In this paper, we described the initial work in the Classroom 2000 project. We are exploring how ubiquitous computing technology can influence the way we teach and learn by empowering both students and teachers. The main theme of Classroom 2000 is to instrument the classroom and put new technology in the hands of students and teachers so that we can capture as much of the rich exchange of information as possible. The contribution of our work so far has been the development of three separate prototypes to exercise the ideas of Classroom 2000 in support of different teaching and learning styles.
Though each Classroom 2000 prototype system is different in terms of technology provided, information captured and media-integrated review materials produced, they all follow a common organizational theme. We separate the functionality of the system into three distinct phases. Pre-production activity prepares all information leading up to the classroom interaction. Live recording captures various streams of information and actions during a lecture. Post-production activity generates multimedia-enhanced Web pages for a summary of the classroom activity.
Along with developing a variety of prototypes to support different teaching and learning styles, we have had the opportunity in one case to conduct an extended evaluation of the effect of the technology on the teaching and learning experience. Though we are not yet able to provide an assessment of how Classroom 2000 enhances learning, our preliminary evaluation does reveal a favorable student impression. Most encouraging was the response toward the use of the electronic whiteboard and Web notes. Least encouraging was the response toward the personalized electronic notebooks. We understand a lot of the misgivings with our initial prototype notebooks. They were too small and too slow and left the students feeling that their notes were unavailable for revision after class. Armed with these insights, we will continue to explore this valuable avenue of research in future computing environments for education.
Future Computing Environments