ExpressionWidgets by taboca

General Information

Expression Widgets code source released with OSI-approved licenses: * Version: MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 *. For the reference source see the GitHub project. This project was awarded a prize ( category Best Web Hack ) from Mozilla and McArthur Foundation, at SxSw . The name Expression Widgets is trademark of Marcio dos Santos Galli informatica.

This information is being kept here for reference on browser extensions for education.

Expression Widgets is part of the JetPack for Learning, an effort to support open education. The project proposes a system that leverages the web browsing experience and the JetPack infra-structure, and support learners to collaborate and produce open-based educational resources. The model proposes a collaboration environment where students express their thoughts as part of ongoing sessions, such as a lecture given by a professor. To support students to contribute to educational resources, Expression Widgets introduces a number of pre-developed widget modules. This model explores various communication forms such as text, canvas-based drawing, SVG, MathML, and also suggests other interactive scenarios where teams can build more complex structures together. The annotated resources are organized and kept using simple wiki pages with less rules to the server and more focus on possibilities for team-centred conventions.

JetPack for Learning Experimentation

Our goal is to test this system in a real educational environment and measure how the system can help an open education scenario. The proposed use case is a collaboration system that helps participants to annotate for an ongoing live event - a lecture. If you have suggestions or if you are willing to use in different scenarios please keep in contact - mgalli at mgalli dot com.

Overview on how to use (ogg video)

March Review

This project is being reviewed at this stage. You are welcome to visit the draft notes that may eventually become more formal documents. Please check the documentation section at the end of this page.

Install the Prototype

You can test the current version of the application using following link. Make sure you have JetPack support installed in your Firefox web brower. Once you have JetPack installed, use the following link to access the installation web page.

Installation Page

Environment Setup

In order to run the ExpressionWidgets JetPack application, you will need to do some setup. When you have JetPack infra-structure, and also the ExpressionWidgets installed, you will then need to setup a repository URL and also your screenname. At this stage the ExpressionWidgets is compatible with the Mozilla wiki site. The following resources are available to give an overview on how the system works or how to setup a working case:

Instructions on how to setup an user and repository wiki URL

Project Information, Development, and Documentation

This project was born as part of the JetPack for Learning project. You can find additional information at the Expression Widgets at Mozilla Wiki or the JetPack for Learning design challenge project.

Team Information

Marcio Galli ( alumni at ICMC/USP ) and Thiago Campos ( student at ICMC/USP ). Thanks to Felipe Gomes ( alumni at ICMC/USP ) for original design and brainstorming prior to this challenge submission. ICMC/USP is the computer science department at Sao Carlos, part of University of Sao Paulo. This project is not affiliated to ICMC however the faculty department served as great inspiration for us to come up with new ideas to help the develoment of open-based educational systems.