Pervasive educational assistant and study aid for students

• US 20030124493A1
• Filed: 01/02/2002
• Published: 07/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kulack, Frederick Allyn
• Granted Patent: US 6,877,987 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/118
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26

Abstract

A portable organizer device through which a student may use and maintain a personal calender. Further, a student may use the portable organizer to access assignment records maintained in a master calender used and maintained by an educational institution in a database, and synchronize the personal calendar with the master calender. The portable organizer may be further configured to facilitate the management of student equipment and activities.

Claims

1. A portable organizer device comprising:

a calendar database;

a communication link configured to access an assignment record on an institutional system, the assignment record describing an assignment characterized by an estimated duration or a completion date;

a user interface configured to receive a user schedule constraint; and

an agent configured to create a calendar entry for the accessed assignment record in response to the user schedule constraint, and the estimated duration or the completion date.

2. The portable organizer device of claim 1, wherein the communication link is further configured to access an identification of an article required to perform the assignment, the agent further configured to associate the identification to the calendar entry.

3. The portable organizer device of claim 2, further comprising:

a sensor responsive to a unique identifying signal from an identification tag attachable to an article and operable to emit said unique identifying signal;

wherein the agent is further configured to initiate a notification on the user interface in response to the unique identifying signal.

5. The portable organized device of claim 3, wherein the agent is further configured to initiate the notification in response to a comparison of the unique identifying signal and the article identification associated with the calendar entry.

6. The portable organizer device of claim 5, wherein the agent is further configured to initiate a missing article notification in response to not sensing the sensed unique identifying signal associated with the calendar entry.

7. The portable organizer of device of claim 5, wherein the agent is further configured to initiate an excess article notification in response to sensing another unique identifying signal having no association with the calendar entry.

8. The portable organizer device of claim of claim 1, wherein the user schedule restraint identifies available time blocks in the calendar database.

9. The portable organizer of claim 8, wherein the agent is further configured to identify available time blocks by applying a hierarchical set of appointments rules.

10. The portable organizer of claim 9, wherein the agent is configured to respond to the hierarchical set of appointment rules from a group consisting of a minimum start time, a maximum end time, an earliest start date, a latest start date, a shortest session duration time, and a longest session duration time.

11. The portable organizer of claim 8, wherein the assignment record includes an estimated completion time, the agent is further configured to adjust the estimated completion time in response to a stored difficulty factor.

13. The portable organizer of claim 8, wherein the agent is further configured to enter a plurality of calendar entries to complete the assignment.

14. The portable organizer of claim 13, wherein the agent is further configured to unallocate a later calendar entry of the plurality of calender entries in response to completion of the assignment record.

15. The portable organizer of claim 13, wherein the agent is further configured to allocate an additional calendar entry associated with the assignment record in response to a failure to complete the assignment record.

4. A portable organizer device comprising:

a user interface;

a sensor responsive to a unique identifying signal from an identification tag attachable to an article and operable to emit said unique identifying signal; and

,

an agent configured to initiate a notification on the user interface in response to the unique identifying signal.

12. A portable organizer device comprising:

a calender database;

a communication link configured to access and assignment record on an institutional system, the assignment record describing an assignment characterized by a difficulty factor and an estimated duration or a completion date;

a user interface configured to receive a user schedule constraint; and

,

an agent configured to create a calender entry for the accessed assignment record in response to the user schedule constraint, and the estimated duration or the completion date;

and, monitor duration of completion of the assignment and to correspondingly adjust the stored difficulty factor.

16. A method of updating a calendar database, comprising:

accessing an assignment record on an institutional system, the assignment record describing an assignment characterized by an estimated duration or a completion date;

receiving a user schedule constraint; and

creating a calendar entry for the accessed assignment record in response to the user schedule constraint, and the estimated duration or the completion date.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

accessing an identification associated with the assignment record of at least one article required to perform the assignment; and

associating the identification to the calendar entry.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

sensing a unique identifying signal from an identification tag attached to an article and operable to emit a unique identifying signal; and

,

notifying a user in response to sensing said unique identifying signal.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein notifying the user in response to sensing the unique identifying signal is further in response to comparison of the article identification associated with the calendar entry and the unique identifying signal.

20. A method of updating and entry in a calender database, comprising:

sensing a unique identifying signal from an identification tag attached to an article and operable to emit said unique identifying signal; and

,

associating the identification within an entry in said calendar database.

21. An educational scheduling system, comprising:

an institutional system containing an assignment record on an institutional system, the assignment record describing an assignment characterized by an estimated duration or a completion date; and

a portable organizer device comprising;

a calendar database;

a communication link configured to access the assignment record on the institutional system;

a user interface configured to receive a user schedule constraint; and

an agent configured to create a calendar entry for the accessed assignment record in response to the user schedule constraint, and the estimated duration or the completion date.

22. The educational scheduling system of claim 21, wherein the communication link is further configured to upload to the institutional system a status message pertaining to the calendar entry.