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Semantic Technologies in Learning Environments - Promises and Challenges- Dragan Ga šević Athabasca University Email: dgasevic@acm.org

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<ul><li>Without any prior vision </li></ul><ul><li>the Social Web is here! </li></ul><ul><li>What now? </li></ul>

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Topics to discuss about <ul><li>Semantics as a big promise </li></ul><ul><li>Semantics and metadata </li></ul><ul><li>Promises for learning environments </li></ul><ul><li>Open challenges </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Part I </li></ul><ul><li>Semantics as a Big Promise </li></ul>

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Semantic Web <ul><li>To create a universal medium for the exchange of data. </li></ul><ul><li>… to smoothly interconnect personal information management, enterprise application integration and the global sharing of commercial, scientific and cultural data. </li></ul><ul><li> Semantic Web Activity Statement http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Activity </li></ul>

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Semantic Web <ul><li>Key characteristics </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Anyone can say anything about anything </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Explicit definition of the meaning </li></ul></ul>

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RDF

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<ul><li>The Semantic Web is NOT opposite to the Social Web! </li></ul>

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Semantic Web <ul><li>Ontologies: Interconnecting applications </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Shared domain conceptualizations </li></ul></ul>

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<ul><li>Part II </li></ul><ul><li>Semantics and Metadata </li></ul>

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Learning Technology Standards <ul><li>Learning metadata </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Learning Object Metadata </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>IMS Learning Design, CP, SCORM, etc. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Why do need them? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Improved search and reusability </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Promising results </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>SQI, ECL, GLOBE </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Learning Metadata <ul><li>Why do we need ontologies, then? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Not a replacement for LOM </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Important complement of LOM </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Topic </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Pedagogical role </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Type of content </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Type of activities </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Is this all we can get?!

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<ul><li>Part III </li></ul><ul><li>Promises for Learning Environments </li></ul>

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Learning Design <ul><li>Situation is getting even more exciting </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Learning design with ontologies </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Good for formal verification </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Spotting issues in learning designs </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Not quite personal information management yet </li></ul>

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Context is Missing! <ul><li>Andrew McAfee (Harvard University) </li></ul><ul><ul><li>SLATES paradigm – search, links, authoring, tagging, extension, and signals </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Web 2.0 in Enterprise: Enterprise 2.0 </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Learning in enterprise </li></ul></ul>

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What is that? <ul><li>Julita Vassileva (U of Saskatchewan) </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ Rule: hard/impossible to impose hard rules” </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Gord McCalla (U of Saskatchewan) </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Ecological approach – sharing experience </li></ul></ul>

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Context is Missing! http://www.w3.org/2006/Talks/1023-sb-W3CTechSemWeb/DataServicesWebAppMetro2.jpg

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Learning Context Authoring Reusability Packaging Educators Reusability Adaptivity Evolution Collaboration with educators and students

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Learning Context Authoring Reusability Packaging Educators Feedback Learning and Collaborating Personalization Adaptivity Context-awareness Social interaction … Learners

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Learning Context Authoring Reusability Packaging Learning and Collaborating Community Peer-Review Presenting Administration Mobile Educators Learners

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Personal Learning Information Management <ul><li>Connect presently isolated islands </li></ul>Students/Educators <ul><li>Content </li></ul><ul><li>LORs </li></ul><ul><li>Libraries </li></ul><ul><li>Multimedia </li></ul><ul><li>Reuse </li></ul><ul><li>Pedagogy </li></ul><ul><li>User models </li></ul><ul><li>Adaptivity </li></ul><ul><li>Educational models </li></ul><ul><li>Collaboration </li></ul><ul><li>Chat </li></ul><ul><li>Discussion </li></ul><ul><li>Services </li></ul><ul><li>Community </li></ul><ul><li>Course, University, … </li></ul><ul><li>Portfolio </li></ul><ul><li>Evidence </li></ul><ul><li>Competencies </li></ul><ul><li>Peer-review </li></ul><ul><li>Courses </li></ul><ul><li>Publishing </li></ul><ul><li>Platforms </li></ul><ul><li>Mobile </li></ul><ul><li>Desktop </li></ul><ul><li>Domain tools </li></ul><ul><li>Mashed up with education tools </li></ul><ul><li>Desktop </li></ul><ul><li>Email </li></ul><ul><li>Firefox… </li></ul><ul><li>Authoring </li></ul><ul><li>Word </li></ul><ul><li>Frontpage </li></ul><ul><li>Reload… </li></ul><ul><li>Privacy </li></ul><ul><li>Policy </li></ul><ul><li>Identity </li></ul>

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<ul><li>“ A crazy problem requires a crazy solution!” </li></ul><ul><li>(Griff Richards, 2005) </li></ul>

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Learning Object Context Ontology: LOCO <ul><li>Learning context </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Learner(s) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Learner characteristics </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Learning activity </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Prerequisites, learning objectives, available time, … </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Learning object used/produced </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Parts of objects and their pedagogical role </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Domain concepts </li></ul></ul>

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LOCO-Analyst <ul><li>LOCO-Analyst and iHelp Courses </li></ul>

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LOCO-Analyst <ul><li>Semantically rich feedback for educators </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Learning activities of their students </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Domain topics difficult for learners </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Unusual performance of a learner/group </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Use of the deployed learning content </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Peculiarities of interactions </li></ul></ul>

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LOCO-Analyst

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LOCO-Analyst

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LOCO-Analyst <ul><li>Collaboration: students - educators </li></ul><ul><li>Evaluation results show appreciation of </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Qualitative (over quantitative) feedback </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Integrated view on the learning process as a whole </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Form “killing” count </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Student behavior is already feedback </li></ul></ul>

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DEPTHS <ul><li>DEsign Patterns Teaching Help System </li></ul><ul><li>Harmonization of </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Project-based instruction </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Collaborative learning, and </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Personal learning goals </li></ul></ul>

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DEPTHS

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<ul><li>Part IV </li></ul><ul><li>Open Challenges </li></ul>

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Challenges <ul><li>Ontology development </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Domain-independent </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Context, content, design, user model </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Domain-specific </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Domain ontologies </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Challenges <ul><li>Ontology development </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Similar to databases – someone needs to develop </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Some ontology development lessons learned </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Lightweight ontologies: “Little semantics goes a long way” </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Linked with other ontologies </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Friend of a Friend </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Semantically-interlinked Online Communities </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Ontology Development - LOCO

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Ontology Development - LOCO Integration is enabled!

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Challenges <ul><li>Ontology development </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Ontology development tools </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Semi-automatic ontology learning </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Educators in ontology action Text2Onto OntoGen

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<ul><li>If we have big expectations </li></ul><ul><li>Why don’t we build better tools?! </li></ul>

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Challenges <ul><li>Appreciation of empirical research </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Google: constantly measuring everything that may and may not be measured </li></ul></ul>

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Challenges <ul><li>Ontology development </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Different approaches </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Wiki-based (DBPedia and Semantic Media Wiki) </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Folksonomy-based </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Solving ambiguity of folksonomies </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Folksonomies require time and community </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Social bookmarking ( Faviki ) </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Challenges <ul><li>Pedagogical models with new technology </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Technology is NOT enough </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>What motivates students to contribute </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>E.g., present activity, career or life-long goals </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Increased interaction and participation </li></ul>

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Personal Learning Information Management

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Challenges <ul><li>Peer, expert and user retrieval </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Networks and data are locked </li></ul></ul>http://media.economist.com/images/20080322/D1208WB1.jpg

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

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Challenges <ul><li>Peer, expert and user retrieval </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Networks and data are locked </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>List of “friends” is not enough </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Interaction history also needed </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Online presence </li></ul>

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Challenges <ul><li>Increased usability </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Context-aware </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Proactive </li></ul></ul>

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Context-aware Usability

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Context-aware Usability

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Context-aware Usability

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Challenges <ul><li>Increased usability </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Context-aware </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Proactive </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Privacy protection </li></ul><ul><ul><li>User-centered identify management </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>OpenID is not enough! </li></ul></ul>

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<ul><li>Personal learning information management </li></ul><ul><li>More Meaningful </li></ul><ul><li>personalized interactive social collaborative </li></ul><ul><li>ubiquitous … </li></ul>

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¡Muchas gracias!