“SUBJECT”A thesis.
∞· HCI · POLITECNICO DI MILANO · DEC 2nd, 2010
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LEAVE THE WORLDa little better than you have found it.
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STUDYINGoh God why
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giovedì 2 dicembre 2010
CAN WE SOMEHOW GET MOBILE COMPUTERS INTO
THE WHOLE THING?( == smartphones/other mobile stuff)
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giovedì 2 dicembre 2010
WHAAAA—?
• Because I wanted to. (a)
• Many of us have one/will have one!
• ⇒ We(‘ll) have a computer
with us every moment of the day — it’d be fun if it could even actually be useful for more. (b) :)
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giovedì 2 dicembre 2010
HOW?
• Studying is a highly personal thing!
• do not disrupt existing study habits…
• … instead give tools to help the student…
• … and the professor.
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giovedì 2 dicembre 2010
OK, YEA, YEA, WE GOT THAT.SO, HOW?
• We still don’t know exactly, but we have a few areas we want to explore — this thesis is all about exploring and trying more and more stuff (and hopefully not have it explode!).
• We have a few hunches.
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THE BASICS.
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THE BASICS.
• Computers are good with structured data. We want us some structured data. Om nom nom!
• One very good thing to structure study around is the course’s plan…
• … but it turns out most professors already have a very detailed, structured description of their course’s plan…
• … in the form of the outlines of their PowerPoint presentations!
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WE CAN USE THAT AS A BACKBONE.
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IN CLASS.
• We can capture the presentation and some other stuff that normally gets lost in the flow.
• Questions
• Your mood (?)
• Demo in a moment.
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OUT OF CLASS.
• Tools to complement your reading, note-taking, etc.
• Very fast annotation, study planning, sharing of slides/material, student discusson, more.
• What exactly we don’t know yet; this is all to come (?)
• Your questionnaire will drive our choices!
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LESS TALKINGMORE DEMO
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TECH STUFF
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THE OBLIGATORY DIAGRAM
Web service
Lecturer’s screen
HTTP: REST + JSON
JavaScript
iOS devices
Cocoa
iOS devices
iOS devices
AgentKeynote
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OPPORTUNISTIC SYNC.• Grab the data whenever you get to have access to it, and •
Keep it around even in adverse connectivity conditions.
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OPPORTUNISTIC SYNC
• Tries to require minimal or no interaction.
• No forgetfulness
• No change of habits beyond minimal and/or useful.
• Must be carefully managed:
• Privacy and conflict-resolution trouble.
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THE PROBLEMS DISAPPEAR IN A COURSE CONTEXT!
All material is public; only one authority with most modification privileges (lecturer) reduces conflicts to a minimum.
(the ideal
playground!)
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SO, WHY IS THIS SO AWESOME?
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EXAMPLE OF AWESOME.
• Let's say you're following the lesson…
• … but receive a call on the smartphone (or some other interruption).
• Reopen and you're right back in the lesson!
• Reliability.
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Web service
iOSdevice Le
sson
Less
on
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EXAMPLE OF MORE AWESOME.
• Another awesome side effect: when you leave the classroom, the slides are kept on your smartphone.
• No more hunting for files on websites afterwards!
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iOSdevice
LessonLesson
giovedì 2 dicembre 2010
CURRENTLY: FULLY AD-HOC
• Download, sync and storage control.
• Objective: isolate and solve the largest subset of the issues once and for all.
• Fortunately I have some experience in structured data transfer :)
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User
Cache Transfer
Persistency
Model
giovedì 2 dicembre 2010