Enhancing Collaborative Learning and Management Tasks through Pervasive Computing Technologies Christophoros Karachristos Educational Content Methodology and Technology Laboratory, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece karachrist@eap.gr Christos Goumopoulos Educational Content Methodology and Technology Laboratory, Hellenic Open University & Information and Communication Systems Engineering Department, Aegean University, Hellas goumop@{tutors.eap.gr; aegean.gr} Achilles Kameas Educational Content Methodology and Technology Laboratory, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece kameas@eap.gr Abstract— We are examining in this paper how ubiquitous technology enhanced classrooms can foster opportunities for enhancing teaching and learning. Our concept of Smart Classroom is shaped upon an ambient intelligent environment which supports three major objectives of the educational process: assisting course creation and presentation, classroom management and student assessment and collaboration. Distance learning poses additional requirements on smart classrooms since both local and remote students should have an equal educational experience. This paper describes a Smart Classroom prototype, which combines a number of pervasive computing technologies such as RFId, Microsoft Kinect, magnetic cards and Android applications. The main contribution of our work is combining such different technologies to support classroom attendance management, lecture presentation handling through physical interaction and student collaboration through android applications. Finally, this work includes a survey on related systems and their contribution on strengthening the educational procedure. Keywords- Smart Classroom; collaborative learning; pervasive computing; physical interaction. I.INTRODUCTION Traditional classrooms have a simple structure as the instructor is the only responsible person for planning, management and guidance of all activities in the classroom as well as for the presentation of the educational content. On the other hand, smart classrooms (SC) provide a complex structure that allows innovative ways of learning. A SC is a physical classroom in which information and communications technologies have been integrated. The technological infrastructure of a typical SC includes equipment for multimedia content rendering, projectors, large screens for video projection, computers, smart boards and desks, data centers, etc. This infrastructure facilitates students to watch a lecture without concerning on keeping detailed notes, since after the lecture they can have access to the teaching material including notes and annotations. In such an environment students can interact with the material, the instructor and the other students in new ways. The deployment of a SC has many advantages such as enabling active learning (students become active inventors of knowledge rather than passive recipients), enhancing content and presentation, harnessing the wealth of the Internet, bringing in experts with videoconferencing, allowing lecture and notes capturing and enhancing distance learning (instructing remote and local students). As an example, students can use SC resources (e.g., interactive desks that are connected to the smart board) and under the supervision of their instructor can work educational activities in teams as part of a course. Afterwards, each team can present their solutions, compare them, discuss under the guidance of the instructor, and as a consequence create joint knowledge (complementing one another). Hellenic Open University (HOU) has a mission to offer university level education using distance learning methodology and to develop the appropriate material and teaching methods. Currently, HOU offers 31 undergraduate and postgraduate Study Programmes with a total of approximately 30,000 students, coached by 1,700 tutors in 1,550 groups (20 students per group on average). Students of the HOU usually live in disparate locations all over the country. Besides being students they usually have families and working obligations so they have pressing time constraints for studying. Once per month students of a particular group meet face-to-face with their tutor. In this paper, we describe a SC prototype developed in the HOU. The prototype enhances a typical SC with pervasive computing technology components in order to accelerate management services and to support an enhanced learning experience by providing services that enhance student-tutor interaction. A critical objective of the HOUs SC is to decrease the gap between a traditional classroom and a virtual classroom regarding the educational experience acquired by students. A basic approach to achieve this is to move the user interface from the static computer environment of a typical virtual class software system to the 3D space of the SC so that the instructor can interact with the remote students with multiple natural ways, in equal terms as with the local students. The remaining of the paper is organized as follows. Section II gives an overview of the SC prototype and the enabling platforms used for developing a number of services. Section III describes how user authentication and status update is performed in the context of the SC using a combination of pervasive computing components. The management of the educational content presentation through gesturing movements using the Kinect technology 27 Copyright (c) IARIA, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-61208-356-8 AMBIENT 2014 : The Fourth International Conference on Ambient Computing, Applications, Services and Technologies