Mobile Experimentation Closing an Educational Gap for New Student Generations? Authors: Ricardo...

Mobile ExperimentationClosing an Educational Gap for New Student Generations?

Authors:

Ricardo Jorge G. da Silva Nunes da Costarjc@isep.ipp.pt

Gustavo Ribeiro da Costa Alvesgca@isep.ipp.pt

Gent, March 2006

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Presentation outline

Introduction Educational Concepts Mobile Experimentation Scenario Technology

– Mobile Devices – Wireless Networks

Remote Lab Infrastructure Requirements Example of a Simple Mobile Experiment Conclusions

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Introduction

Technology:– is the major change factor of society;– improves peoples’ lives;– gives flexibility to access knowledge;– incentives developing new applications for the teaching/learning process.

Time Line: technology vs educational concepts:

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Educational Concepts

CBLComputer Based Learning

E-Learning

Remote Experimentation

M-Learning

Mobile Experimentation

Enablin

g

technolo

gies

Mobile Experimentation: is the access to remote experiments using mobile devices, like mobile phones, PDAs and smartphones, focus on the improvement of education in engineering and sciences areas.

• Mobility• Flexibility• Availability• Just-In-Time-Learning

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Mobile Experimentation Scenario

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Characterizing TechnologyMobile Devices

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Characterizing TechnologyWireless Networks

Internet

Internet

Router/Gateway

Server

Base Station

Cellular Networks

(GSM, GPRS, UMTS, ...)LAN

WAN

Router Bluetooth

Bluetooth

Lab Infrastruture

Mobile phone

WI-FI

WANWI-FI

Database(resources)

Server

PCs

PDAsSmart phones

Router Wi-Fi(PAN)

Wi-Fi (HotSpots) Instrumentation

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Remote Lab Infrastructure Requirements

Server Application

XML fileApplicationInterfaceRemote

Experiment

Java Servlet Technology

(J2SE or J2EE)

eXtensible Markup

Language (XML)

(J2ME )

The teacher has the ability to change the

interface functionalities

Midlet Servlet

Server

Clie

nt

dev

ice

Java application

Device characteristics

Server (e.g. Tomcat)

Parsing

(J2SE or J2EE )

Applet

PC

Mobile device

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Example of a Simple Mobile Experiment

Internet

ServerDigital

Multimeter

Mo

bile

ap

plic

atio

n (

Mid

let)

http://193.136.61.200:8080/multApplet.html

J2ME Wireless Toolkit

Re

mo

te

Infr

astr

uct

ure

Application (Applet) in a Web Browser

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

Conclusions

•Mobile Experimentation:

• gives more benefits for engineering and sciences e-courses;

• gives more flexibility, mobility and motivation to students for running remote experiments;

• requires the use of an architecture based in a XML layer for developing versatile software applications,

beneficial for teachers and students.

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Ricardo Costa - ECUMICT’06 - March 2006rjc@isep.ipp.pt - http://www.laboris.isep.ipp.pt/rjc

Mobile Experimentation

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION