Holly Devaul

Computer-assisted assignment of educational standards using natural language processing

Educational standards are a central focus of the current educational system in the United States, underpinning educational practice, curriculum design, teacher professional development, and high-stakes testing and assessment. Digital library users have requested that this information be accessible in association with digital learning resources to support teaching and learning as well as accountability requirements. Providing this information is complex because of the variability and number of standards documents in use at the national, state, and local level. This article describes a cataloging tool that aids catalogers in the assignment of standards metadata to digital library resources, using natural language processing techniques. The research explores whether the standards suggestor service would suggest the same standards as a human, whether relevant standards are ranked appropriately in the result set, and whether the relevance of the suggested assignments improve when, in addition to resource content, metadata is included in the query to the cataloging tool. The article also discusses how this service might streamline the cataloging workflow.

Functional Requirements for Online Tools to Support Community-Led Collections Building

The Digital Water Education Library collection (DWEL) is being generated by primary and secondary school teachers in the United States. This complex process involves both individual research and team design, and the use of a variety of online tools, such as an online cataloguing tool. Interactions amongst DWEL members are being ethnographically analysed in order to identify requirements for further development of these tools. The analysis suggests that many DWEL members envision their work as occurring in an integrated environment with stable documents, a situation which is not supported by the current configuration of DWEL tools. The design implications of these findings are reviewed.

Designing a Deeply Digital Science Curriculum: Supporting Teacher Learning and Implementation with Organizing Technologies

This paper examines the impacts of technology (e.g., Chromebooks, Google Drive) on teacher learning and student activity in the development and implementation of a deeply digital high school biology unit. Using design-based implementation research, teachers co-designed with researchers and curriculum specialists a student-centered unit aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) that utilizes classroom technology. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected to understand the barriers that inhibit the implementation of a digital curriculum as well as the extent that teachers engage in the design process and begin to make shifts in their practice. We found that through the co-design process teachers began to shift their knowledge of NGSS, technology implementation, and adapted to tensions and barriers inherent in the process.

Creating Reusable Educational Components: Lessons from DLESE

Reuse of educational materials is integral to many educator tasks, from designing a course to preparing for a lab or class. We are studying the reuse of educational materials in the context of the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE). DLESE is a community-owned and governed facility offering high-quality teaching and learning resources for Earth system education. Our studies build on a cognitive framework that posits that people engage in three cyclical processes—location, comprehension, and modification—when reusing resources from large digital repositories. Our formative evaluations and cataloging experiences in DLESE suggest that the ‘findability’ and reusability of community-created digital educational resources is highly dependent on the presentational and structural design of the resources themselves. Educational resource designers often do not develop components with reuse in mind, making it more difficult or impossible for other educators to find and use their material. We share the results of these studies to help educators create digital materials that are more easily shared and used by others. For example, we recommend that all resources clearly state the creators name and contact information; relevant copyright restrictions; the most significant date for the resource (specifying creation or revision); and the intended grade level.