Collaborative Learning Support System in a Classroom Using Ad Hoc Network of Tablet Devices

Having students ask and answer questions among themselves can help deepen their understanding of learning content. Tablet devices are advantageous for such application due to their portability and capability to support not only text but also images and sound. A few elementary schools in Japan have already started introducing tablet devices into the classroom. This requires making some changes to the environment, including providing an access point for the tablets to communicate with each other. To aid in the preparation for computer supported learning, we propose using an ad hoc network of tablet devices to deploy a delay tolerant network with the aim of achieving high message reach ability over intermittent connections. The results of preliminary experiments show that our system can provide a high delivery rate, although its delivery speed is somewhat slow. We also created a practical application using the ad hoc network that students can use to exchange content.