On the Specification of Interaction Patterns for Collaborative T-learning Services

1. On the Specification of Interaction Patterns for Collaborative T-learning Services Dr. José J. Pazos Arias Dept. of Telematic Engineering University of Vigo Spain 3rd European Conference on Interactive Television:User Centred ITV Systems, Programmes and Applications. Aalborg University,  Denmark, March 30 – April 1 2005

2. Index • Introduction. • Our framework to deploy distributed t-learning services. • A dual approach to programming. • Conclusions.

3. Introduction • Distance learning to develop effective policies to continuous education. • In the last years, we witnessed a fast development of e-learning technologies. • The penetration of the Internet in homes is limited and the growing rate is slowing down. • So, the penetration of e-learning is also limited. • To overcome these problems, public administrations are promoting other platforms, mainly mobile phones and TV.

4. The role of digital TV • Digital TV is an excellent position: • Every home has a TV. • Everyone feels comfortable using it. • IDTV opens many possibilities: • It is possible to broadcast data and interactive applications. • t-learning: IDTV-based distance learning.

5. Development of t-learning • Profile of the potential users of t-learning. • Edutainment: Education + Entertainment. • We should not develop t-learning through a direct translation of e-learning: • Social considerations. • Technical considerations.

6. Taking into account e-learning experience • Absence of normalization. • Higher costs of development. • Limited reusability of educational resources. • Feeling of isolation. • The reason why many people abandon the learning initiatives. • Especially critical in t-learning environments.

7. Our framework • Development of collaborative t-learning services. • Within the technological context of the MHP standard. • Based on freely available technologies.

8. Three major aspects • A software architecture to support the collaborative t-learning services (courses). • A network infrastructure. • A development environment to support the creation of courses.

9. An architecture for distributed t-learning services

10. The development tool • Based on JavaBeans technology. • A graphical environment to construct t-learning services. • First release focused on broadcast-based (non-collaborative) t-learning courses. • Second release allows defining distributed logic and interactions among users. • In a collaborative environment, it is difficult to model the users interactions simply by interconnecting beans.

11. Specification of interaction patterns • Supplement the visual development interface with the formal specification approach of SCTL-MUS:

12. Conclusions • SCTL/MUS provides a dual approach that gathers the advantages of visual development and formal techniques: • JavaBeans is great for the design of user interfaces and features. • SCTL/MUS is suitable to control the possible ways in which the users can interact. • SCTL/MUS provides an elegant and powerful solution. • SCTL/MUS guarantees that the implementation of a service adheres to the desired interaction patterns. • Developers are freed from programming details. • Finally, because the functionality is automatically split among the sceneries allow developers to think about conjoint interaction.

13. Conclusions • Our approach provides for the development of collaborative services, minimizing the need of programming knowledge. • We think this framework is also valid in the development of other types of services.