Reflective Middleware for Managing Learning Connectivism in Knowledge Ecologies (eco - Connectivism)

Abstract

This article describes the architecture of a reflective middleware based on autonomic computing, with the goal of managing a connectionist learning environment, modeled following the paradigm of knowledge ecologies. The middleware is able to monitor the environment consisting of a set of personal learning environments that are perceived as self-organized objects forming ecosystems. The evolution of the learning process depends on the analysis of web behavior of students, and the ecological survival scheme that promotes social relations, diversity and tolerance in socialized domain knowledge. The middleware uses web mining to characterize the behavior of the student, clustering techniques for the learning ecosystems, and a cognitive collaborative recommender system for self-adaptation process of learning strategies.