CoolEdu - A Collaborative Multiagent Model for Decentralized Ubiquitous Education Environments

The recent use of mobile devices and the widespread adoption of wireless computer networks have stimulated mobile and ubiquitous computing research. In this context, education is being considered one of the main application areas. The ability to accurately track the learner\´s position through a location system and the context awareness support allow the discovery of new pedagogical opportunities. Nowadays, there are several approaches to the organization of ubiquitous computing environments, even though the majority of them employ a centralized architecture. This approach brings some benefits, like easing the access to the learner profiles, but it also has some disadvantages intrinsic to the model, like scalability concerns and the physical separation between the learners and their profile data. This article proposes a collaboration model created for decentralized environments, capable of improving the learning process through the stimulus to the interaction between learners. This approach is modeled using agents, employing on a socio-interactionist model based on the "most capable pair" concept first introduced by Vygotsky.