Web 3.0: Implications for Online Learning

The impact of Web 3.0, also known as the Semantic Web, on online learning is yet to be determined as the Semantic Web and its technologies continue to develop. Online instructors must have a rudimentary understanding of Web 3.0 to prepare for the next phase of online learning. This paper provides an understandable definition of the Semantic Web and its terminology, and then explores possible implications of Web 3.0 on online learning. The foundation of the Semantic Web is data integration. By using metadata, “display only” data is converted to meaningful information which can be located, evaluated, and delivered by software agents. Web 3.0 technologies will assist online instructors in the areas of course development, learner support, assessment, and record keeping. Online students will benefit from learning personalization and knowledge construction powered by the Semantic Web.     

浅析语义Web在信息检索中的研究与实现

语义Web是未来web的发展方向,是信息可以被机器理解和使用的新的信息环境,语义Web的出现彻底改变了web上信息的组织方式,对于各种网络信息应用都将产生巨大影响。本文首先对Semantic Web的概况进行了简要介绍,然后详细分析了语义Web体系的主要支持技术(XML RDF),最后探讨了语义Web技术对网络信息检索的影响。     

语义Web服务发现研究

语义Web与Webservices有很强的互补性,二者的统一构建了新一代Web服务——语义Web服务。该文首先简单介绍了语义Web服务在国内外的研究现状,然后分析了语义Web服务发现的任务,最后给出了OWL—S／UDDI匹配器框架（OUMF）,并提出了分级匹配的服务发现策略。其中,OUMF弥补了UDDI的不足,分级匹配的策略大大节省了服务发现的时间。     

Interaction for lifelong learning

The term ‘lifelong’, as applied to education or learning, has been in circulation for more than a quarter of a century. It has played an important role in policy discussions, as well as in studies of the sociology and economics of education. The relationship of this term to the rapidly changing world of information and educational technologies, and to the various conceptions of interaction that are central to these technologies, however, has been considered much less frequently. This paper seeks to shed light on the relationship between lifelong learning and the interactive technologies that have become associated specifically with the Semantic Web. It begins by presenting a fictional narrative to illustrate a lifelong learning scenario in the context of the services and resources that the Semantic Web will be capable of providing. It then proceeds to isolate a number of general characteristics of lifelong learning as they are manifest in this scenario and in recent literature on the subject. The paper then explores how emergent, interactive technologies of the Semantic Web have the general potential to address many of the characteristics of lifelong learning, and hold out the promise of satisfying a wide variety of lifelong learning needs. It will conclude by considering some of the outstanding challenges presented by lifelong learning contexts, and mention some of the limitations of advanced technologies used to address these needs.     

语义Web的技术基础分析

近年来,语义Web逐渐成为WWW领域的研究热点以及智能化网络服务和应用开发中的关键技术之一.本文在分析了典型的语义Web概念后,给出了语义Web的定义.通过讨论语义Web构想的层次框架模型,指出了各个层次扮演的角色以及它们在语义Web构架中的作用,同时对语义Web的技术基础做了详细的介绍,并指出了国内语义Web研究中存在的不足.     

A systematic literature review of the use of Semantic Web technologies in formal education

This paper presents a systematic literature review of research focused on use of Semantic Web technologies in formal educational contexts. Through systematic search, the review has identified 199 research articles, which are examined with the intention of identifying prevalent themes within the body of research within the field of formal educational use of Semantic Web technologies. The themes identified by the review are: (1) Semantic Web ontologies; (2) Efficient distribution, accessibility, retrieval, reuse and combination of educational resources; (3) Linked Data; (4) Semantic Web enhanced virtual learning environments and personalization of learning environments; (5) Semantic Web learning objects; (6) Evaluation, feedback and assessment; (7) Semantic Web services; (8) Pedagogical tools for teachers and students. Furthermore, this review seeks to examine how these themes and the use of Semantic Web technologies in formal education reflects on the ongoing discussion of how pedagogy and technology should interact. The outset of this discussion is a previous study by Dirckinck-Holmfeld, which establishes that there is a tendency to emphasize technology over pedagogy in educational design and development.     

An XPath-based OWL storage model for effective ontology management in Semantic Web environment

With the rapid growth of the Web, the volume of information on the Web is increasing exponentially. However, information on the current Web is only understandable to humans, and this makes precise information retrieval difficult. To solve this problem, the Semantic Web was proposed. We must use ontology languages that can assign data the semantics for realizing the Semantic Web. One of the representative ontology languages is the Web ontology language OWL, adopted as a recommendation by the World-Wide Web Consortium （W3C）. OWL includes hierarchical structural information between classes or prop- erties. Therefore, an efficient OWL storage model that considers a hierarchical structure for effective information retrieval on the Semantic Web is required. In this paper we suggest an XPath-based OWL storage （XPOS） model, which includes hierarchical information between classes or properties in XPath form, and enables intuitive and effective information retrieval. Also, we show the comparative evaluation results for the performance of the XPOS model, Sesame, and the XML file system-based storage （XFSS） model, in terms of query processing and ontology updating.     

Information Technology in Education: Some Reasons for Optimism

This article identifies three innovations with great promise for improving the use of information technology in education. The Semantic Web, discourse analysis, and social network analysis are briefly described, and their potential contributions to education are highlighted. Two articles in this issue are identified as highly meritorious in promoting the integration of information technology in education.     

语义网的目标、架构及实现机制解析

从计算机运行的视角对语义网的目标、架构和实现机制做一简单梳理与解析,其目标是让Web上的信息能够被机器理解,从而实现Web信息的自动处理;W3C制定的语义网七层通用框架会实现数据的共享和重用;语义网实现起来牵涉到繁杂的标准与应用问题.虽然语义网的研究还有相当大的障碍有待克服,还不能肯定在未来能否实现,但是它的研究成果已经开始发挥效果,这就是语义网研究的价值.     

语义相似度Web服务合成策略的应用研究——以物流信息平台为例

研究语义Web服务匹配问题,提高匹配效率。传统Web服务基于关键字匹配,灵活性差,查准率和查全率偏低;语义Web服务引入机器可理解的语义信息,提高了信息共享程度及服务检索成功率,但服务响应慢,系统开销大。为了提高Web服务匹配效率,降低系统成本,提出一种基于语义相似度的Web服务混合匹配策略。首先对语义Web服务匹配问题进行分析,然后建立基于语义相似度的Web服务混合匹配模型,最后在西江物流平台中设计了一个基于语义Web服务的混合匹配框架。实际应用效果表明,混合匹配策略实现了语义Web的更好匹配,为客户提供更为快捷、准确的“寻车配货”服务。     

Music,Transtextuality, and the World Wide Web

This article sketches the significance of aurality in hypermedia, notes that the field of English studies is constructing the World Wide Web as a verbal and visual medium, and proposes a transtextual framework to aid technical communicators in designing musical hypermedia. Because the study of music on the World Wide Web is nascent, this article includes references to art and film music, whose theories and practices are substantially developed.     

Using Class Blogs in 1:1 Schools—Searching for Unexplored Opportunities

This article focuses on class blogs and presents results from 1:1 schools in Sweden. While Swedish schools are increasingly using Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., wikis and blogs), most of this use is still at an experimental stage. To further the understanding of how blogs are and can be used, we compare class blogs used in practice with the fast-growing literature in the field. Previous work suggests eight uses: collaboration, making assignments, journal writing, instruction, posting supplemental material, community building, external readers, and prompting. In practice, we found blogs to be used in a fairly narrow way—mainly for instruction and posting supplemental material. We hope that this article will inspire teachers to further their blog use.     

OBOParser,一个基于语义网的开放生物学本体解析器

本文以OBO组织制定的规范为对象,开发了一个基于语义网技术的OBO本体解析器——OBOParser。该工具实现了OBO格式与RDF/OWL格式间的平滑转换,可以为生命科学不同研究领域的工作人员提供跨学科的语义查询和推理服务。     

Web挖掘技术在搜索引擎中的应用

本文针对目前搜索引擎存在的不足,充分研究了个性化搜索引擎的发展现状,设计并实现了一种个性化搜索引擎,同时提出了一种查询语句优化策略,在此基础上,又对基于语义Web的搜索引擎进行了研究探索。     

一种Web个性化中的本体论生成方法

在语义W eb中,用户访问行为模型可以作为本体论共享。如何把W eb访问活动转变成为体体论是一个非常关键的问题。为了解决这个技术问题,本文提出了一种在W eb个性化中集成模糊逻辑和形式化概念分析的本体论自动生成方法。文章首先对W eb个性化语义W eb和本体论进行了介绍,然后该方法的体系结构及其生成过程也被详细地论论述。     

Productive Usability: Fostering Civic Engagement and Creating More Useful Online Spaces for Public Deliberation

This article offers productive usability as a usability approach that focuses on the usefulness of civic Web sites. Although some sites meet traditional usability standards, civic sites might fail to support technical literacy, productive inquiry, collaboration, and a multidimensional perspective—all essential ingredients for citizen-initiated change online. In this article, we map productive usability onto broader philosophies of usability and offer a framework for rethinking usability in civic settings and for teaching productive usability.     

Conditions for Successful Online Document Collaboration

With the development of Web 2.0 technologies, online document collaboration tools are becoming increasingly available, often free of charge. Although the technology is considered interactive and collaborative, it does not necessarily mean learners themselves will interact and collaborate. This paper discusses the conditions required for successful and meaningful collaboration, particularly when using technology. Collaboration is typified by participants engaged in a mutually beneficial relationship to meet pre-defined goals. To exemplify effective collaboration, the utilization of an online document collaboration tool is summarized.     

Design Issues in a Cross‐institutional Collaboration on a Distance Education Course

Collaborative learning has been gaining momentum as a promising pedagogy in higher education. Research on student collaboration is increasing. However, one arena is often overlooked—faculty collaboration. In this article, a cross‐institutional faculty collaboration is presented. The context is faculty collaboration on the design of an undergraduate engineering course. Specifically, this paper examines design issues encountered in the faculty collaborations associated with developing, delivering, and redesigning a senior‐level engineering design course that was taught simultaneously at two universities. This course was taught in state‐of‐the‐art distance learning classrooms. Both within class and outside class, participating students and faculty made use of a Web‐based environment that supported a variety of synchronous and asynchronous interactions. The course itself focused on team design projects and provided instruction on the engineering design process, in various specific skills needed for the students’ projects, and on how to function effectively as part of a geographically distributed engineering design team. The participating faculty members represented different backgrounds, academic disciplines, and academic cultures. Issues related to collaborations on development, delivery, and redesign are elaborated. Based on the lessons learned, suggestions for future cross‐institutional faculty collaboration in course development are provided.     

ICT's participatory potential in higher education collaborations: Reality or just talk

Recently, interest has sparked in collaboration and networking within and between universities, industry, government and the wider populace. Knowledge transfer has gradually become a strategic issue, so that many governments and funding bodies now use economic‐based incentives to mandate collaboration in hope of stimulating innovation, improving efficiency and promoting inclusion. Web 2.0 has been heralded as an enabler of collaboration. Powerful new tools abound to enhance collaborative initiatives. I investigate uptake of these tools and their impact on collaboration in the Australian context. Although research is scant, the literature provided a preliminary picture of Web 2.0 usage patterns among Australian academics, researchers and professionals. Adoption of virtual collaboration tools for work activities is lower than expected. Connectivity, accessibility and availability do not seem to be major deterrents to Web 2.0 use, suggesting appropriation is the problem. It remains unclear whether these technologies have encouraged further collaboration; at present, these are primarily social devices and tools, their beneficial work applications yet to be fully unmasked. It is argued that further research and broader professional learning opportunities would support greater Web 2.0 appropriation.