Teaching experiences with e-learning network infrastructures

Computer-based learning environments provide the opportunity to promote student interactivity and meet their individual needs. Because of the advantages of such an approach, computer-based teaching is becoming very popular in universities and in other educational institutes. However very often the solutions proposed to support the educational activities are not interoperable and lack a suitable network infrastructure. In this paper, we report the results of several teaching experiences gathered from more than one year of activities in various research projects. Our first step has been the development of a platform able to fully integrate the new powerful teaching tools, such as the virtual blackboard, and network transport services. From these experiences, we realized that the learning quality would be improved if students interactively participate in the learning process. Then, in a later experiment, we proposed and validated a model of e-classroom, which would guarantee the mobility to students and preserve their identity. We show that this kind of mobile learning is only possible where an advanced networking technology, such as Mobile IPv6, is enabled.