Mobile learning materials navigator

Abstract

Mobile learning is a kind of knowledge enhancement using mobile devices. Such learning environment brings about convenience on self studying. A consensus has been made for adopting mobile technology in education. And the use of mobile phones as a carrier of learning is hardly found. The purpose of this project is to construct a mobile learning environment in mobile phones with a combinational use of .Net and Java technology. The system offers three main functions which are providing, storing and using learning materials. Learning materials in the context refers to audios, transparencies and videos. The former two functions form a data treatment subsystem which is responsible for uploading learning materials plus managing records in database and file storage. The latter one forms an information retrieval subsystem for searching and browsing of relevant information in handheld environment. The system adopts a three-tier architecture in which presentation, logic and data tiers are maintained in separate modules. Java Server Pages (JSPs) and Java Servlets are implemented for modeling the interaction between clients and server. COM operations on presentation slides are preset in a .Net web service for manipulating real-time extraction of formatted content and export of non-textual information into images. Indexing is used to make retrieval of matched records faster. Scoring obtained from a full-text search prioritizes the searched results. The mobile program client is browser-based. Mobile phones can gain access to a computer LAN via a predefined communication port of Bluetooth connection. The approach is the most economical way for achieving longtime Internet access for mobile phones. Audio and video files are downloaded to mobile phones directly. Presentation slides are outputted in form of HTML script via invoking a .Net web method from Java. The project passes through prototyping of data extraction and client-server communication. The technical background is examined in the review section. The requirements are specified in system analysis followed by a detailed design. The implementation and results will also be included. The main difficulty of the project falls on the making use of Bluetooth connectivity for web browsing in mobile phones, data extraction from learning media and mapping of data type in handling interoperable interactions across .Net and Java platforms. The result of the project is to make an evaluation upon the strengths and weaknesses of using mobile phones as a solution of mobile learning. Suggestions of further improvement upon the system are also included. It is necessary to verify the feasibility of implementing a future learning environment in this way.