Abstract - University of Leeds€¦ · project is developing a cartoon application named...

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Abstract The Leeds university team of the NIMIS (Networked Interactive Media In Schools) project is developing a cartoon application named ‘T’ rrific Tales’ . The primary purpose of this application is to encourage literacy skills in small children through story writing. ‘T’ rrific Tales’ features a wordbank that comprises words, phrases and cartoon pictures, as well as speech synthesis and an intelligent agent. Its design is based on a collaborative strategy that aims to support the teaching and learning dynamics of the normal classroom. Presently, the wordbank is created and maintained by researchers in the Leeds team, and contains material tailored for pupils aged 5 to 6 years in Glusburn Primary School. The objective of this project is to design and implement a prototype tool for managing the wordbank. This tool enables teachers to customise the wordbank themselves and consequently extend the use of ‘T’ rrific Tales’ . Also incorporated in the tool is a framework for capturing pupils’ contributions to the wordbank and support for lesson planning. The participatory approach, employed in the design of all NIMIS applications, has also been used in this project. As a result, the prototype tool was quickly adopted by the NIMIS team for updating the wordbank. Although this tool has not been installed in the NIMIS classroom in Glusburn, observation from a field test indicates that teachers would easily receive it.

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Acknowledgements The writer wishes to thank the following people who have participated in the design of the project application.

• Dr Brna Brna (supervisor) • Bridget Cooper • Alexander Martins • Sally Freytag • Liana Ratmerita • Patricia Tedesco

She would also like to thank her supervisor and lecturers in the School of Computer Studies who imparted to her the knowledge necessary for undertaking this project.

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Contents

Abstract ..............................................................................................................................................i

Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................ii

Contents...........................................................................................................................................iii

1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................1

2 The Design Problem.................................................................................................................2 2.1 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................2 2.2 Situation of concern ...........................................................................................................2 2.3 Users of the system and their activity to be supported ........................................................3

2.3.1 Library of Words ........................................................................................................3 2.3.2 The Wordbank Structure............................................................................................3 2.3.3 Preparing a Lesson Plan............................................................................................4 2.3.4 Addressing specific user needs..................................................................................4

3 Analysis and design using participative methods..................................................................5 3.1 Participants........................................................................................................................5 3.2 Action research ..................................................................................................................5 3.3 Modelling with scenarios ....................................................................................................7 3.4 Modelling by envisionment .................................................................................................8

3.4.1 High level interface design .........................................................................................9 3.5 Alternative Architectures ..................................................................................................12

3.5.1 Online use of the Configuration Tool ........................................................................12 3.5.2 Offline use of the Configuration Tool ........................................................................13

3.6 Framework for enqueuing proposed words.......................................................................13

4 Implementation of solution ....................................................................................................14 4.1 Adding Attributes to the elements of wordbank’s DTD ......................................................15 4.2 Abstraction of Software Design ........................................................................................16 4.3 Implementation strategy ...................................................................................................16

5 System Evaluation..................................................................................................................18 5.1 The first prototype ............................................................................................................18 5.2 Co-operative Evaluation ...................................................................................................21 5.3 Learning while prototyping................................................................................................21 5.4 Iterative Evaluations.........................................................................................................22

6 Future Development ...............................................................................................................24

7 Conclusion..............................................................................................................................25

Appendix A: Project Experience ....................................................................................................26

Appendix B: Objectives and Deliverables .....................................................................................27

Appendix C: Marking Scheme and Interim Report header sheet..................................................28

Appendix D: Structure of the Wordbank........................................................................................29

Appendix E: Evaluation Forms ......................................................................................................30

Appendix F: Word Bank Model for Online Architecture, written by Alexandre Martins ..............31

References ......................................................................................................................................32

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1 Introduction

NIMIS (Networked Interactive Media In Schools) is a European Union funded project, aiming to develop a novel classroom environment for early learners. Partners involved the NIMIS project are the University of Duisburg in Germany, INESC in Portugal and the Computer Based Learning Unit (CBLU) in Leeds University. NIMIS has three core applications, which are Teatrix, T’ rrific Tales and Today’s Talking Type Writer (T3). All three applications share the common objective of supporting literacy and are highly interactive systems, integrating a range of media (text, picture, animation, speech and sound).

CBLU in Leeds is responsible for T’ rrific Tales, a software for pupils aged 5- 6 years. It is designed to develop their story writing skills. With this application, pupils compose ‘stories-as-multimedia’ (Brna et. al, 2000), either on their own or in collaboration with other pupils in the class. T’ rrific Tales promotes writing by providing a wordbank, speech synthesis and communication facilities. A special desktop environment, the NIMIS Desktop on which T’ rrific Tales runs, manages user logins and program launching. The University of Duisburg developed NIMIS Desktop using MatchMaker (soon to be commercial software) for networking services.

Apart from networked multimedia computers and a giant touch screen, the NIMIS classroom in Glusburn also has a scanner and a digital camera. This provision of extensive media equipment is intended to enable teachers to author multimedia material for the class. It is hoped that they would use available resources to enrich and customise the multimedia contents of T’ rrific Tales. The NIMIS team could have used commercial media-authoring tools, such as MacroMedia Director. However, users will have to be trained before they can use these tools effectively. Also, since these tools are generic, they do not readily fit into the pedagogy framework of the NIMIS classroom. This project is concerned with designing a specific authoring tool for T’ rrific Tales.

Media presented in T’ rrific Tales takes the form of a wordbank. The NIMIS team is investigating the use of a wordbank as a growing library of words, as well as pictures, to help in sentence formation and narrative construction (Cooper et. al., 2000). Managing the vast amounts of content in the wordbank can be tedious and often prone to errors. In addition to this, teachers are sometimes nervous when dealing with new computer systems (Brna et. al, 1999). Under these circumstances, it is practical to hide technical details from the users. For example, the users should not have to know that the wordbank is structured and stored as an XML document, nor should they have to understand this relatively complex mark-up language.

The development of the prototype, named Configuration Tool, employs participatory design, an approach that originated in Scandinavia and is a recognised way of capturing users’ needs. The NIMIS research team has chosen this approach for the design of all its applications. Through involvement of teachers and researchers in the prototyping process, design flaws were identified quickly. Iterative improvements have resulted in a pleasing version. Presently, the Configuration Tool has been adopted by the NIMIS team, replacing the commercial software for editing the wordbank.

T’ rrific Tales is still under evaluation and will likely change to incorporate user feedback. Hence, the Configuration Tool was designed to be flexible to these changes. This system has also been expressed in a standard language, UML, to facilitate further development of the tool by NIMIS.

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2 The Design Problem

2.1 Problem Statement

The objective of this project is to develop a package that adds new content to the T’ rrific Tales application and to manage existing contents. Unlike T’ rrific Tales, the package will not rely on the NIMIS Desktop. Therefore it can be developed and used without depending on the core components of the NIMIS architecture. Changes are made to a shared database that is used by all T’ rrific Tales applications in a network.

2.2 Situation of concern

Prior to each session on T’ rrific Tales, the research team updates the resource of words and pictures which is available to the pupils. Sources contributing to the choice of words are the guidelines of the National Curriculum, and words which pupils use in everyday school life (Cooper et. al., 2000). The latter group of words is derived from interviews with teachers and pupils. This resource of words, named a wordbank, is likened to a library.

T’ rrific Tales is designed to have the capacity to support the teaching and learning dynamics of a normal classroom, and video evidence show that teachers are indeed beginning to integrate the application into daily lessons. It is therefore inevitable that the contents of the wordbank will need to be adapted on a day-to-day basis and year-to-year basis. Considering that the NIMIS project is drawing to an end, enthusiasm for T’ rrific Tales may wane unless there is a simple way for teachers themselves to up-keep the wordbank. Even if the NIMIS team can extend support indefinitely, the delivery of new wordbanks may be untimely and infrequent.

An observation of the present NIMIS classroom in Glusburn primary school reveals that pupils enter the school year hardly able to write but, at the end, many write quite long stories (Brna et al., 2000). Their progress is reflected in the size of the wordbank, which has doubled since T’ rrific Tales was first introduced to Glusburn in November 1999. Researchers now manage a wordbank of over 8000 words, an overwhelming vocabulary for pupils, especially those who have just entered school. Instead of exposing them to the entire workbank all at once, pupils would benefit from gradual introduction of available words. Also, teachers are likely to find it more appropriate to concentrate on a section of the wordbank at a time, and hide the rest.

During a story writing session, pupils may bring in words that they have learnt from home. These words would have to be noted on paper and if appropriate, passed on to NIMIS researchers to be entered into the wordbank. This process is slow and unreliable. There has be a more dependable system to ensure all new words are duly considered because including a pupil’ s personal experiences into teaching content is a way for a teacher to show empathy towards the pupil. Cooper (1999) has discussed why empathy can have positive effects on learning.

The class has access to a scanner and a digital camera and teachers have been trained to use them. Still lacking is software that enables teachers to utilise the resources provided to them for personalising the teaching contents in T’ rrific Tales. There is a range of things that they would like to include, such as pictures from field trips, school events and so on.

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2.3 Users of the system and their activity to be supported

2.3.1 L ibrary of Words

If we use the analogy of a wordbank as a library, then pupils are the ‘users’ , while NIMIS researchers and teachers, whose responsibility is to update the wordbank, are ‘ librarians’ . In a library system, users can recommend new resources, words or pictures, for the wordbank. These recommendations would have to be verified by a librarian before it can be included. Librarians also periodically add suitable resources to the wordbank and remove or archive those that are no longer used. Whilst users have access to the resources, they can not directly alter them.

How resources are catalogued is of little importance to the user, as long as they can be found easily. Conversely, librarians are required to ensure proper cataloguing of new resources to help the user locate them. The same applies in the wordbank. NIMIS researchers and teachers would need to insert words correctly into the wordbank structure. The wordbank is archived as an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) document, so the task of inserting words into its structure involves editing XML data. An XML document can be edited with a simple text editor, or with a specialised editing tool, such as XML Spy. In either case, the user will need to understand the mark-up language. This project aims to create a solution to simplify the job of the worbank ‘ librarians’ .

2.3.2 The Wordbank Structure

XML is a text-based mark-up language, with data identified using tags. This report only discusses the structuring of the wordbank with XML and does not attempt to explain the XML language. For a good reference in XML terminology, see (Armstrong, 2000). The wordbank for T’ rrific Tales has 19 tags, arranged according to its DTD (Document Type Definition) to form the structure. A listing of the wordbank’s original DTD is shown below, while changes that were made to it are described in later sections of this report. It might be clearer to refer also to a graphical representation of the wordbank tree structure, which can be found in Appendix D.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>   <!ELEMENT wordbank (storyThemes, wordCategories, storyIdeas)> <!ELEMENT storyThemes (theme+)> <!ELEMENT theme (name, describer, backgrounds, characters, props)> <!ELEMENT backgrounds (storyElement*)> <!ELEMENT characters (storyElement*)> <!ELEMENT props (storyElement*)> <!ELEMENT storyElement (name, describer, filename, ( thing | doing | description)*)> <!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT filename (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT describer (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT thing (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT doing (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT description (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT wordCategories (wordCategory*)> <!ELEMENT wordCategory (name, describer, word*)> <!ELEMENT word (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT storyIdeas (storyIdea*)> <!ELEMENT storyIdea (name, describer, phrase*)> <!ELEMENT phrase (#PCDATA)>

Figure 1.0 : Or iginal Wordbank.dtd

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The first three lines in figure 1.0 are the document prologue and comments. The proceeding lines, which begin with ‘<!ELEMENT’ , specifies data structures. Wordbank is the top data structure. It has three compulsory sub-structures, storyThemes, wordCatgories and storyIdeas.

storyThemes comprises one or more theme structure. A theme has three further sub-structures, backgrounds, characters and props. Associated with a theme are a name field and a describer field. Data enclosed in a name tag is a unique ID used in the program to identify a given wordbank structure, whilst the structure’s actual name which appears in T’ rrific Tales applications, is enclosed in the describer tag. backgrounds, characters and props each has a list of storyElement structures, though this list may be empty. A story element has textual contents, which are grouped into three types, doing, thing and descriptions. Doings consist of verbs, actions and phrases; things are nouns and descriptions are adjectives or adverbial expressions that can be used within a specific story element context. A further description of the semantics of each tag is available in NIMIS Deliverable 4.4. Apart from text, a storyElement is also associated with a picture. The path and filename of the image of this picture is enclosed in the structure’s filename tag. As with the theme structure, storyElements also have name and describer tags. Other words in the wordbank are grouped under the wordCategories structure. There may be zero or more wordCategory structures available in the wordbank. A wordCategory contains a list of words and is identified by a name and a describer field. Phrases that help in narrative constructions go under the storyIdeas structure. This structure is similar to that of wordCategories, except that a it has a list of phrases instead of words.

2.3.3 Preparing a Lesson Plan There are more than 8000 words in the current T’ rrific Tales wordbank. With regular use and as pupils progress, the wordbank will acquire even more words. For most lessons however, teachers want to concentrate on certain words, and hide others. Different lessons may require different sections of the wordbank to be shown. Therefore, teachers need to be able to exclude and re-include sections of the wordbank, without having to create separate XML documents.

2.3.4 Addressing specific user needs

The purpose of the Configuration Tool is to allow users to re-author the teaching contents of T’ rrific Tales. By the nature of its use, it should be easy to learn, so that teachers and researchers can concentrate on the pedagogy aspect of the wordbank. Also, since users already have a notion of the wordbank structure from prior experience while using T’ rrific Tales, it is reasonable to assume that they will quickly learn to use a tool that has a similar interface, provided there is little additional cognitive load. Problems can be avoided if users were spared from having to understand the XML language.

As a rule of thumb, users should not be expected to retain more than seven (plus or minus two) unrelated items in mind at any one time. With the pressures of a handling 27 young pupils, a teacher should not be burdened with having to remember more than five different operations. Their busy schedules also means that they can afford little or no time in learning to use a new system.

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The NIMIS classroom is provided with WACOM tablets, so users can use either the pointer-pen or the mouse for pointing and clicking. Considering that T’ rrific Tales was designed to encourage pupils to interact naturally with computers, using the WACOM pen as the pointing device, teachers themselves may also have a preference for the pen. It is not easy to ‘double-click’ with the pen and thus, interactive methods that require this action must be avoided.

3 Analysis and design using participative methods

The participatory design approach is used throughout the NIMIS project. Participatory design, a concept pioneered in Scandinavia, requires that the user participate in designing and the designer participate in the use.(Ehn P. , 1993).

3.1 Participants

The final prototype is the result of collaborative design with the following members of the NIMIS project: ∗ Brna Brna who is the NIMIS project co-ordinator ∗ Bridget Cooper who is a NIMIS project evaluator and has done extensive work with

T’ rrific Tales users (interviews, observations, etc), also an ex-teacher ∗ Alexander Martins who was the main programmer for T’ rrific Tales ∗ Sally Freytag who is one of the class teachers in the NIMIS classroom ∗ Liana Ratmerita who is working on Agent Technology for T’ rrific Tales ∗ Patricia Tedesco who is a PhD research student helping with programming T’ rrific Tales

The project would have benefited by having more teachers involved in the design process. However, the situation was such that it was difficult to work with them on a regular basis. Teachers have busy schedules and school holidays coincided with part of the project time. Also, the school is more than an hour drive from Leeds University and this made it impossible to go there frequently to carry out field tests.

Pupils also have a stake in the success of this tool but they were not consulted in the design because they will not directly use the tool.

3.2 Action research

Study of the required system began with ‘action research’ . This term, coined by Newman (1995), means studying the activities by taking part in them. The researchers were editing the wordbank XML document with XML Spy. This XML document-editing tool has the following qualities:

∗ it checks for well-formness of a modified document before it allows the document to be

saved ∗ it highlights the parts of the document that do not conform to the specified structure

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∗ a user can select the way the document is displayed. The enhanced grid view with tree structure layout is good for understanding the hierarchical structure and makes navigation of the structure easier.

∗ the source view displays the document in the original XML text format, but uses colour to distinguish between tags, comments, data, etc. This is useful for identifying document structure errors.

∗ it has the facilities of most text editing program such as cut, paste, undo, redo, etc However, the drawbacks are: ∗ the user needs to know the terms of the XML language to use this program ∗ there is no support with XML syntax ∗ it is difficult to spot spelling errors because the fonts are small ∗ it does not support the extra constraints of the wordbank, such as making sure the filename

fields actually refer to existing files, and that the name field is unique Figure 2.0 : Wordbank displayed in Enhanced Grid View using XML Spy

So far, teachers were not directly involved in creating and updating the wordbank XML document. Therefore, their understanding of the wordbank structure comes from using T’ rrific Tales. A T’ rrific Tales application window is shown in figure 3.0. Pupils compose their stories in the main panel on the right. The top portion is the ‘work area’ , which displays both text and pictures. Below that is a text entry area. At the bottom is a ‘drawing tool’ , which allows pupils to paint on the ‘work area’ with a pointing device.

The contents of the wordbank, are displayed on the smaller left panel, and organised into four tabbed panels. The ‘Pictures’ panel displays the list of themes and the pictures of the storyElements within a selected theme. Alternative names that are more familiar to children were used to describe the three storyElement groupings, ‘settings’ instead of backgrounds, ‘people’ instead of characters and ‘ things’ instead of props. The ‘Words’ panel displays the

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three lists of words, ‘doings’ , ‘descriptions’ and ‘ things’ , associated with a storyElement. wordCategories are displayed in the ‘More Words’ panel, and storyIdeas in the ‘ Ideas’ panel. Pupils can drag and drop pictures of storyElements and words from the wordbank into their ‘work area’ . There are also tools for collaborative work and speech synthesis. Figure 3.0 : T’ r r ific Tales application window

3.3 Modelling with scenarios

NIMIS researchers are still evaluating and enhancing the features of T’ rrific Tales. With every change, teachers and pupils get to explore new uses of the application. This is an advantageous situation because they are still receptive new ways of fitting T’ rrific Tales into daily lessons. By interviewing teachers and drawing from her teaching experience, Cooper has identified possible classroom activities that necessitates re-authoring of T’ rrific Tales’s contents. ∗ the class has taken some pictures with the digital camera when they went on a school trip.

They want to put those pictures into T’ rrific Tales so that pupils can write about their experiences later.

In this scenario, pictures are not chosen to match a ‘ themed’ group of words. Rather, these pictures go into the wordbank first, and while writing, pupils and teachers will come up with new words. There should be a facility that allows pupils to propose new words for the wordbank. ∗ Teachers want pupils to write something concerning their homes, and prepare suitable

words for the theme. Since teachers are very busy they would build up the theme

text entry area

drawing tool

wordbank contents

workarea

tabs

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incrementally, adding words to it when there is spare time. Pupils help by bringing their own pictures to be scanned and included into their stories.

A themed group of words are created first, and pictures are added later. The wordbank must flexible and not require all fields to be added at once. ∗ as pupils broaden their vocabularies, teachers will want to add new wordCategories and

storyIdeas. In more advanced classes, some groups of words are too simple, and should be removed.

The tool must allow new words to be added, and chunks of old ones to be removed easily ∗ teachers want to gradually introduce words to the pupils, but do not want to rebuild the

existing wordbank. During different sessions, teachers want to highlight different words. The operation for selecting words must be simple since the wordbank is large.

The tool must allow teachers to hide or show words from both the atomic level (single words or phrases) and the higher structural level (category, theme, etc).

3.4 Modelling by envisionment

A fast mock up of an interface for the Configuration Tool was produced so that the participating team could envision the working system. Mock-ups were built using the VISIO Technical drawing tool. This tool was selected for its ‘WYSIWYG’ feature, which allows a design to be created and changed rapidly.

The ‘walk-through’ sessions with participants began with the model shown in figure 4.0. It was decided that the interface was cluttered with too much information and bore no resemblance to T’ rrific Tales. Figure 4.0 : First mock-up

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The high-level interface design that came out of initial discussions is described in the following sections.

3.4.1 High level inter face design Figure 5.0 : High level design, showing Submissions and the Themes panel

During a session on T’ rrific Tales, if teachers or pupils think of new words for the application, they add the words into a submissions list. Each proposed word in this list has to be verified by a teacher before it can be added to T’ rrific Tale’s wordbank. ‘Submissions’ are shown in the right panel of the diagram in figure 5.0. This feature is a plan-ahead measure since support for entering words into the submissions list has not yet been developed.

Proposed words are shown in a scrollable list. The teacher selects a word, then expands it to examine its details, such as whether it is a storyTheme, a doing, a thing, a storyIdea, etc. If the teacher is satisfied with the submission, the word can then be added to the wordbank by clicking on the Add to wordbank button. Otherwise, it is discarded by clicking on the Delete button. Once a new entry is added to the wordbank, the left panel, which displays the current wordbank, would be updated. The ‘Current Wordbank’ panel has three indexed pages. In figure 5.0 the left panel is indexed to ‘Story Themes’ tabbed panel. This panel provides the interface for managing wordbank contents that are structured under storyThemes. The structural hierarchy of the XML document is reflected in the layout of the sub-panels, which follows reading conventions (from left to right and from top to bottom). Beginning from the top left sub-panel, the user clicks on an item in the ‘Themes list’ to select it. Then, if the Add New button is clicked, a dialog box appears. The user enters the name and describer of the new theme into the dialog box, and commits it to the wordbank by click on the commit button. Alternatively, the dialog box can be dismissed without creating a new entry by clicking on the cancel button. A theme can be deleted by clicking on the Delete button.

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Deletion of any existing content requires the user’s confirmation. The Edit button allows the user to change the name and describer of the currently selected item.

When a theme has been selected, storyElements that are associated with it would be displayed in next sub-panel to the left. The elements are grouped into backgrounds,, characters and props. As before, the user needs to click on an item in the list to select a storyElement. Then, pressing the Add New button will bring up a dialog box that contains fields for name and describer . If the user commits to this new entry, a file chooser appears for the user to select a picture for this new element. If a picture is unavailable, the storyElement will be created without one. Words for this new element can then be entered via the bottom sub-panel.

The lower panel displays the details of the selected storyElement. If a new element has just been added, its details would be displayed here. Words that belong to a storyElement are grouped into things, descriptions and doing. Users can add new words and remove existing ones. (a) (b) Figure 6.0: High level design, showing (a)Word Categor ies (b) Story Ideas The second indexed page, shown in figure 6.0a, is the tabbed panel that provides the interface for managing contents grouped under wordCategories. The list of wordCategories is displayed in the left sub-panel. When an item in this list is selected, words that belong to the selected wordCategory would be displayed in the right sub-panel The Add New and Delete buttons are the same as before. The user can also Edit the name and describer of a selected wordCategory. Figure 6.0b shows the last tabbed panel, which provides the interface for managing contents that go under storyIdeas. The list of storyIdeas is displayed on the top sub-panel.

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By selecting one of them, phrases grouped that storyIdea would be displayed the lower sub-panel. Beneath the Submissions panel in figure 5.0, there is a button that reads, View Class Plan. When this button is pressed, the window displays the ‘Class Planner’ page, shown figure 7.0. Figure 7.0: Class Planner

Using this interface, the teacher can select words, or groups of words to exclude from a lesson. Here, the wordbank is displayed in a tree structure, similar to the way files are displayed in a Windows Explorer. The concept is to get teachers to think of the wordbank as a filing system, with which they are familiar.

The tree starts off collapsed, showing only the three highest levels, storyThemes, storyIdeas and wordCategories. The teacher can view the next level of detail by clicking on a branch. A branch has a square box with either a '+' or a '-' in it, the former indicates an expanded branch, and the latter, a collapsed one. In the diagram above, Story Themes is expanded, while wordCategories and storyIdeas are both collapsed. Words within folders that are checked will be displayed for use in T'rrific Tales application. For the tree in the above diagram, all words that are grouped under storyThemes (and only these ones) will be available to the children.

This interface offers both coarse and fine control. By checking a folder, all folders enclosed by that folder will also be checked. Similarly, unchecking a folder causes enclosed folders to also be unchecked. However, the state of each word in the wordbank is independent from the rest. Therefore, the teacher may uncheck, for example, the throne room, but check treasures. The result makes throne and royal family unavailable but treasures available to the children. When satisfied with the plan, the teacher clicks on the Finished button put the setting into effect. The Reset button restores the state of the tree to that of the previously saved plan. Also, when this program is first started, the state of the tree will show the setting of the previous lesson.

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3.5 Alternative Architectures

Martins, who was the main programmer for T’ rrific Tales, had come up with two alternate architectures to integrate the Configuration Tool (then called Teacher Tool) into the NIMIS application.

3.5.1 Online use of the Configuration Tool Figure 8.0: Architecture for online use of Configuration Tool In the online implementation, the Configuration Tool is a front-end client of a WordBankServer application. Other clients of the server are instances of T’ rrific Tales applications. The Configuration Tool has access to the wordbank only via the WordBankServer. Submissions coming from T’ rrific Tales applications are also enqueued in the server (as mentioned earlier, the functionality for posting words into the submissions list has not been implemented yet). When the Configuration Tool is launched, it registers itself to the server, which then responds by sending a copy of the wordbank and the list of enqueued submissions. Further submissions are forwarded directly to the tool, without first being enqueued in the server. If a command is issued in the Configuration Tool, such as insertions, deletions and modifications, a remote modifier method will be invoked in the server. These methods will change the current wordbank and causes the server to send out update notifications to T’ rrific Tales instances. This architecture exploits the networked nature of the NIMIS environment, and was initially chosen for the project. However, when Martins left the team, the server application was still not implemented. Also, since teachers are normally preoccupied with the pupils during a lesson, they are more likely to only want to use the tool quickly before or after a class. As a result, the NIMIS team agreed that the offline architecture would suffice.

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3.5.2 Offline use of the Configuration Tool

Although not the first choice, the offline architecture does have its own advantages. The implementation is simpler and does not require a server to be constantly available. Maintaining a server will require commitment to additional resources, such as expert knowledge and expensive hardware, not readily available in primary schools. Also, with this system, teachers can afford to make mistakes. In the online system, any changes, including accidental ones, will automatically affect T’ rrific Tales applications.

Figure 9.0: Architecture for offline use of Configuration Tool In the offline implementation, submissions are saved into a database. When the Configuration Tool is launched, it reads the wordbank XML document as well as the submissions database. Changes made to the wordbank will be saved in the XML document when the application is closed. After this, instances of T’ rrific Tales will access the new wordbank.

3.6 Framework for enqueuing proposed words

This project sets out a framework for enqueuing and storing words proposed through T’ rrific Tales applications. A method similar to that of the wordbank is used, whereby words are structured and saved into a database using XML. However, the design of the DTD is quite different. Figure 10.0 shows an example a submissions XML document, with its DTD defined immediately within the prologue. The DTD can be in a separate file from the XML document. Its is included here for the reader’s convenience. Data is structured to be suitable for the enqueuing process. It has a reversed, ‘bottom-up’, structure compared to that of the wordbank. The top data structure is Submissions. It can contain sub-structures of doing, thing, description, phrase and word, in any sequence and combination. In the wordbank’s DTD, these sub-structures were data tags. Here, they are used to identify where in the wordbank, to insert the proposed words. For example, data

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within the doing, thing and description tags are words that belong in the structure storyThemes. Likewise, data within phrase tags are words belonging to storyIdeas and data within word tags, belong in wordCategories. This design allows proposed words to be added to the queue in any order. Each proposed words structure has a string tag for the actual word(s), and a parentContent tag. In the case where the data is a phrase, the parentContent tag contains the name of the specific storyIdea into which the data should be inserted. If the data is a word the parentContent tag contains s the name of the specific wordCategory.

doing, thing and description have a different structure from the other two. In addition to the parentContent tag, they have parentTheme tag and parentContentType attribute. parentContent is the name a specific storyElement into which the data should be inserted while parentTheme is the name of the theme that the storyElement belongs to and the attribute parentContentType describes its type.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  <!DOCTYPE Submissions [ <!ELEMENT Submissions (doing| thing |description| phrase |word)*> <!ATTLIST doing parentContentType (backgrounds|characters|props) #REQUIRED> <!ATTLIST thing parentContentType (backgrounds|characters|props) #REQUIRED> <!ATTLIST description parentContentType (backgrounds|characters|props) #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT doing (parentTheme, parentContent, string)> <!ELEMENT thing (parentTheme , parentContent, string)> <!ELEMENT description (parentTheme, parentContent, string)> <!ELEMENT phrase (parentContent, string)> <!ELEMENT word (parentContent, string)> <!ELEMENT string (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT parentTheme (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT parentContent (#PCDATA)> ]> <Submissions> <doing parentContentType="characters"> <parentTheme>Castle</parentTheme> <parentContent>bird1</parentContent> <string>learn to fly</string> </doing> <phrase> <parentContent>storytitle</parentContent> <string>My summer holiday</string> </phrase> <word> <parentContent>colours</parentContent> <string>violet</string> </word> </Submissions>

Figure 10.0: An example of Submissions.xml To illustrate this design, refer to the short example file in figure 10.0. There are three enqueued words. The first is ‘ learn to fly’ , proposed as a ‘doing’ for the storyElement ‘bird1’ under the theme of ‘Castle’ . The next is ‘My summer holiday’ , proposed for the storyIdea group of ‘storytitle’ .

4 Implementation of solution

A design model was derived from the previous analysis. Figure 11.0 summarises this design in an object flow diagram. There are three groups of activities, all of which affects the wordbank XML document. The main activity is managing the contents of the wordbank,

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which includes adding, editing and deleting data. The two other activities are handling submissions, and setting up a class plan. Changes to the submissions XML document is also illustrated in the diagram.

When the Configuration Tool is launched, it reads and parses both XML documents to construct Document Object Models (DOM) of the wordbank and submissions. Next, data encapsulated in the DOMs is extracted in to a Wordbank Model and a Submissions Model. The Wordbank Model comprises vector lists of Theme, StoryIdea and WordCategory objects (classes from the NIMIS story package), while the Submissions model has a list of Suggestion objects. Each object in the Wordbank and Submissions models is linked, with a hastable, to a node in their corresponding DOMs. Modification methods then affect both the model and its DOM. Finally, when the application closes the DOMs are written back into XML documents.

Figure 11.0: Object flow diagram, illustrating changes in submissions and wordbank

4.1 Adding Attributes to the elements of wordbank’s DTD

To make is possible to hide certain words in the wordbank from showing in T’ rrific Tales applications, a flag has to be added to the XML structure. The following lines were added to the DTD described earlier in section 2.3.2.

<!ATTLIST wordbank visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST storyThemes visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST theme visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST backgrounds visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST characters visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST props visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST storyElement visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST wordCategories visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST wordCategory visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST storyIdeas visible (true|false) #IMPLIED> <!ATTLIST storyIdea visible (true|false) #IMPLIED>

Figure 12.0: L ines added to wordbank DTD

Submissions Handling

Wordbank Management

Class Planning

hide/show <<Information>> Wordbank Model [Setting change]

<<Physical>> Wordbank

XML read/parse

<<Physical>> Wordbank

Model

<<Information>> Wordbank Model [content change]

<<Physical>> Submissions

XML read/parse

<<Physical>> Submissions

Model

<<Information>> Submissions Model

[content change]

edit

delete

edit

add

delete

save <<Physical>> Submissions

XML

save <<Physical>>

Wordbank XML

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The attribute visible has been added to all tags, with the exception of the tags doing, thing, description, phrase and word. Those tags with the attribute represent a structure, while those without the attribute enclose wordbank data. When the value of visible is true, all data within the structure are shown in T’ rrific Tales, and if false, then the data is hidden. Originally, the design was to allow individual word to be hidden or shown. However, if it were to be done like this, the visible attribute would also have to be added to the tags enclosing data, and consequently a significant portion of the T’ rrific Tales program will have to be re-written. The NIMIS team decided that this compromise was acceptable.

4.2 Abstraction of Software Design

The prototype Configuration Tool is written in Java 2, using JSwing libraries for the user interface and an adapted version JAXP for XML parsing. Although this implementation is for offline use, it is similar to the online design discussed in the interim report. By adopting most of the original design, this implementation can be extended for online use. A class diagram for the online design, proposed in the interim report is available in Appendix F

Figure 13.0 shows the class diagram of Configuration Tool. This tool implements all the wordbank modification operations that were supposed to be handled by the online WordBankServer. It also creates a model of the wordbank by re-using classes from thedeveloped in the T’ rrific Tales application. Hence, the overall NIMIS software package is smaller, but more importantly, the tool would be compatible with T’ rrific Tales should it be developed further into a networked application. Another important issue considered in this design is that the prototype has to be flexible since T’ rrific Tales is still under the prototyping process. Adaptability was hence built-in by re-using existing program dependencies such as constants and files declared in the NIMIS util and config packages. Constant values that are used exclusively by Configuration Tool were appended to these packages.

Apart from developing the Configuration Tool prototype, this project entails modifying T’ rrific Tales. Modification was necessary to include the feature of displaying only wordbank contents that were selected in the Class Plan. The solution was to re-write two classes, Wordbank.java and Themes.java to recognise the visible attribute. Now, when T’ rrific Tales reads the wordbank XML document, contents that have visible = false are ignored.

4.3 Implementation strategy

The first step in implementation was to verify that the design was feasible. Classes that provided the ‘system services’ were implemented first. These services included methods for parsing the XML document, creating the wordbank model, modifying it and then writing out a new XML document. A command line program was written to test these ‘system services’ classes. The user interface classes were implemented only after the test program produced correct outputs. In the class diagram of figure 13.0, methods of the ‘system services’ classes are shown. These methods establish the functionality of the program. Configuration Tool is the executable class. The Wordbank Model and the Submissions Model, described at the beginning of the section, are objects of EditableWordBank and Submissions classes respectively. Modifications to the Wordbank model is performed by a WordBankManager object. Methods of the user interface classes are not shown because they will have to be redefined after feedback from evaluators to accommodate their interaction preferences.

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PresContentCellRenderer

has

1

1

1

calles the 'add' methods of

1

has 1

1 displays suggestions of

SubmissionsPanel

1

1

ConfigurationToolwordbankManagersubmissionsconfigPanelplannerPanel

main( )

1

1

ConfigurationPanel

1

1

WBankTreeCellRendererWBank

managed by

has

1

WordBankManagereditableWordBanklogFile

addAWord( )addElementContent( )addPhrase( )addStoryElement( )addStoryIdea( )addTheme( )addWordCategory( )delContentGroup( )delContentString( )delElementExpression( )delStoryElement( )editContentDescriber( )editFilename( )generateContentName( )

1

displays wordCategories of

WordCategoriesPanel

1

� ��themes

ThemesPanel

1

displays DOM of

ClassPlannerPanel

1

1

displaysstoryIdeas ofStoryIdeasPanel

1

adapt theDOM nodes to JTree nodes

AdaptedNode

EditableWordBanktheDOMthemeswordCategoriesstoryIdeas

buildWordbankFromDocument( )parseXMLFile( )saveToXML( )getATheme( )getDOM( )getNodeOfContent( )getStoryIdeas( )getThemes( )getWordCategories( )

1

1

SuggestedExpressionparentTheme

getParentTheme( )getParentType( )

SumissionstheDOMsuggestionswordbankManager

parseXMLFile( )createSubmissionsList( )addToWordbank( )removeSuggestion( )getSubmissions( )savetoXML( )

1

1

1

SuggestedStringparentContentsuggestiondomNode

get ParentContent( )toString( )setSuggestion( )getNode( )

0..*

has

0..*

Figure 13.0: Configuration Tool Class Diagram

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5 System Evaluation Prototyping and evaluation play a critical part of the design process of all NIMIS

applications. The user interface of Configuration Tool was implemented in stages. At each stage, a panel within the application window was developed and informally tested by Brna and Cooper. Early evaluation exposed unexpected properties and design flaws. As a result, the first complete prototype was different from the envisioned model described in section 3.3 of this report.

Later prototypes were also tested on participants and the results were fed into the next stage of enhancement of the design. This approach, described as ‘ formative evaluation’ (Newman, 1995), helps to focus the design towards meeting users’ requirements.

5.1 The first prototype A field test was carried in Glusburn Primary School, to get teachers’ assessment of

the running prototype. The evaluation had to be done earlier than planned because schools were closing for summer holidays. None the less, most of the interactive functions of the prototype tool, except for the ‘Submissions’ Tool, were already completed.

There has been enhancements in design since the envisioned model. During informal evaluations with Brna and Cooper, it was agreed that using two terms, name and describer, to refer to a wordbank structure was confusing. It was decided that since name is only used within the software program and not displayed in T’ rrific Tales, it should be hidden from the user. Also, for the storyElement structure, it was necessary to allow users to enter the describer and the picture filename fields separately. In the envisioned design, the user was forced to provide a picture before a new storyElement can be created. This interaction method is unreasonable because users may want to put in all the words first and then find a suitable picture for the storyElement.

The edit option was also added to the operations on doings, things, descriptions, phrases and words. With this option, users can correct spelling mistakes without having to first delete the wrong entry and then put it back with the add option. All operations in the user interface had to be executable with a single mouse click. This is to ensure the prototype still can work easily with the WACOM pen.

Figure 14.0 shows the ‘Story Themes’ panel of the ‘Configuration Tool’ window. Clicking on the Add button of ‘Story Elements’ sub-panel would bring up the dialog box shown in figure 14.1. The user enters a describer for the storyElement and chooses its type, either background, prop or character. The name field for the storyElement is generated by the software from the given describer. If the add action were successful, the new storyElement would be added to the wordbank. By default, a transparent image is assigned to its filename field, and it would have empty words lists. In the ‘Story Element’ sub-panel image button, there would be a message that says, “click here to select a picture” . If an error had occurred during the add action (probably because the wordbank’s DTD had changed) the user would get an error message. This error message can be dismissed and the user can carry on using the tool. All errors that occur while the program is running are recorded and saved in a log file named configLg.log.

When the image button is pressed, a file chooser appears. The default directory depends on the storyElement’s type. If the current storyElement is of a character type, the file chooser lists all image files available in the characters folder of the data directory. The

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name of the selected image file is entered into the storyElement’ s filename field, and the picture on the button is updated to the new image.

Figure 14.0: Story Themes panel of the Configuration Tool

Figure 14.1: Example dialog boxes The implemented ‘Story Ideas’ panel and ‘Word Category’ panels were very similar to

the design of the envisioned model. The only changes are the inclusion of Edit buttons and the hiding of the structure’s name. These panels are shown in figure 14.2.

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Figure 14.2: Story ideas and Word Category panels When the View Class Planner button in figure 14.0 is pressed, the window changes to

display the ‘Class Planner’ . Here, the wordbank is displayed in an explorer tree structure. Each tree branch represents a structure, and is labelled with the structure’s describer. The structure’s name is suppressed. Each leaf represents data, or words of the wordbank. Next to the label of a branch is a folder icon. If a folder is checked, the words within that structure are to be available for the next T'rrific Tales session. Clicking on a folder toggles its state. (Un)Checking a parent folder will cause all enclosed folders to also be (un)checked. The states of peer folders can change independently.

The Save button copies the states of the tree folders to the visible attributes of the wordbank XML nodes. Reset would restore the states to the last saved class plan.

Figure 14.3 : Class Planner panel of Configuration Tool

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5.2 Co-operative Evaluation During the evaluation in Glusburn, the class teacher, Freytag, was given a set of tasks

to perform. She had no any prior coaching on how to use the Configuration Tool. Instead, she was expected to explore the interface and ask questions or ‘think-aloud’ while working on the prototype software. This form of evaluation is decribed as ‘co-operative evaluation’ (Johnson, 1997). Her feedback form is available in Appendix E.

Questions in the form comprises typical wordbank maintenance tasks that researchers do, and tasks derived from scenario analysis such as setting up a class plan. Formulation of these questions was direct and intended to measure the learnability of the prototype. In the second part, she was asked to comment on the functionality and recommend any features that she though was missing. The final part covered layout and the ‘general feel’ of the prototype.

Freytag was observed to be quite comfortable with the tool, although she did hesitate in the beginning. In her feedback survey, she rated similar tasks to be ‘quite easy’ after the first attempt. This shows that she was able to learn the tool quickly. Despite saying that she was unfamiliar with the explorer interface of the ‘Class Planner’ panel, she managed to configure the settings properly. There was only one incident where she was confused. This happened when she clicked on the Save button in the ‘Class Planner’ , and there was no apparent change in the interface to indicate that she had performed the task successfully.

She felt that the ‘help’ feature was necessary, especially for instructions to download images from the Internet. She also said that she preferred simple dialog boxes, referring to the dialog for adding a storyElement. It had radio check buttons, which she was unfamiliar with.

5.3 Learning while prototyping Following Freytag’s feedback, a text status bar was added the ‘Class Planner’ panel.

It shows changes that were made to the state of the tree structure, such as saved, modified or reset, and also displays a simple instruction on how to construct a plan. To make sure that changes were noticeable, the Save button is available only when the settings have been modified, it is ‘greyed-out’ otherwise. Also the dialog box for adding a storyElement was reconstructed so that it had only an input textfield.

To avoid using complicating dialog boxes, only contextual help in the form of ‘ tool tips’ were provided. These tips appear when the user places the cursor over buttons. ‘Tool tips’ make use of short-term memory since information is available immediately in the interface. In contrast, help facilities are more like long term memory. Users have to load them and trawl through them to find the information that they need (Johnson, 1997).

Figure 15.0: Modifications to first prototype: new dialog, tool tip and status bar

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5.4 Iterative Evaluations The ‘Submissions’ Tool was completed in the second prototype. The purpose of this

tool is to retrieve suggested words from the submissions XML document and display them in a list. Only words that belong to an existing structure in the wordbank, i.e. a storyElement, a storyIdea or a wordCategory, will appear in the list. If the structure had been deleted, the word will also be discarded. With this tool, the teacher is able to refer to the current wordbank and decide whether the word is suitable for the wordbank. Below the list is a text area. When a suggestion is selected from the list, its details are displayed in this text area. The teacher then has three options, either add the suggestion directly into the wordbank, or edit it first before putting it into the wordbank, or remove it permanently from the submissions list.

Figure 15.1 shows the Configuration Tool window when it is launched. If a suggestion is added to the wordbank, its entry in the ‘Submissions’ panel is removed, and the new content is highlighted in the ‘Current Wordbank’ panel.

The teacher does not have to attend to the whole submissions list at once. Suggestions that were not removed would be saved when the application is closed and retrieved when the tool is next used.

Figure 15.0: Configuration Tool window when launched Cooper evaluated the second prototype. She was asked to perform all the tasks that

Freytag did, plus two other tasks related to the ‘Submissions’ Tool. Her feedback form is available is in Appendix E. On the whole, Cooper found the tool to be ‘quite easy’ to use. She did however come across an error while deleting an entry from the submissions list. Her suggestions for the tool was to have title fonts of the panels in bold, and to use colour to help users find things visually. She also felt it would be useful if the program prompts the user if instructions were not followed.

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Cooper’s assessment lead to the design of a third prototype and the error in the ‘Submissions’ tool was rectified. Figure 16.0 shows the new interface layout. Icons used in T’ rrific Tales were applied here to help users associate terms in that application with those used here, and thus identify things quicker. Also, the layout of the storyIdeas and wordCategory panels were changed to reflect the scope of each structure, and blue borders were used to highlight and separate words from category describers.

Figure 16.0: Third prototype

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Further evaluations were carried out, including an informal one with Brna. The surveys forms are in Appendix E. Brna suggested that there should be a way for users to discard all changes if things go terribly wrong. This is addressed by showing the user different closing dialogs, depending on the how much the user has modified the wordbank. Exit dialog if no changes made Dialog if current wordbank changed Dialog if Class Plan and/or wordbank changed Figure 17.0: Different closing dialogs Judging from their feedback, evaluators were satisfied with the last interface and its interactive functions. Also as there were no reports of bug, it is assumed that the prototype at this stage is stable.

6 Future Development It should be quite easy to adapt this prototype to work as a networked application since the software design is based on the online architecture. The program classes can be neatly separated into those that perform ‘system services’ and those that implement the user interface. A server application can be built by implementing a remote interface with functions from the ‘system services’ and similarly a client from the user interface classes.

The present prototype is a simple tool for managing the wordbank. There is potential however, for it to be developed into teacher’s assistant. For example, the agent technology that T’ rrific Tales will soon have, can also be applied here. When the software has semantic knowledge of the wordbank, it can guide a new user by issuing warnings if words were put into the wrong category and then suggest the right place for it. Cooper has also mentioned that it would be nice if the software can search in the database for image files and highlight those with filenames that is similar to the describer of a given storyElement.

The Class Planner can be extended to work as a teacher’s diary, by adding a feature to store and retrieve past versions of the wordbank settings, as well as make a series of settings for future lessons (plans for a whole term or a whole year, etc). Guessing, a viable solution would be to archive different settings as separate XML documents. However, the interaction is not as clear. It would be rather difficult to present the various documents in an interface where it is easily accessible so teachers can retrieve them visually.

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7 Conclusion Figure 18.0: The NIMIS Classroom in Glusburn

The NIMIS project has taken a unique approach to introducing network and multimedia technologies into the classrooms of early learners. As with all pioneering projects, it is difficult to predict the consequences of the initiative. However, the feedback from studies so far has indicated that both teachers and pupils are indeed benefiting from this project. The success of T’ rrific Tales, in contrast with commercial multimedia education software, lies in the way it was developed. From the on-start, the application was developed with users in mind, and designed to enhance existing learning dynamics and not dictate teaching methods.

As the project draws to an end, the team will withdraw support from the school, which is why it is vital that teachers can manage the application themselves. Failing to do so could spell the end of T’ rrific Tales because it eminent that static wordbank contents become unusable. The Configuration Tool addressed this problem. It is integrated with T’ rrific Tales, producing a software system that is self-sufficient. With this tool, teachers can author and manage contents of the T’ rrific Tales application without learning XML or worrying about destroying its database. Initial evaluation of the prototype tool yielded positive and encouraging results, and thus secured a future for T’ rrific Tales.

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Appendix A: Project Experience The following are note-worthy lessons gained from this project: 1. Considerations for Collaborative Design work

∗ it is unwise to assume that commonly used interface styles are also intuitive ones. Before making any design decisions, potential users, particularly computer novices should be consulted first. Some users may interpret ‘conventional’ interactions and layouts unconventionally.

∗ if teachers and researchers are involved, then it is very important to plan the project, to some extent, around their schedules. It would be useful to have alternative plans in case prior arrangements have to be cancelled because of conferences, school sports day, summer holidays, etc.

2. Using Java and XML

∗ when designing an XML document and DTD, verify the design by sketch the structure as a tree using an example set of data. If the data of a sub-element rarely changes, it may be better to change the ELEMENT into an ATTRIBUTE of the parent element.

∗ it is not necessary to traverse the Java DOM tree each time to look for a specific element or node. Nodes can be accessed randomly by putting them into a hashtable, and using the a node’s value (if this value is unique in the DOM) as its hashtable key.

3. Using the NIMIS Desktop and software package

∗ the NIMIS software package includes its own XML parsing APIs. It is a subset of, and slightly altered version of JAXP APIs defined by the Java. Therefore, use of the latter APIs should be avoided, otherwise programs will experience run time errors or they will not compile.

∗ T’ rrific Tales need to run on-top of the NIMIS Desktop, which in turn depends on MatchMaker for network services. MatchMaker will not work if the system’s classpath includes those for Microsoft programs. Users of the system will have to set-up a temporary classpath that excludes Microsoft’s classpaths to use T’ rrific Tales.

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Appendix B: Objectives and Deliverables

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Appendix C: Marking Scheme and Interim Report header sheet

29

Appendix D: Structure of the Wordbank

30

Appendix E: Evaluation Forms

31

PresentableContent

name : Stringdescriber : Stringdisplay Component : Component

getName()getDescriber()equals()display ()setDisplay Component()getDisplay Component()

SortedExpressionList

sortOrder : intexpressions : Vector

setSortOrder()getSortOrder()getExpress ions()addExpression()remov eExpression()

Descriptions

addDescription()remov eDescription()

Doings

addDoing()remov eDoing()

Things

addThing()remov eThing()

Element

f ilename : String

getThings()getDoings()getDescriptions()

0..1

+descriptions

0..1

0..1

+doings

0..1

0..1+things0..1

WordBankClient

elementThingAdded()elementDoingAdded()elementDescriptionAdded()wordAdded()phraseAdded()elementThingRemov ed()elementDoingRemov ed()elementDescriptionRemov ed()wordRemov ed()phraseRemov ed()serv erShuttingDown()

WordBankServer

getModel()addWordBankClient ()remov eWordBankClient()addPhrase()addWord()addElementThing()addElementDoing()addElementDescription()remov eElementThing()remov eElementDoing()remov eElementDescript ion()remov ePhrase()remov eWord()

Background

Character

Prop

StoryIdea

addPhrase()remov ePhrase()

WordCategory

addWord()remov eWord()

WordBankServerImpl

model : WordBankModel = null

loadXMLModel()sav eXMLModel()getModel()addWordBankClient ()remov eWordBankClient()addPhrase()addWord()addElementThing()addElementDoing()addElementDescription()remov eElementThing()remov eElementDoing()remov eElementDescription()remov ePhrase()remov eWord()

0..*

+clients

0..*

WordBank

getThemes()getWordCategories()getStory Ideas()

1

+server

1

Theme

addCharacter()addProp()addBackground()remov eCharacter()remov eProp()remov eBackground()

0..*

+backgrounds

0..*

0..*

+characters

0..*

0..*

+props

0..*

WordBankModel

getTheme()getStory Idea()getWordCategory ()createTheme()createWordCategory ()createStory Idea()

1..*+storyIdeas1..* 1..*+wordCategories1..*

1 +model11+localModel 1

1..*

+themes

1..*

Appendix F: Word Bank Model for Online Architecture, written by Alexandre Martins

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References Deliverable 4.1, Nimis Report, ESE Project Newtworked Interactive Media in Schools. Deliverable 4.3, Nimis Report, ESE Project Newtworked Interactive Media in Schools. Deliverable 4.4, Nimis Report, ESE Project Newtworked Interactive Media in Schools. Cooper, B. and Brna, P.(2000), Classroom Conundrums: The Use of a Participant Design Methodology in Evaluating Classroom Activities, Technical Report 00/8, Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds. Brna, P., Cooper, B. and Martins, A. (2000), Encouraging Children to Improve their Written Storytelling: The Case of T'rrific Tales, Technical Report 00/9, Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds. Brna, P., Martins, A. and Cooper, B. (1999), My First Story: Support for Learning to Write Stories, Cumming, G., Okamoto, T. and Gomez, L. (eds.) Advanced Research in Computers and Communications in Education, Volume 1, pp 335-341. Cooper, B., Brna, P. and Martins, A. (1999), Effective Affective in Intelligent Systems - Building on Evidence of Empathy in Teaching and Learning, Paiva, A. and Martinho, C. (eds.), Affect in Interactions: Towards a New Generation of Interfaces, , Proceedings of Workshop at i3 Annual Conference in Siena, Italy, pp 21-30. Lewis, C., Brand, C., Cherry G. and Radar C. (1998), Adapting User Interface Design Methods to the Design of Educational Activities, CHI Papers 98, pp 18-24. Silva, M.and Breuleux, A. (1994), The Use of Paticipatory Design in the Implementation of Internet-based Collaborative Learning Activities in K-12 Classrooms, Interpersonal Computing and Technology, Vol 2, No 3. Ehn, P. (1993), Scandinavian Design: On Participation and Skill, Douglas Schuler, Aki Namioka (eds.), Participatory Design Principles and Practices, Part II, No 4, pp 41-77 Bodker, S., Gronbaek, K., Kyng, M.(1993),Cooperative Design: Techniques and Experiences From the Scandinavian Scene, Schuler, D. and Namioka, A. (eds.), Participatory Design Principles and Practices; Part III, No 8; pp 157-175 Zisman, A. (2000), An Overview of XML, Computing & Control, IEE Engineering Journal, Vol 11, No 4, pp 165-167 Eriksson, H E. and Penker, M. (2000), Business Modelling with UML, john Wiley & Sons, Inc. Bruegge, B., Dutiot, and Allen, H. (1999), Object-Oriented Software Engineering: Conquering Complex and Changing Systems, Prentice Hall. Newman W M. and Lamming M G. (1995), Interactive Sytems Design, Addison- Wesley. Object Management Group (1999) , OMG Unified Modeling Language Specification Version 1.3. Evison, T. (1999), Towards a More Successful Use of Computers in Education, MSc Project Report, University of Leeds. Papakyriakopoulos, G.(1996), Leeds General Infirmary multimedia teaching package, M.Sc. Project Report.

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Cik Suhaimi, Y.(1998), University of A visual application to teach the basics of linear programming ; M.Sc. Project Report, University of Leeds. Johnson, C. (1997), Interactive Systems Design, http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~johnson/teaching/isd/course.html Bos, B (1999), XML in 10 points, http://www.w3c.org/XML. Sundsted T. (2000), XML and Java: A potent partnership, http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-07-1999/jw-07-howto.html Krumel A. (1999), Revolutionary RMI: Dymanic class loading and behavior objects, http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-1998/f_jw-12-enterprise_p.html. Armstrong E. (2000), Working with XML, http://java.sun.com/xml/docs/tutorial/index.html Sun Microsystems (2000), The Java Tutorial: A practical guide for programmers, http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/index.html. Andrews, M. (2000), Getting Started with Swing in The Swing Connection, http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/getting_started/index.html. Muller, H. (2000), JList Programming in The Swing Connection, http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/tech_topics/jlist_1/jlist.html. Armstrong, E., Santos. T. amd Wilson, S. (2000), Understanding the TreeModel in The Swing Connection, http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/jtree/. Koh. W K. (2000), Aconfiguration Management Tool for a Children’s Cartoon Application, MSc Project Interim Report, University of Leeds.

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