A culture of inquiry exploring and developing Web 3.0 for learning
We’re exploring the challenges of teaching in complex, controversial and rapidly-evolving fields, where the best approach for learning is often based around specific examples or cases. In these interdisciplinary communities, people are often learning one day, researching the next, and teaching another. The technology we use to support these tricky environments needs to be robust and flexible, as the teachers and learners grapple with complex situations and develop creative solutions, even as the knowledge and teaching concepts change around them.
In particular, we want to find out what “Web 3.0″ – the semantic web – can bring to this area. The semantic web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web, in which the semantics of information on the web are defined, making it easier for both people and computers to find the facts or data they need. It is part of Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the Web as a universal medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange. We’ll be experimenting with tools that use the semantic web, as well as working out whether there are any theoretical frameworks that can help support these activities.
Ensemble is one of the major projects of the ESRC/EPSRC Technology Enhanced Learning Programme and is by its very nature a collaborative project; CARET is leading teams from five UK universities (the University of Cambridge, City University London, the University of Stirling, the University of East Anglia and the University of Essex), together with project partners at the SIMILE project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Technology, Sydney.
