Discussion

        It was an open challenge for all to develop the universally acceptable application and to design and develop similar types of hardware devices to help in complexity reduction. It is very difficult task for the developers of pervasive computing applications to develop such an application that can be multi device, multimodal, disconnect-able, portable, automatically maintained and reconfigured, context aware for all the computing and mobile devices. It is also very hard to design and develop such hardware that can same type of hardware input/output, read and write mechanism, memory architecture, power management features as these hardware devices may be limited power resources which should be smartly utilized.

         Developers of pervasive computing are busy in research to reduce complexity, extend programming based processes on ad-hoc basis, minimizing maintenance costs, empowering the users with nodes which have networked sensors.

          The use of pervasive computing will be increased manifolds due to its ubiquitous nature, it is proved as incredible technology. In the same capacity the challenges are very high in technical perspective. As the demand is increasing to develop channels which may be connected every time and allow different communities to share their data, information and resources without any surprise.

     The commercial use of pervasive computing as well as for noncommercial purposes, the main advantage is to retrieve real time – up-to-date data providing business intelligence, business processes.

         In this research paper most of the reviewed material emphasized on the need of the application to be context aware and can generate response without surprises. Sensors play very important role in ubiquitous computing but not each time the information is retrieved by the embedded sensors or mobile and portable devices, networked devices, middleware, end user applications but it also requires support from different technological components such that eternal user interfaces, PCS power line carrier systems, motion readers, gesture readers, emotion processors, Neuro Linguistic Programming, MEMS micro electromechanical systems for high performance computing, multicore parallel computing, FPLG field programming logic gates, Software parallel processing, SMP symmetric multiprocessing, DW data warehousing, Ad-hoc sensor networks, flexible transistors, ASIC application specific integrated circuitry, SoC system on a chip.

      This research paper also elaborates the future prospective of Pervasive computing such as Tele- Immersive Psychotherapy, Gaze tracking, knowledge super corridors, magic pointing, Automatic Question Set Generation, geometry sensitive devices and wireless cities. Smart classroom is proposed for enhancing collaborative learning using evident pervasive computing technology.

SMART CLASSROOMS

      Beside other benefits of Pervasive Computing and rapid advancement in communication technology, consequently smart class rooms are the introduced with robust features of high level connectivity, resource sharing, portability of data among different devices and context awareness. It enhances the process of collaborative learning. Such environment is suitable for managing small groups of students and colleagues for problem solving. PDAs are used in this type of learning environment which are specially designed and situation aware mechanism is embedded. The standard PDA automatically connected with mobile ad-hoc network for discussions. These PDAs have the capability to monitor its location, temperature, light and motion or mobility and uses this information to initiate the process of communication between the instructor and learners to share their data and information in automatic behavior. Middleware is used to address the context awareness effectively, also provides runtime support like reconfiguration, maintenance to the application software. In most of the smart class rooms, reconfigurable context sensitive Middleware (RCSM) is used for auto maintenance.

Background of Collaborative Computing while educating the people

    Collaborative learning provides sophisticated conducive environment so that the facilitator can get involves the learners in doing their assigned task and analyzing the activities they are carrying out. Collaborative learning is very effective mode of sharing knowledge and supports the students for active participation in the learning process. Every student can learn from everyone else and no one can be denied to making contributions to others. There are 4 general characteristics of collaborative classrooms.

Knowledge Sharing

      The facilitator possesses comprehensive knowledge of the contents of the course, required skills and valid effective set of instructions and such information is provided to the student, participating in the group. The teacher also builds upon the facts, practical experiences, mode of sharing, strategies to motivate the learners to get into the environment.

Ability of Sharing

      These collaborative classrooms are specially designed where the facilitator paves the students’ way in sharing their persons knowledge, ensures that every student is participating actively and sharing his/her knowledge and experience of doing that so, which consequently pays back high levels of understanding.

Mediation

        The term facilitator is used for the teacher as teacher has to be more effective and productive who acts as mediators for adjusting the level of information sharing and helps the students to browse new information to their experiences and for learning in various areas.

Heterogeneity

      Various groups of learners can be benefitted by collaborative learning. Due to the heterogeneous attributes of collaborative computing, various groups of students enrich learning in collaborative learning process as the perspective, experiences and background of all students plays essential role for enriching the learning process.

      The first two attributes corresponds to the connection between the learner and facilitator in the collaborative environment. The third characteristic introduces the novelty in lecture delivery. The fourth attribute is the environment which is heterogeneous in nature. All of these characteristics are increased manifolds in the smart classrooms. 

Robust Features of Smart Classroom

        Reconfigurable Context Sensitive Middleware (RCSM) facilitates the learning process in collaborative classrooms. It acts as middleware for pervasive computing applications. The smart classrooms are equipped with several devices which are categorized in 2 parts, infrastructure – devices and mobile – devices. In each classroom, the infrastructure – devices are categorized as stationary and provide the required information to the mobile – devices, such as the relative locations of the mobile devices with respect to those of the infrastructure – devices and light intensity of the classroom. The devices with mobility features, belongs to the students and the instructor. By using mobile devices, the facilitator and learner may interact actively between themselves in a classroom.

         PDAs are used as mobile device while implementing the aforesaid architecture. The infrastructure – devices normally consists of PCs and PDAs with location and light detection intensive features. These 2 types of devices use different types of collaborative applications with RCSM. The characteristic of collaborative learning that facilitates the Smart Classroom is described below.

Organizing Transient Communication groups

       To facilitate collaborative learning in Smart Classrooms, group discussion has been proved as the essential functionality. Keeping in view the current parameter, like location of the classroom, schedule of the class and availability of other group members available in the vicinity, the PDAs are used in classrooms which may develop device groups so that the learners can contribute in class exercises. As soon as the group forming status is no longer true, these device groups also dissolved. The facilitator’s PDA gains the access to any student group for monitoring purposes and to evaluate the progress well in time, consequently generates feedbacks during class exercises.

Situation – Aware Interaction between PDAs

          Keeping in view the robust features of Smart Classrooms, the instructor can use RCSM in PDAs for situation aware interaction among them. As per their desired situations, PDAs can share useful information after detecting other devices. For instance, during the start of the class the instructors PDA searches for students’ PDAs and after detecting them in classrooms, the relevant desired material like lecture slides are distributed to the devices connected to the classroom session as instructor desired to start the lecture by dimming the light if the projector is in use.