A CLIENT-SERVER ARCHITECTURE FOR AN INSTRUCTIONAL ENVIRONMENT BASED ON COMPUTER NETWORKS AND THE INTERNET

摘要

Computer environments used to date in education and training contexts are most often reduced to a closed configuration, where all software and information are grouped as a whole locally and where the contribution of computer science becomes of secondary importance. However, hardware and software technologies today are well-suited to experimentations and innovative utilization within the various approaches in education. The client-server and network approaches in particular, as well as other new software environments, revolutionize the educational process, by opening a whole new dimension in methods of support for courses, a new relationship between instructor and student, new instructional methods, and a first step towards virtual classrooms. In this article, we propose a client—server architecture for an experimental computer environment, as an approach to a virtual classroom. The outcome seems to be that the evolution and the improvement of this architecture remains intimately linked to technological advances anticipated in the areas of hardware platforms, interface software integration, data transfer rates, and the methods used for producing teaching supports.