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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.

In order to provide interoperable services to a range of applications, platforms and devices a number of open source applications have been developed, many of them within the Apache Software Foundation. We analyse the way that these relate to research and development in education, which has also informed the functionality which they offer, providing a case study of the relationship between generic open source infrastructure development, and the discourse around pedagogy. The functionality foreseen for Personal Learning Environments and for the learning design approach to face-to-face learning is identified. The capabilities of Apache Wookie (incubating) W3C Widget Server are compared with this desired functionality, and the unfulfilled functionality identified with a particular focus on the need to support teachers control over their technological environment in response to emerging conditions in the classroom. The application store ('app store') is identified as a key software paradigm for meeting the unfulfilled functionality, and the ways in which it can support teaching practice are explored. A number of current software projects, and collaborations between them, are described which are contributing to providing a coherent infrastructure for building app stores. Finally some areas of functionality which remain pending future research and development are identified.

Can widget technologies revolutionize the VLE and challenge the dominant design of elearning? The authors describe an experimental implementation of the Moodle VLE using the W3C Widget specification and Google Wave Gadget API to replace existing core features. This raises four challenges; (1) By replacing most of the functionality of the VLE with simple reusable applications, the core functionality and design of the VLE is challenged; (2) by allowing these applications to be extracted and used in personal learning environments, the hegemony of the institutional system is challenged; (3) by conducting learning activities in small discrete applications, the model of student tracking is challenged; (4) synchronous, live updating applications challenges the model of user behaviour for the VLE

Can widget technologies revolutionize the VLE and challenge the dominant design of elearning? The authors describe an experimental implementation of the Moodle VLE using the W3C Widget specification and Google Wave Gadget API to replace existing core features. This raises four challenges; (1) By replacing most of the functionality of the VLE with simple reusable applications, the core functionality and design of the VLE is challenged; (2) by allowing these applications to be extracted and used in personal learning environments, the hegemony of the institutional system is challenged; (3) by conducting learning activities in small discrete applications, the model of student tracking is challenged; (4) synchronous, live updating applications challenges the model of user behaviour for the VLE

Since the publication of the IMS LD specification it has been recognised that the lack of a rich set of runtime services is a major barrier to adoption. The approaches taken to resolving this problem are reviewed, and their strengths and limitations identified. A generic widget server developed by the authors is described. Integration of the widget server with the IMS LD runtime system provides an extensible set of services. This has been demonstrated with the creation of widgets for forums, messaging, vote, and Google maps which are provided for users within the context of their role and activities in a Unit of Learning. Authoring and administration are described, showing how the system is both extensible and portable.

IMS Learning Designs provide a specification for the activities undertaken by learners within an environment; currently the definition of the environment is typically a set of web resources and files, with the potential to add two basic types of tool: conferencing and mail. In this paper we describe our initial findings on using a lightweight approach to the addition of small applications (‘widgets’) to the palette of options available for Learning Design environments.