Towards building a Web-based Self-Learning Environment

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a simple and open framework for integrating different forms of Web knowledge sources to serve Internet readers for learning purpose. This framework is built based on Information Extraction, and a creative utilization of Wiki system to manage different Web sources. A proof-of-concept prototype application is also provided.

Introduction

Web has become more and more important, vast source for us to get knowledge. We use Google, Yahoo! and other search engines to find knowledge, use online dictionaries, online encyclopedia to find what a term means. There are online databases [s9, imdb] that can tell you your detailed biographical information for your favorite movie star, NBA player, a politician; or, a university professor and his/her publications even he/she is not a celebrity. When we consider buying a electronic device, there are sites [cnet] we would like to go to research on, to see how good a specific model of a digital camera or an HD TV is; we even starts to refer to, if not rely on, online reviews, when we want to decide which restaurant to eat [yelp] or which plumber [angie's list] to hire.

Most of such Web knowledge sources have been designed with the expectation that their websites will be visited by users. User queries will be specified and inputted at their own interfaces. Other sources provide some programmable interfaces so that a user can communicate with them through computer programs. Though there are very fundimental protocols that these sources are following, such as http, XML, html form and Web services, most of sources are designed to be used in an individual manner.

There are many studies in Information Retrieval, Knowledge Management, Web Supported Systems, e-Learning, and other domains, have been done to better utilize knowledge resources on the Web. We will discuss some of them further in the next section. However, how to effectively utilize these numerous Web knowledge sources collectively, from dictionaries, search engines, to ontologies and Web services, are still an open question. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose to build an simple, open, customizable and scalable Web-based system to support self-learning.

The rest of the paper is organized as following, In section 2, we will discuss a few related work. In section 3, we will describe the proposed work in detail. In section 4, we present a proof-of-concept architecture application, we conclude the paper in section 5.

Related Work

Publication Repository

Knowledge, Knowledge Organization and Management

Researchers have classified knowledge, in the sense of the content of the human mind , into different forms. In [Bellinger 1997] One of data, information, knowledge (in the specific sense as the appropriate collection of information, and wisdom; in [Ackoff 1989], there is one more form called "understanding", in

Web-based Knowledge Sources

As described in the previous section, knowledge sources exist in many forms.

The potential of Web for enhancing self-learning experiences

Web 1.0 Knowledge Bases: Search Engines, Specialized Deep Web Databases, Directories, portals, other tools such as online dictionaries, online thesauruses, translators; converters; forums
Web 2.0 Knowledge Bases: Wikipedia; communities (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)
Web 3.0 Knowledge Bases: Ontologies and Semantic Web, Web Services

The vision put forward for the Semantic Web, in 2001, in a Scientific American article by Tim Berners-Lee, described a future in which the content of Web pages would be structured in a way that would enable computers to perform sophisticated tasks for people [18]. The information representation methods used to achieve this vision, which are embodied in ontology and the Semantic Web, will differ from current ones by having the ability to provide more sophisticated semantic representation of information content, aiming to go well beyond the document level granularity, being designed to be understood and processed by machines [19].

Semantic Web

Information Integration

Information Extraction

Web-based Learning

Web supported systems

Applications and Tools

(Tools Repository)

Web 1.0 Knowledge bases: search engines, dictionaries, shopping engines, review sites

Web 2.0 Knowledge bases: wikipedia

Web 3.0 Knowledge bases: swoogle, web services and so on

Information Extraction Tools

Knowledge Management Tools

Contribution

Proposed a framework for integrating and utilizing a wide variety of Web sources to enhance self-learning experience.

Introduction to the Web-based Learning
Survey, Discussion of pro and cons of Knowledge management for Web 1.0
Survey, Discussion of pro and cons of Knowledge management for Web 2.0
Survey, Discussion of pro and cons of Knowledge management for Web 3.0: Semantic Web and its problem

Other related work: ESpotter; Magpie;

Wiki

Proposed Framework

Framework Architecture:

Architecture

Description of each component

Knowledge Base Management - a Wiki-like System
Knowledge Base Selector
Reader - an enhanced browser

Key Issues:

Design Principles:

Simple

Intuitive Interface

Cross Platform

Open
Accommodating
Evolvable

Technical Issues:

Three types of resources (from programming point of view):

Form based sources
Ontologies
Web Services / APIs

Experiment/Prototype

To be added

Conclusions