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IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2010EXPANDING A KNOWLEDGE MODELREPRESENTATION TO BUILD CULTURALLYMEANINGFUL ANALOGIES FOR WEB APPLICATIONSDouglas O. de Freitas, Marcos A. R. Silva, Johana M. R. Villena, Bruno A. Sugiyama,Gilberto Astolfi and Junia C. AnacletoFederal University of São CarlosWashington Luis KM 235, São Carlos, SP, BrazilABSTRACTIn this paper, we describe a strategy to improve the Minsky’s model in order to be used in the search for analogies. Weinvestigated the Gentner’s theory to understand how the process of finding analogy is. We realized that the relations usedby Gentner are flexible and dynamic. Thus, we created other kind of relation that we named as meta-relation which isobtained through Minsky’s model. We believe that this new kind of relation is more meaningful because it expressesaction and characteristic which, according to Gentner, both attribute more semantic to relation. We made twoexperiments to search for analogies in the commonsense semantic network that uses Minsky’s model: the first one usedjust this model while in the second the meta-relations were added. Through these experiments, we observed that the useof meta-relation increased the quality of the results.KEYWORDSe-Learning, Analogies, Minsky’s Model, Gentner’s Theory, Meaningful Learning.1. INTRODUCTIONThe research and the use of semantics in computer applications is a subject that has been gaining prominence.Assigning meaning to information or understanding data and knowing how to manipulate them are importantfactors for the most effective use of the computer (Liu and Singh, 2004).One way to enable the effective use of semantics, especially for a better understanding of information bypeople, is to understand how people see some information, how they know it, perceive it and believe in it.Because of that, it is important to find ways to collect, store and process cultural knowledge. An example isthe semantic network from the OMCS-Br project that uses cultural knowledge to develop cultural sensitivecomputer applications taking into consideration the user’s cultural background. Through this semanticnetwork, it is possible to obtain some resources that can support on creating these contextualizedapplications, such as analogy.A practical use is in educational application where contextualizing it is one of the main pedagogicalissues found in the literature and commonsense knowledge can be used for this purpose (Ausubel, 1968;Freinet, 1993; Freire, 1996). Ausubel’s Theory defends a similar approach. According to Ausubel, in order topromote a meaningful learning, teachers should make the students attach the new piece of knowledge to theknowledge which is already in their cognitive structure.Analogy is an example of a way that allows the teacher presenting a new subject according to thestudent’s cultural knowledge. The teacher can explain through analogy new concepts considering otherconcepts that the student already know. This facilitates the learning and the memorization. For instance, innutrition area, the teacher can explain about a Brazilian fruit called Jabuticaba building an analogy with agrape: both of them are fruit, small, sweet and round. These characteristics are part of the students’ commonsense, thus it is important that teachers are aware of this kind of knowledge in order to explain a new onebased on the ones that were already assimilated.35