Mobile Technology for Teaching Grant - Distance Learning

Over the past year, testing has been done to determine the use of TabletPC's in a distributed learning environment where individuals could be at any location with Internet connectivity. Initial testing was done with the "Classroom Presenter" software under development at Washington State University. While the testing showed some success in a classroom environment, the network protocol used by the software does not provide for routing. Tests were also conducted with NetMeeting that were successful, however, an application that could support both data sharing and voice in a multi user setting was sought to provide a more complete learning environment.

The second series of testing was done using the University's Sametime server. The testing indicated that the software was not fully supported on a TabletPC in a collaboration session. Work is continuing with the University Sametime system administrator to address the issue. In the latest test, there appeared to be problems with the server unrelated to the use of a TabletPC. It should be noted that the University is running an older version of the Sametime server which may contribute to the problems we are experiencing.

A third series of testing was done utilizing a Centra server recently installed by another department in the University for their distributed learning needs. At the present time that testing is in its initial stages. The clients appear to be working on the TablePC's, however, there appear to be some configuration issues that we have not been able to completely resolve. At this time the configuration issues are not directly related to the TablePC's but the interaction of Active X, the browser, internal firewalls and the version of Java being used. In initial tests would indicate that once we get the systems properly configured Centra should meet our needs for distributed learning with a larger test planned prior to the completion of the grant.