Modeling Educational Content: The Cognitive Approach of the PALO Language

• Published in: Educational technology & society 2004-07, Vol.7 (3), p.124-137
• Main Authors: Miguel Rodríguez-Artacho, M. Felisa Verdejo Maíllo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Authoring; Classification; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive models; Computer Assisted Instruction; Computer Software; Computer System Design; Design Requirements; Distance education; Education; Educational activities; Educational environment; Educational Principles; Educational Technology; Electronic learning; Foreign Countries; Full Length Articles; Instructional Design; Instructional Materials; Integrated Learning Systems; Internet; Interoperability; Knowledge representation; Learning; Learning Processes; Metadata; Modelling; Pedagogy; Programming; Programming Languages; Sequencing; Spain; Teaching Methods; Teaching models; Web Based Instruction
• ISSN: 1176-3647; 1436-4522; 1436-4522

This paper presents a reference framework to describe educational material. It introduces the PALO Language as a cognitive based approach to Educational Modeling Languages (EML). In accordance with recent trends for reusability and interoperability in Learning Technologies, EML constitutes an evolution of the current content-centered specifications of learning material, involving the description of learning processes and methods from a pedagogical and instructional perspective. The PALO Language, thus, provides a layer of abstraction for the description of learning material, including the description of learning activities, structure and scheduling. The framework makes use of domain and pedagogical ontologies as a reusable and maintainable way to represent and store instructional content, and to provide a pedagogical level of abstraction in the authoring process.