Practical Environment for Realizing Augmented Classroom with Wireless Digital Pens

We have developed AirTransNote, a student notes sharing system to facilitate collaborative and interactive learning in a regular lecture at conventional classrooms. Our former student system employed ultrasonic digital pens to capture student notes on a usual paper sheet. Although the paper-based approach is intuitive for learners, the ultrasonic pen with a PDA created some difficulties when used by senior high school students. In order to eliminate those difficulties, we have introduced anoto-based pens and a data gathering system called “digital pen gateway.” Owing to the improved student system, students could easily submit their answers with handling of multiple paper sheets. The teacher could refer the answers to choose students who need assistance during the lecture. Questionnaire results showed that the simpler student interface is quite acceptable, and the system can realize our augmented classroom concept in a practical way.