Delivering high-speed Internet and media-rich eLearning in remote regions of the world at an affordable price
The Challenge
Today the need to have computer networks in schools is acute. The world realizes that such networks will help close the digital divide. While most educators realize that access to the Internet is increasingly important in schools, they face many challenges:
Traditional networks are high cost and high maintenance – Most
networks are Windows-based, and therefore require separate
servers and costly licenses. As such only basic Internet services
are implemented. While traditional networks are easier to integrate
into usable networks, they also require more skilled people
to maintain and operate. On the other hand Open Source/Linux-based
networks require really specialized people to configure them
before installation, but once set up, they require little or
no maintenance.- Seat licenses are costly – Traditional networks involve costly seat licenses. Schools cannot afford many licenses.
- PC maintenance – Many schools cannot afford PCs but those that have them find maintenance unaffordable, and consequently many of them are not repaired (because of the lack of skills and resources).
- High cost of Internet provision – Even in developed nations the cost of Internet to schools is very high. Even so, it is not possible for many concurrent PCs to connect to the Internet. Even schools that have bandwidth as high as T1 or E1 cannot offer predictable service to many users. Traditional networks cannot cope with the traffic. Bottlenecks are also created in a number of equipment (e.g., routers and switches) and therefore performance is poor.
- High cost of bandwidth – Due to the high cost of bandwidth many institutions abandon distance education projects. Teachers shun subjects that involve the use of web sites because continuous multimedia class sessions cannot be guaranteed. Most web hosts cannot support multiple and simultaneous hits.
- Access is slow and unpredictable – In many regions of the world, “world wide wait” is a reality and norm.
- Distance Education – Because of bandwidth limitations, developers tend not to use high-impact eLearning tools such as motion video and colorful graphics.
The Solution
Addressing the above problems is Advanced Interactive’s innovative Knowledge Delivery Engine (KDE) technology, which is commercialized as EducationAxxess. This solution, on the surface, looks simple (all great inventions look simple), but the technology was funded by Canada’s advanced Internet research and development agency, CANARIE, and has gone through numerous iterations concerning even small details. For example, in the early days of testing, it was discovered that the network had to be protected, not only from external attacks, but more so from internal ones. Examples like this come from long periods of testing and experience.
Several
key benefits of the KDE Technology result from its consolidation of several
servers into one robust and efficient one. This core strategy alleviates
the need for several separate servers, seat licenses, and local technical
support (in fact, in many places there may not be enough of these so-called
skilled people). View
Diagram
The KDE server is in turn connected to an extremely high-speed connection to the Internet. This connection allows the head-end servers to crawl the Internet on a continuous basis. This process continually checks for changes in objects of a predefined list of web sites. If there are changes, then the updates are refreshed throughout the network automatically through multicasting. With one-way satellite services such as WorldSpace’s L-Band satellites, high-speed access can be provided virtually anywhere in the world.
Therefore, with EducationAxxess, even schools with low bandwidth connectivity will experience high-speed accessibility to the Internet and rich eLearning content all the time. Three distinct products are available:
- SchoolAxxess is focused on elementary and secondary schools (K–12);
- CampusAxxess is oriented to colleges and universities (post-secondary).
The Result
Since commercialization in October 2003, some 90,000 students in 108 educational
institutions have benefited from the EducationAxxess products. These institutions
are located in 9 countries – Canada, USA, American Samoa, Samoa,
Tonga, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, and Senegal – in both urban and remote
places.
eLearning content can now be hosted in EducationAxxess Servers in schools, and can be accessed by students at high speeds. Video clips can be played by many users without delays. Schools can now convert their computer labs into Telecentres and offer continuing education courses to the community, thereby creating revenues to sustain the ICT network.
Praise from users…
VANCOUVER ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 85 – “The (AI) proxy server served eight school districts around the district. The speed of the network was particularly impacted here as the school had only a 56K line to the Internet, and a full lab of modern computers. Our experience was a great success.” – Steve Gray, District Principal, Resources and Technology
FULFORD ELEMENTARY, Fulford Harbour, BC –- “Fulford Elementary is a small, rural school (125 students). Up until the server was installed, the slow connection speed and the inability of the connection to handle a whole class using the Internet was a perfect excuse to not use this resource at all! The SchoolWeb server has been a perfect solution… teachers have become much more comfortable using the Internet and see it as an important learning tool.” – Judy Raddysh
SCHOOL DISTRICT NO.19, Revelstoke, BC – “Since the installation of the caching server at Big Eddy Elementary School, we have seen immeasurable differences in the use of the Internet. The teacher, on a number of occasions, has commented on how it has been the whole determinant of the success of her use of technology. With 25 students accessing web pages at the same time for research purposes, the use of the cache is critical.” – Anne Cooper, Superintendent of Schools
GITKSAN GOVERNMENT COMMISSION, Hazelton, BC – “Your company’s innovative caching server concept will greatly assist us as we now can provide high-speed Internet services, not only to our communities but to the surrounding municipalities as well. The greatest aspect of this project in our depressed economy is the creation of a new business and jobs for our Nation. Our new company is called Gitksan Digital Solutions and not only are we our own Internet Service Provider (ISP) but we are also moving into Technical Certification opportunities and computer sales. This has all transpired due to our involvement with your company in this exciting project.” – Matt Vickers, CEO.
BRIGHAM UNIVERSITY HAWAII (BYUH) AND LIAHONA SECONDARY SCHOOL, Tonga – BYUH
has a program called Technology Assisted Language Learning (TALL) which
is used to teach English to students in mission schools in remote Pacific
Islands such as Tonga, Guam, Saipan, Samoa, etc. Students enrolled in BYUH
require an accepted standard of English comprehension – oral and
written. Formerly, many students would take up to 18 months to get up to
standard. TALL was developed as a solution, but delivery to remote places
such as Tonga required distance education infrastructure. The cost of bandwidth
in such places is prohibitive. In August 2004, a SchoolAxxess system was
installed in Liahona Secondary School, Tonga and a CampusAxxess System
in BYUH in Hawaii. Both systems have been working flawlessly since then.
Users in Liahona school now have high-speed access to Internet content
and can take TALL courses where media-rich content can be accessed very
quickly. Even video content is delivered without delay. Users in BYUH also
benefit because their access speeds have also improved substantially.