Article,
Education and the Semantic Web
International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, (2004)
Abstract
Recent developments in Web technologies and using AI techniques to
support efforts
in making the Web more intelligent and provide higher-level services
to its users have opened
the door to building the Semantic Web. That fact has a number of important
implications for
Web-based education, since Web-based education has become a very important
branch of
educational technology. Classroom independence and platform independence
of Web-based
education, availability of authoring tools for developing Web-based
courseware, cheap and
efficient storage and distribution of course materials, hyperlinks
to suggested readings, digital
libraries, and other sources of references relevant for the course
are but a few of a number of
clear advantages of Web-based education. However, there are several
challenges in improving
Web-based education, such as providing for more adaptivity and intelligence.
Developments in
the Semantic Web, while contributing to the solution to these problems,
also raise new issues that
must be considered if we are to progress. This paper surveys the basics
of the Semantic Web and
discusses its importance in future Web-based educational applications.
