Glossary for knowledgeGarden and emerging technologies

This page is for terms and definitions related to knowledgeGarden and emerging technologies. Terms which are used in knowledgeGarden are placed in the first section and some definitions may contain information that is specific to knowledgeGarden.

Everyone is invited to add definitions and terms to this page. If you don't know what a term refers to, put it here and someone will add a definition. Also, feel free to correct any erroneous info.

Consider adding links to other pages in the knowledgeGarden or to an area of a page. To add a link that links to a specific place or anchor the same page or on another page:

1. Name the anchor point on the page to link to using the tag

{ANAME()}TheNameOfTheAnchor(NAME}

1. Create a link to the anchor using ALINK

{ALINK(aname=TheNameOfTheAnchor,pagename=TheNameOfTheWikiPage)}linktext{ALINK}

An example of how this works is the following link that links to the FAQ page to the specific point on the page about this topic. Go to the FAQ page for more about ALINK

Terms which are used in knowledgeGarden

These terms are placed at the top of the list to help people identify the terms most relevant knowledgeGarden.

Avatar

An user's online identity. Can be an alter ego (who bears little resemblance to your real self) or just a way to identify yourself online. Seems to contain an image to help identify.

Blog

A web log, where the writer records commentary on pretty much anything of interest to them as frequently as they wish. What distinguishes it from a journal or diary is that it's available for public readership on the internet and that readers can comment on the blog.
kG: Each person can create a blog which contains a blog description. You can setup your blog so only you can post to it or you can allow others to post to it.

Blog comment

Others can comment on your blog. Generally people will comment on individual posts rather than your entire blog.

Blog post

A post or message posted to a blog.

Blog post comment

A comment on a blog post
KG: Click PERMALINK > COMMENT to make a comment on a blog post.

Categories (KG)

Basic tagging system within knowledgeGarden allowing you to put a page, blog post, or forum post into a category. Click INFORMATION > CATEGPORIES to see the active categories.

Guides (kG)

kG: Volunteers who have volunteered their time to assist others to use knowledgeGarden. You can find out more at the Guides page.

Forum

A forum is a place (in our case an electronic place) where group of people who get together to discuss matters of common interest in an endeavour to find more information to reach common goals.

Forum post

Post a question or tip in a forum where they can be answered or commented on.

Live Support

kG: Basic text chat system which is staffed by Guides and if active will allow you to ask questions via text chat. You can fine out more at the Live Support page.

POLL

kG: Create a Poll to allow users to vote on the page. more insrtuctions on the FAQ page.

Rollback

kG: Change the wiki page back to a previous version.

Tiki

Tiki is a free (LGPL), full-featured Content Management System - it is the software behind knowledge Garden that lets us manage the Wiki stuff.

UserPage (kG specific)

Your UserPage is a wiki page which can only be edited by yourself. See HowTo: Create your knowledgGarden UserPage for creating your userpage.

Wiki

This is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change some available content. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring. (direct from Wikipedia)
"Wiki" also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website.

Wiki page

An individual page in a wiki site. Within knowlegeGarden you can see that a page is a wiki page if it contains an EDIT button.

Wiki page PERMS

kG: Determine who can view or edit the page.

Wiki page History

The record of how a page has changed and who changed it. This view provides the ability to compare two pages and rollback to a previous page.

General terms

Accessibility

In human-computer interaction, computer accessibility refers to the usability of a computer system by people with disabilities. It is largely a software concern. However, when hardware or software is used to customise a computer for a disabled person, that equipment is known as adaptive technology.

ADSL

Asynchronous Direct Subscriber Line. Commonly associated with the term Broadband and is a connection used to access the Internet.

ALT tags

Alternative text tags appear in place of images when the browser preferences are set for text only (image viewing option is turned off). Including them on your site enables visually impaired user reader programs (speech synthesisers) to read the alt tag aloud. On a PC, when a user mouse’s over an image, the alt tag becomes visible, it appears as text. For instance, Alt tags are not generally visible on a Mac unless the images are turned off.

Assistive Technology

any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially or off the shelf, modified, or customised, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.

Augmented reality (AR)

Refers to computer displays that add virtual information to a user's sensory perceptions.

Bit, Nibble, Byte, Kilo Byte, Mega Byte, Giga Byte

bit is abbreviated as "b" and byte is abbreviated as B
This a 56000kb (per second) modem is able to transmit about 6kB of information per second.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets

Language used to describe how an HTML document should be formatted.

Digital Public Space

Where you put choose to put information for public comment, e.g. blogs, pictures etc. Heard on Radio National 'The Media Report' Thurs 31/8/06.,

GPS - Global Positioning System

HTML - HyperText Markup Language

Hypertext Markup Language is the authoring software language used on the Internet's World Wide Web. HTML is used for creating World Wide Web pages.

Hypertext

Textual data which is "linked" across multiple documents or locations.

IA - Internet Appliance

IRC Internet Relay Chat

IR Technology - Infra Red Technology

ICT Information and Communications Technology

LAN - Local Area Network

LMS - Learning Management System

Malware

Maliscious software

Mobile learning

Mlearning
– refers to education activities facilitated by the use of a mobile device
such as a laptop, mobile phone or PDA and typically conducted outside of the regular
classroom.

MMS Multimedia Message Service

A store-and-forward method of transmitting graphics, video clips, sound files and short text messages over wireless networks using the WAP protocol.

MP3 - MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3

Standard compressed format for audio files. The name is derived from MPEG-1, Audio
Layer 3 and more formally known as ISO/IEC 11172-3 Layer 39.

MMOG: Massively Multi-player Online Game

e.g. EverQuest

MUVE: Multi-User Virtual Environment

e.g. http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/muvees2003/, http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/start/index.html Quest Atlantis, http://www.whyville.net/smmk/nice Whyville

PDA

Personal Digital Assistant.

PDF - Portable Digital Format

Podcast

Podcasting is a method of publishing audio files via the Internet, allowing users to
subscribe to a feed to receive new files automatically.

RDF Resource Description Framework

??

RFID - Radio Frequency Identification

RSS RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication

RSS feed

?

ROI - Return On Investment

Social bookmark

A web-based service where lists of internet bookmarks (or favourites) are created and displayed. The social bit is presumably because the lists can be shared via the internet. You can create an account at http://del.icio.us/

SCORM Shareable Content Object Reference Model

Skype

Skype is a proprietary peer-to-peer Internet telephony (VoIP) network. The network is provided by all combined users of the free desktop software application

SMS - Short Message Service

available on digital GSM networks allowing text messages of up to 160 characters to be sent and received via the network operator's message center to your mobile phone, or from the Internet, using a so-called "SMS gateway" website. If the phone is powered off or out of range, messages are stored in the network and are delivered at the next opportunity.15

SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol

TCO - Total Cost of Ownership

USB - Universal Serial Bus

standardised software/hardware formats providing for high speed communication between PCs and peripheral devices

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol

standardised format providing for phone calls to be made over the Internet, VoIP can be supplied by commercial providers, but is also available to users via freeware such as Skype.

VLE - Virtual Learning Environment

Vlogging - Video logging

video version of blogging which combines video, text images and links

Vodcasting -

Video on demand web casting

VPN - Virtual Private Network

a local computer network set up for an organisation or community

WLAN - Wireless Local Area Network

Wi-Fi - Wireless Fidelity

The most common format for short-distance wireless communication between PCs,
peripheral devices and networks. Is short for ‘ Wireless Fidelity’ and is meant to be used generically when referring of any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11b, 802.11a, dual-band, etc. The term is promulgated by the Wi-Fi Alliance

Wi-MAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

Stands for ‘Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access’. This is a long-distance
wireless broadband distribution system, with claimed ranges of 30km for line of sight
communication.

WAN Wide Area Network

WAP Wireless Application Protocol

Web quest

An activity for learners of any age, where they have to work collaboratively in groups to do a task that involves finding information on the internet. That's the first step. The second step is doing something with the information like writing a report, doing a presentation for the class, making a video and so on.

XHTML - eXtensible HyperText Markup Language)

An extension of HTML as an application of the XML language.

Other terms

Flaptop computer

Which is very similar to a laptop computer

Hystorial reasons

Laughable reason for justifying something often based the augment that "this is the way it has always been done."

Related sites

• www.cem.uvm.edu/util/html/definitions.php

• Information and Educational Technology: Glossary http://iet.ucdavis.edu/glossary.cfm

• Learning Circuits Glossary http://www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html

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