The document discusses the development of electronic learning services aimed at regional agricultural development through the establishment of digital learning repositories. A study found that while many repositories contain educational resources, only a small fraction pertains specifically to agriculture, indicating a need for better categorization and access to agricultural content. The proposed project, organic.edunet, aims to create a multilingual online platform to support stakeholders in organic agriculture and agroecology through enhanced resource discovery and educational scenarios.

1. Ηλεκτρονικές Υπηρεσίες Μάθησης για την Περιφερειακή Ανάπτυξη περίπτωση μελέτης αποθετηρίων εκπαιδευτικού περιεχομένου αγροτικού ενδιαφέροντος Δρ. Νίκος Μανουσέλης Εθνικό Δίκτυο Έρευνας & Τεχνολογίας (ΕΔΕΤ)

2. introduction

3. learning object "any entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning , education or training " ΙΕΕΕ Learning Technology Standards Committee (2002)

4. http://www.soilassociation.org

5. http://www.teachersdomain.org

6. http://www.slideshare.net

7. http://www.digitalgreen.org

8. learning repositories digital repository: system for the storage , location and retrieval of digital resources digital learning repository (DLR): nature of resources or their description reflects an interest of use in an educational context Holden C., “From Local Challenges to a Global Community: Learning Repositories Summit”, Academic ADL Co-Lab, 2003

9. interesting (?) questions do existing, generic learning repositories have content of agricultural interest? do they have a lot? are there learning repositories focusing particularly to agricultural & rural stakeholders? where are they?

10. problem outline

11. preliminary study took place during 2005 (time to repeat it now…) examined 59 well-known repositories found in 27 of them (~45%) agricultural content BUT in a total of ~881,000 educational resources: … only 3,201 resources (0.36%) related to agricultural topics Tzikopoulos et al., "Investigating Digital Learning Repositories' Coverage of Agriculture-related Topics", ITAFE 2005.

12. subject classification 34.5% of resources not particularly classified

13. so we assume that… learning repositories that particularly focus on agricultural & rural stakeholders should probably have more relevant content should probably have it better described/categorized

14. but, do they exist?

15. how can someone find agricultural learning resources online? can someone search for them from a single point of access … more work is required more interesting questions

16. federations

17. what are they? learning repository federations interconnecting learning repositories facilitate metadata exchange allow searching throughout whole federation

18. generic examples

19. any agricultural ones? Not yet... (but people are working on it) http://aglr.aua.gr

21. about builds a federation of learning repositories with content on Organic Agriculture (OA) & Agroecology (AE) EU’s e Content plus Programme Targeted Project 36 months [1/10/2007-30/9/2010] 4.800.000 euros budget 2.400.000 euros funding (50%)

22. rationale irreversible damage done to the environment by current agricultural practices soil and water pollution depletion of natural resources destruction of delicate ecosystems “… need for actions supporting the training and education of all stakeholders related to OA …” EU Action Plan for Organic Food & Farming, 2004

23. objectives (1/5) support stakeholders producing content about OA & AE describe according to multilingual, standard-complying metadata publish in online federation of learning repositories

24. objectives (2/5) deploy a multilingual online environment on top of the online federation of repositories to facilitate end-users’ search, retrieval, access and use of learning resources the Organic.Edunet Web portal

25. objectives (3/5) study educational scenarios to support the teaching of OA & AE relevant topics use Organic.Edunet Web portal to find learning resources in the repositories targeted user organisations schools agricultural universities

26. objectives (4/5) involve various schools & universities to evaluate project results focused pilot trials within partner institutions open validation events within affiliated institutions

27. objectives (5/5) create organisational structures to support the sustainability of project results reinforce the cooperation of stakeholders in the OA & AE content area

28. metadata application profile IEEE LOM mapping to other metadata schemas (IEEE LOM, Dublin Core , application profiles) ontology-based searching (e.g. thematic, geographical) social navigation based on user feedback ( e.g. ratings, tags , recommendations ) OAI-PMH harvesting OAI-PMH, SQI

29. progress so far… e-portfolio software for learning repository set-up & organisation http:// oe.confolio.org / Organic.Edunet Web Portal http://portal.organic-edunet.eu

31. how can it work?

32. imagine Greek island olive trees local olive oil … sun, nature, clean beaches … or maybe NOT ?

33. a (hypothetical?) problem leftovers from local olive processing - oil production facility pollute nearby river eventually find their way to the sea

34. in the school (1/2) teacher in nearby highschool wants to raise awareness about this problem show consequences to children introduce them to alternative methods searches through Organic.Edunet finds a Cretan river case

36. in the school (2/3) a similar collaborative outdoor activity is organized children split in groups, study various effects, e.g. quality of water in river quality of water in nearby beach

37. in the school (3/3) children produce their own content … photos, video, pictures, report on findings, class presentation on alternative olive processing,… uploaded to Organic.Edunet other schools may access them online exchange of results/experiences

38. conclusion

39. potential agricultural learning resources: useful having them organised in learning repositories: good exploring ways to introduce them into formal and informal education & training challenging and worthwhile

40. challenges technical issues mainly interoperability requires standards, technologies, protocols agricultural content providers lagging behind expertise training motivation time …

41. for more info… contact me at: [email_address] also visit: http://portal.organic-edunet.eu http://www.organic-edunet.eu