Employing Ubiquitous Computing Devices and Technologies in the Higher Education Classroom of the Future

This paper explores the utilization of “pervasive” or “ubiquitous” computing devices and technologies in the higher education classroom of the future. Firstly, a survey on the characteristics and the applications of today's ubiquitous computing devices is presented, along with a questioning on the level of their ubiquity. Such devices include smartphones, PDAs, Tablet PCs, iPods, as well as reading appliances, Pad-type appliances, interactive whiteboards and telepresence boards. Multiple network connections such as cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC, provide long-, medium-, or short-range wireless communication for different mobile devices. In the following, we investigate how innovative ubiquitous computing devices and technologies can be employed in education learning environments to enhance active learning by anyone, anytime and anywhere, as well as to enable blended learning, individually and collaboratively. A representative use case is presented to reveal the new possibilities for learning that a classroom equipped with ubiquitous computing devices can offer to students. Interviews with experts helped us to give proposals on the utilization of the advantages of ubiquitous computing technology in the higher education classroom of the future.