Get the meaning...?

The semantic web loomed large this afternoon at ICL 2008, here in Villach. I chaired a session late into the afternoon, starting at 6 pm and finishing at 7.30, by which time those present deserved a prize for staying with it. The three speakers were good, covering a range of issues from interoperability, machine learning, fuzzy logic and nueral networking, reusable learning objects, semantic wikis and automatic taxonometry. Have to admit the last one was a new one to me, although the audience, few hardy souls that stayed there to the bitter end, were engaged throughout, with some serious and challenging questions from the floor. (Pictured: Luis Rojas gets stuck in)

Gisela Granitzer (Know Center Graz, Austria) presented a paper entitled 'Learning with Semantic Technologies - Exploiting Latest tools'. She presented some excellent visual material which mapped the relationship between Web 2.0 (connecting people) and Web 3.0 (connecting knowledge) with the Ubiquitous Web (connecting intelligence). This she said, was at the hear of successful semantic systems, which created the intelligent links and connections for the user.

Next up was Luis Rojas, all the way from Distrital University Francisco, in Colombia. He spoke about an experiment to use semantic web tools to simulate image formation for the teaching of optical physics. He was refreshingly honest, reporting that semantic tools do not work well where visual images are concerned. He got some flack from the audience, some of who suggested that perhaps the problem did not lie in the architecture of the system, but in human error and interpretation of the images.

Finally, Reinhard Staber, from the Medical University of Graz, Austria, presented a paper entitled 'VMC 2.0: A Metamorphosis into a Web 3.0 Learning Environment.' He reported on stduies into the establishment of Graz's Virtual Medical Campus (VMC) project, where students are able to access a range of reusable learning objects which are categorised in fine granularity through the tagging of individual sentences within authored text. The system supports participatory design of learning objects, group management and full interaction between participants. Some lively debate ensued, but all too soon, our time was up.