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Semantic Technologies in Learning and Teaching (SemTech) - JISC Report

Semantic Technologies in Learning and Teaching (SemTech) - JISC Report
Semantic Technologies in Learning and Teaching (SemTech) - JISC Report
This report presents and discusses the findings of the SemTech (Semantic Technologies for Learning and Teaching) project that was funded by JISC and commenced its activities in September 2008. SemTech addressed the following questions: • What are semantic technologies? • Which tools that make use of semantic technologies are, or could be, relevant to education? • What is the actual use of semantic tools and services in UK HE and FE? • What is the value of such tools in the context of learning, teaching and support? • How do we envisage the adoption of semantic tools in higher education in the future? Although a definition of semantic technologies was not in the scope of the project it was considered necessary for the survey of semantic tools and services and their adoption. SemTech distinguishes between (i) soft semantic technologies like topic maps and Web 2.0 applications, which provide lightweight knowledge modelling in formats understood by humans and (ii) hard semantic technologies like RDF, which provide knowledge modelling in formats processable by computers. The outcomes of an extensive survey of semantic technologies relevant to learning and teaching are documented online (http://semtech-survey.ecs.soton.ac.uk). A total of thirty-six relevant tools and services have been identified by SemTech and the community at the moment of writing. Most of the surveyed tools were not purpose-built for education and they find value in semantic technologies for well-formed metadata or data interoperability and integration. The surveyed tools can be classified to (i) collaborative authoring and annotation, (ii) searching and matching, (iii) repositories, VLEs and authoring tools or (iv) infrastructural technologies for linked data and semantic enrichment. The existing use and uptake of related tools and services by UK HE institutions was investigated and has been documented online (http://wiki.semtech.ecs.soton.ac.uk/). Repositories that are widely adopted in UK HE provide well-formed metadata using semantic technologies. A potential transition from soft semantic modelling in institutional wikis to hard semantic technologies could be implemented given the wide adoption of wikis and recent examples of wikipedia.org and dbpedia.org. Repositories and collaboration ware in HE could enable advanced searching and matching in line with HE requirements identified in this report. Analysis of the findings of this report suggests that building a field of linked open data across UK HE/FE institutions by selectively and securely exposing repositories and institutional data (often data that can be found on institutions’ web pages) can provide significant value and pave the way for pedagogically meaningful applications powered by application-wide or community-wide agreed ontologies in the future. Encouraging institutions to use linked open data technologies and to document successful adoption of semantic technologies is considered of critical importance in this report. HE/FE challenges can be addressed by efficiently linking information across institutions. SemTech engaged with the JISC CETIS Semantic Technology Working Group and the UK HE community for this report including a workshop in January 2009 during which use cases of semantic technologies were constructed from both an educational and an institutional perspective.
Tiropanis, Thanassis
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Davis, Hugh
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Millard, David
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Weal, Mark
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White, Su
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Wills, Gary
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Tiropanis, Thanassis
d06654bd-5513-407b-9acd-6f9b9c5009d8
Davis, Hugh
1608a3c8-0920-4a0c-82b3-ee29a52e7c1b
Millard, David
4f19bca5-80dc-4533-a101-89a5a0e3b372
Weal, Mark
e8fd30a6-c060-41c5-b388-ca52c81032a4
White, Su
5f9a277b-df62-4079-ae97-b9c35264c146
Wills, Gary
3a594558-6921-4e82-8098-38cd8d4e8aa0

Tiropanis, Thanassis, Davis, Hugh, Millard, David, Weal, Mark, White, Su and Wills, Gary (2009) Semantic Technologies in Learning and Teaching (SemTech) - JISC Report.

Record type: Other

Abstract

This report presents and discusses the findings of the SemTech (Semantic Technologies for Learning and Teaching) project that was funded by JISC and commenced its activities in September 2008. SemTech addressed the following questions: • What are semantic technologies? • Which tools that make use of semantic technologies are, or could be, relevant to education? • What is the actual use of semantic tools and services in UK HE and FE? • What is the value of such tools in the context of learning, teaching and support? • How do we envisage the adoption of semantic tools in higher education in the future? Although a definition of semantic technologies was not in the scope of the project it was considered necessary for the survey of semantic tools and services and their adoption. SemTech distinguishes between (i) soft semantic technologies like topic maps and Web 2.0 applications, which provide lightweight knowledge modelling in formats understood by humans and (ii) hard semantic technologies like RDF, which provide knowledge modelling in formats processable by computers. The outcomes of an extensive survey of semantic technologies relevant to learning and teaching are documented online (http://semtech-survey.ecs.soton.ac.uk). A total of thirty-six relevant tools and services have been identified by SemTech and the community at the moment of writing. Most of the surveyed tools were not purpose-built for education and they find value in semantic technologies for well-formed metadata or data interoperability and integration. The surveyed tools can be classified to (i) collaborative authoring and annotation, (ii) searching and matching, (iii) repositories, VLEs and authoring tools or (iv) infrastructural technologies for linked data and semantic enrichment. The existing use and uptake of related tools and services by UK HE institutions was investigated and has been documented online (http://wiki.semtech.ecs.soton.ac.uk/). Repositories that are widely adopted in UK HE provide well-formed metadata using semantic technologies. A potential transition from soft semantic modelling in institutional wikis to hard semantic technologies could be implemented given the wide adoption of wikis and recent examples of wikipedia.org and dbpedia.org. Repositories and collaboration ware in HE could enable advanced searching and matching in line with HE requirements identified in this report. Analysis of the findings of this report suggests that building a field of linked open data across UK HE/FE institutions by selectively and securely exposing repositories and institutional data (often data that can be found on institutions’ web pages) can provide significant value and pave the way for pedagogically meaningful applications powered by application-wide or community-wide agreed ontologies in the future. Encouraging institutions to use linked open data technologies and to document successful adoption of semantic technologies is considered of critical importance in this report. HE/FE challenges can be addressed by efficiently linking information across institutions. SemTech engaged with the JISC CETIS Semantic Technology Working Group and the UK HE community for this report including a workshop in January 2009 during which use cases of semantic technologies were constructed from both an educational and an institutional perspective.

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More information

Published date: 2009
Additional Information: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/semantictechnologiesreport.aspx
Organisations: Web & Internet Science, Electronic & Software Systems

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 267534
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/267534
PURE UUID: d88f6bcd-c8e6-4fa2-90eb-6d32f6efddaa
ORCID for Thanassis Tiropanis: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6195-2852
ORCID for Hugh Davis: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1182-1459
ORCID for David Millard: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-2710
ORCID for Mark Weal: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-8786
ORCID for Su White: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9588-5275
ORCID for Gary Wills: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5771-4088

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 08 Jun 2009 09:41
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:31

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Contributors

Author: Thanassis Tiropanis ORCID iD
Author: Hugh Davis ORCID iD
Author: David Millard ORCID iD
Author: Mark Weal ORCID iD
Author: Su White ORCID iD
Author: Gary Wills ORCID iD

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