instructors to leverage these resources. Our plan for LodeStar 5.8 (summer 2009) is to make these interfaces available so that an instructor can easily embed a Web 2.0 application into a SCORM object using LodeStar and upload the object to a learning management system or learning object repository.

The following link displays a LodeStar object that walks the viewer through several embedded Web 2.0 resources. (This was made possible with LodeStar 5.7 - but the next iteration will be huge improvement.) We discuss the purpose of the resources and what we perceive as the value proposition for instructors and their students.

We'll then follow up with a discussion in our Creative Educators Using LodeStar group in Curriki. Our goal is to arrive at an interface that makes sense to instructors and that helps them to use Web 2.0 applications easily and effectively.

So here is the link to the learning object:

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Coll_bbilyk/Web20Apps/BrancherWeb20.zip/Web_2_0/index.htm

And, if you want to participate in our CEUL group discussion in Curriki, here is how to join:

Join the LodeStar Community

If you know of some terrific Web 2.0 apps, please share by adding your comments to this blog.

By Robert N. Bilyk

This is a hastily written article that has two purposes: one is to correct a sin of omission, and the second is to introduce an interesting tutorial on the subject of preparing video for online learning.

First, the sin of omission.

Recently, Sheri Steinke (Anoka-Hennepin Community College), Jerry Mefford (Hennepin Technical College) and I presented at ITEACH/RSP in Minneapolis to a wonderful audience.

In my part of the presentation, I demonstrated how easy it is to grab the address of a flash video stored on services like Blip.TV and paste it into your learning object created with the Brancher template. (See the tutorial link below, for more info.)

As a result of the presentation, many in the audience will go home or to their office and try incorporating video into their learning objects – and fail. This will be where the cognitive dissonance will set in. It should have worked; it didn’t. (Just like the vegetable slicer that I purchased at the fair.)

I neglected to discuss one very important concept.

An instructor pasting in a Blip.TV address is in effect pasting in a network resource into a LodeStar Brancher activity. The operative word is NETWORK. After that he will preview the activity locally on his hard drive. The operative word is LOCAL.

So, here’s the catch: By default, the Flash player that LodeStar targets prevents a local resource from accessing a network resource. By default.

If the instructor were to make a leap of faith and simply export the activity to Moodle, Desire2Learn or wherever, suddenly we have an activity that is sitting on the NETWORK accessing a NETWORK resource. Network to Network is good. In contrast, Local to Network is bad. Network to Local is bad. By bad, I mean a potential security risk.

So what do you do to mine the riches that LodeStar’s video capabilities offer? The answer is follow these steps to tell the Flash Player to allow you, the instructor, to preview activities locally that access network resources. So here are the steps:

Launch the tutorial from the link below.
Right-click on the activity.
Select Settings from the Flash Player menu.
Click on the ‘Advanced’ button.
The ‘Settings Manager’ page will display. On this page, click on the link titled ‘Global Security Settings Panel’
Click on the drop down menu and select ‘Add Location’.
In the ‘Trust this location’ field, type the following, if you installed LodeStar in the default location:

C:\Program Files\LodeStar

If not, type in LodeStar’s location on the hard drive.
Click on the ‘Confirm’ button.
Select the ‘Allows Allow’ radio button.
Exit the page.

Return to this page, by repeating the directions to ensure that your changes were saved.
You’re done.

Will your students need to do this? Absolutely not, because they are accessing your learning activity on the network. Network to network is good.

Do you have to do this each time? No, just once per machine.

If you followed the instructions, you instructed the Flash Player to allow an activity in any location underneath C:\Program Files\LodeStar to communicate to the network.

If, for any reason, you do not think this is a good idea, then do not make changes to the Global Security Settings. Simply preview your work without observing the video and then upload to a learning management system, learning object repository or to a network server. Your video links will begin working.

And now, to learn all of the ramifications of including video in your online learning resource, click on the tutorial link below:

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Coll_bbilyk/PreparingVideoforOnlineLearning/BrancherVideoProducer.zip/Video_Producer/index.htm

By Robert N. Bilyk

The power of the eBook has come to LodeStar. With the same ease that instructors can create any LodeStar learning object, they can now create their own eBooks.

Instructors will find eBooks a powerful new addition to their communications strategy. Currently, instructors create learning objects to engage learners with the content. They commonly use discussion forums, email, chat, and the phone to communicate with students. Now they can create an electronic book that can be downloaded by the student, taken offline, bookmarked and annotated.

Instructors use the same procedure to create an eBook as they would to create any other LodeStar activity. They choose the eBookMaker Template and turn it into a project. They fill in their content, fill in the IMS Manifest, and then export. One of the export options in LodeStar 5.5 is – you guessed it – ‘eBook’!

But why create an eBook? I’ll list the top 8 compelling reasons.

1. eBooks are easy to read. Students can quickly adjust the font size, page width, and page layout. The text rendering in such products as Adobe Digital Editions* is excellent.

2. eBooks are easy to search. Students can type in key words and quickly find matches in the text. Student can easily move from match to match and then bookmark those matches that are relevant to them.

3. Students can take an eBook offline. The LodeStar-generated eBook is easily downloaded into the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) reader and stored in the ADE library.

4. eBooks are easily updated by the instructor. In today’s world information changes at internet speed. Planets get downgraded to dwarfs. Countries change names. New theories and discoveries render old views obsolete. Instructors can change content and quickly publish the new edition.

5. eBooks created with LodeStar can display text, images, and animations.

6. eBooks are green. eBooks don't kill trees unless, of course, students print out the eBooks, which is very easy to do.

7. eBooks can be downloaded into readers like the Sony PRS series of readers. The eBook produced by the LodeStar authoring tool follows the International Digital Publisher’s Forum EPUB specification. Students can use handheld readers, like the Sony PRS 505, that support EPUB.

8. eBooks are gaining in popularity. Today thousands of eBook titles are available for pure educational use, but also for commercial use. Dozens of eBook shops exist on the web such as eBooks.com. The future for eBooks is bright, particularly as new cell phones and mobile operating systems emerge on the market and are likely to embrace open specifications like the IDPF EPUB.

Some examples:

To view some examples of eBooks created with LodeStar, see these stored in Curriki. In the first example, note the inclusion of captioned images and animation.

(Be sure to install Adobe Digital Editions. In Curriki, click on the Download button.)

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Coll_bbilyk/InstructionalDesign

In the second example, view a traditional book layout with chapters.
http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Coll_bbilyk/TheFourthHorsemaneBook

Steps to creating an eBook in LodeStar 5.5

Step One:

Encourage your students to download the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) reader. The download takes less than a minute for students at DSL Speeds, and renders eBooks beautifully. ADE also supports PDF files.

Adobe Digital Editions can be downloaded at http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/

Step Two: In LodeStar, select the eBookMaker template.

Step Three: Add pages and enter in your content.

Step Four: Check the Metadata Application Profile. Select Tools > Metadata Application Profile. Select Mode and then click on ‘OK’ (Class Server users will have to remember to switch this back to Default before publishing to Microsoft Class Server)
Please note: For eBook publishing, any of the profiles will work, except the Default Profile.

Step Five: Select Tools > IMS Manifest Maker. Fill in the following five items:

General-Learning Object Title
General - Coverage
Lifecycle - Contributor Identify > Name
Copyright - Description
Classification - Discipline

When you're done, click on the 'Save Manifest' button.

________

Step Six: Export your eBook Select Export > Create Export File.

The wizard will guide you step by step through the export process.
On the last page of the wizard, select eBook from the pull-down menu.
Click on the 'Create Export' button.
By default your eBook will reside in the LodeStar Exports folder under the project title. The ebook will be named [project name].epub

Step Seven:
Upload your eBook to a publicly accessible web site or to your learning management system as an attachment.

Here is a critical point. If you link to your eBook or make it available as a downloadable attachment, then when the student clicks on the eBook, he or she will get the following message:

Do you want to open or save this file?

On some servers that recognize the mimetype of an eBook, you will see the name of the eBook ending with .epub. The student can then choose to either run or save the eBook.
On most servers that don’t recognize the mimetype of an eBook, you will see the name of the eBook ending with .zip. The student should then choose to save the eBook, but with the extension ending in .epub. That’s critical. The downloaded file must end with .epub.
The student can then use the following steps to load the saved .epub file into Adobe Digital Editions.

1. Launch Adobe Digital Editions.
2. Go to the Library View.
3. Select ‘Add Item to Library’
4. Browse to the location of the downloaded eBook file, select and open.
5. The eBook is now available for student annotation, bookmarking and searching.

We hope you enjoy this new capability of the LodeStar eLearning authoring tool. If you create some examples, let me know at support@LodeStarLearning.com.

By Robert N. Bilyk

The Curriki Project is based on a powerful concept: Educators all over the world contribute learning resources to the Curriki community site (http://www.curriki.org) and make them freely available to teachers for the benefit of students. Nothing could be simpler or nobler.

The LodeStar Authoring tool is based on another powerful concept: Provide educators all over the world with an inexpensive tool and free templates to build rich, interactive learning content.

The combination of the LodeStar Authoring tool and the Curriki site presents a wonderful new opportunity to provide world-class content to teachers and their students.

Curriki was initially inspired by Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems co-founder. He envisioned providing teachers all over the world with equal access to high-quality educational resources. The ensurer of equal access was a site where learning resources could be easily found and used free of charge.

Today, Curriki relies on a leadership team, headed by Dr.Barbara-Bobbi Kurshan, Anne Schreiber, and Joshua Marks. Curriki relies on support from foundations and organizations like NROC (National Repository of Online Courses) who have large collections of educational content; and on individuals and entities dedicated to the principle of equal access; and, as importantly, it relies on the contributions of individual teachers who are willing to share their learning resources.

Teachers, curriculum developers, and publishers contribute teaching and learning resources to Curriki under one of several licenses that define open and shareable content that is free of charge to Curriki users. When contributors submit content to Curriki, they attach a Creative Commons license to the content. The licenses explicitly allow contributors to make their content open and shareable without losing their rights to the content. Depending on the license, contributors can make their content shareable but with restrictions. For example, users may be restricted to non-commercial use of the content or restricted from creating derivative works.

The LodeStar Learning community which understands Creative Commons licensing - as well as how to produce rich, interactive content - is in a strong position to support the Curriki vision. Since LodeStar Learning’s start in 2003, we’ve observed hundreds of teachers creating outstanding resources that are now being kept behind closed doors. LodeStar authors typically target learning management systems like Moodle, Desire2Learn, Blackboard and the Microsoft Sharepoint Learning Kit. Curriki provides an opportunity for those teachers to publish their work to a wider audience and to support the free distribution of world-class learning resources to anyone who needs them.

This article is dedicated to the mechanics of making that happen. The article assumes that you are a LodeStar user. If you are not, go to http://www.lodestarlearning.com/ where you can obtain a free trial license and where you can find the 'Learn LodeStar' Link that will provide you with tutorials to help you get started. Then you will be ready to follow the steps below.

If you are a LodeStar user, follow these simple steps to upload learning resources to the Curriki site:

Step One: Register to Join Curriki. Go to the www.curriki.org website and click on ‘Become a member.’ The site will guide you from there.

Step Two: Apply Creative Commons licenses to your project. Do so by following these steps:

1. Open or create your project in the LodeStar Authoring tool.
2. Select Tools > Intellectual Property
3. Click on each license icon to learn about the different licenses covered under the Creative Commons licensing scheme.
4. Click on the check boxes to indicate which licenses you wish to attach to your project. You must, at least, check off Attribution.
5. Fill in your name in the Author field or the name of the author to whom attribution belongs.

Step Three: Export your LodeStar Project by following these steps. Please note, that Curriki supports IMS content pages, but does not read in the metadata information nor does it report scores to any management system.

1. Open your project, if not already open.
2. Select Tools >Metadata Application Profile
3. Select MODE.
4. Click on ‘Ok’. (You only need to do this once per computer.)
5. Select Tools > IMS Manifest Maker
6. Fill in the Manifest, especially Organization – Module Title and Organization – Topic Title
7. Click on ‘Save Manifest’ button. Close dialog box.
8. Select Export > Create Export File
9. Click on the ‘Next’ button, paying attention at every step to where your zip file will be saved.
10. Keep the default ‘SCORM 1.3 (Recommended)’ selected at the very end.
11. Pay attention to the location under Export File Name.
12. Click on ‘Create Export’ button.

Step Four: Log in to your Curriki account at www. Curriki.org and follow these steps in order to import a LodeStar learning object (project) into Curriki.

1. From the Quick Launch area on the left side of the site, click on ‘Contribute’ and then click on ‘Add a Resource’.
2. In the ‘Add to Curriki’ dialog, click on the ‘Browse’ button. Browse to the exported file from the previous step. It should be a zip file that ends with the .zip extension. Once, you have selected your file, Click the ‘Next’ button.
3. Fill in each field on the form, and then click on ‘Next’.
4. Update each field on the form, as needed. Pay close attention to the last field. This is the Creative Commons License Deed. Choose the license type that matches the license that you chose in Step Two. Click on ‘Next’.
5. In the dialog box that appears, click on ‘Go to my contributions’.
6. You will now see a list of your contributions. Next to the most recently contributed resource, click on the ‘Edit’ action.
7. You will now see the Curriculum Builder Page where you must make one final edit to your resource. In this step, you are telling Curriki which file to launch to start your learning object. This is a very important step. Click on the Edit link that is indicated by the black arrow in the screenshot below.

8. Click on the ‘Show Files’ button.
9. Scroll down until you see the + sign next to a folder name. Click on the plus sign so that it reveals the files in that folder. Click on ‘index.htm’. Then click on ‘Save’. Finally, click on ‘Close’.
10. You test your resource by viewing your list of contributions and then clicking on the title of your latest contribution. Click on the ‘Start’ button. Your LodeStar resource should now launch in its own window.

Your contribution to Curriki is now complete. As I wrote this article, I posted a resource to Curriki based on a pet project of my own that I think students will enjoy. Here are the results:

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Coll_bbilyk/ThePhotographicJournalChallenge/TheChallenge.zip/The%20Challenge/index.htm

LodeStar Learning is proud to support such an outstanding resource. If you have submitted a LodeStar Learning resource to Curriki, let us know by emailing us at support@LodeStarLearning.com.

Have a Happy New Year!!!

By Robert N. Bilyk

This article focuses on controlling the appearance of activities created with the LodeStar authoring tool. In short, the article focuses on the LodeStar concept of themes. I’ll examine how to apply themes to our first generation of templates and then to our new Reindeer templates – so called because they are titled Brancher, Panner, Syncher and Mapper… a little reminiscent of Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen.

The second part of the article will briefly instruct users on how to generate their own themes and apply them to the LodeStar framework.

So let’s get started.

First generation templates
The LodeStar authoring tool allows an instructor to select a template that incorporates an instructional strategy useful in an eLearning course. ( Notice that I used the word template and not theme.)

Once an instructor has selected a template, turned it into a project and populated the project with content, s/he can select the appropriate colors for the project. The instructor can control the color of the header (the top strip), the footer (the bottom strip), and the background. A set of preselected colors and background texture is known as a theme. LodeStar comes with a number of themes that serve as a great starting point for the look and feel of your project.

I’ll choose the Presenter tempate to demonstrate how to apply themes to your projects. Like Presenter, the first generation templates that support the use of themes include:

Boardmaker
Challenger
Concentration
Crossword
Flashcards
PageTurner
Sequencer
SlideShow
Timeline
WebQuest

Once an instructor selects a template and turns it into a project with specific content, s/he can, in a sense, reskin the project by applying color choices and a background.

To apply a theme to a project, open the project and select Tools > Themes. You will see the Themes Editor displayed.

By default the look of the project will be derived from the -Default theme.

Let’s examine the screenshot below and identify the configurable parts.

First, there is the header and footer. This is the topmost strip of color and the bottommost strip of color. The header and footer are part of the –Default theme. The header for our first templates often included a title. In fact, this often confused LodeStar authors. We’ve received many emails asking how to change or erase the title that appeared in the header. The answer was always go to Tools > Themes, and change the title.

Secondly, there is a background color. Background colors are controlled by one or more of these properties:

Inner Background Color
Background Image
Background Alpha

Let’s understand each property, individually.

In the screenshot pictured above, the inner background color controls the color behind the text. The Background Image, however, overrides the background color. If the background color were white, and the background image were red, the background would be red. That would be true if the background alpha, the third element, were set to 100. Background alpha controls the opaqueness of the background image. A background alpha of 100 means that the background will be 100% background image regardless of the background color. As the background alpha gets lower in value (e.g. 50 or 0), the background color begins to shine through.

So let’s try an example. I’ll set the text color to white. (I did this through the text editor controls, not the Theme control). Next, I’ll set the Background Alpha of the Background Image to 100. Here is what I get.

Now let’s choose an entirely different theme. The choice I made is illustrated in the next screenshot of the LodeStar Theme editor.

I chose the Black theme. Now, I’ll review and, possibly, change each property and then show you the result.

Notice in the screenshot above that I chose the Black theme and that it is indicated in the label above the picture in the right column. Black.

Now let’s go down the list of properties:

Title: I type in Digital Photography.

HTML Background Color: This is the color of the web page that will host this learning object. I leave this one white, but could have easily chosen any color.

Width: This is the width of the learning object as it appears on theweb page. I’d highly recommend leaving this one alone.

Height: This is the height of the learning object as it appears on the web page. I’d highly recommend leaving this one alone.

Outer Background Color: For the first generation of templates, this controls the color of the rounded corners at the edge of the learning object (flash object). I’ll leave these black.

Inner Background Color: This is the color of background behind the text. I’ll change this to white. I can click on the little color square and use the color chooser dialog or I can type in the hexidecimal equivalent of white, which is #ffffff. (Why # ffffff means white is a long story.)

Background Image: This isn’t changeable. It comes packaged with the theme.

Background Alpha: I’ll change this to 0, which means that the background image won’t display at all.

I click on the OK button and show the results of my efforts. I get a very clean look. (I also changed the camera photo to one with a white background.)

Now let’s look at the second generation of templates: the Reindeer templates.

Second generation templates

The second generation templates include:
Brancher
Panner
Syncher
Mapper

Let’s examine the screenshot below and identify how the themes editor affects a project made from the Brancher template.

I’ll cover each property in the Theme Editor.

The choice of theme is a custom theme called eFolio_Blue. The last section of this article will show you how create your own themes like eFolio_Blue.

Title: I left this blank.

HTML Background Color: I set this to black. This controls the color of the hosting web page, which is not pictured here.

Width: I left this at 800.

Height: I left this at 470.

Outer Background Color: This controls the navigation strip of dark blue on the left side. In the first generation of templates, the outer background color played an almost inconsequential role. In the new templates, it will almost always control the navigation strip.

Inner Background Color: This controls the background color behind the text. I set this to light blue.

Background Image: This can’t be changed.

Background Alpha: I set this to 80, which means 80% opaque.

So, in summary, the key difference between the first and second generation of templates is the use of the Outer and Inner Background Color.

The next part of this article is on creating your own custom templates. It is rather technical.

Creating Custom Templates
For technically-oriented individuals

Let’s look at the files that make up a theme.

All of LodeStar’s projects are organized in the Projects Folder, wherever LodeStar is installed. Inside of each project is a folder titled Theme. Inside of the Theme folder, we have the list of files:

background.jpg
default.xml
header.jpg
footer.jpg
thumbnail.jpg

as well as others

The controlling file is the default.xml file. One of the jobs of default.xml is keep track of what files constitute the header, the footer and the background image. The default.xml also stores the properties of a theme.

Then we have the actual files that make up these parts. That is, footer.jpg, header.jpg, and background.jpg. (All of the jpgs can be replaced by swfs.) The footer does not have to be a file called footer.jpg. So what keeps track of which file is actually the footer, which file is the header, and which file is the background? The answer is the default.xml.

Inside the Default.xml, you will find an xml element that looks like this (Replace () with xml angle brackets):

(bgImage)bgImagebackground.jpg(/bgImage)

If you wanted a file called circus.jpg to be the background, you would replace the xml with:
(bgImage)circus.jpg(/bgImage)

You would also save circus.jpg to the theme folder.

You could also replace the background.jpg and background.swf with files of your own design.

Just be sure that they follow these dimensions:

background.jpg: 800 pixels wide by 470 high
background.swf: 800 pixels wide by 470 high
footer.jpg: 800 pixels wide by 20 high
footer.swf 800 pixels wide by 20 high

Finally, you will need to create a thumbnail.jpg that represents your custom theme. This should be 200 wide by 100 high.

Once you have changed the default.xml and swapped out all of those files listed above, its time to convert the contents of the theme folder into an archive.

You will need a tool that creates jar files. One of our favorites is Alzip from Altools, found at http://www.altools.com/Downloads.aspx.

In essence you are zipping up the folder. But instead of creating a zip file you are creating a jar file. A jar file is a JAVA archive. You use the same procedure as you would zipping up the contents of a folder. With the Altools archive maker, you would select an archive of type ‘Jar’. Set the compression ratio to be normal.

Once you have created a file, rename the extension as .startheme, then copy it into the [program directory]\LodeStar\Themes folder.

That’s it. With a little technical aptitude, You can create your own themes easily.