Towards an Advanced Learning Infrastructure Based on

Semantic Web Technologies

Martin Dzbor and Enrico Motta

Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University

KnowledgeWeb Workshop, 27th Sep 2004

Semantic Browsing and Semantic Services in

Education

Magpie Components

Enriched Web Page

Semantic Log

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Jabber Server

Magpie

Hub

Ontology cache (Lexicon)

Problem Domain & Resources

Ontology based Proxy Server

Web Page

Semantically Enhanced Web Browsing

• ‘Zero overhead costs’ – Dynamic ontology-driven enrichment in real time

– Utilizing interfaces familiar to the lay user

– Resource re-usability & openness

• ‘Gateway’ to the semantic web– Access knowledge through annotated web resources

– Integrated with standard web browsers

– Magpie services are ‘first class’ concepts

• Multiple user interaction modalities– User-requested (‘pull’ or ‘click&go’) semantic services

– Trigger (‘push’ or ‘subscribe&learn’) semantic services

• One-click (or less) interface

Value of tools like Magpie

• Quan & Karger (2004):– […] separate pieces of information about a single resource

that used to require navigation through different web sites can be merged together […] without specialized portal sites or coordination between the sites

• McDowell, Etzioni &al. (2003):– How do we entice non-technical people to structure their data? – […] semantic annotation will be motivated by services [giving]

immediate benefits – instant gratification to the user.

• Tauscher & Greenberg (2001):– < 1% browsing actions use explicit history mechanisms– Browsing history needs better representation that would be

meaningful to the user.

Supporting different learning modalities

Benefits to a student

• Quick access to course-related resources– Learning embedded into other browsing activities

• Ability to link [theoretical] resources with the [practical] articles, documents, stories, …– Science (but also art & philosophy) is largely about

relating things and seeing patterns

• Universities re-use chunks of existing knowledge [from third parties], and only create/provide their interpretation rather than replicating them– Rapid course update & customization

Benefits to a student [cont.]

• Exploratory guiding as a metaphor:– “What would my Prof say if he/she was watching over my

shoulder when I read about IPCC climate scenarios?”

• Support for managing and sharing the semantic representations of browsing histories– “A fellow student has followed a similar trail to the one

you are following. Do you want to see the resources he/she has identified?”

• Automated creation of a semantic footprint in the selected ontology for visited pages (if the user allows)

– High-level semantic filtering/querying– Yet-another ‘gateway’ to the semantically relevant

knowledge/information (via Magpie on-demand services)

Magpie & KnowledgeWeb

• Magpie brings in semantic web services– Modularization of interaction with learning units– Simple & fast update of individual modules– Power users (not knowledge engineers) authoring and

publishing new services for other users/customers– Service discovery & composition– Potential for (almost) one-on-one customization

• Early-stage “Author’s toolkit” under construction

Issues for learning infrastructure

• Good quality front-end content is important to make most of the back-end context– Semantic annotations of LUs can be re-used– We need to go beyond mere document metadata

• Central portal vs. distributed knowledge [with different degrees of trust, reliability or complexity]– Portal is a comprehensive knowledge repository…– …yet a user must ‘enter’ it to learn anything– Re-using and re-purposing existing content in a

variety of contexts– Future is in knowledge (data) linking & reasoning not

in document storing & retrieving (?)

Issues… [cont.]

• Learning seen as making connections– Discovering and/or creating “learning narratives”

• Decoupling knowledge from authors/owners?– Semantic annotations don’t replace people, but they may

help bring ‘right people’ together– Consider popularity of FOAF, MPG & co.

• KnowledgeWeb as repository vs. community– Best knowledge repository is that managed by a

motivated community of users

– We should probably address the issue of supporting sustainable communities of users & practitioners

– E.g. climateprediction.net community forum essentially superseded traditional FAQ, HowTo, User feedback,…

Other frameworks to consider

• What about semantics & presence? – BuddySpace: distributed client/server architecture,

XML-based, using IM as ‘foot in the door’, relates semantic knowledge of browsing histories to the ‘real’ people/colleagues/friends

BuddySpaceGoal:“Who else [from my CoP] did something similar?”

From semantically enriched web page towards knowledge sharing by the communities of practice & interest

Other frameworks to consider

• What about semantics & presence? – BuddySpace: using IM as ‘foot in the door’

• Location is also interesting… – BuddySpace: scaleable dynamic maps, geographic

positioning as a metaphor for conceptual maps (e.g. project-based, task-based, life-cycle-based,…), one glance pattern recognition

climateprediction.net: “Who else?” in practice

~60,000 users, 1,000,000 model-years, together with a live forum we facilitate real buy-in & motivation

AutomaticMapGeneration

Large-scale CPDN tacticstransplanted to a UK-basedproject environment

Right-click to ‘drill down’into ‘cluster’ nodes(provides scaleability)

Other frameworks to consider

• What about semantics & presence? – BuddySpace: using IM as ‘foot in the door’

• Location is also interesting… – BuddySpace & CPDN: using geographic maps as a

metaphor for conceptual maps

• Peer-to-peer and face-to-face interaction– Hexagon, FlashMeeting & co.: lightweight yet GRID

power tools for a quick F2F chat or a videoconference– Considering P2P facilities around Magpie, P2P data

sharing (e.g. students’ climate models, visualizations)

Goals:• True multiparty• No need to install• GRID power

Ubiquitous virtual presence env.

Other frameworks to consider

• What about semantics & presence? – BuddySpace: using IM as ‘foot in the door’

• Location is also interesting… – BuddySpace & CPDN: using geographic maps as a

metaphor for conceptual maps

• Peer-to-peer and face-to-face interaction– Hexagon, FlashMeeting: emerging P2P paradigm

• Addition of these tools to KWeb EduPortal– …might be offered to the users as an ‘added value’ of

their subscription or enrolment– …might be a feature distinguishing us from others– …could make portal truly ‘ubiquitous’

Magpie plug-in for IE and now also Mozilla downloadable from

http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/magpie

BuddySpace client downloadable from

http://www.buddyspace.org

M.Dzbor@open.ac.uk

Thank you!