Guenter Hilmer - Phd Thesis - Glamorgan Dspace - University of ...

2.12 Technology 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.12 Technology
This section of the literature review will consider the technology used in World
Wide Web (WWW) based educational hypermedia. Educational meta-data projects
will be identified as well as the technology that is taken into consideration for this
project.
2.12.1 Web 2.0 Technology
Richards identifies in his work [156] the following new technologies which are
used for education:
• Weblogs: Good catalogue of the possibilities for education offered by we-
blogs, with examples taken from all levels of education.
• WIKIs: Easy Collaboration for All: Using Wikipedia as an example, the
principle and possibilities of WIKIs are explained, followed by examples
and a discussion of various WIKI tools.
• RSS: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) rightly takes central stage in the
book. Again, first the book gives an explanation of how it works (with-
out the technical details), followed by examples from use in education and
practical tips for application and maintenance of RSS feeds.
• The Social Web: Learning Together: Social bookmarking services are tak-
ing off, and the possibilities seem endless. Communities are created due to
the social aspect of sharing information (sources) within a group.
• Podcasting and Screencasting: Multimedia Publishing for the Masses. Be-
sides the well-known broadcasting, an era of narrowcasting has dawned,
which allows anyone who owns a computer plus Internet connection to pro-
vide an audio/video transmission for a very specific audience.
Demb et al. show in their results of a survey which explored student reactions to a
campus-wide laptop initiative that expectations are not always fulfilled. The most
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