JUCS - Journal of Universal Computer Science 20(12): 1649-1669, doi: 10.3217/jucs-020-12-1649

A Decentralized Infrastructure for Ubiquitous Learning Environments

Jorge Luis Victória Barbosa, Débora Nice Ferrari Barbosa^‡, Jezer Machado De Oliveira^§, Solon Andrade Rabello Jr.^§

‡ Feevale University, Novo Hamburgo, Brazil§ University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS), Sáo Leopoldo, Brazil

Corresponding author: Jorge Luis Victória Barbosa ( jbarbosa@unisinos.br )

This article is freely available under the J.UCS Open Content License.

Citation: Barbosa JLV, Barbosa DNF, De Oliveira JM, Jr. SAR (2014) A Decentralized Infrastructure for Ubiquitous Learning Environments. JUCS - Journal of Universal Computer Science 20(12): 1649-1669. https://doi.org/10.3217/jucs-020-12-1649

Abstract

This article proposes a decentralized infrastructure for ubiquitous learning environments called Global. The two main contributions of Global are its decentralized strategy and its extensible architecture based on software agents. Global can be specialized to create ubiquitous learning environments through the extension of its agents or through the addition of new agents. The article presents the infrastructure architecture, describing the agents and auxiliary components. Moreover, the article approaches the implementation and evaluation of Global through two applications dedicated to education. The evaluation showed that the infrastructure could be used for the development of decentralized learning systems, supporting specifically the characteristics considered as strategic for ubiquitous learning.

Keywords

decentralization, ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous learning