Work in progress — Teaching networking concepts through Bluetooth software implementation

The objective of this work-in-progress project is to develop complementary computer science networking laboratory exercises to reinforce the theoretical topics by means of active learning based on the ubiquitous Bluetooth wireless communications technology. The main advantages of our approach are: (1) Bluetooth is used everywhere and students would find it a very tangible and relevant learning tool, (2)The full software implementation in C++ is available from Broadcom (major Bluetooth manufacturer) that contains a majority of the main protocol functions with respect to the seven OSI layers, (3) No special equipment other than the low cost Bluetooth adapters are needed. This makes it very easy to sustain, reconfigure and maintain for a rich learning environment. (4) Bluetooth technology will enable to teach theoretical networking concepts as well as fundamental programming concepts. The labs will facilitate the students' learning at comprehension, application, synthesis and evaluation levels of cognition based on the classical taxonomy of cognitive levels by Bloom. The deliverables of this project include student lab exercises as well as instructor manuals for easy deployment at other institutions. We have already used the first set of labs successfully in a networking course at the U of Michigan - Flint.