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Achieving
interoperability is by its nature an exercise in collaboration:
between different commercial companies, different interest
groups, different agencies, associations and standards
bodies. Alpha Learning places a high value on the relationships
it maintains with a range of key partners.
SALTIS
Crispin
Weston set up SALTIS (the Suppliers Association for
Learning Technology and Interoperability in Schools)
in July 2007 and was appointed Chairman in October 2007,
when it was formally constituted as a working group
of the BESA.
SALTIS
now has 45 commercial members and over 10 partners.
In its first year it has succeeded in outlining a clear
strategy for implementing effective interoperability
standards; and we are expecting significant progress
to be made in this area in 2009.
BECTA
Becta
is the lead government agency for applying ICT in UK
schools. Although we have in the past been critical
of some of Becta's policies, we see a new determination
to address issues around technical interoperability
and to back away from unnecessarily prescriptive approaches
which have previously undermined a free and innovative
market.
Through
the open industry forum established by SALTIS, Alpha
Learning has been able to establish a good working relationship
with Becta and we look forward to developing this relationship
further in 2009.
ISB
The
Internal Standards Board for the DCSF and DIUS has been
established in 2008 to coordinate interoperability standards
across the different government departments and agencies
dealing with UK education. We are working closely with
the ISB through SALTIS to influence the development
of a mature government policy to support standards for
teaching and learning.
BSI
Crispin
Weston sits on the British Standards Institute's IST/43
committee, which provides the UK's link to the International
Standards Organisation. BSI's IST/43 committee provides
a valuable means of formalising standards and aligning
development work in the UK with initiatives occuring
elsewhere in Europe and the world.
JISC/CETIS
The
Joint Information Systems Committee and the Centre for
Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards
provide the main repository of expertise for interoperability
standards as applied to Higher and Further Education.
We are keen to draw on JISC's expertise and to ensure
that there is no significant duplication between the
activities of JISC and SALTIS, to which JISC has made
valuable contributions over the last year.
IMS/GLC
Since
its formation in 1997, the IMS Global Learning Consortium
has produced a wide range of significant specifications
and standards for learning interoperability, including
Learning Object Metadata (LOM), Content Packaging and
its off-shoot Common Cartridge, and Question and Test
Interoperability (QTI). Alpha Learning has been engaging
closely with IMS, recently attending quarterly meetings
in Austin, Texas and Birmingham, UK. We are currently
exploring ways of formalising this relationship through
SALTIS.
LETSI
The
well-known Shareable Content Object Reference Model
(SCORM) was originally created by Advanced Distributed
Learning, an offshoot of the US Department of Defence.
Recognising that the DoD's core business is not global
learning standards, ADL has recently established LETSI
as an umbrella organisation to carry forwards the stewardship
of the SCORM standards into SCORM 2.0. While some parts
of the SCORM reference model belong to IMS, it also
incorporates the Computer Managed Instructure (CMI)
model for runtime interactions, originally created by
the Aircraft Industry CBT Committee (AICC).
Working
in his capacity as Chairman of SALTIS, Crispin is engaging
closely with the LETSI initiative and is currently chairing
LETSI's sequencing workgroup.
SIF
Association
The
Systems Interoperability Framework Association (originally
the School's Interoperability Framework Association)
is steward of a system for transferring data between
different systems and databases. Since autumn 2005,
Becta has backed SIF as a long-term, scalable solution
to the requirement for "horizontal" interoperability
within schools and "vertical" reporting between
schools, Local Authorities and central government.Crispin
sits on the SIF Association's Teaching and Learning
workgroup, which aims to ensure that as the UK SIF data
model develops, it takes account of the requirement
for the transfer of teaching and learning, as well as
purely administrative data.
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