Ubiquitous presenter: increasing student access and control in a digital lecturing environment

The University of Washington's Classroom Presenter lecturing system enables an active lecturing environment by combining a standard electronic slide presentation format with the capability for extemporaneous ink annotations by instructors and students using Tablet PCs. Thus, it can promote more interactive, student-centered learning. While many students may own laptops, few are yet Tablet devices. Also, Presenter uses multicast networking, which has availability and reliability issues. Ubiquitous Presenter (UP) expands Presenter via common web technologies to support non-Tablet audiences and enhance student control. UP enables students, using internet web browsers, to (a) synchronously or asynchronously view the slides and ink that are broadcast by the instructor, as well as (b) provide contextual submissions via text overlaid on the instructor's slides. The only compromises are that non-Tablet students cannot produce ink, and that professor ink is provided after a small time delay.