Announcing OpeniWorld:eLearn - An Interoperability Showcase and Workshop. OpenIWorld turns the spotlight on interoperability as the key to making eLearning transparent, convenient and efficient. Interoperability allows education providers to deliver high quality, easy to use learning experiences to every student at affordable cost and with a minimum of technological distraction.
This year's OiW will be held on August 9th and 10th, in conjunction with the MERLOT International Conference which runs August 7th-10th, in New Orleans, Louisiana (for more information on the MERLOT conference please visit http://conference.merlot.org/2007/).
OiW demonstrations will evaluate the software connectivity and integration that is critical to software implementers, and OiW working sessions will evaluate the state of the art and explore the potential of open specifications and standards to extend interoperability and improve end-user experiences. The workshop will also challenge vendors and educators to deliver the personalization and flexibility that interoperability enables. Participants will work together to create a roadmap for improving educational experiences though the application of open interoperability specifications and standards.
OiW will feature a live interoperability showcase event aimed at evaluation of the current state of interoperability and its benefit to learners and educators. In addition workshop sessions will engage educational leaders, technology decision-makers and faculty members who create eLearning courses to better leverage the promise of of interoperability and to help set strategic directions. Hands-on working sessions will also be held with educational technology developers, systems architects and product/project managers of educationally related software.
The OpenIWorld program committee is seeking candidate software and systems for evaluation at the event. All proposals are welcome. Candidates that address the following User-centric Technology Challenges will be given special consideration.
1) Shareable and Transparent Identity Management: This challenge focuses on applications that require authentication of users, authorization of their actions, personal profile management, etc. In particular applications that can work seemlessy across multiple user communities will be showcased.
2) Easy and Personal Course Information Management: This challenge focuses on applications that require access to course catalog systems or course and student information, or require synchronizing course and student data with administrative systems, or across multiple student information systems, etc.
3) Platform Independent Learning: This challenge focuses on increasing the convenience of on-line educational experiences by making innovative educational applications deployable and re-usable across more than one learning support application or course mangement environment.
4) Convenient and Ubiquitos Access to On-line Content: This challenge focuses on leveraging learning content as broadly as possible by making multiple software applications able to access all sources of one or more types of content; such as, publisher supplied materials, museum collections or professional group repositories.
For more information regarding OpeniWorld:eLearn and the call for proposals please visit http://www.openiworld.org.
Open Knowledge Initiative
http://plectrudis.mit.edu/okicommunity/article.php/2007042220420144