A knowledge engineering approach to developing e-libraries for mobile learning

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative approach that is proposed for developing e-libraries with metadata to meet the need of training observation and classification skills in a mobile learning environment. Design/methodology/approach - A knowledge engineering approach is proposed to assist teachers in defining metadata of e-libraries to meet the need of training observation and classification skills. Based on the innovative approach, an e-library of butterfly and ecology has been developed. Moreover, an experiment was conducted from March-April 2007 on the science course "Butterfly and Ecology" at an elementary school in Taiwan. There were two teachers and 35 students participated in the experiment. Findings - Experimental results showed that the e-library developed with the innovative approach is able to effectively support the training of observation and classification skills for elementary school students. Research limitations/implications - Currently, the innovative approach has only been applied to the training of observation and classification knowledge. Further studies will be needed to assist teachers in defining metadata of e-libraries for other educational objectives, such as "analysis" (the ability to separate material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood), "synthesis" (the ability to put parts together to form a new whole) and "evaluation" (the ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose). Originality/value - With the innovative approach, personalized supports can be provided as a guide for students' learning. Moreover, students are allowed to face the real objects with technology-rich supports during the learning process.