Mapping web personal learning environments

A recent trend in web development is to build platforms which are carefully designed to host a plurality of software components (sometimes called widgets or plugins) which can be organized or combined (mashed-up) at user's convenience to create personalized environments. The same holds true for the web development of educational applications. The degree of personalization can depend on the role of users such as in traditional virtual learning environment, where the components are chosen by a teacher in the context of a course. Or, it can be more opened as in a so-called personalized learning environment (PLE). It now exists a wide array of available web platforms exhibiting different functionalities but all built on the same concept of aggregating components together to support different tasks and scenarios. There is now an overlap between the development of PLE and the more generic developments in web 2.0 applications such as social network sites. This article shows that 6 more or less independent dimensions allow to map the functionalities of these platforms: the screen dimensionmaps the visual integration, the data dimension maps the portability of data, the temporal dimension maps the coupling between participants, the social dimension maps the grouping of users, the activity dimension maps the structuring of end users–interactions with the environment, and the runtime dimensionmaps the flexibility in accessing the system from different end points. Finally these dimensions are used to compare 6 familiar Web platforms which could potentially be used in the construction of a PLE

Developing front-end Web 2.0 technologies to access services, content and things in the future Internet

The future Internet is expected to be composed of a mesh of interoperable web services accessible from all over the web. This approach has not yet caught on since global user?service interaction is still an open issue. This paper states one vision with regard to next-generation front-end Web 2.0 technology that will enable integrated access to services, contents and things in the future Internet. In this paper, we illustrate how front-ends that wrap traditional services and resources can be tailored to the needs of end users, converting end users into prosumers (creators and consumers of service-based applications). To do this, we propose an architecture that end users without programming skills can use to create front-ends, consult catalogues of resources tailored to their needs, easily integrate and coordinate front-ends and create composite applications to orchestrate services in their back-end. The paper includes a case study illustrating that current user-centred web development tools are at a very early stage of evolution. We provide statistical data on how the proposed architecture improves these tools. This paper is based on research conducted by the Service Front End (SFE) Open Alliance initiative

Resource Oriented Modelling: Describing Restful Web Services Using Collaboration Diagrams

The popularity of Resource Oriented and RESTful Web Services is increasing rapidly. In these, resources are key actors in the interfaces, in contrast to other approaches where services, messages or objects are. This distinctive feature necessitates a new approach for modelling RESTful interfaces providing a more intuitive mapping from model to implementation than could be achieved with non-resource methods. With this objective we propose an approach to describe Resource Oriented and RESTful Web Services based on UML collaboration diagrams. Then use it to model scenarios from several problem domains, arguing that Resource Oriented and RESTful Web Services can be used in systems which go beyond ad-hoc integration. Using the scenarios we demonstrate how the approach is useful for: eliciting domain ontologies; identifying recurring patterns; and capturing static and dynamic aspects of the interface

Programming patterns and development guidelines for Semantic Sensor Grids (SemSorGrid4Env)

The web of Linked Data holds great potential for the creation of semantic applications that can combine self-describing structured data from many sources including sensor networks. Such applications build upon the success of an earlier generation of 'rapidly developed' applications that utilised RESTful APIs. This deliverable details experience, best practice, and design patterns for developing high-level web-based APIs in support of semantic web applications and mashups for sensor grids. Its main contributions are a proposal for combining Linked Data with RESTful application development summarised through a set of design principles; and the application of these design principles to Semantic Sensor Grids through the development of a High-Level API for Observations. These are supported by implementations of the High-Level API for Observations in software, and example semantic mashups that utilise the API

CONTEXT-APPROPRIATE IMPLEMENTATION OF BLENDED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN WESTERN BALKANS

This paper discusses the challenges of context-appropriate implementation of blended learning in contemporary higher education. The faculty analyzed is of economics and management. Having in consideration that the 21st century professors are facing a continuous challenge to co-create a learner-friendly class environment, and maximize the educational outcomes, special attention has been paid to the blend composed for contemporary teaching, learning and communication; accompanied by existing ICT disruptive technologies and E-learning platforms, combined with the traditional educational processes and vehicles. Crucial challenge in this context is designing the optimal mix of applicable disruptive technologies, having in mind constricted funding, high competitiveness in the higher education, specific student profile etc. The blended learning ‘mashup’ investigated from theoretical and practical point of view has been sustainably implemented in a Western Balkan’s higher education institution for several academic years. Some key findings and lessons learned in this context are presented further in the paper

A Preliminary Review on the Diffusion of Linked Data in the Enterprise

Artigo apresentado no I Workshop de Informação, Dados e Tecnologia, realizado entre nos dias 04 e 06 de setembro de 2017, na cidade de Florianópolis (SC), no Auditório do Espaço Físico Integrado (EFI) da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).As empresas necessitam estar atentas as mudanças no cenário mundial, para que possam responder rapidamente as mudanças de mercado. Para isso, a Web contribuiu possibilitando dinamismo, impactando com isso em um aumento significativo no volume de dados, que podem ser explorados, com o intuito de se obter benefícios. O Linked Enterprise Data é apresentado como um formato de dados que pode auxiliar os gestores na tomada de decisão, oportunizando explorar dados internos e externos a empresa, porém este conceito não é muito explorado no âmbito empresarial. Por este motivo o presente estudo objetiva-se em discutir os fatores que impedem a difusão de Linked Data neste contexto. Deste modo, observa-se que a cultura organizacional e alinhamento estratégico, entre outros, são alguns dos fatores encontrado para que não ocorra a difusão do Linked Enterprise Data. O que permite concluir que Linked Enterprise Data está começando a chamar atenção das empresas, mas se faz necessário mais trabalhos que abordem as reais contribuições ao meio empresarial, para difundir o Linked Data neste contexto.Companies need to be aware of changes in the global landscape, so they can respond quickly to market changes. For this purpose, the Web has contributed to the dynamism, thus impacting on a significant increase in the volume of data that can be exploited in order to obtain benefits. Linked Enterprise Data is presented as a concept that can help managers in decision making, allowing the exploration of internal and external data to the enterprise, but this concept is not much explored in the business scope. For this reason, the present study aims at discussing the factors that prevent the diffusion of Linked Data in this context. In this way, it is observed that the organizational culture and strategic alignment, among others, are some of the factors found so that the dissemination of Linked Enterprise Data does not occur. This allows us to conclude that Linked Enterprise Data is beginning to attract attention from companies, but more work is needed to address the real contributions to the business environment, to disseminate Linked Data in this context

Facilitating Creativity in Collaborative Work with Computational Intelligence Software

The use of computational intelligence for leveraging social creativity is a relatively new approach that allows organizations to find creative solutions to complex problems in which the interaction between stakeholders is crucial. The creative solutions that come from joint thinking-from the combined knowledge and abilities of people with diverse perspectives-contrast with traditional views of creativity that focus primarily on the individual as the main contributor of creativity. In an effort to support social creativity in organizations, in this paper we present computational intelligence software tools for that aim and an architecture for creating software mashups based on the concept of affinity space. The affinity space defines a digital setting to facilitate specific scenarios in collaborative business environments. The solution presented includes a set of free and open source software tools ranging from newly developed brainstorming applications to an expertise recommender for enhancing social creativity in the enterprise. The current paper addresses software design issues and presents reflections on the research work undertaken in the COLLAGE project between 2012 and 2015

A user-centric approach for developing and deploying service front-ends in the future internet of services

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) based on web services have attracted a great deal of interest and Internet Technology (IT) investment over the last few years, principally in the context of business-to-business integration within corporate intranets. However, they are now evolving and breaking through enterprise boundaries in a revolutionary attempt to make the approach pervasive. This is leading to what we call a user-centric SOA. A user-centric SOA is an SOA conceived as an internet of services made up of compositional resources empowering end users to collaboratively remix and ubiquitously exploit these resources. In this paper we explore the architectural basis, technologies, frameworks and tools considered necessary to tackle this novel vision of SOA. We also present the rationale behind Ez Web/FAST, an ongoing EU-funded project whose first outcomes could serve as a preliminary proof of concept

Implementing Cross-Organizational Business Processes with Enterprise Mashups: Hype or Reality?

Many cross-organizational business processes are implemented by hubs and integration platforms which support the electronic collaboration of multiple organizations. The available concepts and solutions based on service-oriented architectures focus on the automatization of long-term business relationships. However, they often do not provide intuitive ways to modify them according to situational needs. In particular, small and medium-sized enterprises characterized by limited know-how and resources are excluded in such electronic collaborations. This paper demonstrates how the user-driven development paradigm of enterprise mashups could be leveraged for implementing cross-organizational business processes. By means of a case study, we report about the experiences of a real-world scenario we have implemented in the frame of the EU-funded research project FAST. A business value analysis highlights the automational, informational and transformational effects. An organized laboratory experiment evaluates how the actual users create enterprise mashups for cross-organizational processes. We conclude with the benefits and limitations of the paradigm

OntoMathPROOntoMath^{PRO} Ontology: A Linked Data Hub for Mathematics

In this paper, we present an ontology of mathematical knowledge concepts that covers a wide range of the fields of mathematics and introduces a balanced representation between comprehensive and sensible models. We demonstrate the applications of this representation in information extraction, semantic search, and education. We argue that the ontology can be a core of future integration of math-aware data sets in the Web of Data and, therefore, provide mappings onto relevant datasets, such as DBpedia and ScienceWISE.Comment: 15 pages, 6 images, 1 table, Knowledge Engineering and the Semantic Web - 5th International Conferenc