Go home now Header Background Image
Search
Submission Procedure
share: |
 
Follow us
 
 
 
 
Volume 18 / Issue 11

available in:   PDF (317 kB) PS (847 kB)
 
get:  
Similar Docs BibTeX   Write a comment
  
get:  
Links into Future
 
DOI:   10.3217/jucs-018-11-1432

 

The Wookie Widget Server: a Case Study of Piecemeal Integration of Tools and Services

David Griffiths (University of Bolton, United Kingdom)

Mark Johnson (University of Bolton, United Kingdom)

Kris Popat (University of Bolton, United Kingdom)

Paul Sharples (University of Bolton, United Kingdom)

Scott Wilson (University of Bolton, United Kingdom)

Abstract: Apache Wookie (incubating) has generated considerable interest within the context of Technology Enhanced Learning where it was developed, as well as in mobile applications. The origins of the system in providing services for IMS Learning Design are described, together with an introduction to the system's design and functionality. However, the areas where it has had success are distinct from the application area for which it was designed and developed. The implications of this for understanding user needs is analysed by using ideas drawn from sociology. The complexity of the relationship between the context of use and user needs, and the feedback loops between them is discussed, and the role of technological interventions as an element in a discourse is considered. It is proposed that this understanding of users needs, together with the experience of the development and use of Wookie, argues in favour of an interoperability strategy which focuses on relatively small sets of functional requirements, and avoidance where possible of specifications developed for particular application domains: an approach which may be characterised as piecemeal rather than Utopian.

Keywords: Apache, IMS Learning Design, Interoperability, Mash-up, Mobile, W3C, Widget, Wookie, personal learning environment, specification

Categories: H.1.2, H.3.3, H.4.1, H.4.2