The Web in education

The Web has spurred our imagination as to how education could be radically transformed and enhanced through the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). While there have been many significant innovations and successes over the last decade there have also been many unrealised aims. Beliefs in technology-driven change for education have been countered by shortcomings in technological understanding by educationalists and in turn by shortcomings in the understanding of educational theories and learning concepts by technologists. The use of the Web in education has revealed issues such as the distinction between formal and informal learning; the packaging and formatting of learning materials for online distribution and use; the management of learning materials and processes in virtual and managed learning environments; solutions offered by the semantic Web; and how the quality of experience in interactive learning environments relates to the quality of the Internet infrastructure. A comparison between the performance of early and current Web technologies from a user perspective is given for an interactive learning environment which has been in use for over a decade. Client, server, network and protocol components which contribute to the quality of experience for the end user are presented and analysed. In summary, this paper examines the use of the Web in education to date and looks forward to new challenges and aspirations such as MOOCs (massively online open coursewares) and the immersive 3D Web as the basis for the next generation of learning environments.

Some Expert Views

Colin Allison is a Reader in the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He has worked for over 20 years in two complementary research strands: the use of networked and distributed systems to support teaching and learning, and the analyses of these systems when loaded by interactive learning environments. He holds an MA in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Computer Science from St Andrews.

Rosa Michaelson is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems in the School of Business, University of Dundee, Scotland. She has worked in academia for over 30 years. She has a BSc in Mathematics from Edinburgh, an MSc in Knowledge-Based Systems from Heriot-Watt and a PhD from the Institute of Education, London. Her thesis topic was a socio-technical investigation of thirty years of educational technology adoption in higher education.

Thanassis Tiropannis is a lecturer in the Web and Internet Science Group at the University of Southampton. His research includes distributed linked data infrastructures and linked data for higher education. He has previously worked on Web technologies and e-learning at Athens Information Technology Institute. He holds a DipIng in Informatics from the University of Patras, Greece, and a PhD in Computer Science from University College London.

Iain Oliver is a Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews. His research interests are in network traffic measurement, management and adaptation. He holds a BSc and PhD in Computer Science from St Andrews. His PhD topic was adaptive traffic management for virtual worlds.

Alan Miller is a lecturer in the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews. His research interests are in network traffic management, the use of technology to enhance learning and systems aspects of virtual worlds. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.