Collaborative technologies
Potential for Learning, Education and Training
Collaborative technologies are the outcome of pursuing the communications potential of the information and communications technologies. It is widely recognised that collaborative technologies have potential application for learning, education, and training environments, and many products are commonly available.
However, most collaborative learning environments that were developed in the first decade of the World Wide Web were closed systems and not able to interoperate (share data) with each other.
The purpose of developing standards in this area is to promote interoperability between collaborative applications and data.
Collaborative Technologies in Learning Environments
Collaborative technologies used in learning environments can consist of software tools (plug-ins) that enable communication and sharing of information between users/students.
Most of the tools used within a collaborative learning environment were originally developed as stand-alone tools for which standards and protocols have been specified.
Examples of software tools that are used in collaborative learning environments include email, chat, instant messaging, forums, and file sharing.
Protocols and specifications
Exchange of information using email is accomplished through adherence to well established protocols and specifications including POP3, SMTP, MIME, HTTP.
LDAP and WebDAV
Other specifications that are used in collaborative learning environments include LDAP and WebDAV. LDAP enables users to locate online resources (files, devices etc) on the Internet or Intranets. It is based on X.500, which is a standard for directory services within a network. WebDAV supports file management between users on the Internet. The working group responsible for it is part of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).
HTML and XML
Web-based collaborative applications, such as chat rooms and forums, rely on standards such as HTML and XML to present and exchange information.
HTML is a 'markup' language that describes how data is to be presented within your browser and XML provides a set of rules for structuring and describing data (XML has developed into the base for a wide variety of standards and specifications on the World Wide Web and elsewhere).
All of the above technologies and standards represent a small, but widely used, subset of what is available to software developers for building applications that communicate with each other, and that will often be found supporting collaborative environments.
However, they fall short of defining a model for describing a collaborative environment.
In education and training, collaborative learning environments are used to support learning and there is a need to describe the collaborative environment that supports this.
IS/IEC JTC1 SC36 WG2
The International Standards Organization (ISO) specifies a framework for describing the structure and characteristics of a collaborative workplace for learning. This is known as ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 WG2.
JTC1 is a Joint Technical Committee between ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). SC36 is sub-committee 36, which was formed to work on information technology for learning, education, and training. This sub-committee is composed of five working groups. Working Group 2 (WG2) was formed to work on collaborative technology and has created a draft proposal titled 'Collaborative Technology - Collaborative Workplace'. It is this paper that proposes a framework for describing the structure and characteristics of collaborative workplaces for learning.