Now comes the hard part. Abowd and doctoral student Jason Brotherton led the research effort to develop the project. Students bury their heads in notebooks, trying to record every word of the lecture, afraid they may miss something if they interact with the instructor. The Classroom 2000 technology eliminates that frantic note-taking, allowing students to freely interact and participate in classroom discussions. Students can access the information on a laptop computer including all the instructor's notes.
Instructors write on a blank electronic whiteboard or on prepared slides.
A computer program records the written notes from the whiteboard, electronic annotations, audio, video and even Web-browser activity. After a lecture, a computer program automatically weaves the recorded events together into a set of standard Web pages. A time line provides an index to the video, slides and any Web pages visited during the lecture. Students can replay the entire lecture or any part of it at their own pace. Students and instructors can also go back later to re-create and review what happened in class, reinforcing the learning experience.