J. Griffioen
W. B. Seales
Computer Science Department
University of Kentucky,
Lexington, Kentucky 40506
J. Lumpp
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Kentucky,
Lexington, Kentucky 40506
April 1998
The goal of this project is to investigate ways in which new and emerging technologies, such as multimedia laptop computers and wireless networking, can be used to improve teaching in the classroom. In particular, we are developing a wireless classroom environment in which each student is equipped with a laptop computer and a wireless network connection to the Internet. We are investigating the technical challenges of developing this environment. We are also exploring and developing new teaching techniques that use the environment to enhance the educational process.
During the third quarter of the grant period we continued to used the wireless classroom setting in our daily lectures and experiment with new teaching methods and ways to create more interactivity. We have also experimented with alternative software platforms, namely the Databeam and Teamwave collaborative software environments. We also used these environment to test the viability of combining distance learning with wireless classrooms. Both of these systems are intended for distance learning settings and as such lacked features that are necessary for a wireless classroom setting. On the other hand, they offer some nice features that are unavailable with the MBONE tools we used previously. Clearly, the software necessary to efficiently support wireless classroom environments has a lot of room for improvement. However, we have found that they are already usable in their current state and we are providing feedback to software manufacturers to give them guidance on the types of features that are needed for wireless classrooms.
A major focus of this reporting period has been to start documenting our experiences and recommendations regarding building wireless classroom environments and teaching in wireless classrooms. In particular, we wrote to papers and submitted them for publication that are to appear in the IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference in November 1998. We also created a WEB page which can be found at http://www.dcs.uky.edu/~wc . The page documents the wireless classroom computing environment we established and points out things to consider when designing a wireless classroom environment. It also gives our recommendations regarding what works and what doesn't work. The page also contains pointers to the two papers we published. Finally, the page contains a large number of pointers to related web sites and information. Finally, we gave a presentation about the wireless class to the University of Kentucky College of Engineering Faculty and have another presentation planned for UK faculty and administration in early June. As a result of our experiences and the wireless infrastructure we developed, there has been a great deal of interest and action toward extending our wireless network to cover whole departments within the college of engineering including offices, laboratories, and classrooms. Based on results from our experimentation, the University installed the same wireless network technology in the new state-of-the art UK Library, covering the entire building including labs, workrooms, and carrels.
During the course of the project we have uncovered a variety of issues regarding the design and installation of wireless classrooms and ways of making effective use of the technology in our lectures. These issues are documented on the wireless classroom web page and in our publications.
During the upcoming reporting period we will continue to publicize our results and findings. We have a presentation planned for faculty and administration of the UK campus in early June, and we will also be making presentation to one or more of the community college systems that have asked us to come and give a presentation. We are also in communication with UK communications systems who are gearing up to extend wireless capabilities campus-wide. Finally, given the power of palmtops and new built-in wireless network support, we will investigate their potential as wireless classroom devices.
There have been no significant changes in scope or direction.
The only change in the budget has been the purchase of additional critical hardware and software for the instructor's laptops, some video hardware for our distance learning tests, and hardware for palmtop wireless tests. These minor items allowed us to perform additional distance learning and palmtop experiments and were funded by savings we obtained by negotiating substantially lower prices on our major purchase items (laptops and network hardware).