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View Full Version : bluetooth question , also for educational purpose ...



newbie2
March 12th, 2009, 03:28 PM
i saw recently a classroom full of students with a 'remote device' in their hands , and the teacher having a beamer on the 'blackboard', connected with a PC ....the students saw a multiple question exam , projected on the board...they(students) answered those questions with their devices from their seats via bluetooth?...i don't know, but they were all enthousiastic answering those questions ...:P ...
so now my question :
could it be possible with a gsm (with bluetooth) and a ubuntu program on a PC to accomplish also such an event? ...
i found this :
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Hardware/Bluetooth_Transferring_and_receiving_files_under_U buntu
but it is ' a bit raw' and not suited for a 'common teacher' me thinks...:mrgreen:

Thelasko
March 12th, 2009, 03:52 PM
I think you are thinking of CPS which stands for "Classroom Performance System." I think this device is part of Blackboard Inc.'s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc.) system. Blackboard Inc. holds many software patents, and has sued anyone that comes close to violating those patents. Most of those lawsuits result in a victory for Blackboard. For this reason, I doubt there is much in the way of an open source alternative.

Correction: CPS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classroom_Performance_Systems) is part of eInstruction (http://www.einstruction.com/), not Blackboard.

aeiah
March 12th, 2009, 04:12 PM
bluetooth is just a protocol for communicating. it has uses within the mobile market etc etc. in the example you're talking about it probably is bluetooth, but you could achieve the same sorta thing with wireless.

like i said, its just a communication protocol. for what you're describing, most of the clever stuff is done with software on the devices and software on the server. the devices just transmit the answer over bluetooth and receive question templates from the server etc. i assume anyway. ive not seen one of these things myself.

there are packages for bluetooth communication available for linux. some folks have created remote control applications for mobile phones etc. its basically the same sorta thing.

newbie2
March 12th, 2009, 06:52 PM
tnx folks for the answers...they also said nokia is planning something like that , because nowadays , almost every student has a gsm with bluetooth ....
i think some clever minded linux developer could jump into this .... ;)