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Adaptive SystemsUCLA/Pacific Bell Initiative for 21st Century Literacies
Howard Besser
UCLA School of Education & Information
http://www.newliteracies.gseis.ucla.edu/
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard
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UCLA/Pacific Bell Initiative for 21st Century Literacies-
_ The Problem and Issues_ Project Dates & Staff_ The User_ Summit_ Policy_ Design Issues & Adaptive Systems
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21st Century Literacies
_ Information Literacy_ Visual Literacy_ Media Literacy_ Cultural Literacy_ ...
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The Problem and Issues
_ If we solve Access Problem (technology, bandwidth, training), other impediments to an informed citizenry still remain
_ Need critical evaluation of resources (reliability, authoritativeness, thoroughness, recency)
_ Need skills to pare down from information overload_ Need critical thinking skills_ Need to deal with different users having different
backgrounds and capabilities
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Project Dates & Staff
_ Summer 2000-Dec 2001_ $1 million_ Co-Directed by Aimée Dorr and Howard Besser_ October 21, 2000 Summit (planning involved 20
people from Pacbell & UCLA)_ Rest of project primarily UCLA_ Coordinator Sheila Afnan-Manns
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The User
_ Evaluative bibliography of literature and projects
_ Analysis of what we know thusfar from several different perspectives (curriculum design, library services, critical theory, information retrieval, user-centered design, …)
_ Examining model curriculum
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Summit (1/2)
Oct 21, 2000
_ Bring widespread attention to the underlying issues
_ 360 professionals from education, librarianship, public policy, and industry– 15% Higher Ed faculty, administrators, librarians
– 28% K-12 teachers, principals, superintendents
– 14% public and K-12 librarians
– 33% future practitioners, policy makers, librarians, educators
– 8% business community
– 3% government (governor’s office, state dept of Educ, …)
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Summit (2/2)
Oct 21, 2000
_ Snappy video to highlight the problems (25 unsolicited requests to show video in 1st month after Summit)
_ Over 2 dozen exhibits and poster sessions explaining related projects throughout the country
_ Guest speakers (Alan Kay, Marcia Bates, Pat Breivik, Kathleen Tyner, Anna Deavere Smith, Tal Finney)
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Policy
_ information literacy standards_ issues related to the "Digital Divide”_ privacy and ownership concerns_ ...
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Design Issues
_ Examine factors that inhibit efficient and effective use of an information system
_ Examine how best to design systems to match the literacy levels, technological capabilities, and other characteristics of the user
_ Principles, Practices, and Guidelines for Good Design for Facilitating Access (screen design, searching & navigation, metadata & description, info structures & organization, usability testing, …)
_ Build Adaptive Systems-
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Good Design Principles
_ Promote good design practices throughout the Design community
_ Get the Design community to sign on to a set of Principles for Good Design-
_ Create Guides & Best Practices Documents-
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Possible Good Design Principles
_ Don’t disenfranchise users who have slow processors, older browsers, low bandwidth, visual impairment, etc.
_ Clearly note the recency of any information resource
_ Make sure that a user can easily determine what organization/agency created or contributed to an information resource
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Important Dimensions toGood Design Principles
_ screen design_ searching & navigation_ metadata & description_ info structures & organization_ usability testing_ …
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Our Resources related toGood Design Principles
_ Screen Design - The visual design of the screen can impact usability. Color, font, the use of images, and layout of screen elements are essential design components.
_ Searching and Navigation - Ease of navigation and search/browsing options are critical components of usability.
_ Metadata and Description - Good metadata and site description will help users find the appropriate website.
_ Information Structures and Organization - How information is organized and categorized shapes access. For systems with an underlying searchable database, the structure of the database itself will determine the outcome of searches.
_ Usability Testing - Includes resources on how to evaluate sites and on testing
for usability.
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Build Adaptive Systems_ Build Systems that adapt the same back-end
information to different user profiles (different knowledge bases, different technical capabilities, different cognitive structures)
_ User profiles may include advanced researcher in a particular subject area, general undergraduate student, high school student, …
_ Different profiles will need different user interfaces, navigation, searching vocabulary, file formats and sizes, ...
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User ProfilesCombination of dimensions and purpose
PurposeCasual userK12 student, lifelong learnerInformation/hobbyScholar/preservationBusiness(Colorado Dig Proj)
Cultural touristCasual userScholar
(CIMI)
Design•User InterfaceNavigationBrowseSearchEfficient bandwidth use
Content•Mark-upVarious metadataProtection features
Design functional examples
•Differing screen arrangementsDiffering functional optionsVocabulary mappingDiminishing image size
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Adaptive Systemswhat they’ll do
_ Can serve different audiences (general public, purposeful inquirer [cultural tourist], domain specialist)
_ Each profile audience will– see a level of discourse addressed to them
– experience a user interface appropriate to their profile
– use vocabulary they are familiar with
_ Yet all will be using the same back-end set of information
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Adaptive Systemshow they’ll work
_ Passing search terms through a thesaurus to map specialist vocabulary to/from vernacular
_ Adapting vocabulary from curatorial language into common discourse; development of markup extensions to EAD/CIMI/CIDOC to allow description for different audiences
_ In general, specialized users will experience more text-based interfaces, while general users will experience more graphic/visual interfaces
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Adaptive Systemsdevelopment plan
_ Research and experimentation_ Profile 5-10 different user communities_ Mechanize 2-3 different information
delivery systems_ Demonstrate the utility of this approach
(proof of concept) for further research and design
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Suggestions for joint CDL/UCLA project
_ Use OAC/California Cultures Collection_ Profile and construct a series of different
front-ends for different audiences– Front-ends-– Target Audiences-
_ Evaluate
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Profile and construct a series of different front-ends for different audiences:
Front-ends to include_ Screen design for searching and for display_ Browsing, probably with some high-level
categorization/grouping_ Searching_ Vocabulary mapped through thesauri
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Profile and construct a series of different front-ends for different audiences
Target audiences might include
_ 4th grade students_ 12th grade students_ 4th grade teachers_ 12th grade teachers_ University faculty_ Some people outside the history/social
studies sector
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What does this all mean forInfo Professionals?
_ Good set of Design Guidelines_ Feasibility of Adaptive Systems that deliver
the same back-end info tailored to different sets of user needs