U.S. patent application number 10/394113 was filed with the patent office on 2004-01-01 for system and method for applying standards to adapt generic educational materials for use in different states and regions.
This patent application is currently assigned to The Ohana Foundation. Invention is credited to Crilly, Andrew.
Application Number | 20040002051 10/394113 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 24672297 |
Filed Date | 2004-01-01 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040002051 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Crilly, Andrew |
January 1, 2004 |
System and method for applying standards to adapt generic
educational materials for use in different states and regions
Abstract
A system and method for applying standards to adapt generic
educational materials for use in different states and regions is
provided. The system includes the use of an interactive player that
includes storage for a series of video, audio and text assets. This
storage typically takes the form of a DVD disk. The assets stored
on the DVD disk are generic, meaning that they are broadly
applicable to a range of different locales. The interactive player
determines its operating location by querying its user (typically a
teacher). The interactive player uses that location to perform a
web search. The web search returns a list of URLs, each
corresponding to a web page containing an educational standard
relevant to the operating location. The teacher uses these web
pages to adapt lesson plans to the particular operating location.
The teacher can then use the interactive player to present
interactive multimedia and region specific lessons.
Inventors: |
Crilly, Andrew; (Honolulu,
HI) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Peter G. Mikhail
c/o SIDLEY AUSTIN BROWN & WOOD LLP
SUITE 5000
555 CALIFORNIA STREET
SAN FRANCISCO
CA
94104-1715
US
|
Assignee: |
The Ohana Foundation
|
Family ID: |
24672297 |
Appl. No.: |
10/394113 |
Filed: |
March 21, 2003 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10394113 |
Mar 21, 2003 |
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09665973 |
Sep 20, 2000 |
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6540521 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
434/365 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G09B 7/02 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
434/365 |
International
Class: |
G09B 025/00 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A system for delivering educational content tailored to student
performance standards of a target area comprising: an interactive
appliance comprising internet access capability and a data memory
device and a display, wherein the data memory comprises storage
media containing at least part of the educational content to be
taught to a group of students, wherein the interactive appliance
retrieves additional educational content via the internet, and
wherein the interactive appliance utilizes the student performance
standards of the target area to select content and present content
tailored to meet local educational standards of the target area,
said content selected from the internet and from the storage
media.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the student performance standards
of the target area are input into the device by an educational
system worker.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the interactive appliance
automatically searches the internet for the student performance
standards.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the data memory device is further
operable to write to the storage media.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the data memory device comprises a
DVD player or CD-ROM drive.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage media comprises a
portable media chosen from the group consisting of a DVD, a CD, a
magnetic storage medium, and a minidisc.
7. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage media comprises a hard
disk drive.
8. The system of claim 1 wherein the selected content comprises
interactive multimedia based lessons.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the multimedia based lessons
comprise audio-video assets and text.
10. The system of claim 8 wherein the multimedia based lessons
further comprise links to websites.
11. A system for providing educational content within a classroom
comprising: means for accessing first educational content stored
outside of the classroom; means for reading and writing to storage
media within the classroom, the storage media having second
educational content stored therein; means for correlating student
performance standards to the first and second educational content
to form a dynamic interactive lesson; means for interactively
presenting the dynamic interactive lesson to students.
12. The system of claim 11 further comprising means for
interactively presenting the dynamic interactive lesson to students
without the classroom.
13. The system of claim 11 wherein the means for correlating
student performance standards automatically determines the student
performance standards by accessing information stored on a remote
network.
14. The system of claim 13 wherein the student performance
standards are for a given school district or area.
15. The system of claim 11 wherein the student performance
standards are input by an educational system worker.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 09/665,973, filed Sep. 20, 2000, which is
incorporated herein by this reference in its entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates generally to methods for
delivering educational content to classrooms. More particularly,
the present invention includes a method for applying standards,
project-based learning, and non-sequential, interactive
presentation to adapt generic educational materials for use in
different states and regions and improve the level of understanding
and learning of such generic material.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Providing educational materials for use in classrooms is a
difficult and expensive process. This is attributable, at least in
part, to the increasing number of student performance standards
that must be met while using these materials. In the United States,
for example, the content of educational materials may be regulated
at the federal, state, and local levels. Making a textbook (or
other educational instrument) that relates to the relevant student
performance standards that apply to a particular location can be
complex. Making the same textbook satisfy such standards for a
range of locations, in different localities and states, may be
nearly impossible.
[0004] For these reasons and others, a need exists for systems that
allow relevant performance standards to be readily addressed by
educational materials. To be effective, such systems should support
the adaptation of educational materials to a wide range of
different locales. Such systems should be easy to use for a wide
range of users, including teachers and other educational
professionals, and be minimal in cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] The present invention includes a system and method for
correlating student performance standards to generic educational
materials for use in different states and regions. For a typical
embodiment, participating classrooms are equipped with interactive
appliances. Each interactive appliance works in combination with a
television or other display device. The interactive appliances have
network interfaces to access the Internet and World Wide Web. Each
interactive appliance also includes a playback device for a DVD or
other mass storage/retrieval media. Operation of the interactive
appliance is controlled using an interface program.
[0006] One or more DVD disks are distributed to each participating
classroom. Each disk contains a litany of video and audio assets.
Each asset is selected for its educational value. Typical video
assets might include a series of moving and still pictures
depicting weather or other natural conditions for example.
[0007] The assets included in the DVD disks are augmented by one or
more supplemental websites. The supplemental website(s) include(s)
a series of lesson plans that are organized to use the assets
included on the DVD disks. The supplemental website(s) may also
include its (their) own audio and video assets that may also be
used as part of the lesson plans.
[0008] Teachers in participating classrooms use the interactive
appliance to present interactive multimedia-based lessons to
students. The lessons include text (typically taken from the
supplemental website(s)) with audio and video assets (typically
taken from the D VD disks). Lessons may also include links to other
websites that contain educational materials wherever those sites
are located on the World Wide Web.
[0009] Each interactive appliance executes an initialization
sequence before beginning the lesson process. This initialization
sequence can be executed as part of the system power-on or at any
other suitable time. As part of the initialization sequence, each
interactive appliance identifies the locality in which it is
operating. For most embodiments, this determination is made
interactively by querying the teacher using the interactive
appliance; For other embodiments, the determination of locality may
be made using different techniques.
[0010] Once the locality of operation has been identified, each
interactive appliance executes a search. The search is directed at
a series of websites that are known to include educational
performance standards. The search returns educational performance
standards that apply to the identified locality of operation.
[0011] Teachers use the locally relevant educational performance
standards returned by the search to select an appropriate lesson
plan included on the supplemental website. This allows teachers to
present lesson plans that are consistent with and will assist
students in meeting the educational performance standards that
apply to their localities.
[0012] Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will
become apparent from the following descriptions and accompanying
drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] For a more complete understanding of the present invention
and for further features and advantages, reference is now made to
the following description taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, in which:
[0014] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the deployment of the
present invention in a series of participating classrooms.
[0015] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an interactive appliance as
used within the participating classrooms of FIG. 1.
[0016] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the relationship between
the interactive appliance and content available on the World Wide
Web.
[0017] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the steps associated with an
embodiment of the method of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0018] The preferred embodiments of the present invention and their
advantages are best understood by referring to FIGS. 1 through 4 of
the drawings. Like numerals are used for like and corresponding
parts of the various drawings.
[0019] The present invention includes a system and method for
adapting generic educational materials for use in different states
and regions where varying student performance standards are in
force. To describe an embodiment of this system and method, FIG. 1
shows a series of participating classrooms 100. Each of these
participating classrooms is equipped with an interactive appliance
102. Each interactive appliance 102 can be connected to the
Internet.
[0020] As shown in FIG. 2, each interactive appliance 102 includes
control. logic circuitry or a processor, or processors 202, and a
memory 204. Processor 202 can be selected from a wide range of
commercially available or custom types. Each interactive appliance
102 also includes a network interface 206, a keyboard input 208,
and a television output 208. Network interface 206 represents a
wide range of technologies, such as analog and digital modems that
can be used to connect interactive appliance 102 to the Internet.
Keyboard input 208 allows a keyboard or input device (such as a
mouse or pointer) to be connected to interactive appliance 102. TV
output 210 allows interactive appliance 102 to send display output
to a television. Each interactive appliance 102 also includes a
playback device 212 for a DVD or other mass storage/retrieval
media. Equivalently, playback device 212 may be any non-volatile
mass storage system such as "flash" memory. Interactive appliance
102 is controlled using an interface program 214 included in memory
204.
[0021] One or more DVD disks are distributed to each participating
classroom 100 for use in interactive appliances 102. Each disk
contains a litany of video and audio assets. Each asset is selected
for its educational value. Typical video assets might include a
series of moving and still pictures depicting weather or other
natural conditions for example.
[0022] Interactive appliances 102 use their connections to the
Internet to augment the content included on the DVD disks. The
relationship between DVD content and web content is shown more
clearly in FIG. 3. As that Figure shows, interactive appliances 102
access the World Wide Web to obtain three different types of
content. This description refers to the first content type as
supplemental. Supplemental content may include text, audio, and
video assets to extend or complement the text, audio, and video
assets included on the DVD disks.
[0023] Supplemental content includes also lesson plans and
projects. Each lesson plan is a step-by-step scheme devised by
educationalists to be followed by teachers in classrooms so as to
achieve stated emotional objectives. Each project is a specific
task or set of objectives to be followed by students in order to
demonstrate their understanding of curriculum content. The lesson
plans and projects are organized to use the assets included on the
DVD disks as well as the assets included as part of the
supplemental content. A sample lesson plan and a sample project are
attached to this document as Appendices A and B.
[0024] For the embodiment being described, supplemental content is
provided as part of a supplemental website. The supplemental
website is the main point of contact between interactive appliances
102 and the World Wide Web.
[0025] The second type of content may be described as student
performance standards content. This content type includes national,
regional, state, and local student performance standards. Standards
content is generally text-based and is available on a range of
publicly accessible websites. A representative set of standards is
attached to this document as Appendix C.
[0026] The third type of content is educational content. This
content type is similar to materials generally found on websites of
all types. Educational content is selected for its educational
value and relevance to the lesson plans and projects stored on the
supplementary website.
[0027] The combination of DVD and web content may be described as
generic educational content. The use of the word generic conveys
the idea that this content is widely applicable but not
specifically contoured for use in any particular locality.
[0028] Method 400 of FIG. 4 shows the steps associated with a
representative use of the interactive player 102 in a classroom
100. Method 400 begins with step 400 where interactive player 102
determines the location in which it is operating. For most
embodiments, this step is performed interactively with a user
supplying location information to interactive player 102. This
information can he supplied using various formats, including postal
ZIP codes or telephonic area codes. For other embodiments, users
can specify locations using more traditional address formats such
as country, state, city combinations. Still other methods may be
used for still different embodiments. Step 402 may be executed as
part of system initialization (system power on) or invoked at any
subsequent time.
[0029] Interactive player 102 may also use non-interactive methods
to determine the location in which it is operating. For one such
method, the supplemental website may maintain a database that maps
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of interactive appliance 102 to
physical locations. When this system is used, interactive
appliances 102 may determine their locations by consulting the
supplemental website. This system simplifies day-to-day operation
of interactive appliances 102.
[0030] Interactive appliance sends the location information to the
supplemental website in step 404. In step 406, the supplemental
website uses the location information to perform a web search. The
web search is directed at a predetermined list of websites that are
known by the interactive appliance 102 to include standards
content. The object of the search is to locate standards that apply
to the location determined in step 400. The result of this search
is a list of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) each corresponding to
a particular web page. Each of these web pages describes one or
more student performance standards relevant to the operating
location.
[0031] In step 408, the supplemental website returns the list of
URLs to the interactive appliance 102.
[0032] In step 410, the user correlates the performance standards
returned in the preceding step to one or more lesson plans obtained
from the supplemental website. In doing so, the user (typically a
teacher) modifies the contents of or selects the lesson plans to
suit the particular location identified in step 400. This adapts
the generic materials (i.e., the combination of DVD and web
content) to be location-specific.
[0033] The user (teacher) may then use the interactive appliance
102 to present interactive multimedia-based lessons to students.
The lessons include text and graphics (typically taken from the
supplemental website) with audio and video assets (typically taken
from the DVD disks). Lessons may also include links to other
websites that contain educational materials wherever those sites
are located on the World Wide Web.
[0034] In this way, the present invention provides a system and
method for applying student range of differing locales. This
reduces the cost and complexity associated with creating
educational content and raises the learning and retention levels of
students
[0035] Although particular embodiments of the present invention
have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled
in the art that changes and modifications may be made without
departing from the present invention in its broader aspects, and
therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope
all such changes and modifications that fall within the true scope
of the present invention.
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