Purpose: The aim of this paper is to describe a project to provide an online web portal that can be used as a front-end for all university users--students, teachers, staff--and services, library, administration, e-learning, and e-mail. Design/methodology/approach: The profile model proposed is mainly inheritable, defined by profile components with…

Making educational materials freely available on the web can be seen as a noble enterprise in itself but as a way to address the call for people to become lifelong learners. The world is rapidly changing, requiring us to continuously update our knowledge and skills. A problem with this approach to lifelong learning is that the free materials that…

Introduction: Virtual communities play an important role in innovation. The paper focuses on the particular form of collective action in virtual communities underlying as Open Source software development projects. Method: Building on resource mobilization theory and private-collective innovation, we propose a theory of collective action in…

Is it possible to educate a fire officer to deal intelligently with the command and control of a major fire event he will never have experienced? The authors of this paper believe there is, and present here just one solution to this training challenge. It involves the development of an intelligent simulation based upon computer managed interactive…

This article traces the historical development of the boundaries around computer software and hardware. On one hand, the author documents ongoing discussions about the technical equivalence of hardware and software. On the other hand, he accounts for the stubborn persistence of these terms as markers for two distinct spheres of technology,…

Technology Roadmapping is a consensus-driven process to identify, evaluate, and select technology alternatives to satisfy the needs of a particular group of people. It serves as a high-level planning tool to support the development, implementation, and communication of technology development strategies and plans. The outcome of a technology…

Less than one half of one percent of all processors manufactured today end up in computers. The rest are embedded in other devices such as automobiles, airplanes, trains, satellites, and nearly every modern electronic device. Developing software for embedded systems requires a greater knowledge of hardware than developing for a typical desktop…

The purpose of this study is to incorporate adaptive ontology into ubiquitous learning grid to achieve seamless learning environment. Ubiquitous learning grid uses ubiquitous computing environment to infer and determine the most adaptive learning contents and procedures in anytime, any place and with any device. To achieve the goal, an…

Innovations in network and information technology have transformed traditional classroom lectures into new approaches that have given universities the opportunity to create a virtual laboratory. However, there is no systematic framework in existing approaches for the development of virtual laboratories. Further, developing a virtual laboratory…

This paper describes the achievements of an innovative eight-year research program first introduced in Mizoguchi and Bourdeau (2000), which was aimed at building a theory-aware authoring system by using ontological engineering. To date, we have proposed OMNIBUS, an ontology that comprehensively covers different learning/instructional theories and…

The ability to apply existing knowledge in new situations and settings is clearly a vital skill that all students need to develop. Nowhere is this truer than in the rapidly developing world of Web-based learning, which is characterized by non-sequential courses and the absence of an effective cross-subject guidance system. As a result, questions…

The Web has caught the attention of many educators as an efficient communication medium and content delivery system. But we feel there is another aspect of the Web that has not been given the attention it deserves. We call this aspect of the Web its "component architecture." Briefly it means that on the Web one can develop very complex…

This article discusses the pros and cons of open source software, such as Linux. It asserts that despite the technical difficulties of installing and maintaining this type of software, ultimately it is helpful in terms of knowledge acquisition and as a beneficial investment librarians can make in themselves, their libraries, and their patrons.…

Data integration is one of the single most challenging tasks any district can face. Fortunately for school districts throughout the country with data scattered in disparate systems, an open specification known as the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) is mitigating that challenge. SIF has emerged as a cornerstone of K-12 data warehousing,…

In this paper, we propose three different ways of using IMS Learning Design to support online adaptive learning modules that include educational videogames. The first approach relies on IMS LD to support adaptation procedures where the educational games are considered as Learning Objects. These games can be included instead of traditional content…