Structuring Access to a Dynamic Collection of Digital Documents: The Walden’s Paths Virtual Directories

Abstract

The Walden’s Paths project facilitates incorporation of Web-based documents into the K-12 classroom environment. Currently Walden’s Paths uses a static presentation mechanism, based on the authors of the paths, to display the available paths to the readers. As the number of authors and readers increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for readers to find the paths from a list that is based solely on the authors. The most suitable organization of paths varies with the task at hand and the reader’s environment. The use of virtual directories has been proposed for managing dynamic collections of digital documents. These directories are not physically present in the file system; only a user query is stored. At access time, the database of files is queried to select files of interest and these are included in the directory. This mechanism allows readers to organize paths according to their needs while maintaining a hierarchy and preserving the context. This paper proposes that inclusion of the virtual directory mechanism in Walden’s Paths will enable the readers to organize data to better suit their conceptual model and presents a working prototype of this feature.