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This paper examines the contention that learning environments which use IMS Learning Designs can be created by plugging in different components, using generic service descriptions to create the interface between the Learning Design (LD) and the specific tools. There is an alternative viewpoint which claims that generic service descriptions cannot provide the richness required to fully utilize Learning Design. The paper describes the work performed in the SLeD project by the UK Open University and the Open University of the Netherlands. The SLeD project suggests a compromise between the two viewpoints by using generic service descriptions, but recognizing the nature of the current environment through the use of translators, which interact with specific instantiations of services. (Contains 1 figure.)

Secondary school teachers have quite busy and complex routines in their classrooms. However, present classroom technologies usually require focused attention from teachers while being interacted with, which restricts their use in teachers' daily routines. Peripheral interaction is a human-computer interaction style that aims to enable interaction to take place both in the center and periphery of users' attention and naturally shift between the two. We believe that classroom technologies employing the principles of peripheral interaction can reduce attentional resources required for teachers to interact with the technologies, and thus make technologies seamlessly blend into teachers' routines. In order to design such technologies, a thorough understanding of users' existing routines is crucial. In this paper, we present a qualitative study on everyday routines of seven Dutch secondary school teachers using context mapping methodology. The results of two qualitative content analyses reveal an overview of teachers' routine tasks in their classrooms, as well as rich and vivid contextual information about how teachers allocated their attention in their routines and how teachers experience their routines. Based on these findings, we present opportunities and considerations that may inform the design and development of classroom technologies which are to become part of teachers' routines.

Online recordings of lectures provide students with anytime-anyplace access to lectures. Research shows that students prefer courses accompanied by online recordings and an increasing number of universities provide recorded lectures. This paper presents the results of a study into the use of recorded lectures at two universities in the Netherlands. The goal of the study is to gain a better understanding of the way that this group of students use recorded lectures. This understanding will enable the creation of usage scenarios that need to be supported. Our results show that students use recorded lectures as a replacement for missed lectures and for study tasks, like preparing for an exam. A large proportion of the students report that they watch 75-100% of a recorded lecture when the view one. The fact that students did not mention the quality of the actual lectures appears not to influence the use of the recorded lectures. Recorded lectures for courses that only use the blackboard are viewed less often. There are also interesting differences in the use of recorded lectures of the different groups of students at the two universities. To increase the credibility and validity of the results, we need a more direct way to measure the use of recorded lectures by students. Methodological triangulation using the log data for the recorded lectures can provide this. (Contains 9 tables and 1 figure.)

Abstract: The subject of this paper is a framework that represents a new approach of information technology in the area of Systems Engineering. This framework enables us to specify, design, engineer, produce and maintain complex capital facilities, e.g. ships and infrastructure in an explicit and consistent way. The framework supports the needs of Systems Engineering according to ISO 15288 for unambiguous and explicit communication about such a facility between project participants, stakeholders, disciplines etc. during all life cycles by introducing an ontology for Systems Engineering. This ontology, derived from the data integration standard ISO 15926, facilitates interoperability, increases efficiency and reduces failure cost. The ontology in this paper enables model-based Systems Engineering and specifically describes a model-based approach of system breakdown structures on process level and on physical level by means of process functions, the Functional Object paradigm and a new approach of interface management by means of the port-interaction theory. The work presented in this paper is part of ongoing PhD-work by the author carried out at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article reports on the development of AquaBrowser, a search and information discovery tool by library industry Medialab Solutions BV in Netherlands. The AquaBrowser offers exploratory search in library's collection utilizing the general purpose freetext information retieval technique, visual associative search and stimulating interface. AquaBrowser plays a vital role in libraries and publishers, which targets the library patrons. It has a multi-source foundation and also search remote data source within the same interface.