09-07-2012, 03:24 PM
Open Smart Classroom: Extensible and Scalable Learning System in Smart Space Using Web Service Technology
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INTRODUCTION
DESPITE the emergence of the new generation of Webbased
learning systems, traditional learning mode,
where teachers and students are face to face with each other
in the same classroom continues to have its unrivaled
advantages. Unlike many Web-based learning systems (e.g.,
[22] and [23]) adopting an asynchronized way here, the
teacher publishes learning content statically on the Internet
and students obtain static learning materials at different
times, real classroom learning follows a synchronized
learning process, where students in and out of classroom
can listen to the live instruction while the teacher gives the
lectures. In most cases, synchronized learning catches
participants’ attention and interest much more effectively
than asynchronized one.
New Challenges and Requirements
These classroom-based e-learning systems help both the
teacher and students in the learning process and have
achieved successful results. However, with the development
of pervasive computing, new requirements are raised
for the openness of the system, extensibility, and scalability.
Three main aspects of this issue are illustrated below in
detail.
Our Approach
Addressing the three challenges mentioned above, we
present a prototype system called Open Smart Classroom.
Open Smart Classroom is a open classroom-based e-learning
system, based on the Smart Classroom at Tsinghua University
[32]. More extensibility and more scalability is
demonstrated in Open Smart Classroom.
We built two Open Smart Classrooms, one is at
Tsinghua University and another is at Kyoto University
(as in Fig. 1). The classroom of Tsinghua is a 6.5 5.5-
meter room, which has four wall-size projector screens, two
on the front wall and two on the side wall.
OPEN SMART PLATFORM
After presenting the motivation of Open Smart Classroom
and its background of Open Smart Space, we are going to
specify the details of its software infrastructure, Open Smart
Platform, which is the basis of Open Smart Classroom.
Architecture
Open Smart Platform is developed based on Smart Platform,
inheriting the contributing features from Smart Platform,
such as MAS architecture and DS-Container-Agent hierarchy.
Two Agents and several other modules are added to
provide more extensibility and scalability. Sections 3.2.1 and
3.2.2 explores two viewpoints, respectively, for single Smart
Space and for Simple Smart Community.
Classrooms Setup
Two classrooms are established, one is at Tsinghua
University, China, another is at Kyoto University, Japan.
Fig. 1 shows the snapshot of these two classrooms.
Tsinghua’s classroom is a 6.5 5.5-meter room with four
projectors and the classroom of Kyoto is a 10.0 3.0-
meter room, which has three LCD screens. Besides these
display devices, there are multiple software modules
Three Communication Schemes in Open Smart Platform
working together in two classrooms, respectively, providing
the functionality of this collaborative classrooms. Fig. 6
illustrates the detailed runtime architecture of these two
classrooms.
Both of the classrooms run on their own Open Smart
Platform, consisting of DS, SPAW, WSWA, OSPG, several
Containers, SameView Agent, PPTController Agent, and
PPTDisplay Agent. Every participant brings his Laptop to
join in the class using Langrid Blackboard tools to discuss
with each other. In an open network, Language Grid Server
provides the machine translation service that can be utilized
in each classrooms.
SameView Agent
SameView Agent [31] enables people in two classrooms to
see and hear each other. Remote students are also able to
use SameView client to join in the class, listen to the
instruction, and answer questions. SameView Agent is
designed for large-scale deployment over the Internet, thus
has enhanced scalability in open network environment.
PPTController Agent
PPTController Agent runs on the Presenter’s PC. It
translates the Presentation file and dispatches it to other
PPTDisplay Agent. It also detects the status of the
slideshow, such as the current page of the slideshow, and
synchronizes all the presentations in the classrooms.
PPTDisplay Agent
PPTDisplay Agent runs as a daemon process to control the
presentation file on its host. It receives the presentation files
and the controlling commands from PPTController Agent
to show the presentation synchronously.
Langrid Blackboard
Langrid Blackboard is a virtual blackboard for students to
discuss with each other. It automatically provides machine
translation to fill the gap of the language differences among
the participants. In addition, Langrid Blackboard provides
real-time backtranslation mechanism. Backtranslation mechanism
enables the user (e.g., Japanese) to see the
translation (e.g., En2Ja) of the translation (e.g., Ja2En) of
the input sentence, which makes the user is able to revise
his input sentence if the backtranslation has great difference
from the original input one.