The goal of this project is to investigate ways in which new and emerging technologies, such as multimedia laptop computers and wireless communication, can be used to substantially improve the way we deliver education. Such technologies have the potential to revolutionize teaching, technical presentations, and small group meetings by providing students or attendees with unprecedented on-line access to Internet resources, live demonstrations, instructor notes/figures, and real-time interaction with the instructor or other students. Moreover, wireless communication provides a cost-effective way to make technology available in older buildings and environments where wired networks are difficult or simply too costly to install. However, several challenging problems must be solved before wireless classrooms and in-class computing resources can become beneficial instructional tools.
We propose to establish a wireless classroom environment in which each student is provided with a laptop and a wireless network connection. This pilot project will allow us to (1) identify and solve the technical challenges presented by wireless classrooms, and, more importantly, (2) develop teaching techniques and methods that effectively use the technology to enhance the educational process. Although we will use the environment to teach specific courses, our goal is to identify general techniques and methods that can be used effectively in a wide range of settings, such as elementary classes, graduate classes, technical presentations, and departmental meetings.
For this pilot project, the University of Kentucky will purchase 20 laptop computers that will be used by students during class periods. We are requesting funds to install the wireless network and outfit each laptop with a wireless connection. Classes taught by the PI's (and other interested faculty) will use the mobile wireless multimedia classroom to develop and experiment with new teaching techniques and determining their effectiveness. Upon completion of the grant, we will publish our findings/experiences and give presentations at UK and other schools across the state. After the expiration of the grant, we will continue to use the wireless classrooms for instruction. In addition, assuming the pilot study proves to be successful, UK plans to invest in wireless technology for classrooms across the campus.
Unprecedented advances in information and computer technology over the last few years are revolutionizing the way people deliver, access, and exchange information. These technological advances also provide an exciting opportunity for us to develop radically new ways to deliver education or augmenting existing teaching techniques. The main objective of this project is to explore ways in which emerging new technologies can be used to improve the way we deliver education. Specifically, we will investigate the use of mobile wireless computing environments to create interactive networked multimedia classrooms.
In recent years portable computing devices, particularly laptop computers, have become extremely powerful, inexpensive, and widely used. Even low-end laptop systems now include color displays, fast processors, memory, and sound support required to render multimedia documents containing full-motion video and audio.
Another recent event that enhances the already impressive power of mobile computers is the development of affordable high-speed wireless network technologies. Wireless networks allow mobile computers to remain connected to the network regardless of their location. Consequently, laptop computers can access the vast information resources of the Internet just like conventional wired PCs, yet have the freedom to move between locations (e.g., classrooms). Mobile computers can obtain, submit, and exchange data and information with other wireless laptops or wired PCs and can execute interactive applications with users on other laptops or wired machines.
Given the wide-spread use and availability of laptop computers, it will not be long before every college student is equipped with a laptop computer and a wireless connection. Several Universities already require students to purchase laptops upon entering the University. Although not currently required at the University of Kentucky, many of our students already own and use personal laptop computers in and out of class, and various programs are being set up at UK to encourage students to invest in personal laptop computers.
Wireless computing environments have the potential to be a cost effective and powerful educational tool. >From the perspective of network cost, the expense of installing a wired connection for every seat in every classroom is staggering and would be aesthetically inconvenient and obtrusive. Moreover, many older classroom and office buildings were not designed with wired networks in mind and require substantial amounts of conduit work just to get the wires to the room. Wireless technology provides an unlimited number of network hookups in any classroom (even old, technologically archaic classrooms) without the aesthetic inconvenience of wires or the enormous expense of installing the wire.
>From the perspective of educational opportunities, wireless classrooms have the potential to revolutionize the way we teach. It is perhaps easiest to see how computer technology can be applied to courses which are directly related to the technology, such as Computer science courses. On-line demonstrations of coding, program execution, program debugging, graphical interface construction, and algorithm visualization are powerful ways to drive home the concepts taught as part of a typical computer science curriculum. However, with a little imagination one can envision how a wireless multi-media classroom will be used across all disciplines. For example, many math departments already use multimedia classrooms to teach calculus and statistics. Business departments frequently set up computer classrooms to teach the use of business or statistical software or to visually model economic trends. The ability to demonstrate chemical reactions, visualize the three-dimensional structure of a chemical compound, or illustrate laws of physics via computer models is invaluable in the sciences. Departments in the humanities and arts can also benefit from wireless interactive classrooms. The ability to display music manuscripts, play an audio clip from a symphony while simultaneously showing the score, alter and harmonize a musical piece during class, display an image of the original manuscript of a poem (showing erasures), or analyze an ancient historical manuscript, simply cannot be duplicated with conventional chalk and blackboard lectures.
The goal of this project is to integrate wireless computing into a classroom setting as a pivotal and ubiquitous component of the instructional process. However, before wireless technology can be used effectively in the classroom, we must first addresses a variety of instructional, technical, organizational, and economic issues.
First, we must develop new and effective teaching methods that improve the educational process. This involves determining what is technically possible and the effort needed to implement it. For example, even if animated demonstrations or live video presentations are possible, it may be too difficult or time consuming for a faculty member to prepare the material. Having determined what is possible, we must determine whether the technique is effective and we must develop ways to seamlessly integrate the technique into lectures and presentations.
A second component of the instructional process that must be explored is the question of how students can best use the technology while in class. Can notes be taken directly on the computer, or is paper and pencil still required? If the lecture slides are on-line, can they be modified by the student during the lecture? If the instructor needs to draw a picture on the board to illustrate a point or answer a question, can the figure be captured electronically so the student does not need to write it down? How much of the lecture can or should be captured via the audio device?
Several technological challenges must also be solved before wireless classrooms become a reality. Although wireless networks are becoming more powerful, they are at least an order of magnitude slower than wired networks (comparing bandwidth) and higher packet loss rates than wired networks, making wireless networks a potential bottleneck. Network management is complicated by the fact that the computers are mobile, sometimes accessible and sometimes not accessible. Moreover, laptops themselves present several interesting problems. Typically they are maintained by their owner rather than a system administrator, making it more difficult to ensure uniformity across machines. Other laptop restrictions such as small displays (limited screen real-estate), limited memory and disk space (when compared to desktop models), or difficult to operate pointing devices (integrated mice) can affect the types of applications that we choose to run.
Finally, there are organizational and economic challenges that must be addressed. Although it may be reasonable to assume that university students will all have laptop computers in the not-too-distant future, it cannot be assumed of high school or elementary school students. How can wireless classrooms be used in economically limited situations, where students must share or take turns using a few laptops? How many and which materials can exist only in electronic format in such an environment? What are the expenses of setting up, managing and maintaining a wireless network?
In short, technology's potential influence on education is overwhelming, but there are many difficult problems that must be solved before wireless classrooms become a reality.
This proposal requests funds to develop a pilot project that will investigate the use of wireless mobile computing as a cost-effective, ubiquitous instructional tool for classrooms of the future. There are many problems that must be addressed before wireless classrooms can become and effective instructional environment. This pilot project will focus on some of the most basic and important questions: (1) developing new instructional techniques for wireless classrooms, and (2) overcoming the technical problems associated with installing, configuring, and operating a wireless classroom environment. Although not the primary focus, we will also begin to formulate answers to questions about effectiveness, ubiquity, economic costs, and organization. We expect that the outcomes of this project will be directly applicable and beneficial to other universities, secondary and elementary schools, or any organization that (in some way) presents information in a classroom, conference, or meeting-type environment, because we will focus on the development of viable information presentation ``techniques'' rather than actual information ``content''.
We propose to establish a wireless network that covers all the classrooms in Anderson Hall (the main engineering building) and the three main engineering conference rooms in the CMS and ASTeCC buildings. The wireless network will consist of four base stations strategically placed to ensure the maximum coverage. The base-stations will be wired together to form a single virtual LAN. Base-station arbitration and cell hand-offs will be handled by the base station hardware, providing network connectivity regardless of the classroom/conference location. The network will be installed over the summer and will be available for use during the fall and spring semesters of the 1997-98 academic year.
The University of Kentucky will purchase 20 laptops that we will equip with wireless network links for use in the wireless classrooms. To maximize use of the laptops during the testing period, the laptops will be shared by several classes using the wireless environment. The laptops will be stored on carts that can be easily moved to any room. Students will pick up their laptop from the cart prior to class and will return it after class. A system for accessing laptops outside of class time will also be established and all information presented during class will be available on the web from any computer. Each student will be assigned the same laptop each class period as if it were their own. Although this is a small-scale pilot project, shared laptop access may very well be a reality for financially strapped institutions, making this a highly realistic environment.
Each instructor will also have a laptop with a wireless connection (the PIs, and most other interested faculty, already have laptops that they will use for the project). All laptops will be configured with both Linux and Windows NT (NT) and will communicate via the TCP/IP protocol suite. The wireless network will be connected to an existing router to allow Internet access from any laptop. MBone (Internet multicast backbone) connectivity will also be established via our existing Mbone connection to allow use of the MBone tools within the classroom and across the Internet.
Each of the PIs' laptops will also be outfitted with NTSC video camera devices, connected to existing PCMCIA video input cards, to allow frame capture and real-time video input from the instructor's laptop. The video device will be used to capture non-electronic information such as notes written on the blackboard or visual demonstrations. It will also be used in a small scale experiment that investigates the integration of distance-learning and wireless classrooms (described in the next section). Finally, each of the PIs will have the ability to connect their laptop to one of a number of color overhead projectors, such as a Proxima, which are already owned and used by the computer science department and the University of Kentucky.
The wireless classrooms will be used by multiple classes taught by the three PIs during the fall and spring semesters. Several other faculty have also expressed an interested in using the facility. We plan to make the equipment as widely available as is reasonably possible. In addition, we plan to use the wireless environment for our weekly systems seminars and departmental colloquia. In all cases, we will experiment with new ways to integrate distributed multimedia access into lectures and presentations. The following describes some of the general instructional methods we intend to explore in all our classes. Certainly, other areas where we can apply the technology will develop as we gain more experience teaching in a wireless environment.
First, we will develop new ways to use lecture notes and other class materials during the class period. The PIs already have their class notes in electronic format and will be focusing on new ways to teach from these notes during the class period. Students will view the notes on the overhead but also through web browsers or applications like Powerpoint, allowing the student to look backward or forward in the lecture as desired. In addition, we would like the instructor to be able to dynamically generate notes which are immediately visible/accessible to the class. To accomplish this, we plan to use interactive multiuser tools such as the MBone whiteboard tools, which provide a shared whiteboard among users. How to best use such tools must be investigated.
Second, we must develop ways for students to take notes during the class period. Although on-line class notes will available during and after the class, students will need to record their own annotations during the class. Such modifications are difficult if the notes are being viewed through web browser tools. On-line editing tools such as Powerpoint or whiteboard are much better suited for this task. This is an area where a great deal of experimentation is needed.
Third, we will incorporate real-time demonstrations into our classes. Using shared file systems or web links, students will down-load example applications being discussed or written during the class period and run them. We may request that students modify the program and demonstrate their modification either by exporting the program or by permitting others to snoop their display. In addition, we will use existing animation codes (several computer science textbooks now come with animations included on CDROM) to demonstrate the concepts just described (e.g., a network routing algorithms, sorting algorithms, or scheduling algorithms). Real-time monitoring/display of state information in computer hardware simulators or network simulators will also be used to illustrate the runtime behavior of computer systems.
Fourth, we will experiment with student-teacher interaction and student-student interaction during the class period. As this is a completely new use of the technology, it is not at all clear what is possible, let-alone useful. Interaction may be as simple as entering non-crucial questions for the instructor via a shared whiteboard which the instructor may or may not chose to answer. Or a student may modify a program and export it to fellow classmates as described earlier. We also plan to investigate more creative uses of the interactive environment such as demonstrating a distributed database server's response rate when multiple students begin generating client requests at various rates. Writing and then running interactive Java applets that involve several participants might be another useful example of how the interactive environment can be used.
To give concrete examples of courses that will use the technology, the following briefly outlines three different classes that will be taught using the facility.
A Networking Course (Griffioen)
The textbook we will use for this course (Computer Networks and
Internets by D. Comer and R. Droms) comes with a CD-ROM full of
on-line material including figures, graphs, charts, images of real
networking equipment, Shockwave/Quicktime animations of network protocols, a
searchable glossary and index, links to other sites containing
information, and other miscellaneous materials. The materials are
structured so that they can be integrated into lecture notes and
presentations. With the new classroom, the Shockwave
animations will become usable and will be very valuable in demonstrating
concepts like flow/congestion control, fragmentation, routing updates,
etc. It will also allow us to run client/server
applications during class to demonstrate protocols such as SMTP,
finger, FTP, and others. The ability for students to view
high-quality pictures of fiber cables, connectors, and switches will
help clarify the hardware being discussed.
A Multimedia Course (Seales)
The multimedia course combines topics in three major areas: user-interface
design, two-dimensional computer graphics, and multimedia formats and
design issues.
The wireless classroom will allow students to participate in the motivation
and development of major principles in each of these three primary areas.
Key elements of good and bad user interfaces can be demonstrated in class
with existing
software packages which incorporate the techniques in question.
Two-dimensional graphics algorithms will be visualized live with Java applets,
developed as an interactive set of tools.
Multimedia experiments will show the effectiveness of each of the
central ideas of compression, image and video formats, multitasking,
and synchronization of audio and video.
In each of these core areas we will use the wireless classroom as a unique
mechanism to teach the concepts and visualize their development and
behavior.
A Computer Architecture Course (Lumpp)
Drawing complex circuits and block diagrams on the blackboard is a time
consuming and error prone process.
The wireless classroom will allow students to
view schematics and block diagrams on-line as they are
described. Animations of
data transfer and control signals in a computer will
give students a clearer understand of the circuitry.
We will uses a simulator called SPIM that includes a
graphical user interface and emulator for the MIPS RISC microprocessor.
Programs can be developed during
class in the target instruction set and can be immediately run by
students allowing them they watch the CPU and memory state
change as instructions execute.
The ability for the instructor and students to run simulators
and animations during lecture will be invaluable in teaching
modern computer architecture.
Although not the primary focus of this proposal, another goal is to explore the interaction between wireless classrooms and distance learning. For this purpose we plan to run some limited experiments where a portion of the class is present in the wireless classroom while the remainder of the class meets in one of our existing computer labs. Students in the computer lab will sit behind PC's just like the students in the wireless classrooms. However, instead of being in the same room with the instructor, students in the distant lab will use MBone tools such as vic/vat/nevot with low-bandwidth network requirements to watch a real-time video/audio feed or the instructor being recorded by the instructor's laptop. We have used some of these tools in our experimental research over wireless links and have observed surprisingly good audio and video quality. Our hope is that given the high degree of electronic interaction already existing in the wireless classroom, distant students in another location will be able to participate at almost the same level as the local students. There are several networking and multimedia research problems that must be resolved which the PIs are already working on in their personal research. Thus, this environment will serve as an excellent testbed for some of their research as well.
Jim Griffioen received his Ph.D from Purdue University in 1991 and is currently a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at UK. His research interests include network protocols, distributed operating systems, and multimedia databases. He received the CS Dept Outstanding Teacher Award in 1996 and has long used the Internet and Web for disseminating class information. (http://www.dcs.uky.edu/~griff)
W. Brent Seales received his Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin in 1991 and is also a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at UK. His research interests include compressed domain image analyses of multimedia, stereo vision and reconstruction, and distributed robotic control systems. Brent's novel use of multimedia and the web has been widely recognized and he has given various presentations on using technology to enhance teaching. (http://www.dcs.uky.edu/~seales)
Jim Lumpp received his Ph.D from the University of Iowa in 1993 and is currently a faculty member in the Electrical Engineering Department at UK. His research interests include parallel and distributed computing, mobile computing and GPS navigation systems. He uses the Web and Internet extensively in all the courses he teaches. (http://www.dcs.uky.edu/~jel)
Partnerships
The PIs have worked together with Doyle Friskney, Director of Communications at UK on several research projects, including the SEPSCoR ATM network that connects six southeastern states, and a vBNS network connection that will connect UK to the NFS vBNS backbone. Because wireless communication is a priority area for the University, we will continue to work with University Communications in the creation of the testbed and will provide them with feedback regarding our experiences.
Our first goal is to develop and test new wireless teaching techniques that can be used by instructors at any level, across all disciplines. Our second goal is to identify and overcome the technical obstacles of creating a wireless environment. Secondary goals include analyzing/comparing the cost of wireless classrooms, the time needed to create presentations for a wireless environment, student reaction, effectiveness of the techniques, how to integrate with conventional teaching methods, etc.
Although some of these goals can be measured easily (for example ``the system is up and running and is stable'' or ``it takes 5 hours to prepare for 1 hour of class''), most are difficult to quantify. Instead, the primary measure will be that of the PIs experience using the system. Thus our evaluation plan will take the following forms, all of which will be placed on a ``Wireless Classroom Web Page'' for public access. We expect to publish our finding in journals and conferences to increase the visibility of our research.
The wireless network and laptops will be purchased and installed over the summer to be ready for use by the Fall 1997 semester. Initial tests of the equipment and various teaching techniques will be initiated by the PI's towards the end of the summer. Development and testing of new teaching methods based on the wireless environment will continue through the fall and spring semesters.