Interactive Learning SpacesCo-located cooperation in

computer dense environments

Martin Jonsson (martinj@dsv.su.se)

Topics

• What is really happening in the basement of the Gates building?– What is an Interactive Workspace?– Gates B23 – Current status

• Interactive Learning Spaces– Interactive Workspaces and Learning– Proposed project, Dynamic Team Rooms

The Interactive Workspace project

• Interactive Rooms – A multi-device, multi-user

environment– A generalized interaction

architecture – The Eventheap system architecture

• Interactive Murals– Large high resolution wall displays– Graphics toolkits– Interaction styles and toolkits

Gates B23

Gates B23

A multi device environment

Behind the screens

Touch sensitive Tablet Wireless Palm Pilot

7 PC’s1 Linux Server? nr of PDA’s

The Eventheap

• Creating a shared computing environment– ThEventheap is a shared repository for events– Allows robust dynamic configuration of devices – Based on IBM’s Tspaces– Integrate standard applications by ”wrapping”

them

Applications

• Today: – Multibrowsing– Control Environment from PalmPilot

• Tomorrow:– Using any device as input to any

application on any other device

Interactive Workspaces and learning

Increasing interest for PBL+

More work activities requires access to computers

+Increasing use of personal mobile

computing devices=

Need for dynamic computer dense environments for cooperative work

Interactive Workspaces and learning

• Today’s computer dense environments– promotes individual work (due to the P in

PC)– are static in the sense that it’s hard to

integrate personal computing devices

The Dynamic Team Room, a proposal

The Dynamic Team Room provides• an architecture that encourages social

behavior• public devices providing shared focus • a shared repository of project data• seamless integration of personal

mobile devices into the environment

The project data repository

• A shared space for project data such as documents, images and whiteboard notations.

• Makes possible seamless data flows across devices

• Allows for co-located as well as remote access of data

Device specific renderings of data

• For a seamless data flow across heterogeneous devices the infrastructure must provide for device specific rendering of the shared data

• Proxies will live in the environment to facilitate the device connection with the repository

• Paths of data transformers can be dynamically set up to provide a suitable rendering of data

The enhanced whiteboard

A whiteboard-like interface to the project repository

• A public device, providing shared focus

• The prior UI to the repository. From here users can manipulate and organize the project data, make notations, and initiate applications for editing the data.

Project Plan

In the winter quarter Henrik Gustavsson, a Ph.D. student from KTH Sweden, will start working with the project.