Personal Learning Environment Supported by Pervasive Information Network Chen Yanpingˈ Han Jungang Department of Computer Science and Technology, Xi’an Institute of Post and Telecomunications chenyp@xiyou.edu.cnˈhjg@xiyou.edu.cn Abstract Pervasive Information Network and its’ application for information education is proposed in this paper, and we also present the personal learning environment supported by pervasive information network. We analyze the characteristics of learning environment based on pervasive information network as well as advantages comparing with the traditional learning environment. Keywords: Pervasive Information, Learning Enviroment, Information education Technology
1. Introductions of Pervasive Information Network The promotion effects of any new technologies to the productivity may be postponed, so much so that the new technology sometimes hava a side effect on the productivity.Network is an obvious example. People used network and computers to generate, send and receive a great lot of information, this saved a vast deal of trouble and increased efficiency, so on this side, network accelerated the progress of our sociey , on the other hand, network also brought Information explosion, which have induced a social problems. As J. Schwartz (CEO of SUN) said that we can not send the information to the place need it in deed, this is the main origin of the network crisis [1]. Nowadays, using the current network to provide information service cannot be the Infrastructure of our society. In 1993 the United States proposed a project "national information infrastructure" (National Information Infrastructure, NII), which is commonly abbreviated to NII. NII concept by some people interpreted as the information superhighway, even though existing some controversy, the concepts involved in NII also do not constitute a complete national infrastructure. At least in the exchange of information and services, such as capture, index, organize, manage, check and control the information, it cannot be the reliable means and tools for the public service. The network now only is a data highway for information transportation. As an information 1-4244-1385-0/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE.
infrastructure, the information service should be reliable and safe. After information is assessed, it has a source of stability and a unified standard. Relevant policies, regulations and standards should be gradually formed about the right and obligation that some public and party should possess. Now the network has become an absolute free area, which is reason that the Internet led the large number of side effects to our community. We should be concerned about how to make the internet plays a reliable role of information exchange as a soon as possible and let it be conducive to social harmony and development; as a result, it will really be the infrastructure of our society. Japan is implementing the research program named as cyber infrastructure for the information Explosion Era[2] (From the year 2005 to 2011). Participating units includes the University of Tokyo, Osaka University and many Institutes of several countries. The objective of the research program is to establish the basic technologies of information explosion, which comprises effective and reliable technology of searching the information from heterogeneous sources, a stable, safe and scalable of the new information technology system to manage the rapid growth of information, technology of ensuring the friendly interaction between Human and Computer. Utilization of these technologies, we can design a social system. In addition to the management team and support group, the research program is divided into four study groups that research separately on the following key problems. 1) A quantitative evaluation platform of the spatial information network, 2) Content integration and seamless searching of the information, 3) Scalable and reliable software organizations supporting the information explosion environment, 4) Evaluate the social economic system as well as manage and control the society of knowledge, 5) Scalable monitor architecture under information explosion environment, 6) Integration and management the pervasive contents in network, 7) The effective algorithm to deal with the large scale knowledge in information network, 8) Knowledge sharing among the large scale wireless network of cities, etc. Francis heylighen (professor at the Free University of Brussels, VUB) analyzed several ways to treat with the
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information explosion[3]: improving the intelligence level of human beings, resolving rules of society and economy and using computers aid systems. Francis heylighen considered these ways should be combined together organically. For example, we can use the research results of the collectivity intelligence of bee and ant of bionics to construct the capability of intellectual transition and disposition of our network. It is impossible that the information of whole globe or the whole country is treated by a single control and management center. The center should be made of distributed, configurable intelligent, reliable information nodes, then with several information centers and management centers, all of these make up of the self-management, reliable, self-adaptive network. These study contents are close to our considerations on pervasive information network. Stan Schneider[4] figured out the concept of pervasive information which can be get at anywhere and anytime, he also analyzed the implement way and prospects of the future pervasive information network from the point of view of Middleware. But, he put the key emphasis on the RFID and real time data retrieve, this is different from our imagining at aspect of architecture and protocol. Bourbonnais[5] put forward the prospects of the information infrastructure based on the gird .They used the service-oriented architecture to realize the pervasive information network under gird environment. They also presented the concept of virtual data and resource, as well as policy driven QoS autonomy management. Yet, the specific realizations should be deepened. The thought of grid information infrastructure has similarity with our pervasive information network. The difference lies in that the target of grid is integrate computing ability and source, but the pervasive information network mainly focus on the interaction of information and providing credibility information service. We believe that the PIN (Pervasive Information Network, PIN) is one in which communication networks, computer, information resources, equipment and information users compose interoperability, ubiquitous Information Network. Enterprises and individuals can use all kinds of public and private information resources through the unified exchange agreement, authentication, management of all forms of information and to meet the requirements of vary types of users of different applications and different performance requirements. Reference [4] pointed out that we needed to establish an information sharing network to connect the all valuable information of community as a point of the social infrastructure into the PIN system.
2. Personal Learning Supported by PIN 2.1
Personal
Learning
Environment Environment
Architecture Supported by PIN In the networked information society, people's need for information evolves towards directions of diverse, personalize, special, visualize. People on the Internet is not only recipient of the information but also disseminators, they can transmit information in a very fast speed by interactive with each other. Network provides people with an open space so that any individuals or organizations are free to release and access information. Therefore, the information needs of people psychologically changed. The application of modern information research focus on how to accurately grasp the genuine psychological needs of the information and better organization and providing the information which has been efficient absorbed and utilized. We proposed the personal learning environment architecture supported by PIN as figure 1 shows [6].
Figure 1. Personal Learning Environment Architecture Supported by PIN PIN has the following types of nodes: 1) Source of the pervasive information. These information are controlled by the enterprise at the fountain, enterprise can choice to share their information, in this way, core values of Enterprises will not be involved. Practical experience shows that this model can be easily accepted by the majority of enterprises. In the PIN, it is concerned that the core needs of their own, also through the sharing of some valuable information to gain more; and need to grasp the concerned information to serve their own study. 2) Information center. Information centers have the ability of information labeling, classification, processing, hot point Mining. 3)Information consumers. For the knowledge learning using PIN, learners are information consumers, they can access portal by their own preferences and their convenient means of communication. In the information computing environment, the application of terminals should possess the following characters. Firstly, terminal equipments have diverse type, which is mainly embodied in the form of equipment and functions, and learners can make use of the information in PIN through various terminal devices. Secondly, End-users have strong mobility, and therefore the use of terminal services environment will not be confined to a
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fixed place. Thirdly, terminal services needed to support the huge number of end-users. Finally, Information computing environment of terminal applications, especially with regard to personal circumstances of the application, will adopt the way of interacting with a user-friendly interface. 4) Management Centers. Through information management center, we can achieve information repackaged and composition, these dealings complete value-added and value management. For learning environment supported by PIN, If the knowledge requirements of the learners cannot be met directly, the management centers will compose the existing knowledge in the PIN to meet learners respectively according to the personal requirements.
2.2 Characteristics of Personal Environment Supported by PIN
Learning
Research indicate, when learners study the knowledge in a complex and unstructured form, they can be completed the construction of the significance of knowledge through multi-dimensional and multi-angle characterization description of information. Thus, learner can comprehensive understand the knowledge and exceed the original learning situation and migrate well to other domains. Studies show, in the learning process, people may remember the information 10% of reading, 20% of heard, 30% of saw, 50% of hear and saw at the same time, and 70% of their talks with others. That is to say many kinds of sense organs together will greatly stimulate the study effect and surpass which produced only by the sole sense organ. Therefore, learning environments should provide the multi-sense format of knowledge to learner to express the inherent complexity of knowledge, and multi-sense also lets learners contact the environment by many kinds of feeling channel, guides learner initiatively participate in learning. This is a key superiority of the learning environment support by PIN. Students can be changed from individual learning to cooperative learning in the learning environment supported by PIN, and received numerous tools and resources. Education must be enriched and change from the aspect of the teaching resources and teaching strategies to adapt to the needs of the individual student and organization. There are following four merits of the learning environment supported by PIN. First of all, participate in learning. A voluntary student will study intensively accord with demands of himself. We have seen many school-age children like playing digital devices, so digital technology in education also can produce a huge attraction to students. Similarly, the digital equipment is, of course, can be used to lifelong education. motivation to learn is the first step of high level learning, because the only students devote into learning, can they study problems and to develop learning, at last participate in tasks and projects which teachers guide less.
In the next place, personal and independent learning are important. Students have the right to choose, because they need access to many of rich resources more than teachers. Through multimedia, students can browse lot of learning resources, therefore, it is possible to personally customize of the resources and activities. Personal learning in the environment supported by PIN will always have a unique, innovative, high-quality result, this includes the ability of thinking and expression in a variety of ways to share the knowledge acquired. Once more, learning cooperation is also needed. Learning is essentially a social behavior, and if learning is student-centered, then it must contain cooperation, and more emphasis on the process rather than the result, to pay more attention to thinking skills rather than the contents of memory. Learning environment supported by PIN provides a unique support on cooperative learning. Through social software tools and wireless communications, students can easily share their learning outcomes or cooperative learning; this will often produce high-quality communication as well as learning outcomes. Ultimate, every student needs to access to the same and fair learning opportunities. On this view, PIN establishes a bridge between the information and different lever of application. PIN can support learning environment for the students has different learning requirements. For the students live in the poor areas (such as countryside and small cities), PIN also give an equal opportunity to learn.
3. Suggestions on the Education Supported by PIN
Information
China is a developing country; the need of information education comes from the actual needs of reform and opening, from the urgent needs of talent with our economic revitalization, science and technology development and social progress. China has made great achievements in promoting information education, but, general speaking, Information Education is still a weak tache in the development of education in China, there is still a considerable gap compared with both developed countries and the urgent need of the development of our economy. Aimed at the international trend of Information education, our country faces not only challenges but also opportunities. We should sufficiently aware of the significant impact on information technology and information education for the future education, and should take corresponding countermeasures. The information society of the era of the knowledge-based must be enhanced with the improvement of whole nation's scientific and cultural quality, the dissemination of knowledge mainly rely on talents with higher skills, new knowledge and innovation. Information education is the foundation of the Education Modernization, Advanced modern
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educational concepts and theories are the prelude of modern education. So, we must strengthen the notion of modern educational of our nation. Strengthen the concept of modern education; first of all we should start with Information education and the implementation of the three-dimensional strategy of information education. The three-dimensional information education is comprehensive training all members of our society, rising awareness level of Information Science, capabilities of accessing to information knowledge and processing information, and finally creating an atmosphere of Information Age. We should carry it on from the following aspects. First, we should realize the importance for information education. Through radio, television, newspapers, audio and video publications, conferences, activities and other forms of computer networks, so that the entire society of people are aware of the content of information, information processing, the conversion and dissemination of information and knowledge, significance of network technology impact on human society and the educational, and in the future set up the public environment of education network based on PIN. And then, establish the mechanism of information education. The content of information education should impenetrate in 21st century education curriculum system. Primary and secondary school curricula should be set up with standardized information education courses, preparation of the information education curricula and teaching materials must accord to the information technology, application of the information, information theory, etc. Through education activities, let the educate with ability of choosing and accessing the information tools, effective obtaining information and using the existing information and knowledge to innovate new information. Third, higher education academy and Higher Vocational Technical College should enhance information knowledge, information technology,
information engineering courses, and cultivate talent for the knowledge innovation, commitment to fostering information technology, multimedia technology, and innovative talents for network technology. At the same time, Teacher education reform will be required, in the future; teachers must have the ability of using of the latest educational information technology. This will offer a high level of intellectual support for China's education modernization. Last, in addition to bring educational information into a unified curriculum, integration is also adopted. That is to say, Information will be integrated into the educational sociology, mathematics, science and other subjects of teaching. Meanwhile, a planned training should be carried on at all levels of school principals, teachers and teaching management, combining with the implementation of "cross-century gardener works" , making teachers possess both rich modern educational technology skills, consummate technologies of information education and noble professional ethics.
References [1]Carl Howe. Is the Information Explosion a Crisis? http://ce.seekingalpha.com Mar 14th, 2007. [2]Cyber infrastructure for the information Explosion Era.http://i-explosion.ex.nii.ac.jp/i-explosion/ctr.php/m/Index Eng/a/Index. 2005 [3]F. heylighen. Complexity and Information Overload in Society: why increasing efficiency leads to decreasing control. http://pcp.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html. 2007 [4]Stan Schneider. Data-centric pervasive information is the wave of the future. Defense Electronics. http://rfdesign.com/mag/608RFDEf1.pdf. 2006. [5]S.Bourbonnais,et al, Towards an information infrastructure for the grid, IBM Systems Journal,Vol.43, No.4, 2004. [6] information gateways.Xi’an ChangDa company. 2006
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