Bluetooth Con Mobile

Mobile Learning with Bluetooth-based E-learning System
Yonghong Zhang, Shiying Zhang, Son Vuong, Kamran Malik
University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada

joyz@ece.ubc.ca, shiyingz@ece.ubc.ca, vuong@cs.ubc.ca, kmalik@cs.ubc.ca

ABSTRACT
This paper introduces a bluetooth-based e-learning system, which enables mobile learning from anywhere using a variety of devices, including cellphones, PDAs, and laptops. Different from current e-learning systems, which require the access to the Internet or other pre-established networks, the bluetooth-based elearning system can establish a wireless network on the spot in an ad hoc fashion. To accommodate with the characteristic of portable devices, the system is designed for low power consumption and low learning cost. With the help ofthe system, an instructor can receive instant feedback from the students and check students’ performance at any time. Students, on the other hand, can actively participate in the class and answer instructor’s questions in an easier way. The system architecture, security issues, and key techniques on establishing the communication between cell phones and computers using bluetooth on Java 2 platformare explained in detail in the paper.

choice is one of the key factors that determine learning cost. Although provide Internet-always-on wide area coverage, the third-generation cellular networks is pretty expensive for data transmission. Wireless local area networks (WLAN), on the other hand, enable free data transfer within the range of hundreds of meters. Ref. [1] introduces a mobilelearning system for birdwatching based on WiFi (802.11b) WLAN that uses PDA with WiFi Card as the learner’s interactive device. Nevertheless, WiFi technology is not available for cell phones, the most popular portable devices in students. Besides, PDA with WiFi card is more than U.S. $300, which is a bit too expensive for students. In cases where people are relatively gathered, for example, tourists witha tour guide, or a teacher surrounded by students, WiFi technology may not be the best choice. A shorter range communication with lower power consumption and low price is preferred. Wireless personal area network, such as bluetooth [2] technology, is right fitted here. Bluetooth is a wireless data transmission technology that offers a connection with two or more devices over a short distance. Itis now been included in many electrical devices, including cell phones and PDAs. This makes it possible to use them as peer-topeer devices over a short distance. As bluetooth uses the unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) frequency band, there’s no charge for data communications using bluetooth. Furthermore, using bluetooth consumes much less power than using WiFi. The bluetooth basede-learning system uses bluetooth technology as the communication media. As a result, the system is cable-free, portable, free of data transmission charge, and capable of using diverse devices other than computers. To accommodate with the characteristic of portable devices, the system is specially designed for low power consumption. Moreover, since the system is developed using Java API forBluetooth Wireless Technology (JABWT) on Java platform, it’s operating system and devices independent. To be secure, the system uses both authentication and encryption to ensure safety during communications. The Bluetooth-based e-learning system provides the instructor with assistance to the lecture, interactions with the students, and statistics information of students’ performance. It also allowsstudents to actively participate in the class and answer instructor’s questions in an easier way. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the system architecture of the bluetooth-based e-learning system, section 3 describes the key techniques for implementation, section 4 discusses how security is handled in the system, and section 5 concludes.

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