Archive for the ‘Interoperability’ Category

A new version of our federated search portlet ObjectSpot has been released. Be sure to check out its new features and improved performance at www.objectspot.org and also don’t miss the new portlet configurator.

To download and install a complete ObjectSpot instance on your own server, get the most recent version from sourceforge.

This year Moodle Moot Conference takes place at Alpen-Adria-University in Klagenfurt 18-19 September. iCamp will be there with the presentation about technology solutions for Moodle. We received the information that the abstarct has been successfuly accepted so now is time for the preparations. The full name of the talk is Interoperability in Open Learning Environment – Solutions for Moodle. Anna Danielewska-Tulecka is going to present thee innovative solutions developed in iCamp project: Feedback, SQI and iCal modules for Moodle with a brief description of the way how this innovations were valiadted in the third trial.

The next version of Feedback module for Moodle is released. The tagging support was added. You can download it from iCamp codebase at Sourceforge.net.

The programme for the workshop on mash-up personal
learning environments is online now. Click here to see
who is adding which new aspect to the wisdom of our
crowd. Want to be part of it? Register here for MUPPLE’08.

The learning environment is an (if not ‘the’) important outcome of a learning process, not just a stage to perform a ‘learning play’. In our article  in elearningpapers.eu (also July’s portal highlight at elearningeuropa) we propose a new model how to support learning with technology in the 21st century.

Therefore, we first elaborate key concepts and assumptions on personalised learning environments and summarise the critique on the contemporary models for personalised adaptive learning. Subsequently, we propose a new alternative: the concept of mash-up personal learning environments (MUPPLE). How does it work? See for yourself here and look at the prototypical implementation plus a – we think – comprehensible example.

Mash-ups, the ‘frankensteining’ of software artefacts and data, have enabled a new generation of learning tools. Web-applications, services, and data can now be endlessly recombined, no matter where they reside. Really? How? Why? Within this workshop at this years’ European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2008), researchers, developers, and an interested public are brought together to share findings and define the future of mash-up personal learning environments.

Click here to learn more about the call for papers (submission deadline: July 1st, 2008). The workshop will take place on September 17, 2008.

ObjectSpot is a web-based federated search client plus middle-ware mediator for distributing queries and collecting results to digital libraries and learning object repositories that implement the Simple Query Interface (SQI).

The portlet passes the query terms to a mediator (using AJAX) which tries to connect to each of the active repositories asynchronously via SQI calls. The repository targets then return SOAP messages containing search results wrapped into RSS.
Before the mediator returns the results to the ObjectSpot portlet, it parses these results and computes a relevance rank using a precomputed inverse document frequencies. These rank scores are then utilized by the portlet to insert the new results at the appropriate rank position.

All the relevant information during this interaction is logged and is later on used to calculate access statistics and monitoring the quality of service of the repositories. This is crucial, since ObjectSpot’s performance relies on the quality of service of its underlying network nodes.

ObjectSpot is in early development. Please report any problems you encounter.

You can check out the latest version of ObjectSpot (an OpenACS module) at:
https://icamp.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/icamp/mediator-2/trunk

The federated search portlet available at www.objectspot.org has been updated. Besides a few bugfixes, it now includes search results ranking, repository statistics, monitoring features, spell checking for keywords, and more.

ObjectSpot aims to connect various distributed learning object repositories to provide the user with federated search results. Simply submit your search request and see how results start pouring in. The tooltips of the repository nodes display the current search status, left-clicking on a node shows you the repository location, right-clicking shows recent search statistics.

The repositories are connected utilizing the Simple Query Interface (SQI). We encourage you to connect your own SQI target of your learning repository by filling out this form.

To learn more about the concepts and goals behind ObjectSpot continue reading here or check out Deliverable 3.2.

Concerning interoperability, the development of specifications for blogging started in the mid 90s and resulted in a few standards and APIs for web content items and blog interactions. Nevertheless, the current standards do not support important issues of feed management. To bridge this gap, the FeedBack specification was developed in the scope of the iCamp project. Learn more about this novel specification in this deliverable and here.

In the context of teaching and learning, blogs can do so much more than just delivering instructions or course news to students. Particularly in the field of higher education, a blog might be an interesting tool for learners to market their knowledge assets, track and integrate content of other authors, join a scientific community, build up a social network or giving feedback to teachers and other students. Blogging technology in combination with innovations like the FeedBack specification is definitely a powerful tool for technology-enhanced learning. Interested in utilizing blogs for educational purposes? Have a look at the corresponding deliverable or the trial blog.