Abstract:

Employing wearable devices in the educational environment enables the introduction of novel technology-based assistance during the lecturing process. In the academic environment, the use of hands-free mobile devices is preferred in order to be able to interact with the students without needing to hold a device. In this work we propose using head-mounted displays such as Google Glass and other wearable devices like smartwatches to perform automatic tagging of the contents written by the teacher in the blackboard. The system autonomously detects equations and specific chalk writing marks and automatically sending extra contents to previously-registered alumni personal devices.
Google Glass is a wearable device in form of transparent glasses that offers access to a search engine, camera and connection to the Internet using Wi-Fi or connecting to the mobile phone. In this paper, we show the possibility of integrating tagging with Google Glass, so the intelligent glasses can identify a given pattern in the blackboard and for example send a programmed exercise to the students which is related with the contents that have just been explained in the classroom.
To identify the patterns for autonomous tagging, Moodstocks application is employed operating in a client-side cache configuration. The image recognition implemented detects the patterns designed by the professor (a specific image in the screen or a drawing in the blackboard) and the developed application sends extra content or new educational objects designed for the students such as short questions or problems to be solved at the classroom during the professor explanation. These educational objects can be send by email to the alumni and the exercises can be solved directly from the student’s computers or mobile devices.
Using Google Glass and other wearable devices in the classroom permits the professor to collect important information regarding the student knowledge building and improve the learning efficiency. A compatible smartwatch is integrated in this scenario to change the slides automatically while speaking, enabling the teacher liberty of movement around the classroom. In this way, the teacher controls the timing needed for each concept during the exposition and the time consumed in each activity proposed during the lesson.
The prototype work has been tested in the seminar of Energy Efficiency and New Generation Access Optical Networks of the Master in Technology, Systems and Communication Networks at the Universitat Politècnica de València. The real-time updates and notifications available in the wearable device prototype employed in this work permit the continuous interaction within the classroom without interrupting the lecture. The results from the autonomously sent tests and exercises are presented to the lecturer in the Google Glass display as soon as the student finishes, enabling a quick perception of the rate of success in the alumni knowledge building process.

Keywords:

Wearable devices, lecturing assistance, innovation in the classroom