Topic: Computer Networks in Local Education
Speakers: Irene Falzone, Marty Eifred, and Vince Sefcik
Announcements:
July 24th meeting is a presentation of Digital Sound and Software.com.
Nancy Oster says use sign-up sheet please. SEC 7/11 mtg. lunch at the Elephant Bar.
Dale Taylor announced a telecommunications meeting at UCSB Engineering II Pavilion between 4 and 6, also on July 11th.
Jeannie Sparks announced the formation of a Santa Maria network/collection of web pages. The association of governments needs input on what the telecommunications policy ought to be. This is also on 7/11 between 3 and 5pm at the Betteravia Govt. Ctr.
Becky Davis announced that the www.ucsb.edu web site lists telcom jobs available at UCSB
Main Presentation:
Irene Falzone, School Board President of Cold Spring School. The classroom and teachers lag the technical know-how of the students. They were looking for models of how to deal with this problem. The "Partnership Academy" was formed to combine industry and education input into multimedia learning. Three academic classes and one technical class focused on 2-D multimedia creation.
They are looking for funding to continue the Academy. The students work for local industry and are being "mentored" by technical leaders.. Feedback on their performance from industry helps improve the technical education. The students teach (mentor) the teachers as well.
The educational system was designed for the industrial age. Changing this will require a lot of concentration. The interest of teachers has grown as fast as the Internet. The state board of education which has just started funding the "Academy", was surprised at the speed of the impact of the Academies process. The SBHS web page is the best for getting info on the Academy.
Mary Eifred, administrator of computer services for SB County Schools. 2.5 years ago no one knew that much about the Internet. He and Tom Towle did the research and testing to determine the feasibility and need for the Internet. They were allowed to put a network together on the condition that there be no cost to the county. They now have 650 users and the yearly cost of accounts are about $120. They do some filtering of X-rated sites. They have local dial up modem banks spread around the county so dial-in users don't pay phone toll charges. The main network is a frame relay backbone.
Becky Davis asked how they avoid the conflict of interest with commercial services? He says the parents (who will be allowed to have an account for the yearly fee) are part of the educational process.
Another question is how to support all the new users. He says the fees will allow 1 hour of staff time per user per year.
They have 128 class C addresses so each school can actually have a presence on the Internet.
George Gregg, Network and Computer Guru of SBCC. talks about the SB City College technology infrastructure. There is Cat 5 wiring to all classrooms, fiber between all buildings, Frame Relay to all off campus sites, a computer on the desk of every knowledge worker, adequately equipped computer labs, E-mail for everyone, Internet, and multimedia arts and technologies labs with model 7500 PPCs. The SBCC faculty has been eagerly embracing the new technology.
Future directions include student e-mail, dial-up services, pilot projects in high-speed educational WANs, Distance education, new routing strategies and Internet access strategies, future fast ethernet followed by switched ethernet and finally ATM. He described their first offering over distance learning which was a CD based multimedia course using e-mail for submission of lessons and interactions. Kent Richards described the evolution of their network. They will be connected to the Software Consortium with a T1 Internet feed soon.
Vince Sefcik, director of Network Communication Services at UCSB, on their reach to the outside. They have never had enough modems to serve students, teachers, and programmers. They will contract with a commercial ISP for dial-up modem servers. The bid closes on 6/28. It includes requirements on busy signal limits, 7x24 telephone technical service, and 60 mile radius of toll-free access. It also requires that the UCSB business be no more than 25% of the gross business revenues of the chosen provider.
The on-campus network is connected via frame relay to SBCC, Impulse Internet Services, and Silicon Beach with no charges to those connected. They encourage other organizations to connect to their frame relay hub.
They have instituted a campus intensive network called RESnet. It will have a port for every on-campus resident student. It includes a separate T1 Internet feed. It is funded by housing and residential services and is viewed as an essential feature to attract students. They are also going to extend this to the UCSB owned off-campus housing. They want to use ADSL ,Cable modems , and Hybrid fiber/coax to extend the services to the community. They have been taking about but not actively promoting private retrofits to apartments. They don't want to lose students to these apartments. It is part of their mandate to provide information if asked. Their web page: www.commserv.ucsb.edu Wireless is being investigated as a means to increase open access to network services. CalTrans is partnering with them to investigate this. They will look at commercial services and non-commercial services. Bandwidth is too low today and too expensive.
Nancy Oster thanked Jill Charbonneau for the wonderful buffet snack spread she brought today.
Minutes submitted by Dave Oster (doster@silcom.com)
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