Long-distance challenge
Apr 1, 1999 12:00 PM, Janet Cunningham
Bringing the classroom to the student saves institutions money by cutting travel costs, saving time, and reducing spending on duplicated resources. Studies have consistently proven that students receiving distance-learning training learn as effectively as students in traditional classrooms. Plus, distance learning offers the added benefit of support for students with varying learning styles, allowing interaction with previously unreachable individuals and information.
The real questions about distance learning arise when choosing the best method of implemention. Unfortunately, there exists an ever-growing gap between capability and credibility. The newest and greatest technologies, however appealing, are often unaffordable, impractical or unnecessary. Technology planning is further complicated by inexperienced vendors who may misinterpret the educational need.
The challenge of implementing a distance learning solution lies in maintaining focus on improving the educational environment while finding a way to move toward that goal. Technology planning is improved through an incremental approach that provides the maximum use of resources at minimum expense. The system designer must anticipate the effects of a growing number of users and demands for user capabilities without requiring expensive hardware replacement. The distance-learning network must not only meet today's needs, but also provide a foundation for integration and expansion.
A successful distance-learning solution is an integrated communications system with a network approach, tailored specifically to the needs of the institution. Spot-treatment technologies designed to remedy one or two specific problems are ineffective. Without foresight and careful planning, users may find themselves surrounded by unrelated pockets of technology; each resource blocked from the others and eventually from the users themselves.
Education is improved through a careful mixture of the old and the new. Just as grade school curricula combine studies of ancient Rome with research on modern government, so should distance learning solutions draw from the strengths of both yesterday and today. Hardware already in place in a facility can be merged with the total solution. Computer workstations, A-V devices and structure wiring need not be uprooted with each newly added technology. Most equipment can be upgraded for integration to a new system and be used until the price of its replacement falls.
Tailored solutions Distance-learning solutions consist of a broad combination of A-V technologies and network management. Sprint, a global communications company, offers distance-learning solutions customized to extend the boundaries of the traditional classroom. With the announcement of Sprint ION (integrated on-demand network) new opportunities arise for educational facilities and businesses to expand their distance learning capabilities and improve learning. ION provides schools and businesses with virtually unlimited bandwidth for simultaneous voice, video and data communications. Through the strength of this digital network, users can interact with students or instructors outside of their building and collaborate with multiple locations through real time video. This technology opens the doors for multiple simultaneous connections, high-speed Internet access, videoconferencing and instructional video on demand.
This new technology brings with it a responsibility for improved communications solutions at the local level as well. ION delivers voice, video and data to the premise, but there may be additional obstacles within the premise wiring architecture. A unique aspect of ION is its ability to work with a variety of wiring media. Not only do facilities require WAN solutions for the transport of messages between locations, but also LAN solutions to distribute content within the walls of a building.
Shared resources Distance learning originated as an inventive way to share limited resources, whether instructors, media or hardware. This initiative continues with the attempted maximization of the number of individuals benefiting from the resources on hand. Related schools and businesses need a means to merge their many technologies into a structured and efficient sharing environment. Sprint simplifies communications by assessing and organizing each LAN to bring all local resources together for use, and working towards WAN technologies to allow the high-speed sharing of resources over distance.
Sprint's integrated communications system for business and education, Sprint TekNet, provides a means of merging technologies within a building into one cohesive broadband solution. Each building is transformed through a customized combination of such interwoven technologies as media rebroadcast (centralized media), videocon-ferencing, cable television, browser-based scheduling and control, digital streaming and video on demand. Each system is openly architected using non-proprietary equipment to set the framework for future integration and network growth. Once the building communications systems are established locally, they may be networked to form a seamless web of information and resource sharing.
Audio and video media should be organized and centralized to more efficiently connect media centers for sharing. Video may reside in a traditional media center with rack-mounted devices (VCR, DVD, CD-ROM) or in encoded digital format on a video server. A degree of redundancy is desirable for reliability with a media rack or server placed in each building for local distribution. Such redundancy also aids in the modular implementation of technologies in a multiple-building business or school district. Schools or businesses, whose budget dictates implementation of technology in phases, may add systems gradually to selected buildings while working toward a distance-learning network to include all associated locations.
Video distribution With the move from analog to digital transmission of combined voice, video and data, schools and businesses are striving to upgrade networks to digital solutions. The dispensation of E-Rate funding will empower some schools to do just that.
Through advancements in digital encoders, decoders, and transport systems, video can now be input from a variety of sources, compressed as an MPEG-1/MPEG-2 stream, and delivered over most LAN/WAN networks (ION, IP, ATM, ISDN and T-1). The quality and reliability needed to foster comfortable, productive exchanges between instructor and student is provided through smooth, two-way transmission of audio and video. Companies can now add high-quality video capabilities to their distance- learning structures without replacing existing networks.
At the local level, however, it is sometimes wise to bypass the LAN completely when delivering video to the classroom. Jumping immediately into the costly implementation of digital technologies at the local level may not be the answer for those groups on restricted budgets. Until the price for supporting new digital technologies drops, higher-quality video to the desktop means higher cost. Several issues arise when attempting to support the distribution of video over a LAN. Complexities regarding traffic flow and integration of video streaming over a LAN often require the services of an expert to analyze possible complications and pinpoint solutions on a case-by-case basis. Two hindrances of an immediate move to digital video over LAN are higher cost and decreased systemperformance.
Unlike raw data, video requires a consistent rate of transmission to retain quality. For this reason, high-speed networks are necessary for quality video to be streamed over the LAN to the desktop. Options for supporting video over LAN are 25 Mb/s ATM network, Gigabit Ethernet, or fast Ethernet (100 Mb/s Ethernet). Even in these networks, however, video streaming is often cumbersome and high priority, requiring large spans of bandwidth that cause greatly increased network traffic. Networks must be maintained with management of the allocation of bandwidth. Furthermore, such networks are expensive to implement. Even when the project salvages existing workstations, the cost for routers, HUBs, and associated hardware and software is burdensome.
Through a carefully planned migration to digital, institutions can save a substantial amount of money that may be used elsewhere to support education. Sprint TekNet provides an intelligent method for the delivery of quality video. At the local level, video from within the building or streamed from a distance, is modulated and rebroadcast to televisions in the building. This rebroadcast approach sends the converted video over the building's CCTV system, allowing any classroom or conference room to view the broadcast by selecting the channel. Using RF distribution of video, the transmission bypasses the LAN, leaving it open for the smooth relay of data.
Less expensive options are also available in cases where an institution requires video to the desktop. This is usually necessary for individualized training environments rather than group training. To provide video to the computer monitor, the computer workstation is upgraded with a television card that receives the RF transmission through the facility's closed circuit television system. In this way, a student can view a video training session over a PC without it ever touching the LAN.
Learning sessions may be further enhanced through the distribution of locally originated PC multimedia presentations over the internal television distribution system. Such media as Power Point presentations, Inter-net content and educational software courses touch every classroom using a centrally located scan converter. The presentation is loaded onto the systems' network workstation with A-V output running to the scan converter. From the scan converter, the converted signal is sent out over a single channel on the RF distribution system. This solution places the power of the Internet, presentation software and other computer applications in every classroom with a television, regardless of whether a computer is in the room.
Videoconferencing Traditional deployment of video-conferencing systems is increasingly challenged by alternative methods of exchanging information over real time, two-way video. The customary approach to videoconferencing, which places video codecs in designated videocon-ference suites or on roll-abouts, is costly and often impractical for users. One Sprint alternative, which provides the potential for plug-and-play videocon-ferencing to every room in a building, is enabled through one or more centrally located videoconferencing codecs or MPEG-1 coder/decoders.
Through this approach, audio and video are collected from a remote location and modulated for broadcast over a broadband coaxial system or a combination of broadband coax and Cat 5 to the classroom. Users may then plug in the camera and audio in the chosen classroom, selecting the correct channel on the monitor to view the party at the other location. The return path is broadcast upstream using the Sprint A-V rebroadcast solutions or standard T-channel. This approach enables access to videoconferencing from any room while saving money by avoiding the duplicate purchase of codecs. Furthermore, this centralization of video-conferencing equipment supports growth with additional simultaneous transmissions made possible through the purchase of extra codecs.
Control over distance New approaches to the control of local and shared media give students and instructors the power to manipulate devices as needed for a presentation, learning session or personal exchange over distance. Newly developed IP solutions have merged the power of the Internet with the convenience of centralized media. Users can now control audio and video broadcasts through browser-based applications. The wonder of approaching control through Internet/intranet based solutions is the opportunity it offers to connect users with resources in other cities, states and countries. The computer workstation replaces the remote control for local control and eliminates the need for specially designed keypads for media in remote locations.
Sprint offers a tool to schedule any school or business resource, along with an efficient control interface for point-and-click operation of centralized audio and video media. All of this is done through the most commonly used browsers, Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Using Sprint TekNet Resource Scheduling and Multimedia Control Software, a user can control a VCR in another state as if it were in the classroom. A graphical control keypad provides point-and-click options. The software provides a solution to device reservation and scheduling. Users can schedule upcoming events as they are planned, adding the necessary resources for any meeting or presentation. The software reserves the resources so that a librarian or media specialist may prepare the conference room, VCR, DVD or other device for use at that time.
Advances in voice, video and data communications are bringing previously isolated classrooms closer together to share knowledge and resources. Although several challenges lie ahead, the convergence of existing and upcoming solutions provides schools and businesses with the communications systems needed to achieve their educational goals. Through careful technology planning and an integrated approach to communications, institutions can ensure that these systems not only solve today's problems, but are also armed for the demands of tomorrow.
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