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Localization Tools for e-Learning Modules (Numbers and Data Fluency)

Submitted by lizkolster on December 5, 2011 - 14:13
Website/App store links: 
http://www.plml.org/
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AZmwZFZP9jYuZGN0cDNicm1fNjVoaGNtenJmaA
Summary: 

Public Learning Media, a non-profit organization in the Boston area, has created three open-licence Learning Tools for young students to become more data literate and improve numeracy -- and while the Learning Tools involve data visualization and graphic calculators, the instructions are presented alongside to get started or when they ask for help.

The web-accessible Learning tools have been widely taken up in English speaking countries (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK) and there is increasing demand in non-English speaking countries.

The Learning Tools need a module to localise the content of the Tool Page  based on the student's request (translate language), which can be easily switched on by the STUDENT on the web site, using a language selector pull-down list.

The proposed solution is to find open source tools which 1) scrape content from the web site page and 2) look up the target foreign language phrases to substitute appropriately,  and present the content back on the web page.
 

Why we are working on this problem: 

We see these tools as valuable to improving numeracy and data fluency in young people.  We see good uptake of the tools in English-speaking countries.  A single language translation project to Spanish has driven good uptake in Spain and Mexico.

 

We would like to improve upon this success by increasing the translation capability and opening up the potential community to make thesse tools availble to international school audiences.  We see the potential to integrate open source tools to facilitate crowd-sourcing of the translations.

What we accomplished during the event: 

Progress so Far ...

  • goals and outcomes

 

  1. Prototype will be assembled from open-source tools and toolkit for crowd-sourced translation.
  2. Minimise code changes on current STUDENT system as it is currently live and in use -- look to swap out the current calls to the bespoke translation system for SPANISH

 

  •      code assessment criteria and project feasibility
  1.      scope limited in terms of hacking access primary web site ...
  2.      source code needs to go under formal version control
  3.      tools must be easy to use and understandable, or invisible

          

  •      strategy for prototype development
  1. Assess team member skills and capabilities; roles & assignments.
  2.  Follow a common methodology to scrape and translate phrases, and store the base and translated strings in a common language support catalog.  This catalog will be an on-going asset of Public Learning Media.
  3. Find open source tools and cobble together a module for Student Web Site that makes calls to language support catalog.
  4. Build a workflow which integrates external tools for crowdsourcing corrections and additions to the language support catalog
  5. Build / borrow resource to support web site scraping and converting phrases using the newly build language support catalog
  6. Build / maintain standardized LINGUAL SUPPORT CATALOG
  7. Find tool to facilitate crowd source evaluation/improvement of machine translations
  8. Get source code from Learning Resources and put in source control
  9. Establish project at GITHUB and manage the code as we build it

            

  • experimentation plans

 

  1. test getText toolkit support with PHP/APACHE
  2. write script to translate en-US phrases to localized version
  3. experiment with POOTLE language files and extant user interface
  4. prototype UI with CSS against native POOTLE user interface

             - give each TRANSLATOR a personal workspace page
             - exploit dashboard and statistics tools and present to workspace
             - simplify and stream line workflow to TRANSLATOR audience
             

  • issues/challenges
  1. had to scrap LAUNCHPAD and find another tool for translation
  2. found POOTLE open source system for crowdsourcing translation
  3. installation called for cloud web services

             -- got an AMAZON Sandbox Subscription at zero cost
             -- generic install was easy but requires a few extra steps
             -- POOTLE needs to be made "interactive" to allow us to "ftp-in" our content (language support catalog).
    

  • prototype / demonstration of concept

          using the home page for one of the "WHO IS" learning tools,
          scrape the English phrase and translate to French

 

 

GROUP DIARY

 

TEAM ASSESSMENT

  • Owner - problem definition and deliverable design, assist with semantics and site code organization, make source available to group and clarify licensing issues.
  •      Developers - assess source website code and proposed code modules (calls to language support and translator system to contribute)
  •      Organizer - Document as we go, make steps on sticky notes and move through phases "backlog" "in progress" "validate" and "done", scribe the diary -- prepare the presentation for the RHoK community.
  •      UI Designer -- Wireframe UI for Translators Website


 
DAY 1

  •  got the source web site under version control at GITHUB
  •  evaluated experimentation steps and set up project mgmt board
  •  installed/upgraded apache servers and php resources on development machines
  • evaluate getText to scrape the website for CATALOG keys to support the STUDENT interface (drop-down language choice and translate screen text)
  • evaluate Launchpad to build/maintain the master catalog

               -- found too many restrictions for use -- BSD licensing etc.
               -- web tools are required to be open-sourced (it is not clear that ll of the Public Learning Media modules are formally open source)
          
DAY 2

  •  evaluate POOTLE as external language phrase translation resource (language.sourceforge.net)
  • set up development web server on cloud services with POOTLE support
  • evaluate user interface / ease of operations

                 -- found need for UI tweeking -- enter Jonnah Goldstein

  •  prepare summary of process steps and presentation of project
  • discuss UI prototype -- try to include dashboard for TRANSLATORS
  • prototype TRANSLATOR INTERFACE

             a. theming -- styling CSS and HTML 

             b. UI changes -- workflow, process clarification 

  • presented proposed system design, experimentation findings, progress-so-far and next steps to the RHoK Boston group

 

Code Repository: 
https://github.com/factorypreset/Glean-Whois-i18n
Category: 
Application
Status: 
Prototype
Images and Video: 
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Comments

RHOK Boston 2011

 

This was a solution devised for the problem entitled:

 

"User-contributed Internationalization for web-based teaching and learning Tools"

(Public Learning Media).  (Project Owner: Dave Crusoe)

 

We started work on this project at the RHok Boston 2011 weekend;

 

Team members on December 4th and 5th, 2011, were voluntary technologists:

 

Dave Crusoe

Liz Kolster

Bo Daley

Seth Madison

Desmond Sheeran

Jonah Goldstein

lizkolster Dec 05, 2011

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