Exploring the Impact of High-Speed Connectivity in Supporting Enriched

Learning Experiences in K-12.

Warren Matthews, Laurie Dias, Tom McKlin and Claudia Huff.

Overview

• Background: History and Motivation.• Direct-to-Discovery (D2D).• Technology– Just a tool.

• Education Research/Literature Review– Study impact and leverage what works.

• Future Work– Quantitative Data.

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Direct to Discovery• A partnership founded by the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) and

Barrow County Schools (BCS).• Aimed at bringing University laboratories into classrooms via high-

definition video-conferencing. • This partnership is establishing a community of practice (Lave & Wenger,

1991) for students, teachers and researchers with the intent of helping BCS students become scientifically literate citizens who acquire the necessary skills to participate productively in the changing workforce of STEM-related fields.

• Research indicates that students who participate in professional communities of practice “develop abilities to reason about learning and to think reflectively, to think critically, and to become motivated to learn independently throughout their lives” (Lin, Hmelo, Kinzer, & Secules, 1999, p. 45).

• Explorations between the students and scientists at GT have yielded promising preliminary results.

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The Internet

• The Internet has had a significant impact on teaching, learning and research at the University level.

• And has the potential to do the same thing at the K-12 level.

• Internet access is no longer something nice to have.• It is critical for teaching and learning in the 21st century

classroom• E-rate funding has committed over $19b in the last 10

years to get schools connected to the Internet.

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Internet2 (1/2)

• Advanced Networking in General.– R&E Networking.– Over 100 Mbps.– Also latency, routing, bandwidth per student.

• National Backbone Network.– Also National Lambda Rail (NLR).

• Organization for User Communities.– e.g. K20 group.

• Not to be confused with Web 2.0.

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Internet2 (2/2)

• Translate to connectivity with meaningful bandwidth, and the applications that make use of it– Three legs of a stool.

• Add a fourth leg for added stability– Enthusiastic participants

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Barrow County Schools

• Barrow is a small county between Atlanta and Athens.

• Growing suburb of Atlanta, bedroom community. Attract clean industry.

• Many of the problems of rural districts without the benefit of being counted as rural.

• Make use of Technology to fill the needs, including significantly more bandwidth.

• Around 11,000 students in 14 schools.

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Beyond the Bandwidth Barrier

• Additional capacity is just the first step.• What becomes possible if there was almost

unlimited bandwidth?• R&E networking enables advanced

applications for new learning experiences.• Also see http://ceap.wcu.edu/houghton/i2

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What Else Is It Good For?

• The applications mentioned on the MUSE site (http://k20.internet2.edu):– Videoconferencing (D2D)– Teleimmersion/telepresence– Remote control of scientific instrumentation– Sensors, simulations, haptics

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Peachnet

• Peachnet passes within 5 miles of 35 school district offices.

• SOX connects most of the R&E institutes in the South East to National and International destinations.

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SEGP

• Sponsored Education Group Participant.• SOX sponsors Peachnet.• Any K-12 District connecting to Peachnet will

get connectivity to Internet2/NLR via SOX.• Improve performance, enabling access to rich

content.

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Supporting Infrastructure

• Network is required but not sufficient• Also– Classroom side equipment.– Professional development for teachers.– Implementation in the classroom.– Metrics and monitoring to determine impact.

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Community of Practice

• “…Groups of people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor…” Wenger

• Disconnect between activities in a learning context and authentic activities in a professional community

• Benefits for students and teachers ( e.g.Cifuentes & Murphy, 2000; Hartnell-Young, 2006; Woodgate & Fraser, 2005)

– Expand individual knowledge and develop expertise– Participate in decision making– Take risks without fear of failure– Experience a learning process: plan, act, observe, reason, reflect– Increase multicultural understanding– Professional growth– Increase pedagogical and content knowledge

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E-Science Projects in Education

• E-Science vs. Technology Integration• Examples of Projects– CoVis– NASA Explorer Schools– SENSE– Kids as Global Scientists

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Potential Impact of Enriched Learning Environments

• Benefits of E-Science for Students(Giddings, 2000; Mistler-Jackson & Songer, 2000; Songer, 1998; Songer, Lee & Kam, 2002; Woodgate & Fraser, 2005)– Opportunities to engage in authentic problems– Access to real-time data and first-hand resources– Opportunities for collaboration– Increase students’ science content knowledge and inquiry– Increase student motivation and self-efficacy– Increase technology fluency– Increase ability to direct own learning

• Benefits of E-Science for Teachers (Giddings, 2000; Hartnell-Young, 2006; Mistler-Jackson & Songer, 2000; Songer, Lee & Kam, 2002; Woodgate & Fraser, 2005)– Increase technology fluency– Professional development opportunities– Increase content knowledge– Improve professional practice

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Examples

• Successfully conducted events with the Clean Room and Microscope Room focusing on Nanotechnology.

• Also Materials Science, AP Chemistry.• Astronomy, Gray’s Reef, NASA …• Not just GT– Bioinformatics with UGA.

• Students thinking about college.

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Further Work

• Quantitative data and analysis from several districts.

• Research District– Subject of study– Philosophy of research, so students are ready for

University or 21st Century Workforce.• More participants– Dekalb, Putnam, Ware.

• Get Involved– Research, connect a K-12 district, provide rich content.

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Utilization

More capacity means less congestion. Available capacity is also necessary.More capacity means less congestion. Available capacity is also necessary.

Immediately see usage 2-3x previous capacity. Immediately see usage 2-3x previous capacity.

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District upgraded from 20 Mbps to 150 Mbps (Peachnet). District upgraded from 20 Mbps to 150 Mbps (Peachnet).

MRTG is widely used by the networking community. Green is incoming traffic, blue is outgoing.

MRTG is widely used by the networking community. Green is incoming traffic, blue is outgoing.

Connected to Peachnet.

2.2 milliseconds2.2 milliseconds

2.4 milliseconds2.4 milliseconds

This graph show the delay (in milliseconds) between the clean room at Georgia Tech and BCS district central office .This graph show the delay (in milliseconds) between the clean room at Georgia Tech and BCS district central office .

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A Typical K-12 System in Georgia.Severely congested pipes mean long queues in routers.

Severely congested pipes mean long queues in routers.

This graph show the delay (in milliseconds) between the clean room at Georgia Tech and a district central office .This graph show the delay (in milliseconds) between the clean room at Georgia Tech and a district central office .

In the evenings and weekends, delay is 5 milliseconds.In the evenings and weekends, delay is 5 milliseconds.

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Summary

• D2D focuses on bringing labs into classrooms– leverages cutting edge technology.

• Founded on accepted successful practices.• Engage students by interacting with scientists.• Study what happens.

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Acknowledgements

• Additional financial support from Dekalb County Schools.

• The teachers and staff at Barrow County District Schools: Ed Morrison, John St.Clair, Kevin McCage, Marshall Chambers, Ron Saunders, Caroline O’Bannon, Emily Mason, Pam Sloan, Kristy Myers.

• Researchers at Georgia Tech (content providers): Greg Book, Joel Pikarsky, Jud Ready, Jim Sowell.

• Others: Paul Marseglia, Jim Demmers.

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Any Questions?

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