Communications of the ACM
Semantic Technologies Could Link p k Learning
The United Kingdom should use Semantic Web technologies to link up its education system, according to a new report from researchers at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS). Experts from the ECS Learning Societies Lab believe that extending the capabilities of information on the Web and linking information in meaningful ways can help with student retention and curriculum alignment, as well as support critical thinking.
The Semantic Technologies in Learning and Teaching Report identifies more than 36 soft semantic tools, such as topic maps and Web 2.0 applications, and hard semantic tools, such as Resource Description Framework, as being relevant to the education sector. The report offers a roadmap for developing the tools for a linked data field across institutions of higher and further education.
"We hope that this project will influence the research agendas and budget allocations of institutions in the U.K. and of the funding councils," says report co-author Thanassis Tiropanis. "Semantic technologies are available to us now and we already have lightweight knowledge models in institutional repositories as in internal databases, virtual learning environments, file systems, and internal or external Web pages; these models can be leveraged to make a big difference in learning and teaching."
From University of Southampton (ECS)
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