We propose to develop a robust, flexible and highly portable wireless communications network for use in educational collaborative group work. This network infrastructure could be used to support a broad range of learning, teaching and research activities. We are developing this system for use on geology fieldwork courses where we have established a clear need for reliable voice communication, a sense-of-presence video stream and the sharing of high-resolution digital images. The outstanding challenge to be addressed is to develop a wireless network that will prioritise the transfer of audio and video data in order to support a continuous dialogue between the students and lecturers. The project will use open source software and standard Wi-Fi technology to produce a reliable and flexible communication toolkit for mobile learning.

Portable VoWLAN: A portable voice over wireless local area network for mobile learning

Overview

We propose to develop a robust, flexible and highly portable wireless communications network for use in educational collaborative group work. This network infrastructure could be used to support a broad range of learning, teaching and research activities. We are developing this system for use on geology fieldwork courses where we have established a clear need for reliable voice communication, a sense-of-presence video stream and the sharing of high-resolution digital images. The outstanding challenge to be addressed is to develop a wireless network that will prioritise the transfer of audio and video data in order to support a continuous dialogue between the students and lecturers. The project will use open source software and standard Wi-Fi technology to produce a reliable and flexible communication toolkit for mobile learning.

Lead Institution
  • Open University
Partner Institution
  • Knowledge Media Institute

 

Project Staff

Project Manager

 

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Summary
Start date
1 June 2009
End date
30 November 2009
Funding programme
Information Environment Programme 2009-11
Strand
Rapid innovation strand
Committees
  • JISC Integrated Information Environment committee
Topic