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Hello list members,

We are soon taking delivery of internally developed interactive multimedia
content for teaching English as a foreign language.  We have arrived at a
definition of a learning object that seems to suit our purposes and the
pedagogy of language acquisition, thanks to James Dalziel's paper:
www.melcoe.mq.edu.au/documents/ASCILITEDalziel.rev.doc.  Now we are
considering standards and tagging the content.

Looking at some standards and application profiles (UK LOM, RDN/LTSN LOM) it
seems that not all of our needs would be met to make our objects searchable
and descriptive for end users.  Referring to the RDN/LTSN LOM
(http://www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/rdn-ltsn/ap/) on a quick scan notable
difficulties for us would be:
*       5.2 learningResourceType
*       The 'UKEL' (UK Educational Levels) list documented at
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/ukel/>. There is no reference to
Council of Europe levels which will soon be commonly used to reference to
foreign language level
*       The 'UKEC' (UK Educational Contexts) list documented at
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/ukec/>. Learning a language in a
private institution could fall under further education?  vocational
training?

Some of the general things that teachers and learners would be asking when
searching would be:
*       Does the learning object aim to present, practice or review
language?
*       Does the learning object aim to teach grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation, discourse, skills development (reading, writing, speaking,
listening)?
*       And, for example, if it is aiming to teach grammar - what part?
This would result in a list of at least 50 options.
Is there space in the LOM for this information?
Do we need our own LOM?  And if so, where do we start?

Any suggestions you have are welcomed.

Thanks

Shannon

Shannon West
Consultant Instructional Design
Flexible Learning Project
British Council
Rome