Chat Room: It's a Bird. It's a Plane. It's Internet2.
A better, faster Internet is bringing more of the world your way
By Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 5/1/2004
Schools and public libraries nationwide are starting to take advantage of Internet2, a speedy fiber-optic network that is up to 15,000 times faster than the standard Internet. What can the fleet Internet2 do that its much slower predecessor can't? Internet2 lets educators and students use video and videoconferencing in ways that were never before possible.
If you've ever downloaded, say, a TV news story from the Internet, you know how frustrating that can be: you wait a couple minutes for the clip to download, hoping it won't stop in the middle, jitter, and begin loading again. And as for setting up a student videoconference with a scientist or an author, forget it. But with the advent of Internet2, things have changed. Streaming-video products, such as UnitedStreaming and AIMS's DigitalCurriculum, which work best with super-speed connections, may soon replace videocassette collections in K–12 schools, supplying thousands of video clips especially attuned to curriculum standards—and Internet2 is the perfect vehicle for them.
How much of a difference will Internet2 make in the lives of students? Scott Bryan, an information technology director at the St. Clair County Independent School District just north of Detroit, has seen plenty of kids work with Internet2. He says that it gives students the chance to meet and talk about critical issues—such as space technology and the environment—with scientists, authors, and other students all over the world. Participants view these videoconferences not through the little two-by-three-inch video players typical Internet users have, but via full-screen, broadcast-quality video. Bryan says high school science students have been impressed by the Remote Microscopy Scanning Electron Microscope, an Internet2 project from the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute that lets students and teachers control an electron microscope—a device usually restricted to university or corporate research labs—from their classroom computers. (Visit www.it.mtu.edu/main/internet2/projects/remote_mic.htm.)
Although the number of projects targeted at K–12 students that use Internet2's videoconferencing capabilities is small—there are fewer than 50—it's growing rapidly. That increase is largely due to the efforts of the K20 Initiative (k20.internet2.edu)—a group of educators who want to bring Internet2 to all learners—which has worked diligently for the past three years to connect educational institutions to Internet2. As a result, 33 states, called Sponsored Education Group Participants, or SEGP states, now have at least some of their schools and public libraries connected to Internet2, with more to come. (If you aren't sure if your state is an SEGP state, check the map at k20.internet2.edu/segp/currentparticipants.html.)
At the moment, the best-known Internet2 destination is the Jason Project (www.jasonproject.org), started by Robert Ballard, an archaeologist who has explored the wreck of the Titanic in a small submarine. Ballard and his colleagues travel to far-flung locations, ranging from the floor of the Black Sea to the Panama rain forests, and students can hear about the scientists' daily investigations and ask them questions over a live satellite video link. A similar project is Lewis and Clark Then and Now (www.ali.apple.com/lewisandclark), which broadcasts the efforts of a group of teachers who are duplicating the famous expedition of 1804–1806. The project is sponsored by the Clayton (MO) School District with financial support from the National Park Service, and it also holds regular videoconferences for participating students nationwide, giving them an idea of what life on the trail was really like for the explorers.
As more K–12 schools hook up to Internet2 during the next two years, use of video and videoconferencing on all grade levels will soar dramatically, says James Werle, a special assistant for educational partnerships at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. Werle recommends the Research Channel (www.researchchannel.org), a collection of multimedia programs that uses Internet2's video capabilities. He also likes the Neptune Project, sponsored by UW and the University of Victoria (www.neptuneproject.org). The project's scientists have placed cameras and other instruments along the boundaries of the geological plates off the shores of the Pacific Northwest. "They're watching the plates moving, and new life is emerging there," Werle says; it's a little like a description of the changes that Internet2 is bringing to K–12 education.
