Semantic Technologies in Learning Environments

-Promises and Challenges-

Dragan GaševićAthabasca University

Email: dgasevic@acm.org

Without any prior vision

the Social Web is here!

What now?

Topics to discuss about

Semantics as a big promise Semantics and metadata Promises for learning environments Open challenges

Part ISemantics as a Big Promise

Semantic Web

To create a universal medium for the exchange of data.

… to smoothly interconnect personal information management, enterprise application integration and the global sharing of commercial, scientific and cultural data.

Semantic Web Activity Statementhttp://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Activity

Semantic Web

Key characteristics Anyone can say anything about anything Explicit definition of the meaning

< musician: Musician rdf:ID="urn:rdf:969914d5ca929194ea18787de32c665a-1"> … <musician:name>Eric Clapton</musician:name> <musician:records rdf:resource = "http://www.guitar.org/legendaryrecordings/EC#urn:rdf:958804d5ca918084ea17676de21c887a-0"/> … </musician:Musician>

Musician

Album

Event

plays

plays at

attends

records

Admirer

Instrument

musician:records

rdf:type rdf:type

<album: Album rdf:ID="urn:rdf:958804d5ca918084ea17676de21c887a-0"> … <album:title>Unplugged</album:title> <album:year>1992</album:year> … </album:Album>

RDF

The Semantic Web

is NOT opposite to

the Social Web!

Semantic Web

Ontologies: Interconnecting applications Shared domain conceptualizations

Part IISemantics and Metadata

Learning Technology Standards

Learning metadata Learning Object Metadata IMS Learning Design, CP, SCORM, etc.

Why do need them? Improved search and reusability Promising results

SQI, ECL, GLOBE

Learning Metadata

Why do we need ontologies, then? Not a replacement for LOM Important complement of LOM

Topic Pedagogical role Type of content Type of activities

Is this all we can get?!

Part IIIPromises for

Learning Environments

Learning Design

Situation is getting even more exciting Learning design with ontologies

Good for formal verification Spotting issues in learning designs

Not quite personal information management yet

Context is Missing!

Andrew McAfee (Harvard University) SLATES paradigm – search, links, authoring,

tagging, extension, and signals Web 2.0 in Enterprise: Enterprise 2.0

Learning in enterprise

What is that?

Julita Vassileva (U of Saskatchewan) “Rule: hard/impossible to impose hard rules”

Gord McCalla (U of Saskatchewan) Ecological approach – sharing experience

Context is Missing!

http://www.w3.org/2006/Talks/1023-sb-W3CTechSemWeb/DataServicesWebAppMetro2.jpg

Learning Context

Authoring

Reusability

Packaging

Educators

ReusabilityAdaptivityEvolutionCollaboration with educators and students

Learning Context

Authoring

Reusability

Packaging

Educators

Feedback

Learning and Collaborating

PersonalizationAdaptivityContext-awarenessSocial interaction…

Learners

Learning Context

Authoring

Reusability

Packaging Learning and Collaborating

Community

Peer-Review

Presenting

Administration

Mobile

Educators Learners

Personal Learning Information Management

Connect presently isolated islands

Students/EducatorsContent•LORs•Libraries•Multimedia•Reuse

Pedagogy•User models•Adaptivity•Educational models

Collaboration•Chat•Discussion•Services

Community•Course, University, …

Portfolio•Evidence•Competencies

Peer-review•Courses•Publishing

Platforms•Mobile•Desktop Domain tools

•Mashed up with education tools

Desktop•Email•Firefox…

Authoring•Word•Frontpage•Reload…

Privacy•Policy•Identity

“A crazy problem requires a crazy solution!”

(Griff Richards, 2005)

Learning Object Context Ontology: LOCO

Learning context Learner(s)

Learner characteristics Learning activity

Prerequisites, learning objectives, available time, … Learning object used/produced

Parts of objects and their pedagogical role Domain concepts

LOCO-Analyst

LOCO-Analyst and iHelp Courses

LOCO-Analyst

Semantically rich feedback for educators Learning activities of their students Domain topics difficult for learners Unusual performance of a learner/group Use of the deployed learning content Peculiarities of interactions

LOCO-Analyst

LOCO-Analyst

LOCO-Analyst

Collaboration: students - educators Evaluation results show appreciation of

Qualitative (over quantitative) feedback Integrated view on

the learning process as a whole Form “killing” count

Student behavior is already feedback

DEPTHS

DEsign Patterns Teaching Help System Harmonization of

Project-based instruction Collaborative learning, and Personal learning goals

DEPTHS

Part IV Open Challenges

Challenges

Ontology development Domain-independent

Context, content, design, user model Domain-specific

Domain ontologies

Challenges

Ontology development Similar to databases –

someone needs to develop Some ontology development lessons learned

Lightweight ontologies:“Little semantics goes a long way”

Linked with other ontologies Friend of a Friend Semantically-interlinked Online Communities

Ontology Development - LOCO

Ontology Development - LOCO

Integration is enabled!

Challenges

Ontology development Ontology development tools

Semi-automatic ontology learning

Educators in ontology action

IT nonIT Total Tool met expectations Yes 29.4% 30% 29.6% No 35.3% 20% 29.6% Partly 23.5% 30% 25.9%

Text2Onto

OntoGen

IT nonIT Total Tool met expectations Yes - 30% 11.1% No 82.4% 40% 66.7% Partly 5.9% 20% 11.1%

If we have big expectations

Why don’t we build better tools?!

Challenges

Appreciation of empirical research Google: constantly measuring everything

that may and may not be measured

Challenges

Ontology development Different approaches

Wiki-based (DBPedia and Semantic Media Wiki) Folksonomy-based

Solving ambiguity of folksonomies Folksonomies require time and community

Social bookmarking (Faviki)

Challenges

Pedagogical models with new technology Technology is NOT enough What motivates students to contribute

E.g., present activity, career or life-long goals

Increased interaction and participation

Personal Learning Information Management

Annotators Tag Cloud

Ontology Visualization

Interacts with(Modifies/Enriches)

Interacts with(Analyzes)

Is provided with feedback(Inspects)

Feedback provisioning

Learner/Instructor Content Author

USAGE TRACKING DATA + TAGS & AGGREGATIONS

LEARNING CONTENT

DOMAIN ONTOLOGIES

Interacts with:- learning content- other learners and teachersConstructs- Wikis, blogs, portfolios, & social networks

Context-Based relatedness Computation

RDF LOC Repository

stores/readsstores/reads

Office Tools

WebBlogs, Wikis,

Portfolios, Social Net.

LMS

Personal Learning Environment

Annotates- tags/highlights/comments

Challenges

Peer, expert and user retrieval Networks and data are locked

http://media.economist.com/images/20080322/D1208WB1.jpg

http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images//HubSpot-Making-Friends.gif

Challenges

Peer, expert and user retrieval Networks and data are locked List of “friends” is not enough Interaction history also needed

Online presence

Challenges

Increased usability Context-aware Proactive

Context-aware Usability

Context-aware Usability

Context-aware Usability

Challenges

Increased usability Context-aware Proactive

Privacy protection User-centered identify management OpenID is not enough!

Personal learning

information management

More Meaningfulpersonalizedinteractive

socialcollaborativeubiquitous

…

¡Muchas gracias!