A new teaching tool in education for sustainable development: ontology-based knowledge networks for environmental training

This paper presents a prototype model for the design and development of environmental training materials, where both the multimedia objects used in training scenarios and the knowledge built into them are captured and fully reusable. Knowledge found in the logic, the structure and the ways of use of environmental literacy is represented as a knowledge network (a collection of educational scenarios), based on an ontology. A prototype environmental pollution ontology and three self-contained sample educational scenarios have been developed. The training approach helps students to understand the contemporary global environmental issues, how they are linked and interrelated and to consider the differing views of these issues, before reaching a decision or judgment.