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no doubt you've seen this.
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From: IMS Global Learning Consortium <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 8:41 AM
Subject: IMS Global Learning Consortium Announces Agreement with ISO/IEC on
Emerging Metadata Standards for Learning Accessibility and Personalization
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[image: IMS GLC Community News] *6 March 2008*
**
*Learning Impact, IMS GLC's annual conference, is offering a program track
around personalized learning and inclusive design. *
*Find out more about the conference and the Personalized Learning -
Inclusive Design Program Track Speakers
at:http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2008/agenda.html
*
*Early registration ends 15 March. *
------------------------------
*IMS Global Learning Consortium Announces Agreement with ISO/IEC on Emerging
Metadata Standards for Learning Accessibility and Personalization*
*ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 36 is Working in Close Collaboration with IMS Global to
Make "Access for All" a Reality in Digital Learning*
Download pdf <http://www.imsglobal.org/pressreleases/IMSPR-AccessForAll.pdf>
*Lake Mary, Florida, USA, 6 March 2008*. Today the IMS Global Learning
Consortium (IMS GLC) announced signing of a formal agreement between the IMS
GLC and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to distribute and coordinate
development of the IMS Access for All accessibility standards for digital
learning. The purpose of this formal agreement is to ensure that documents
developed by IMS GLC are recognized as serving a source for the development
of ISO and IEC standards. An immediate result of this international
agreement is that of the transformation of the IMS "Access for All"
specifications into formal international standards.
The new standards are currently being balloted by ISO/IEC JTC 1 (Joint
Technical Committee on Information Technology Standards) as a multipart
ISO/IEC standard under the overall title of ISO/IEC 24751 *"Individualized
Adaptability and Accessibility in e-Learning, Education and Training*." The
specification documents developed by IMS GLC serve as the foundation for
Parts 2 & 3 while the Part 1* Framework Model *was developed as a bilingual
English/French standard based on IMS work in cooperation with ISO/IEC
JTC1/SC36 experts (and the support of Canadian federal government via
Industry Canada).
The ISO/IEC 24751 multipart "Access for All" standards define metadata that
enables matching of digital learning resources and experiences to the needs
and preferences of the learner. While it represents a breakthrough for
learners with disabilities, it also applies to each and every person in
terms of capturing their individual preferences in the digital learning
experience.
Under the agreement, IMS GLC and ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC36 will work in an ongoing
collaboration to keep the ISO/IEC standard synchronized with both other ISO
standards development as well as with ongoing work being performed in IMS
GLC.
"JTC1/SC36 is very pleased with the process of collaboration with IMS GLC in
which a high quality standard produced by IMS GLC was successfully
internationalized by SC36 with the potential to reach to a broader
international community," commented Bruce Peoples, Chair of ISO/IEC
JTC1/SC36 and Research Scientist at Raytheon Corporation. "This type of
close collaboration can be difficult to achieve in practice and it is
apparent that we have created a very good model for ongoing evolution of
this standard and the internationalization of other IMS GLC standards for
the benefit of the global community."
"Workgroup 7 of JTC1/SC36, convened by Erlend Overby of Norway, as well as
the IMS Access for All team deserve great praise for their devotion to
improving digital learning for people with disabilities and for us all,"
said Rob Abel, CEO of IMS Global Learning. "This success highlights
achievement of one key objective of IMS GLC, which is to develop documents
which serve as the basis for international "ISO" standards, working in
conjunction with ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36. In IMS Global we look forward to
continuing to move tangible progress forward by tying this work closely with
emerging digital learning content and application standards, such as Common
Cartridge, Learning Tools Interoperability, and Learning Information
Services."
"We are very grateful to the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC),
University of Toronto, WGBH Boston, Industry Canada, IBM, Open University
United Kingdom, Department of Education Science & Training Australia, Korea
Education Research and Information Service (KERIS), ANGEL Learning, the
California State University system office, and others who have been
supportive of and are currently supporting this effort," said Madeleine
Rothberg, co-chair of the IMS Access for All workgroup, and Project Director
at the WGBH Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible
Media (NCAM). "We are especially grateful to ISO/IEC project editors Jutta
Treviranus, University of Toronto, Liddy Nevile, Sunrise Research, and Andy
Heath, Axelrod Access for All, for their tireless technical and leadership
contributions. Dr. Jake Knoppers, Chair of the Canadian National Body in
JTC1/SC36, and M. Janice Pereira were also instrumental in guiding the
progress of the agreement between IMS and ISO/IEC as well as the development
of Part 1 and the transformation of the IMS Access-for-All documents into
Parts 2 and 3 as required to serve as ISO standards.."
"Access for All enables human diversity in digital learning, using a 'one
size fits one' approach it supports each learner in reaching their full
potential," comments Jutta Treviranus, Director of the Adaptive Technology
Resource Centre, University of Toronto, where the specifications were first
prototyped in an Industry Canada funded program called "Web4All", then
tested and refined in a learning object repository project called "TILE" and
broadly implemented as a Web service called "TransformAble" in the Sakai
learning content management system. "The specifications are being actively
applied in our new FLUID project to facilitate more sustainable and creative
approaches to accessibility and to support greater usability in academic
software."
"Access For All has been targeted at the digital learning community,
however, it has the potential to set the stage for a broader flexible web
infrastructure where information could be delivered in a form that best fits
a user's needs. The business opportunities would be significant when you
think about making it easier for all users to complete an on-line
transaction," commented Rich Schwerdtfeger, Distinguished Engineer IBM
Accessibility Architecture and Strategy.
IMS Global Learning Consortium is featuring a track on Personalized Learning
and Inclusive Design at the Learning Impact conference, May 12-15 in Austin,
Texas, USA. For more information,
seehttp://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2008/agenda.html
IMS Global is supported by over 110 organizations, including leading
educational product suppliers and publishers, leading institutions of
learning, and leading government organizations. Current Contributing Members
of IMS GLC are listed at http://www.imsglobal.org/members.html .
*About IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) *
IMS Global Learning is a global, nonprofit, member organization that strives
to enable the growth and impact of learning technology in the education and
corporate learning sectors worldwide. IMS GLC members provide leadership in
shaping and growing the learning industry through community development of
standards, promotion of innovation, and research into adoption practices.
For more information, including the world's most comprehensive set of
learning technology interoperability standards, information on the annual
Learning Impact conference and awards program, and free community resources
for learning technology leaders, visit www.imsglobal.org.
*About ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 36*
With representation from 32 countries and several internationally recognized
organizations in standardization, SC36 brings together strategic, technical
and subject matter experts. These all bring to bear their collective
knowledge, experience and abilities on the use of information and
communications technologies in the field of learning and education and
training. The vision of SC 36 is to provide a unified set of IT
international standards and guidance widely accepted by the intended class
of users in the learning, education and training market. SC 36 promotes
international consensus in standards development and adoption of quality
standards that meet the stakeholders' needs. Find more detailed information
of the work of the group in the report on http://www.elsacc.ca/en/ For
further information about ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 visit: http://jtc1sc36.org/
The following links provide additional information related to Access for
All:
IMS Access for All Metadata
specifications:http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/index.html
IMS Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications:
http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/accessiblevers/index.html
Tracking information on progress of ISO IEC JTC 1 Standard 24751:
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=41521
Specifications for Accessible Learning Technologies (NCAM SALT site):
http://ncam.wgbh.org/salt/
Information on the work of ISO/IEC WG7, Culture, Language, and Human
Functioning Activities:
http://jtc1sc36.org/Workgroups/Work%20Group%20Seven
The Inclusive Learning Exchange at the ATRC, University of Toronto:
http://inclusivelearning.ca/tile/
The Web4All and TransformAble projects at the ATRC, University of Toronto
http://web4all.atrc.utoronto.ca/, http://culturall.atrc.utoronto.ca/
The FLUID project: Designing software that works for everyone:
http://fluidproject.org/
Accessibility at IBM:
http://www-03.ibm.com/able/access_ibm/index.html
ANGEL Learning supports Access for All:
http://www.educause.edu/PressReleases/1176&ID=1537
The EU4ALL project is implementing the ISO Individualized Adaptability
and Accessibility in e-Learning, Education and Training standard
matching also to W3C device profiles standards.
http://www.eu4all-project.eu/
Are you a part of the IMS/GLC Community? By joining the IMS/GLC
Community, you will get access to items such as articles, the usecase
repository, best practice information, and ability to download IMS/GLC
specifications(pdf), examples and schemas and other great materials. It's
free and easy. Sign up now at:
http://www.imsglobal.org/register/register.cfm *You are receiving this
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--
Joseph Hardin
School of Information
University of Michigan
Sakai Foundation
734-763-3266
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