Logic Programming Applications for Educational Technology

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people that wish to obtain higher education. Unfortunately, some of these people are unable to obtain this education due to diiculties caused by disabilities, distance or time constraints. This group of people still needs and should be provided the opportunity to gain higher education. Educational tools and environments need to adapt in order to accommodate these people given evolving Internet Technologies. One of the formidable challenges is creating an electronic educational environment that is conducive to learning. Research into educational technology has been increasing but unfortunately at a slower rate than the need for the new technologies. In the recent past, we have seen a transformation of educational support moving from audio conferencing to video conferencing to multi-media environments. With the advent of the Internet, multi-media educational environments seem to provide the optimal tool. Current research trends into these environments have focussed on web authoring, communications, progress tracking and administrative tools. It is now time to focus on tools and technologies that support the learning process itself. 1 Vision As more and more people are moving towards obtaining higher education a subset of them nd it diicult or impossible to achieve their goals. This diiculty arises due to a number of reasons. Some individuals have disabilities that limit their access to educational institutions, as well as possibly limiting their capabilities within an educational environment. There are also a number of people that live outside of major cities in which educational institutions are normally situated. The need to commute, possible great distances, becomes an encumbrance to achieving higher education. Also, the job markets are becoming so competitive that employees are nding that they must return to school to achieve further employment success. With mandatory, synchronous schedules in current educational institutions, these individuals are usually required to resign from their current employment to further their education. Typically, individuals are unable to surrender their income due to the need to support a family or their current lifestyle. Some form of educational reform must take place. Unfortunately, the evolution of education and its use of technology has been and still remains a slow transformation, especially in comparison to the business world's embrace of technology. Bill Gates 14] identiies this weakness in educational systems when he states, "If someone who dropped out of society twenty years ago walked into an ooce today, she'd be surprised …