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Blog under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Jun
20
(2006)
LeMill – Plone-powered Learning Object Repository
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: learningobjectrepositories, lemill, opensource, plone.
Teemu Leinonen posted a link on the IIEP-OER list, referencing the LeMill project he's working on. I just checked it out, and it's pretty cool. This one is based on the Plone content management system / framework, so it's great to see what can be done on top of these maturing platforms.
It's still being developed, but it looks like LeMill is another great option as a CAREO replacement. It's got some things in it that CAREO lacks (collections – an evolution of "subscribed objects", tagging), but doesn't have comments/discussion for each item (yet?). It's multilingual, easy to install, and runs just about anywhere.
Repository really isn't the right term any more. LeMill is (intended to be) more of a community than a repository. That's a much better model – one that seems to be working well on other projects like SocialLearning.ca (and many others – perhaps Merlot is the granddaddy of them all?)
I like the distinction between "pieces" (assets – images, video, etc…) and "materials" (compound products – websites, learning objects, courses…). The resource addition (upload or reference) process was pretty simple – maybe too simple, since there doesn't appear to be a license selector or copyright description available. I had an image uploaded and tagged in about a minute, though.
update: found a page on the LeMill wiki describing mandatory IEEE LOM metadata fields, so perhaps that widget just isn’t exposed for Pieces…
Where LeMill stands apart is the concept of Activities and Tools – perhaps these are just variations on a theme, and might be analogous to the different content types they've got in SocialLearning.ca. The implementation of the different content types lets you do some interesting things to group/sort/categorize/display various items, so that's a handy step in the right direction.
I'm going to have to make some time to play more with LeMill, and to finally get around to mocking up a Drupal port of CAREO.
Great! Thanks for the clarification, Teemu. I assumed there was some form of implied license used, and the requirement for Materials to have the appropriate IEEE LOM metadata makes that clearer, too.
I’ll be following the LeMill project to see how it evolves.
Thank you for your valuable feedback and comments. Some comments:
You wrote: “there doesn't appear to be a license selector or copyright description available.”
Sorry. We will include the copyright explanation to the upload form. The draft FAQ (http://lemill.org/trac/wiki/FAQ) explains that all content uploaded to the site are (/should be) licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5. This makes ripping and mixing possible.
You wrote: “update: found a page on the LeMill wiki describing mandatory IEEE LOM metadata fields, so perhaps that widget just isn't exposed for Pieces…”
Yes. “Pieces” are not considered to be “learning objects” so they do not carry LOM metadata with them. All “materials” are described with LOM, though we try to avoid asking people to fill up forms and rather automate the metadata creation.
LeMill’s Activities and Tools are just descriptions of them. They are there because we found out in the participatory design sessions that teachers would often like to search/browse “things” by thinking “what should I do with by student” (Activity) or “with what we could work with” (Tools). They do not always primary think “what content could we study”. The Activities and Tools are also linked to Materials with what they are used and vice-versa. This makes it possible to approach the Content from several angles. This is all “hypothesis” and we will test it with teachers in autumn. We may come-up with something different.