Towards an Advanced Learning Infrastructure Based on Semantic Web Technologies

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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
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Semantic Browsing and Semantic Services in
Education
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Magpie Components
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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 clickgo) semantic
  services
• Trigger (push or subscribelearn) semantic
  services
• One-click (or less) interface

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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)
• lt 1 browsing actions use explicit history
  mechanisms
• Browsing history needs better representation that
  would be meaningful to the user.

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Supporting different learning modalities
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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

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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)

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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 Authors toolkit under construction

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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 (?)

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Issues cont.

• Learning seen as making connections
• Discovering and/or creating learning narratives
• Decoupling knowledge from authors/owners?
• Semantic annotations dont 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,

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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

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BuddySpace
GoalWho else from my CoP did something
similar?
From semantically enriched web page towards
knowledge sharing by the communities of practice
interest
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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

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60,000 users, 1,000,000 model-years, together
with a live forum we facilitate real buy-in
motivation
climateprediction.net Who else? in practice
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Large-scale CPDN tacticstransplanted to a
UK-basedproject environment
Automatic Map Generation
Right-click to drill downinto cluster
nodes (provides scaleability)
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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)

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Ubiquitous virtual presence env.

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

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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

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Thank you!

• 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_at_open.ac.uk

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ClimatePrediction.net
Double CO2 production
Control
1994
1994
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ClimatePrediction.net
Double CO2 production
Control
2094
2094
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Magpie IE Plugin
Web Browser Interface (incl. click management)
Trigger Services Interface (GUI-s)
u
a
c
Ontology visualizer/browser
Text highlighting (incl. on-demand services)
l
t
d
User preferences about actions
Recognized entities (hash)
r
e
l
1
Selected classes/branches
Entity recognition interface
q
g
s
1
Lexicon-based
Rule-based (eSpotter)
Ontology browsing, mapping module
f
h
h
j
i
Document Object Model
p
o
Ontology cache
Rules patterns
o
k
Hierarchical rep. suitable for simple reasoning
k
n
Edit, manage, extend/learn or customize the rules
RDF(S)/OWL parsers
m
Remote ontologies, KB-s services