Learning IoT without the "I" - Educational Internet of Things in a Developing Context

To provide better education to children from different socio-economic backgrounds, the Thai Government launched the "One Tablet PC Per Child" (OTPC) policy and distributed 800,000 tablet computers to first grade students across the country in 2012. This initiative is an opportunity to study how mobile learning and Internet of Things (IoT) technology can be designed for students in underprivileged areas of northern Thailand. In this position paper, we present a prototype, called OBSY (Observation Learning System) which targets primary science education. OBSY consists of i) a sensor device, developed with low-cost open source singled-board computer Raspberry Pi, housed in a 3D printed case, ii) a mobile device friendly graphical interface displaying visualisations of the sensor data, iii) a self-contained DIY Wi-Fi network which allows the system to operate in an environment with inadequate ICT infrastructure.