Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-06
2003-11-18
An, Meng-Al T. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
C709S225000, C709S227000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06651097
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a learning support method, a system and a computer-readable medium storing a learning support program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a learning support method, a system and a computer-readable medium storing a learning support program in an information providing system which includes an information providing server, an information terminal which requests, receives and displays information, and a communication means such as a computer network which connects them. In the information providing system, the information terminal sends a request for information selected by a user to the information providing server. The information providing server selects information based on control information which is provided beforehand and sends the information to the information terminal. The information providing system may be, for example, an information providing system using the Internet, such as the WWW (World-Wide Web) system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the following, a hypertext system will be described as a first conventional technique. The hypertext system includes an information providing server which is a computer storing information and an information terminal which obtains and displays the information according to a user's operation, the information server and the information terminal being connected via the Internet.
The technique is described, for example, in T. Berners-Lee et al., “The World-Wide Web”, Communications of the ACM, vol. 37(8), pp. 76-82.
FIGS. 1A and 1B
show an example of an information structure which is provided by the information providing server and a display example. The information shown in
FIG. 1A
describes not only text information which is visualized by the information terminal but also information which is not visualized and is associated with a part of the text information. The information is called markup information. Usually, software for obtaining and displaying information which is called a browser is used in an information terminal in an information providing system which uses the WWW. The browser displays a page in a rectangular region in a display screen which is called a window. As shown in
FIG. 1B
, an underscore is drawn at a part where associated information exists. When the user selects information, for example, by clicking a mouse on the part which is underscored in a page in a window, another page corresponding to the part is displayed in the window. For example, when the user clicks on a part “how to read” in
FIG. 1B
, a page (read.html) describing how to write a mail is displayed in a window
1
. The user can obtain necessary information one after another by carrying out the above-mentioned operation repeatedly.
In the following, the markup information will be described taking the WWW as an example. The markup information is distinguished from the visualized text information by bracketing with descriptors “<” and “>”. The markup information is placed before and after a part of text information (which will be called element information) which is associated with other information. A part before the element is called a start tag, and a part after the element is called an end tag (The end tag may be omitted according to the kind of the tag). The start tag describes one tag identifier, zero or more numbers of attribute names and/or an attribute name and a value of the attribute name in a format shown below.
<tag identifier attribute attribute=value> The end tag is formatted as follows.
</tag identifier>
There are various kinds of tag identifiers. A representative example is an anchor tag. The anchor tag indicates that there exists another page which is associated with an element (which is called an anchor) corresponding to the anchor tag. The identifier is “a” or “A”.
As an attribute of the anchor tag, there is an “href” attribute which indicates a location of the associated information. A format called “URL” shown below is widely used as a format of the value of the “href” attribute.
href=communication protocol name://server name/page identifier
The communication protocol shown above indicates a processing method in which an information providing server and an information terminal transmit/receive information. In
FIGS. 1A and 1B
, HTTP which is widely used in the WWW is specified. The attribute value which is specified by the href attribute is also called link information. When a link is specified by the page identifier and when the user selects the link, a next page is displayed in the same window from the top of the page.
The href attribute also has a following format.
href=communication protocol name://server name/page identifier# location identifier
When a page is specified by using the location identifier, the page is displayed in the window from a location specified by the location identifier.
FIGS. 2A-2C
shows the examples. When a link show “how to write” in information shown in
FIG. 2A
is selected, the information terminal obtains a dictionary page (dictionary.html) shown in FIG.
2
B. Then, the information terminal displays a page in the window
1
from a location indicated by <a name=write> which is included in the page information. According to a browser, a scroll bar is displayed for indicating that more information exists in the upper or lower part of the page.
An execution result of a program executed in a server can be obtained by specifying a program name and an argument to be executed in the server in an href format shown below:
href=communication protocol name://server name/cgi-bin/program name ? variable
1
=value
1
& variable
2
=value
2
.
When such a URL is specified, the information providing server executes a program specified by the program name with an argument “specified variable=value” and sends the execution result to the information terminal.
A target attribute is another attribute of the anchor tag. The target attribute is an attribute for controlling a window in which a page is displayed. The target attribute will be described with reference to
FIGS. 3A and 3B
. When a user clicks on a link of “how to write” in which a target attribute is specified, a window
2
opens (the name of the window does not appear in actuality) and information on how to write an E-mail is displayed in the window
2
. At the time, the window
1
does not change.
Next, a form tag will be described with reference to
FIGS. 4A and 4B
. The form tag is often used in conjunction with an input tag. The form tag is used for executing a program by using a user input value and returning the execution result. As shown in the figures, a program name “search” is specified with an action attribute of the form tag. Input tags are within the form tags. The input tag is for receiving a user input. Forms for receiving the user input can be selected with a type attribute. For example, a text field for inputting a text is displayed by using “type=text” and a button is displayed by using “type=submit”. When a user input a text in the text field and clicks on the submit button, the information server is requested to execute a program “search” with an argument “key=[user input]”. Then, the execution result is displayed on the information terminal.
In the following, an concrete application of a conventional first technique will be described. There are many textbooks constructed by using the conventional first technique in the WWW. As a characteristic of a structure of the text book, the text book has a hierarchical structure which includes a chapter, a section and a paragraph, and the text book has a contents page and an index page showing the structure. In addition, the text book includes a search link, a reference link to other part of the text book or to a different text book.
The text book is described by using the above-mentioned tags.
[table of contents]
<a href&equa
Maruyama Mina
Nakabayashi Kiyoshi
An Meng-Al T.
Lin Kenny
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
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