Week 5

The Semantic Web and Linked Data

As the Semantic Web develops and knowledge is mapped, it can be linked to existing analysis models in order to provide personalized and adaptive content for learners. Personalized and adaptive learning has been a dream of educators for decades. Developments with linked data offer new promise in realizing a scalable system of learning. Through readings, videos, and discussions in this unit, we will clarify the concepts of structured/unstructured data, open data, linked data, and the Semantic Web.

Unfortunately, most data is rarely in the format needed for analysis. To prepare for Unit 4, we will review data types and present (in non-technical language) the process of “data cleaning” so that unstructured data is available for analysis.

Readings and Resources

Berners-Lee, T. (1989). Information management: A proposal. Retrieved from the W3C website: https://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html

Mason, H. (2009). Machine learning: A love story [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.infoq.com/presentations/machine-learning-story/

Mayer, M. (2009, August 13). Innovation at Google: The physics of data [Video]. Retrieved from Palo Alto Research Center website: https://huffduffer.com/marshallkirkpatrick/10340

Meindertsma, J. (2018). A brief introduction to linked data. Linked Data Blog. Retrieved from: https://ontola.io/what-is-linked-data/

Palmer, S.B. (2001–2009). The Semantic Web: An introduction. Retrieved from http://infomesh.net/2001/swintro/

Ray, K. (2010). Web 3.0 [Video]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/11529540

Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web [Video]. (2009). Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_the_next_web

Welcome to Metaweb [Video].(2010). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/TJfrNo3Z-DU (Metaweb was purchased by Google in 2010, but this is still a nice resource on dealing with ambiguity of words/text.)

Activities

1. Begin planning your analytics model for Project 1. The requirements of this assignment will be discussed in more detail at the live session this week. Essentially, you are asked to develop a model for gaining insight into a complex topic using various quantitative and qualitative tools that we will discuss over the next several weeks.
2. Post your draft analytics model to the Week 5 discussion forum in the respective thread on Moodle. Review the contributions of other learners, and provide suggestions for improvement on at least two projects. More information on this assignment can be found here: How You Will Be Marked