Experience developing wireless networks for interactive multimedia instruction

This paper presents our experiences developing the network and computer infrastructure needed to support the interactive multimedia wireless classrooms of the future. Despite their advantages, wireless networks have several drawbacks and potential pitfalls. The heavy loads placed on the network by interactive multimedia applications used in class such as collaborative whiteboards, collaborative editors, collaborative web surfing, application sharing, and even video/audio feeds to distance learning sites only aggravate the problems. In this paper, we highlight the problems that can arise in a wireless setting, and we describe the advantages and disadvantages of the various hardware technologies as well as the software and network protocols that are best suited for interactive multimedia wireless classrooms.