Special issue on the Theme "Ontologies and the Semantic Web for E-learning" Journal of Educational Technology & Society ISSN 1176-3647 (print) & 1436-4522 (online) * Important dates Deadlines for full papers: December 15, 2003 Review results: March 15, 2004 Final version of papers: April 15, 2004 Publication: October 2004 The Semantic Web is the emerging landscape of new web technologies aiming at web-based information and services that would be understandable and reusable by both humans and machines. We argue that Ontologies, generally defined as a representation of a shared conceptualization of a particular domain, is a major component of the Semantic Web. It is anticipated that Ontologies and Semantic Web technologies will influence the next generation of e-learning systems and applications. To this end, key developments such as - formal taxonomies expressed, e.g., with the help of the web ontology languages RDFS and OWL, and - rules expressed, e.g., with the help of the web rule language RuleML, and are expected to play a key role in enabling the representation and the dynamic construction of shared and re-usable learning content. The aim of this special issue is to explore topics related with the new opportunities for e-learning created by the advent of Ontologies and the Semantic Web. We aim at a balanced composition of conceptual, technological and system evaluation work and invite submissions dealing with the following topics: - Ontologies for e-learning systems - RDFS/OWL-based educational metadata languages and technologies - Architectures for ontology-based e-learning systems - Rules and formal logic for e-learning systems - Semantic web services for e-learning systems - Supporting personalized and adaptive e-learning with Semantic Web technologies - Supporting flexible e-learning systems with Semantic Web technologies - Innovative Case Studies Although this list of topics is not intended to be exclusive, authors are strongly encouraged to submit original manuscripts that are related to one or more of the above issues. Full-length articles (4000 to 7000 words) in MS-Word or RTF format are to be e-mailed to Prof Demetrios G Sampson at [log in to unmask] no later than December 15, 2003. All manuscripts will be subject to the usual high standards of peer review at ETS Journal. Each paper will undergo double blind review. Please forward the following details with each submission: -Author(s) full name(s) -Job title(s) -Organization(s) -full contact details of ALL authors including email address, postal address, phone and fax numbers * Special issue guest editors Paloma Diaz, Miltiadis D. Lytras, Demetrios G Sampson, Gerd Wagner and Lisa Neal * Submission procedure All submissions should be forwarded as attached files (MS-Word or RTF) to Prof Demetrios G Sampson at [log in to unmask] Please follow the author guidelines at: http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/peer_review_paper_guide.html To get familiarity with the style of the journal, please see a previous issue at: http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/ Regards. Kinshuk ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Associate Professor Kinshuk [log in to unmask] Editor, "Educational Technology & Society" http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/ Information Systems Dept., Massey Univ., Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand Tel: +64 6 3505799 ext. 2090 Fax: +64 6 3505725 http://infosys.massey.ac.nz/~kinshuk