The effectiveness of a smart school bag system for reminding students of forgotten items and reducing the weight of their bags

Background A learning support system integrated in a school bag was developed to help primary school students manage their personal items. The smart school bag is an illustration of the application of information and computer technology. Using tailor-made sensors and a tablet embedded in students’ school bags, users (including teachers, parents and students) could maintain a daily schedule for a list of school items. Using near field communication, each item inside the bag was identified and recorded. The tablet then compared the list of items with the objects in the bag and provided a reminder for the student when an item was missing. This presentation introduces the smart school bag system and illustrates the effectiveness of the system with the use of a mixed methods experiment.