1 E-learning in the Semantic Age

Today educational technologies are reaching a state that allows interoperability and reuse of learning resources. The underlying techniques rely heavily on the standards movement for metadata representation. On top of this, monolithic reference platforms are being developed with the aim to ease application development. However, we do not think this approach is flexible enough to embrace future learning techniques. In contrast, we suggest a learning framework where services can be developed and exchanged between as well as within systems. A fundamental part of this framework is the semantic layer, which builds on the structure of the Semantic Web. Hence we do not regard metadata as something 'objective' that you have to download from some central server. On the contrary, metadata should be allowed to consist of subjective views of resources that are distributed and shared in contexts that can evolve dynamically. In support of such requirements, our learning framework consists of a combination of semantic web techniques and peer-to-peer services for search, retrieval, publication, replication and mapping of metadata.