Vigils in a Wilderness of Knowledge: Metadata in Learning Environments

The paper presents two computer-supported learning environments which are built on top metadata defined in XML; a comprehensive study environment for a Talmudic tractate and a video based learning environment called Virtual Entrepreneurship lab used in entrepreneurship education. While expressive metadata standards like MPEG-7 help us technically to implement multimedia learning environments by offering comprehensive coverage of all needed aspects, the century spanning editing process of knowledge encyclopaedias like the Babylonian Talmud offers useful hints what kind of metadata are necessary to disclose the knowledge structures in non-linear material.