Applying semantic web technologies in education : a digital mathematics problem archive for the mathematics student at the upper secondary level Malta

Abstract

The World Wide Web can be described as a database of information about every topic of the real world. Due to semantic heterogeneity coupled with up to a certain extent - lack of machine understandability of web contents, we use search engines running keyword-based algorithms to retrieve the desired information. The web browser publishes those web sites that contain any keyword/s of the search criteria, with the drawback that pages that have nothing to do are also returned. The returned web pages then, have to be further searched manually by the user. Certain relevant web pages may not be returned by the search engine due to the mismatch of keywords of search criteria. The concept of the Semantic Web as envisioned by Tim Berners Lee addresses this situation. His vision promises a solution that overcomes the hurdles created by the current web.