Education is based on the dissemination and circulation of knowledge. Within this framework, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are being widely used and developed in the school environment, supporting the instant and constant distribution and sharing of available information, while at the same time providing for advanced services and e-learning tools. However, these services and tools must be characterized by interoperability and compatibility, in order to secure data sharing, regardless of the platform and interface environment. The focal point is the ability to exchange machine-readable data and to ensure compatible content.
In such, interoperability secures: (a) homogeny and compatibility of information, avoiding the need to execute the same query in different information systems with multiple organization and encoding formats, and (b) labour, time and production cost savings, as it processes the same metadata for the same information resources. Interoperability may be ensured via the implementation of an internationally recognized standard for the description and encoding of the educational material, in order to define a uniform and common methodology for the organization and description of the available content.
This article aims to:
(a) analyze the LOM (Learning Objects Metadata) standard, which is widely considered as the internationally recognized standard for the description and encoding of educational material,
(b) look into the issue of semantic description of educational resources via the implementation of semantic tools (i.e. thesauri, classification systems, ontologies, taxonomies), and
(c) present the Greek educational portal ‘epyna.gr’ - to investigate the possibility of implementing the LOM standard, and to analyze the outcomes of the LOM adoption for the educational community.