Characteristics of Smart Classroom - Coursework Example

Smart room Experience of Teachers in Smart room Shortcomings of Desktop-Computing Based Tele-education Systems Nearly all tele-education structures developed in the present epoch are based on desktop-computing, wherein teachers are supposed to be seated facing the desktop computer and use mouse and keyboard to impart teaching and learning in a tele-education class. However, this experience is a lot different from the regular classroom teaching where the teachers use to jot down on the blackboard as well as modulate speech and give explanation with gesture in order to motivate students to participate in the class discussion. Under such circumstances, body language becomes very important. Nevertheless, classroom teaching experience is different than Smart Classroom teaching. Teachers feel uncomfortable in Smart Classroom teaching and therefore a decline is observed in their efficiency for the course also. Smart Classroom and its interactivities The set-up in Smart Classroom might give the impression with no considerable difference from several other whiteboard based tele-education system. Conversely, the delights of the Smart Classroom lies in the manner teachers utilize the system. Teachers are no longer confined to the desktop computer, or mouse and bulky keyboard. Consequently, creating annotations on the courseware is simplified and it is as convenient as writing on a regular classroom blackboard. In Smart Classroom, the teacher has to simply move the finger, subsequently; multimedia board displays the stroke, extended beyond with the exhibited courseware. In Smart Classroom, while teaching, the teacher could also highlight the entity displayed on the media-board and pronounce a predefined command to do what is to be emphasized and required. For instance, in order to follow a hyperlink in the courseware, the teacher soon points at the hyperlink and convey the message to the students to follow the link by prompting in the Smart Classroom "follow this link". In order to ask a remote student to converse and interact in the class, it is easy, spontaneous and convenient. It can be finished through speech. For instance, if the teacher intends to ask a question to the remote student called Peter, then teacher can directly ask the question, "Peter, could you answer this question?" On every occasion, when a student intends to speak, the image of the student starts blinking, thereby conveying message to the teacher and the teacher gets alert. However, the method of Smart Classroom teaching necessitates speaking; the corresponding image will start blinking to alert the teacher. Such a system diffuses the boundary between the tele-education and everyday classroom education. Thus, the teacher can simultaneously impart knowledge to local students as well as to the students in Smart Class belonging to remote places. Innate Teaching Experience In Smart Classroom, there are certain remarkable characteristic features as the teacher is no longer required to remain stationary facing desktop computer. Moreover, the teacher is not required to use mouse or the keyboard either. Consequently, the following technologies are integrated and developed in the Smart Classroom- 1. Pen-Based UI (User-Interface)- In this technique, the Mediaboard is displayed on a screen which is touch-sensitive screen, commercially available in the market under the brand name of SmartBoard. In Smart Classroom, teachers can control and manipulate the display of slides directly on the Smartboard. In addition to this, pens and erasers could be used to scribble on slides or write a comment directly on the slide as well as teacher could wipe the strokes. 2. Laser Pointer Tracking- Computer vision module could be implemented to track the spot a laser pointer shows on Student board or Media board. This is a method where teacher can select an object and steer the cursor or by means of cursor or laser pointer a teacher can display the required or selected object, text etc. ensuring higher learning. 3. Virtual Assistant- It is evident that interaction with the dummy room sounds awkward. Therefore, a Virtual Assistant figure is introduced into the Smart Classroom in order to imitate the classroom in opposition to the teacher, which is displayed on the StudentBoard. The Virtual Assistant is an amalgamation of Face- Animation, Text-to-Speech and Speech-Recognition technology which enables the system to converse with the teacher when essential. Moreover, it understands some voice commands or prompts such as indication to move to a specific page etc. 4. Biometric Feature- to login to the classroom biometric features is adopted. It is a process based on desktop-based Real Time Interactive Virtual Classroom (RTIVC) systems; wherein the teacher is required to enter the identity codes including the ID as well as Password to login to the system. For Smart Classroom, a combination of speaker-verification and face recognition is used. This ensures quick identification of the teacher. It is mandatory that as soon as the teacher enters the Smart Classroom, the first step desired is to show up in the mirror as a camera is generally installed behind it so as to capture the teacher’s face. On passing the process of speaker-verification and face recognition, the name of the teacher is announced and the teacher is greeted by the Virtual Assistant. This is an indication that Smart Classroom is ready to provide services. 5. Smart Cameraman- In a real classroom, a change in focus of students is observed with respect to the context of the class. For instance, students focus on formula and their sight remains on formula when teacher writes a formula on the blackboard. On the other hand, if the teacher is displaying a model, the students will change their focus on to the model. In RTIVC, the camera remains fixed as a result it focuses on the teacher side, on the contrary, the context of the class keeps changing, this reduces the efficiency of learning considerably. In order to overcome such precarious condition of fixed camera in Smart Classroom, Smart Cameraman is introduced in order to differentiate various perspectives of the Smart Classroom. Clues in the classroom are observed and camera is selected as per the appropriate scene on the basis of the context. This is helpful to the remote students as well who observe the video broadcasts. In the present scenario such module involves three diverse contexts- 1) When teacher is writing on Mediaboard- it is the context where teacher writes comments or scribble on Mediaboard. Under such situation camera focusing on Mediaboard is selected. 2) When teacher displays a Model- it is a context when teacher holds a model in hands to provide the students with an explanation. In this situation camera focusing on teacher’s hand is selected. 3) For other situations- for all other situations, camera covering the whole classroom is selected. The indication used by Smart Cameraman to assess the present context encompasses the upshot of Person-Tracking module. This aids in tracking the location of the teacher, while a Gesture-Recognition module enables one to understand if the teacher is holding something in hand as well as it involves the Mediaboard module. Besides the appearance of new cohort of Web-based learning systems, traditional learning process involving teacher-students face-to-face interaction in classroom setting remains supreme and unmatched. In traditional learning mode is different than Web-based learning system as it is a coordinated way where the teacher puts out learning material statically on the web or Internet. Students have access and procure learning materials as per their convenience. In real classroom learning a synchronized learning process is adopted. In this process students whether in the class or outside the classroom are able to listen to the live instructions provided by the teacher or attend the lecture delivered by the teacher. It is observed that synchronized learning grabs the attention of the students or participants and generates a greater interest as compared to the unsynchronized context of teaching. For this reason, RTIVC together with tele-education is considered to be of indispensible implication in the process of remote or distance learning. Additionally, with the progression of pervasive computing, intended to give multimodality communication and natural human computer interface, the process of learning into the classroom has enhanced the experience of teacher as well as students. It is a two-way process where teacher can directly and easily interact with the remote as well as local students and in turn students provide the teacher with the feedback. Some of the learning systems involving these special features are ActiveClass, Tsinghua University’s Smart Classroom, Interactive workspace, Class Talk etc. which effectively look for better learning and teaching mode based on face-to-face classroom learning process in traditional way of teaching. Such contexts are coined as classroom-based e-learning systems. Novel Challenges and Needs The classroom-based e-learning systems facilitate teacher as well as the students in the process of learning and have attained success. With the advent of pervasive computing, new-flanged requirements and needs are elevated towards the extensibility, openness of the system and the scalability. The three chief aspects of the paradigm are demonstrated as- 1) Open Architecture for Integrating Increasing Mobile Devices and Human-Computer Interfaces- To enhance the efficiency of work, human-computing interface is incorporated into daily life of people. This is attributed to the development of human-computing interaction. Human-computing interface however in learning area facilitates the teacher to impart knowledge to the class together with enabling students to learn and discuss with each other. Simultaneously, mobile devices encompassing Smart Phone, mobile phone, PDA and laptop are now accessible to people. Researchers believe that mobile devices play an imperative role in the process of learning. For instance a Smart Phone could be used by the teacher to procure presentation file as well as it could be used to control the slideshow. However students can utilize laptop for discussion and interaction with each other or with others. Active Class is one such example where students provide the feedback to the teacher by means of mobile devices. Similarly, Smart Classroom and iRoom hold up various human-computer interfaces and with the help of mobile devices the interaction is becoming convenient and easy. However, this augmentation of utilizing mobile devices and human-computer interface requires integration in refined system architecture. However, the amalgamation or incorporation should pursue a generic way instead of an ad hoc method for device as well as interface. The architecture is essential to get general solution and other mechanism and procedure for building and integrating human-computer interfaces in the learning milieu. Moreover, the architecture is required to give a standard communication interface in support of mobile devices to join and interact with other modules, adaptation with diverse systems of mobile devices with least prior configuration encompassing Symbian OS, Linux, Windows CE and Palm. 2) Open Service-Oriented Channel- it is for uncomplicated operation of diverse needs and to advance system potential. It is challenging to ease the operation or deployment of such learning system. Consigning to the suggestion and accomplishment of service-oriented architecture in context to Semantic Web area, introduction of a workflow process as well as encapsulation of the components into service seems to be a practicable explanation. It entails the system to institute a mechanism for external workflow management and designer tools to direct the service of components in the system. Consequently, the system requires a service-oriented path to link the outside and inside of the system. Such paths put in deployment and empower learning system to make use of external dedicated services encompassing language translation service to aid students in developing understanding. Additionally, the process enables the external systems to bring into play the internal services delivered by the learning system. As for instance, attendance service is provided to the student through mobile companies in order to uncover the fact that students attends the classes or not. The information procured could be send to the administrators. 3) Open Network such that diverse classrooms connect with each other- this is the third challenge which intends to support multiple classrooms to establish connection with each other over a wider area such as intercontinental by means of Wide Area network (WAN). This is attributed by the fact that there is an augmentation in the needs of intercontinental as well as intercultural communication for the purpose of learning. Thus, facilitating the participation of remote students in the Smart Classroom. WAN enables teachers and students to communicate with each other efficiently. This is also applicable for local area, hence facilitating two or more RTIVC classrooms to collaborate with each other. This serves as an objective for building future distance learning systems. In order to connect classrooms for the process of learning it is essential to handle the issue of intercommunication by means of open network encompassing voice, video as well as well as controlling messages. In order to address the three challenges discussed above, a prototype system called as Open Smart Classroom (OSC) is presented. OSC as the name suggests is an open classroom-based e-learning system which involves the Smart Classroom at Tsinghua University. The OSC system demonstrates more scalability as well as more extensibility. As the consequence two Open Smart Classrooms are built at- Tsinghua University- the classroom has 6.5-5.5 meter room encompassing four screens/ projectors of wall-size, two are on side wall while two are on the front wall. The classroom possesses numerous human-computer interfaces such as touch-sensitive SmartBoard. Kyoto University- the classroom has 1-.0-3.0 meter room with three LCD screens. Linked by open internet, the multiple software modules in these two classrooms aid in functionality of the classroom. All the software modules run on Open Smart Platform in software infrastructure, so as to coordinate as well as communicate with each other. The Open Smart Platform is premeditated for Smart Space as a generic software infrastructure. It is considered to be a test area for research in pervasive computing area. However, the learning environment encompasses classroom-based e-learning system as well as pervasive computing technologies; it could be regarded as a Smart Space. Moreover, the scalability and extensibility of classroom-based e-learning process correlates to the ingenuousness prerequisites for Smart Space. As a result, Open Smart Platform is considered to construct Open Smart Classroom and holds meaning in the research of Smart Space; moreover it also contributes in the research area of pervasive computing. Brief Survey “Smart Space” stimulated “Smart Class” through research at NIST. Smart Spaces are considered as work milieus encompassing multi-modal sensors facilitating individuals to perform tasks efficiently, information appliances as well as embedded computers. They offer unparalleled levels of admittance assistance and information from computers. It is evident that over the past decade, modern Smart Classrooms evolved from simple multimedia distance education systems. These modern Smart Classrooms enhance traditional classrooms with diverse serviceable and purposeful interfaces that facilitates the teachers to sense a real teaching experience at the same time as giving remote and local students also a real learning experience akin to a traditional classroom, wherein students and teachers interact face-to-face. Therefore Smart Classrooms are considered as the intelligent classrooms for educators engaged in distant education and allow the teachers to utilize an approach of real classroom teaching in order to teach distant students. The evolution of Smart Classes is attributed to numerous research endeavours. Researchers employed in the Tsinghua University formulated a software called “SameView”, it was intended to sustain real time discussions amongst designers across the world through Internet. Shi et al, (2012) illustrated the design and investigation of a Smart Classroom, further, the research suggests the intelligent agents which could be effortlessly incorporated to link the gap prevailing between traditional classroom and tele-education in terms of the experience possessed by the teachers. Additionally, his people at the university broadened user interface of the “SameView” software into a 3D space for an amplified classroom milieu. Current attentions centres on the ways to build the intelligent agents work as meeting assistants in the Smart Classrooms. Thereby, impose them to make use of state-of-the-art expertise together with refined software infrastructures. Simultaneous interaction of multiple Smart Classrooms portrays the realization of distance education amongst quite a lot of groups. However, an intrinsic demanding concern is considered to be the scalability of Smart Classroom delivery mechanism. The predicament has been considerably serious when imparting a lecture to manifold remote classrooms, concurrently. In order to address the quandary, a lot of Smart Classrooms have implemented IPv6 multicast on the other hand a few have wished-for alternatives that have more practical application level. Architectural Considerations On the basis of geographical locations of teachers and students it is manifested that four basic architectures are essential to envelop the complete array of Smart Classrooms. Such architectural delineations empowers an understanding towards general and explicit prerequisites of Smart Classrooms functioning in terms of utilization of resources, type of technology, procedures of information broadcasting and propagation as well as nature of interaction between teacher and student. The basic architectural considerations involve- 1. Single Classroom Architecture- in this type of architectural consideration a corporeal classroom is enhanced with necessities that facilitate students to deriving benefit from an improved learning skill. On the other hand, teachers benefit from an superior teaching experience than as compared to that provided by a conventional classroom. The requirements encompass an array of equipment together with projectors, multimedia playback systems, computers, large video displays etc. allowing the students to listen and understand the lecture in progress devoid of any barricades whilst getting access to helpful information involving past lecture material at just a click away. All the Smart Classrooms in educational paradigms be incorporated in this architecture. 2. Scattered Classroom Architecture- In this kind of architectural consideration, the student belongs to diverse geographical areas and are unconnected. In this context each student essentially possesses a personal computer. The students and teacher are connected through the dedicated networks or the Internet. This results in the formation of a virtual classroom utilizing audio-visual asynchronous or synchronous information admittance tools that are accessible to each student who is participating in the program. In contrast to the single classroom architecture, the scattered classroom setting facilitates students to learn from a distance without the requirement of physical presence in the classroom. Consequently, such setting unwraps a new paradigm for education and facilitates students to study from their homes or from their workplaces at the same time they can fulfil their family, personal or other profession or work related errands. Even though this smart classroom model can sort in scale ranging from a classroom with only a few students to as many in formulating the entire cyber university. 3. Point-to-point involving two-classroom architecture- such architectural consideration corresponds the description of the above two architectural considerations to generate a reasonable Smart Classroom model for comprehending superior-quality edification for two groups of students who are placed at diverse geographical location. This architectural consideration links two geographically distinct physical classrooms, where the teacher is placed in the local classroom. Moreover, electronic gadgets mentioned in the two-classroom architecture also utilizes refined reserves such as high-speed dedicated links, media-boards for superior-quality tele-presence etc., individual participants cannot afford this in a scattered Smart Classroom scheme. 4. Multiple classroom architecture- such kind of architectural consideration displays an emergence form of Smart Classrooms that challenges to extend the two-classroom model while safeguarding the quality of delivery and reserve affordability. This architectural consideration interconnects groups of students to a local classroom by means of elevated-speed links. It is evident that multiple classroom architecture has emerged as a promising solution to apprehend a superior-quality educational provision across the world. However, numerous attempts have been made to execute this state of affairs. Nevertheless, due to inherent non-trivial challenges encompassing bandwidth-effective information transmission, class interaction, teacher capacity, telepresence etc., its practical operation, over the commercial Internet, is found to be difficult. Architecture of Smart Platform Smart Platform or podium works as a multi-agent system. It comprises of network of computers, this network masks the limit of concerned computers thereby provides a homogeneous functioning environment. An extremely structured communication models are provided by smart platforms for running the software modules. However, the runtime environment comprises of three chief constituents namely- Agent- it is the unique encapsulation of software modules present in the system. Container- it is a process where each contributing computer in runtime environment will congregate a dedicated and committed process known as Container. Moreover, it is known to offer and administer system-level services to the agent that runs on the computer. Container efficiently makes other parts of the system transparent; thereby it gives uncomplicated and easy communication interface for agent. DS or Directory Service- it is a single global dedicated process in the environment which arbitrates “delegated communication” amid agents. It gives services such as dependency resolution and directory service. The configuration of DS encompasses three sub-constituents, each offers a dissimilar array of services encompassing- The Directory Service- grants services like query and agent registration. The Message Dispatcher- For agents it executes message-oriented communication service in Smart Platform. The Dependency Manager- it plays vital role for resolving as well as managing the agent dependencies. In order to increase the usability, a few development kits are provided in the Smart Platform. These are known to be Monitor Agent, which acts as the debugger and monitor of Smart Platform, Custom AppWizard for MS VC++6 and agent development library (for Java and C++ version) to create the skeleton code automatically for a new agent. For MS Windows platform a standard setup program (at present available at website) is developed to alleviate the configuration and installation of Smart Platform. Media-rich and real-time interactions are present in multimedia-communication system. However, numerous barriers are witnessed which impede the provision of Distance Learning on large scale. They are- 1. Lack of adequate technology- most schools implement tele-education by adopting commercial videoconference products as the means of operating platform for Real Time Interactive Virtual Classroom (RTIVC). Under this all the clients are required to be connected to a centred Multi-Point Controlling Unit (MCU). In this process, data generated or initiated from one client is simulated or replicated or mixed and then forwarded by means of MCU to other client. Moreover, these systems cannot be scaled because of the limited capacity of MCU. Consequently, majority of the tele-education schools operate utilizing RTIVC classes with a few students only. In order to deal with the issue of scalability, the possible approach is leveraging the IP Multicast technology, which does not require data replicating node such as MCU. However, IP Multicast is still in the phase of development- The IP Multicast service offered by network layer is considered as a best-effort service, yet this is not satisfactory for the purposes such as RTIVC as they are sensitive towards loss of messages. For instance, dropping one packet at one client creates whiteboard in RTIVC system since the client is unable to find steadiness with other clients. IP Multicast does not procure complete support by numerous currently installed routers in Internet. In the present epoch, Internet is observed as numerous Multicast islands that completely supports IP Multicast which are separated by means of Unicast zones which are not potentially capable of IP Multicast. As a result, applications which are based on the network layer of IP Multicast cannot be effectively installed on existing Internet infrastructure. 2. Lack of sufficient technologies to have room for students with diverse network as well as device conditions in one session- Most prevailing RTIVC system possesses inflexible needs on the device as well as network stipulations of the clients. Consequently, clients possessing inferior conditions are either unable to join the session or are incapable to obtain smooth service features. Conversely, patrons with superior conditions are unable to derive the full benefit of their additional potential. In view of the fact that, handheld devices such as Smart Phone, Pocket PC and wireless network encompassing WIFI and GPRS are gaining popularity, therefore the demand to permit people to agree to lifelong education by means of these devices seems to be natural. These individuals acquire varied network connections and capabilities. Teachers and their likes/dislikes for Desktop based teaching metaphors Most of the RTIVC systems prevalent today are desktop-based where the users remain immobile or motionless facing a desktop computer and interact with the class or other by means of keyboard or mouse. In this context, metaphors remain unacceptable by the teachers as they witness dissimilar experience as compared to the real classroom. Teachers can move freely, express themselves and explain to the students by means of eye-contact, hand-gesture as well as a teacher illustrates thoughts and suggestions on blackboard by traditional way of scribbling. Teachers are found to complain about the divergence and find tele-education uncomfortable which diminishes the efficacy of learning as well as teaching activities. In order to overcome these intricacies and making provision for adequate technologies for practicing RTIVC as well as formulating an integrated system to support the next generation real-time interactive distance learning, at present progress is being made as- 1. A partisan platform for significant real-time interactive distance learning is formulated. The job is alienated into two fractions- TORM (Totally Ordered Reliable Multicast) protocol- it executes an application multicast protocol on the basis of combination of network-layer IP-Unicast and Multicast. It can house extensive users to access a RTIVC by means of current Internet infrastructure. AMTM (Adaptive Multimedia Transport Model)- it can potentially trans-author or trans-code the transferred substances based on network capabilities and device of each client involved in RTIVC session, while remains the steadiness of the content on the semantic level. Same View is a committed RTIVC software developed for local as well as remote students. It runs on TORM/AMTM platform and affords prosperous interface of interaction involving audio/video communication, the HTML-capable whiteboard, and chatting between students and teachers in RTIVC class. One of the key features of Same View involves is class-experience recording capability. Under this entire events or activities that took place in a class including whiteboard activities such as the slides presented and notations made by the teacher, live audio and video displayed can be captured (recorded) with the help of structured multimedia document. Such recorded documents can be can serve as courseware which can be played and retrieved. Smart Classrooms are built where Same View, user interface could be utilized. Teachers are entrenched within the 3D-space of classroom where teachers are free to move around and utilize metaphors as in conventional teaching. Teachers are familiar to this conventional method to teach remote students. Real classroom can accommodate local students as well as a result difference between Distance Learning and On campus Learning activities could be eliminated. This act not only eliminates the differentiation between remote and local students but also it reduces the workforce or teachers as well. Background Smart classes encompass collaborative learning that generates a milieu where the teacher engages students to perform tasks and enable them to think about the tasks they are undertaking and reaches those students who might not be involved otherwise. Collaborative learning promotes active participation of students in learning process or small group learning; as in these classrooms all the students are in the phase of learning and they learn from each other. Due to this, not a single student is kept deprived from the prospects of contributing their thoughts or from appreciating contributions made by others. The general characteristics of collaborative classrooms encompass- 1) Sharing knowledge- Teachers possess fundamental knowledge about the content of course, instructions and skills, they present the information to the students. Nevertheless, the educator in a collaborative classroom also puts up knowledge, language, personal experiences, culture and strategies that students display in learning process. 2) Sharing ability- Teachers in collaborative classrooms encourage their students to apply their understanding and knowledge, make sure that students share their knowledge, learning strategies and expertise. Moreover students should give respect to each other and concentrate on advanced understanding. 3) Mediation- Teacher play an imperative role in collaborative classroom, they are the mediators and regulate the intensity of information. Successful mediation enables students to correlate new information to their experience or skills. Mediators aid in making students find out the novel skills to overcome difficulties if they get stumped, encourage them to recognize other learning areas as well as help them to learn how to learn. 4) Heterogeneity- In the process of learning, diverse aspects of students such as experiences, perspectives and their background play vital role. Thus, to augment learning process, collaborative learning encourages heterogeneous grouping of students. Key Characteristics of Smart Classrooms Smart Classrooms are classrooms with enhanced technology that supports collaborative learning through RCSM (Reconfigurable Context-Sensitive Middleware), a middleware for persistent computing purposes. In smart classrooms, two categories of devices are used- Infrastructure-devices- They are stationary devices in the classroom. These devices give the required information to the mobile-devices. For instance comparative site of mobile-devices with regard to the infrastructure-devices as well the intensity of light in the classroom. Mobile-devices- They are the devices used by the instructor and students for active interaction amongst themselves in a classroom. Thus, smart classroom are capable of enhancing the instructions required for any course. References Shin, C., Hong, JH., Dey, AK. Understanding and prediction of mobile application usage for smart phones. UbiComp, 14th ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. 173-182. 2012. Read More