Glossary

WME Relating to the Web-based Mathematics Education (WME) framework. More information found on WME Homepage. Topic Module (TM) A basic building block of WME sties, it consists of an module index page leading to a set of Active Lessons (AL). A TM is at a certain grade level and used by a certain school. To make TMs and ALs easily relocatable and interoperable is a prime goal of WME. Active Lesson (AL) A single web page (together with all associated style sheets, PHP code, templates, configuration files, JavaScript files, and View Sections) to teach/learn a particular concept or technique in a specific topic area such as "fraction" or "algebra". An AL belongs in some TM. A TM may have a good number of ALs to teach a topic at a certain grade level. Lesson Page (LP) An AL consists of a sequence of sections called Lesson Pages to supply educational content (including text, graphics, and customization parameters) such that, as a whole, they provide lesson content for an AL. The AL provides client-side navigation support to switch among LPs by Javascript. Developers can drop an LP into any AL for it to work. Model WME Site The exact structure and organization is under active design. The model site will demonstrate a standard way to organize a WME site for any school. The model site architecture calls for a suggested organization of the site; with directories representing grade levels which contains TM sub-dirs which contains AL sub-dirs. Distributed Mathematics Assessment Database (DMAD) A database distributed at WME server sites that collects assessment questions contributed by teachers to be shared by others. Teachers can import (edit) questions retrieved from DMAD to be used for student assessment purposes and can contribute original assessment questions back into DMAD. Mathematics Education Markup Language (MeML) An XML application the defines element for organizing AL content and accessing WME services (remote and local). WME service access follow the MESP protocol. WME Service A program that delivers, by MESP, specific mathematics education functionalities or user interactions to any AL. A local WME service is normally written in Javascript/ECMAScript and executed by the Web browser. A remote WME service can be invoked through a URL from anywhere on the Web. Mathematics Education Service Protocol (MESP) A protocol followed by WME services to receive requests and deliever results. Woodpecker The name of an experimental MeML plugin being developed at ICM/Kent. Woodpecker is a client-side MeML processor that can, among other things, transform MeML to a displayable page for the browser and can control/manage interactions between the displayed page and WME services. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Internet Accessible Mathematical Computation (IAMC)