Towards a sustainable business and exploitation plan. Interim Report
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Transcript of Towards a sustainable business and exploitation plan. Interim Report
Towards a sustainable business and exploitation
plan Interim Report
Project Deliverables no. 12/13 December 2011
Project Nr 2010-4210 / 511552-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-KA2-KA2MP-SPKApps
This work by SpeakApps is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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Executive Summary SpeakApps is a free and open source online platform, aimed at language teachers, language schools and educational institutions, providing them with:
Easy access to innovative and interactive online tools for learning and teaching languages
Activities and tools for managing materials for synchronous and asynchronous oral tasks
Technical and pedagogical guides to assist SpeakApps users
A facility to create a dedicated e-‐learning environment by using virtual classrooms to carry out pedagogical activities
A common digital space to develop and exchange oral language learning materials and to develop new software within the SpeakApps environment
SpeakApps leverages technology to ensure that language learners have a dedicated space to engage with oral language activities. The platform supports active, engaged and reflective learning by facilitating feedback and performance evaluation, a recognised challenge for the online language teaching and learning community. Language activities have been developed in six European languages; Catalan, Irish, Dutch, Swedish, Polish and English.
Project Nr 2010-4210 / 511552-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-KA2-KA2MP-SPKApps This work by SpeakApps is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 3
2 Designing for sustainability ............................................................................................................................... 4
3 Technical Solution and Architecture .............................................................................................................. 5
3.1 LANGBlog .......................................................................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Videoconferencing tool ............................................................................................................................... 6
3.3 Tandem tool..................................................................................................................................................... 7
3.4 SpeakApps Portal .......................................................................................................................................... 8
3.5 SpeakApps Platform and Cloud Computing ....................................................................................... 8
4 Market Scan and Competitors ........................................................................................................................... 9
4.1 Synchronous Communication .................................................................................................................. 9
4.1.1 Skype ......................................................................................................................................................... 9
4.1.2 Google Applications ............................................................................................................................ 9
4.1.3 Adobe Connect ...................................................................................................................................... 9
4.1.4 WebEx Training Centre .................................................................................................................. 10
4.2 Asynchronous Communication ............................................................................................................ 10
4.2.1 SoundCloud ......................................................................................................................................... 10
4.2.2 You Tube .............................................................................................................................................. 10
4.3 Platform .......................................................................................................................................................... 10
5 Business Model .................................................................................................................................................... 11
6 SpeakApps Deliverables & Sustainability ................................................................................................. 12
6.1 User Requirements .................................................................................................................................... 12
6.2 Pilot Studies .................................................................................................................................................. 12
6.3 Teacher Training ........................................................................................................................................ 12
6.4 Pedagogical Design .................................................................................................................................... 12
6.5 Social Network and Community Building ........................................................................................ 13
6.6 Technological Solution ............................................................................................................................. 13
6.7 Dissemination .............................................................................................................................................. 13
7 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................. 13
8 References .............................................................................................................................................................. 15
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1 The aim of this document is to outline the integrated approach adopted by SpeakApps project partners to the development of SpeakApps business and exploitation plan. The rationale for this approach is based on a belief that both the business model and exploitation plans should centre on the concept of sustainability. Indeed, the centrality and importance of sustainability should not be overlooked in the context of the rapidly evolving technological environment. The SpeakApps Development Team has already advanced the use of the SpeakApps tools and platform within targeted communities of language learners through the initial stages of the project via the SpeakApps user requirements survey, SpeakApps pilots, and various dissemination activities.
This document incorporates an examination of some of the key sustainability issues that were outlined in the sustainability roadmap developed by the SpeakApps partners1 and illustrated in Figure 1 below:
Figure 1 -‐ Sustainability concepts and principles
1 See Sustainability Plan (WP5) Roadmap, September 2011
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The future exploitation of the SpeakApps environment is thus approached from both pedagogical and technological perspectives. Following a brief discussion of sustainability issues relating to design and pedagogical activities, this interim report gives an overview of the technologies powering the tools, portal and platform of the SpeakApps project and considers it main competitors. It then outlines the business model and principles adopted by the SpeakApps partners. Finally, it considers other SpeakApps deliverables and their relationship with the overall sustainability plan.
2 Rogers (2003: 183) defines the concept of sustainability as e degree to which an innovation continues to be used over time after a diffusion program Drawing on this definition, sustainability can be defined as a ability to meet its goals both in short-‐term and long-‐term. Designing for sustainability is designing for change because of the contemporary nature of pedagogical and technological trends and needs. In this sense, the sustainability and business strategy acknowledge the dynamic change processes in relation to the development of the SpeakApps tools and platform. From the technology perspective this means that interoperability of the tools and various Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) must be taken into account. This has been achieved through the implementation of the IMS Learning Tools Interoperability specification (see section 3 below).
There is however a strong relationship between pedagogical design and content management across different e-‐learning environments (Britain, 2011). The SpeakApps pedagogical plan is formulated on the premise of facilitating and supporting oral language production and acquisition of language learners. The model is based on the creation, maintenance and growth of communities of users in each target language and the provision and development of open content. Wiley (2007: 5) defines sustainability in terms of Open Educational Resources (OER) as two-‐fold:
Sustainability of the production and sharing of resources (pedagogical activities)
Sustainability of the use and reuse of the resources by end users (whether teachers or learners)
The project provides pedagogical support to language teachers to position the SpeakApps tools in line with their own pedagogical coordinates, through the provision of pedagogical guides. These guides will support language teachers to consider these tools as a part of a learning design, to choose the best tools for a particular purpose, and to build activity spans that tie together different tools and activities supporting the learning objectives. Pedagogical activities available in the SpeakApps platforms are being developed cognisant of the Common European Reference Framework for Languages (CEFR). This is an important feature of the pedagogical component of the SpeakApps project as it ensures that the proposed language learning tasks are benchmarked to this standard.
Research on designing for learning has produced a rich account of the various ways of documenting and sharing educational practices (see for example Conole et al. 2007). During and after the project, different kinds of materials are/will be produced, and these materials can be considered as learning objects. To ensure sustainability, the learning objects need to be reusable. Guides to the development of activities by the SpeakApps language learning community will be provided on the platform to foster and to nurture a vibrant community of practice. In particular, the social feature of the portal will act as an interactive and reflective resource for activity developers and users, and it will support their interaction with other language teachers. Activity guides will also provide clear pedagogical instruction and advice to
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activity developers. These pedagogical guides and templates are validated by the members of the project during the pilot studies, and their theoretical underpinnings are made explicit.
One of the problems in current teaching material repositories is that the amount of material tends to grow fast and soon becomes inaccessible if no clear organizational structure is presented. The design of the platform is cognisant of these issues. More specifically, and following Conole (forthcoming), we believe that a shared language to describe learning activities is needed. Through the design and piloting of templates, the project is developing a method and associated metadata to describe learning tasks. The completion of pilot studies across the SpeakApps language set ensures a dynamic and iterative approach to the development of this shared language, while remaining cognisant of Learning Design specifications and developments (see for example Koper & Tattersall, 2005).
The effectiveness of the project depends on both and interest to acknowledge the SpeakApps tools as relevant tools for learning, and to be able to set them in line with the learning objectives. To promote the use of the tools, the project aims to overcome the most common obstacles in using learning technologies, e.g. lack of resources and lack of support. This can be addressed through the development of a repository of tasks, the support and provision of an online community space, and the availability of technical and pedagogical guides to users.
3 Consideration of sustainability has guided the selection and use of open source technologies underpinning the SpeakApps tools and platform. As mentioned earlier, the project is implementing an international specification model, IMS Learning Tools Interoperability, to support the interoperability of the tools with other Learning Management Systems (LMS) or Content Management Systems.
SpeakApps technical solution incorporates three main elements:
1. A place to find information, guides and demos of the SpeakApps tools. Tasks developed for these tools will also be available to the wider community.
2. A place to download tools and material for oral skill practice and to participate in a social network.
3. A place to set up an e-‐learning environment if you would like to use the SpeakApps tools but do not have an LMS to integrate them into.
The SpeakApps platform is based on a cloud computing infrastructure. The platform will host the SpeakApps tools, provide the capacity to develop a dedicated e-‐learning environment for individual users and support a social space to exchange and develop pedagogical materials. The SpeakApps tools include an audio blog, a video conferencing and tandem tool. The SpeakApps portal is based on Moodle2 and Mahara3 technology. To support the development of an individual e-‐learning environment, the SpeakApps platform draws on the Amazon EC24 web service to provide a customisable cloud computing solution. The following sections provide an overview of the SpeakApps tools, portal and platform.
3.1 LANGBlog
2 Moodle: http://moodle.org/ 3 Mahara: http://mahara.org/ 4 Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/
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LANGBlog is an audioblog facilitating the practicing of oral skills of a user. LANGBlog functionalities support audio, video and textual posting. LANGBlog is adopted from WordPress the most common blog technology used on the Internet. Wordpress5 is an open source web application underpinned by PHP and MySQL. The WordPress architecture allows for the expansion of the functionality through the addition of plug-‐ins. LANGBlog has been developed in this way to support video and audio functionalities and to facilitate the integration of LANGBlog into portals and other platforms.
Figure 2. LANGBlog
3.2 Videoconferencing tool
This tool supports a video conference of up to six participants using audio or video. The tool is an open source tool and chat application, underpinned by the following technologies: Java, Flash and Red5. The functionalities of the tool include that each participant can initiate a conference thus supporting both supervised and independent synchronous communication sessions. Other functionalities associated with this tool include the recording and archiving of conferences. An important feature of the tool is its usability i.e. the tool is designed based on the principle of simplicity and to ensure that participants are engaged with learning as opposed to mastering the functionality of the tool or its underlying technology. At present, the tool incorporates these two main features:
1. Videoconferencing and recording tool:
Up to six participants Integrated recording and archiving Written chat Mute mike option Tandem tool integration
5 Wordpress: http://wordpress.com/
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2. Player
Archived file player Search facility Separate channels for each participant Download feature for participants
Figure 3 -‐ Videoconferencing
3.3 Tandem tool
The Tandem tool is designed to support students to work on a task together in a synchronous medium. The tool is powered by PHP and uses the Moodle classroom or a Mahara group to connect two students to complete their language learning task. Students can be given differing content to support their interaction and is based on goal-‐oriented communication activities. The tool maintains three interfaces for students, teachers and administrators and the tool is independent of the communication technology used. The tandem tool will be part of the SpeakApps platform.
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Figure 4. The tandem tool
3.4 SpeakApps Portal
The SpeakApps portal facilitates both formal and informal learning opportunities and is based on Moodle and Mahara Technologies. Moodle is an open source LMS, which allows users to create online learning environments. At present there are over seventy two thousand registered Moodle sites (Moodle, 2011) with over five million courses. Mahara is an open source e-‐portfolio system with social networking features. Its design replicates the modular principles associated with Moodle and both technologies can be readily integrated. The SpeakApps portal will be available to users through a cloud computing paradigm.
3.5 SpeakApps Platform and Cloud Computing
The SpeakApps platform is based in the cloud. Users who have decided to avail of the complete SpeakApps technical solution will access this environment through the Internet. Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (Amazon EC2) will host the e-‐learning environment. This service provides true flexibility by facilitating the required increase or decrease in computing capacity; it also provides a number of security mechanisms to protect users and resources. An additional benefit of using Amazon EC2 is the pricing structure6 and the rates paid for computing resources. The pricing model is based on utility, with no minimum fee. This will be further detailed in the final business plan (see also section 5).
6 For information on Amazon EC2 Pricing, see http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/
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4 SpeakApps tools and applications are situated in a dynamic environment with blurred boundaries. Cloud computing and the paradigm of Software as a Service , underpin the development of the SpeakApps tools and platform. In spite of the move to a cloud computing environment, the SpeakApps project is cognisant of the attractiveness of LMS systems such as Blackboard and Moodle to support learning. As such, SpeakApps applications are designed to plug-‐in within these environments.
Both the SpeakApps platform and applications have a number of direct and indirect competitors. The following section briefly outlines some of these competitors and their offerings in the context of the mode of communication facilitated by the SpeakApps Applications. Further details and other tools and technologies in this space can be found in State-‐of-‐the-‐art report for teachers: a review of tools for speaking, Project Deliverable no. 3, December 2011.
4.1 Synchronous Communication
4.1.1 Skype
Skype is an application supporting voice and video calls over the Internet, by using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Skype is based on a peer to peer (P2P) paradigm i.e. users download software on their device before being able to connect using Skype. Entry level services are available to users free of charge and include both voice and video calls. Subscription charges are based on service level, based on a utility model i.e. pay as you go. Skype is available on a wide range of devices including Smart phones and Digital TVs. Skype was acquired by Microsoft in 2011.
4.1.2 Google Applications
Google offers a number of applications supporting synchronous communication. Google Chat/Talk and Google Hangout are two examples of these applications which are available free of charge and which are integrated within Google's wider cloud platform accessed via Google's email application, Gmail. Google Chat is a plug-‐in that facilitates both video and audio communication via Gmail with other Gmail users. Google Talk supports textual communication through instant messaging, file transfer and audio conferencing (multiple users). Google Hangouts provide a video and audio working or social space for up to nine users browsing the web, who are invited into that space, thus providing an area for groups. These applications are available to users free of charge and run across devices.
4.1.3 Adobe Connect
Adobe Connect7 is a commercial platform designed to support virtual communication. The platform technologies support synchronous communication and provide advanced features such as the recording of audio and video interactions, accessing recording must be completed through Adobe Connect i.e. recordings are not saved to local environments. Virtual classrooms can be established in Connect supporting group work and conferencing for up to twenty five participants. A reduced feature version of Connect is also available for mobile devices. Adobe
7 Adobe Connect: http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html
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Connect offers a discounted utility and membership pricing model for institutional and individual consumers for both public and private educational concerns.
4.1.4 WebEx Training Centre
WebEx Training Centre8 is another solution for the corporate and educational online training and learning markets and is a company of the global corporation Cisco Systems. The Training Centre is based on WebEx popular online meeting platform but has been developed to provide additional functionality. This functionality includes features similar to those of Adobe Connect. WebEx Training Centre is interoperable with LMS and support for interoperability is provided. WebEx Training Centre can support up to 1000 participants. WebEx Meeting Centre is a reduced feature version of the feature-‐rich WebEx Training Centre, which scales from 8 to 500 participants and is available on mobile device. Both standard and upgraded versions of the software are available and the pricing structure is differentiated on functionality and usage arrangements.
4.2 Asynchronous Communication
4.2.1 SoundCloud
SoundCloud9 is based on a social media paradigm and encourages users to register and upload their recordings. Once registered the user uses the software available through SoundCloud to record their sounds or download an application to their mobile phone to complete and upload a recording. Similar to other social media environments, users can share their recordings; feedback can be given from others listening to your recording by using the time-‐stamp comment feature. A user's recordings can be made available via other social media communities such as Facebook.
4.2.2 You Tube
You Tube allows users to post and share video materials online. You Tube is a subscription based serviced with a wide breadth of functionality based on subscription type. Users have the option of creating their own You Tube channel to author, edit and manage their own posted videos. Users can also share video posting both publicly or through restricted invitation only access for up to twenty five other users. You Tube provides an annotation feature, which allows users to provide textual comment to video materials. You Tube video can be embedded in other platforms and can be accessed and integrated with email platforms such as GMail and social media networks such as Facebook. You entry level service is free of charge to users.
4.3 Platform
The SpeakApps platform can be considered as a learning management system or virtual learning environment. The LMS market is dynamic and consists of both commercial and open source players. Examples of commercial companies in this market include Blackboard and examples of open source companies include Moodle and Joomla10. A joint venture by Google and
8 WebEx Training Centre: http://www.webex.com/ 9 SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/ 10 Joomla: http://www.joomla.org/
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Pearson, indicate the continued evolution of this market with the launch of OpenClass11 a free LMS which provides course management tools and advanced social networking and community building capacities (Fischmann, 2011). This project however is currently in development and remains unavailable to users.
5 The close integration of pedagogical and technological design is evidence of the distinctiveness of the SpeakApps tools and platform in relation to its competitors and is at the core of its business model. The latter is based primarily on developing a community of users by providing free access for all users to the web 2.0 tools and associated learning materials that are being iteratively developed throughout the lifespan of the project. Since they are based on the IMS Learning Tools Interoperability specification, the SpeakAppss tools can be integrated into a wide range of existing educational, content and social media platforms such as Moodle, Blackboard, and Mahara. Users will therefore be able to download the SpeakApps tools and integrate them within their own technological contexts, provided that they have the resources and appropriate technical skills or support to do so. All teaching and learning materials will be accessible under a Creative Commons licence, similar to the one applicable to this document (e.g. BY, NC, SA).
For those who do not have access to the necessary resources and support, it is envisaged that the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) will continue to maintain the SpeakApps platform and tools after the project is completed. In order to support UOC in this endeavour, the business model will allow for the provision of a subscription based dedicated e-‐learning environment with virtual classrooms for users. This ancillary service is based on the concept of software as a service , and will provide a range of LMS functionalities to users. The service will be offered using a subscription paradigm in line with Amazon EC2 pricing structure (mentioned earlier in section 3.5), with subscriptions commensurate with usage and based on technical costs of hosting and maintenance. To assist in the setting up of an appropriate price plan, all project partners will conduct an appraisal of user statistics and interactions with the platform and tools by the end of the project life-‐cycle as well as establish the potential demand for the services for each language. UOC will also provide detailed technical and maintenance costs as well as develop scenarios of use and break even points (e.g. projected number of students/teachers for the next two years and associated costs) that are cognizant of potential requirements for future upgrades. These projections and financial scenarios will form the basis for a SpeakApps price plan and the drawing of agreements between the SpeakApps Consortium and organisations or individual teachers interested in bringing their classes to the SpeakApps platform.
In recognition of the 25% share of the total project budget committed by the partner institutions during the project lifespan and of the contribution to the development and piloting of tools and tasks, UOC will provide free access to partner institutions for at least a year after completion of the project. The other partners will continue to provide teaching and learning materials as well as steward the community of users. A new consortium agreement, based on the initial one, will be drawn with a view to establish governance principles and operations, as well as conditions and rules for the distribution or re-‐investment of profits if any.
11 To learn more about OpenClass, see: http://www.joinopenclass.com/open/view/t1
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6 This section considers issues of sustainability in terms of other SpeakApps deliverables and how these deliverable link into the SpeakApps business model.
6.1 User Requirements
The SpeakApps Development Team is conducting a comprehensive survey of user requirements. These requirements are used to guide both technological and pedagogical elements of the project. The dissemination of the user survey has also brought the SpeakApps project to the attention to a wide-‐range of users in each of the target languages as is the first of a series of steps to build a SpeakApps user community.
6.2 Pilot Studies
Carrying out pilot studies ensures that the SpeakApps tools and applications are being conducted by teachers within partner institutions and in concert with other external bodies. Partners jointly define guidelines for pedagogical activities. The pilot studies are based on cooperative design methods to promote the development of ownership and authorship in regard to new pedagogical designs. Further rounds of pilot studies will continue to support development in the context of the technological and pedagogical elements of the project.
6.3 Teacher Training
The teacher training deliverable provides a mechanism to train language teachers in the use of the SpeakApps activities, tools and platform. It will initially train teachers and the results of these sessions will be used to refine further training.
For sustainable development, teachers need to be offered opportunities to explore the role of technology in relation to their concept of language and learning. Building upon the experience gained in teacher training at the University of Jyväskylä and UOC, the SpeakApps Consortium is developing a model for teacher training that incorporates the following aims:
teachers learn the basic concepts of task design and develop open resources for developing spoken skills;
teachers learn the basic concepts of open educational resources and open communication;
teachers learn to use the SpeakApps tools in pedagogically meaningful ways; teachers reflect on pedagogical practices with these tools by exposure to best practice examples;
teachers become familiar with and contribute to guides and training materials which will be freely available to use or adapt to other specific contexts.
The approach places the teacher into central focus and emphasizes the professional learning aspect in order to support the sustainability of development. Moreover, it aims to engage teachers in a learning process in which they explore the affordances of the new tools in relation to their pedagogical concepts, needs and current designs.
6.4 Pedagogical Design
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A set of tasks and materials for the teaching and learning of spoken skills using the SpeakApps tools will be available to language teachers from the platform. These tasks and materials will be underpinned by current learning theories and pedagogical frameworks, which will be made explicit and accessible to language teachers from a variety of backgrounds. More specifically, guidelines, templates and various project reports, such as the State of the art report for teachers (Project Deliverable no. 3), will aid language teachers with the creation of their own activities.
6.5 Social Network and Community Building
The maintenance and development of the platform and tools, their continuing and expanding use, as well as the development of a rich repository of tasks and teaching and learning materials cannot be sustained without a dynamic online community of developers and users. Such a community may be divided in three distinct, yet interdependent -‐ 1) a community of open source developers (e.g. similar to open source communities), 2) a community of language learners, and 3) a community of language teachers. There are many models for building and sustaining online communities, and there may not be a fit for all solution. Different models and community orientations that are particularly relevant to SpeakApps are being examined by the consortium, such as open-‐ended conversations, content, project, and access to expertise orientations.
The SpeakApps platform provides a social network element to facilitate informal learning opportunities. Through the development of this feature of the platform, the projects aims to create and sustain a community of language teachers.
6.6 Technological Solution
The SpeakApps platform is built leveraging the advantages of open source technologies. The principles of open source will therefore support the continued refinement of the tools and the platform as the SpeakApps development team are actively engaged in developer communities. The use of the IMS Learning Tools Interoperability specifications provides for the integration of these tools with other LMS and CMS and therefore ensures that the tools can be used and re-‐used across an array of platforms which adhere to this specification.
6.7 Dissemination
SpeakApps has developed a comprehensive dissemination strategy and this strategy underpins and augments the exploitation and the of the application amongst the projects target users through a targeted approach examples of these initiatives to date include seminars with target language teachers, the presentation of SpeakApps at academic and practice conferences and the development of a comprehensive project website.
7 The SpeakApps sustainability plan is centred on four main elements; tools and platform, pedagogical development and support, community building and stewarding, and business model. The development of each element is guided by the underpinning principal of sustainability. The project is designed to ensure that language teachers can interact over a reasonable period of time with the SpeakApps environment in a number of ways including:
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Contributing to and downloading pedagogical materials in the target languages Downloading the tools for use within their own LMS learning context Collaborating with other language teachers in the development and design of pedagogical activities to support language learning with a particular focus on spoken skills
Accessing an e-‐learning environment with LMS features to facilitate both synchronous and asynchronous oral language production
The progression of the project and the realisation of the projects work packages will continue to refine and evolve the business model and exploitation deliverable. The challenge for the SpeakApps project team is to ensure that the principle of sustainability remains at the core of its mission.
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8 Britain, S. (2011). On the Relationship Between Pedagogical Design and Content Management in eLearning. In N. Ferrer & J.-‐M. Alfonso (eds.), Content Management for E-‐Learning (pp. 55-‐69). New York, NY: Springer.
Conole, G., Oliver, M., Falconer, I., Littlejohn, A., & Harvey, J. (2007). Designing for learning. In G. Conole & M. Oliver (ed.), Contemporary perspectives in e-‐learning research: Themes, methods and impact on practice, (pp. 101-‐120). Routledge Falmer.
Conole, G. (forthcoming). Designing for learning in an open world. Springer.
Fischmann, J. (2011). Pearson and Google Jump intp Learning Management, with a New Free System, The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 13th 2011, [accessed on-‐line 17th October 2011].
Kopper, R. & Tatterstall, C. (2005). Learning Design A handbook on modelling and delivering networked education and training. Springer.
Moodle (2011). Moodle Statistics, [Retrieved from http://moodle.org/stats][Accessed on-‐line 16th December 2011],
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.
Wiley, D. (2007). On the sustainability of open educational resource initiatives in higher education. OECD.
SpeakApps Project
Project Nr 2010-4210 / 511552-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-KA2-KA2MP-SPKApps
This project has been funded with support from the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commis -sion.
This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.