Abstract * Foil Index for this file
Given by Geoffrey C. Fox at HPDC95/SC95 Tutorials on August 1/Dec 4 1995. Foils prepared December 2,95
Abstract * Foil Index for this file
This presentation sets the application (in this case education) backdrop for the HPDC95 Tutorial on the use of Web based technologies for education
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| We assume that Living Textbook, Phy105/106 material (on-line screendumps) and InfoVision and WebServer discussions are also used |
| We describe uses of NII/GII in education, relationships with edutainment, advantages of digital versus analog, overseas as well as U.S.A.. delivery, role of Geographical Information Systems, role of Interactive and other simulations |
| We look at current as well as future Web Technologies and the implications for presentation of scholarly work and the curriculum |
This table of Contents
Abstract
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| Distance Learning |
| Tutorial |
| Fall 1995 |
| Geoffrey C. Fox, Wojtek Furmanski |
| 111 College Place |
| Syracuse University |
| Syracuse NY 13244-4100 |
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This presentation sets the application (in this case education) backdrop for the HPDC95 Tutorial on the use of Web based technologies for education
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| We assume that Living Textbook, Phy105/106 material (on-line screendumps) and InfoVision and WebServer discussions are also used |
| We describe uses of NII/GII in education, relationships with edutainment, advantages of digital versus analog, overseas as well as U.S.A.. delivery, role of Geographical Information Systems, role of Interactive and other simulations |
| We look at current as well as future Web Technologies and the implications for presentation of scholarly work and the curriculum |
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| Student-Teacher and Student-Student and other individual Interactions |
| Pedagogical (electronic books and similar material -- InfoVision) and Exploratory learning using WWW as a "virtual library" for projects |
| Homework and Student Projects including electronic laboratories and field trips |
| Assesment and other electronic "administrative" support |
| Relating Education and the Real world |
| Networked world-wide collaborations of students doing real science including remote control of instruments (telescopes, microscopes) fetching data over web |
| Eventually full collaborative televirtual environment linking teachers, children, scientists, real world and simulated world |
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Upto now, computers have been useful but not revolutionary in education
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Further distance education using current technology
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| Has also only been a modest success -- has only a small "market share" |
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| Education will be totally changed by the use of distributed InfoVision servers and clients |
| The power and pervasiveness of today's machines with the replacement of analog video services by digital services suggests this time I will not be wrong |
| InfoVision will not only improve education but suggests totally new educational systems with radical changes to traditional universities and K-12 schools |
These changes in University -- student interactions are accompanied by
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Although you can build useful Interfaces to current Web based on 28.8 kbaud and other modems using POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) --
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ISDN or ATM is needed for quality video delivery
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| ISDN is 10% of needed performance but perhaps only need quarter screen with 15 frames per second for education as typically uses few minutes clips -- you are not watching 2 hour movie |
| Further improved compression such as Wavelets makes ISDN even more attractive -- unfortunately MPEG is standard and will be built into PC's |
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| The basic multi-use principle says that we will exploit not only the hardware infrastructure but also the software and other technology produced by suite of NII applications including business, health care, entertainment etc. |
Note that (1.5 megabit/second) Digital Video supports:
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| Disciplined Navigation -- It is too easy to get lost in Cyberspace and it will get worse -- need some organizing principles |
| Guided Discovery and Exploration -- In Exploratorium -- relatively unstructured browsing -- one needs guidance and feedback |
| Interactive and Editable -- One must be able to modify and edit hypermedia material as part of learning process |
| Assesment -- Tools are needed to track students navigation pathways and their reactions to chosen pathway -- Use this for evaluation and individual student oriented course refinement |
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Multi-user Collaboratory -- Tools are needed for group navigation, experience sharing and collective editing
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| Active Simulation -- Simulation support needed with two-way interactivity that enables real-time interaction with the simulated world |
| Multi-Sensory -- Coherent Integration model of various multimedia modalities -- hypertext, sound, video, simulations |
| Immersive -- Virtual Reality paradigm with spatial navigation metaphor seems very promising base technology |
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| Basic issues covered in collaboration module |
| This aspect of Virtual University cannot use caching and hierarchical server structure. |
| It is thus particular sensitive to available bandwidth and so needs the best compression and transport technology. It is the aspect of virtual University which is sensitive to teacher--pupil separation |
| Use of videoconferencing suggests that 56kbaud lowest practical speed, ISDN (128 kbaud) pretty good but full screen 30 frames per second needs the usual 1.5 megabits/sec link with MPEG compression. Better compression such as Wavelet should reduce needed bandwidth |
| Multi-User environments with interactive 3D MOO's and other televirtual (you create a computer environment which provides realistic virtual world in which collaborators interact) are important and active research areas. |
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| Student |
| Can be combined with Collaborative Technology |
| Can be used in emergency (sick pupil) or as norm for students in remote areas |
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| Information Video Imagery and Simulation on Demand |
| Tomorrows Communities will be centered not just on roads, libraries, schools and local businesses but EVERY community will have a High Speed Digital Community network that will both drive the community internally but also tell the outside world about business services, tourist attractions etc. |
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This is set of InfoVision technologies for search and delivery of multimedia information and simulations
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| Authoring includes future WebTop publishing and Productivity tools (Java critical here) as well as fundamental information science issues such as ... |
What is right way to present and organize multimedia distributed hyperlinked multi-author material
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| Currently we teach and learn using lectures supported by books (and scruffy equivalents such as xeroxed notes) as well as presentations in form of bulleted itemized summary lists |
| Hyperlinks make "sequential" books very unnatural. |
| Further computers are not very good at flipping sequentially through electronic pages -- I can beat computer flipping paper book! |
Thus one can suggest that (electronic) encyclopedia is a better model so that Encyclopedia Galactica is natural abstraction for the Web
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| This suggests that Web Information should be produced in short hyperlinked modules as in Encyclopedia articles |
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| These Web modules (Encyclopedia Galactica articles) are produced by multiple authors and one can have several different descriptions of a given subject |
Note Presentations are not hyperlinked but they are built around a small unit of information -- the page with just a few items on it.
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Thus electronic presentations can be expected to be important
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| This includes the expected personal (productivity) environment which is illustrated by our concept WebWindows and particular WebTools system |
| Note that homework will be done as an electronic part of the learning environment. |
| Web Search and more disciplined Navigation (as in WebTools) will guide student's exploration of CyberSpace |
| Virtual Reality could be a revolutionary technology to improve the learning environment by immersing student in physical or more speculatively information world, |
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| This is a "Human-Computer Interface" technology which allows user: |
Full Visual Immersion in world created by computer
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Multisensory Interactions
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Video Game systems under development
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Technically and Politically easiest is use of high speed networks and servers internal to a University and its associated infrastructure (dormitories) i.e. do a better job with current set-up.
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| Extreme scenario is individuals from the Adirondacks wilderness to the South Pole getting a Global Electronic University degree from a mix of Professors at Caltech, Harvard, Munich, Tokyo etc. |
Intermediate scenario is innovative University setting up partnerships with say
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Analog as in current Cable Satellite or broadcast TV or radio represents informations by WAVY SHAPES
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| Digital as in current computers represents everything by NUMBERS and uses "error-correction" so that you receive EXACTLY what is sent with NO distortion of text or images |
So information is more precise
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| and looks better -- your great art piece is not distorted or the medical picture is transmitted without adding or subtracting tumors/pathologies etc. |
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| Computer, Telephone, and Cable Engineers |
| Journalists from both print, photography, and video fields |
| Artists, Advertising designers, Architects, Film Producers, "Book" Publishers etc. |
| Real Estate Brokers |
| School Teachers, Librarians, Government and Business workers involved with giving information to public or fellow workers |
Shop owners and staff advertising their wares on digital highway.
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| All those in medical area -- from Virtual reality to allow surgeon in Syracuse to manipulate robot devices at accident scene to Multimedia patient records |
| Law enforcement (police searching worldwide databases) and lawyers accessing case histories. |
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| Syracuse's Phy105 (for instance) exploits the students interest in learning science (a typically unpopular area) using a technology that interests them and will be valuable to them when they graduate |
| Remember that even if you don't believe in these technologies, our children will through both America On-line Internet access and perhaps more dangerously through virtual reality based multi-user video games accessed through 1-900-abcdefg or WWW |
| Should try to build on success of Edutainment (SimCity, Carmen SanDiego) and make game backdrops of educational value |
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| "All" children will have the equivalent of today's $20,000 business or university computer processing capability in |
| BOTH Settop Boxes and in Video Game Controllers which will "just" be Personal Computers |
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| Distance Learning and teacher/student collaboration over the network |
| Video information on demand |
| Text Information on demand |
| Image Information on demand |
| Interactive Simulation of physical systems |
| Geographical Information Systems |
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Living Schoolbook -- Prototype of K-12 Educational Environment of year 2000
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HPDC95 Tutorial and Other Computational Science Courses CPS600, CPS615
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Physics 105/106 -- Science for the 21st Century (for non-Scientists) -- Some course modules built around Multimedia Information Systems
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This hyperlinked material accounts for about 10% Phy 105, 20% Phy 106 and expect to increase if success continues
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| The Living Schoolbook is a New York State funded Initiative to create K-12 educational applications that exploit leading information technologies |
Living Schoolbook Base Educational Services are:
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Living Schoolbook Leverages Information Technologies
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The Project Team
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Upstate Project Schools
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Downstate (New York City) Project Schools
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| askERIC Educational Database for teachers with consultation |
| The Discovery Channel -- Video Content Provider |
| NewsBank -- Text Content Provider |
| Reuters News Service |
| Syracuse Language Systems -- Learn Foreign Languages on Demand |
| TravelVenture -- Interactive travel information on Demand |
| US Air Force Rome Laboratory -- InfoVision technologies |
| WorldView Corp. : Interactive Client-Server Geographic Information System |
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Input from real time video of collaborating individuals as well as:
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| Software will run on "Settop" downloaded from information server. |
| Allow Sick Children to participate in lessons while at home and in hospital |
| Allow discussions of Homework among teachers and students etc. |
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The simplest VOD applications treat InfoVision server as a "glorified" VCR with a huge stock of readily accessible prerecorded tapes
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Interactive VOD will have granularity of order a minute
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| Can store Books Newspapers Encyclopedias etc. as full text. |
| Further we expect that text indices will be most popular way of browsing the 100,000 hours of expected digital video archives |
| Rather than keyword or abstract searches, search full text for say all newspaper articles with words Syracuse, Bargain Price, Twizzlers in same paragraph |
| Speed from local parallelism - InfoVision Servers will have 64 --> 1024 processors - each scans part of text |
| Power from use of Web Search techniques to access information from entire galaxy |
This is vision of Digital Library
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KODAK GIODE - Global Imagery on Demand Everywhere - Service (KPEX -- KODAK Picture Exchange)
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| Browse at low resolution - select and buy images you need for Annual Report cover or school project |
Gradually develop sophisticated search by image content or as in video example, search using textual index (initial major implementation ?)
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Interesting images available from local libraries and New York State tourism and economic development resources
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| Financial Modeling will allow you to make more money by investing more wisely |
Reasonably accurate simulations are available for
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These simulations of physical phenomena can be used to illustrate scientific principles in classroom
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| The current standard way of recording simulations is possibly annotated (audio, text or add-on video) analog video |
| We can clearly implement the digital analog of this but there are several interesting alternatives |
Firstly we can use clickable image Web technology to allow student to click on a region of video image and find out further information
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We can follow strategy of multimedia games such as "Night Trap" and allow student to select from several different multimedia(video) streams -- this is interactive movie
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| We can either run simulations in real-time or pre-simulate and store digitally in file. In real-time scenario, we can use interpretative web interfaces to allow simulation parameters including laws of physics to be changed by user |
| This would require our full WebWork with interpreted and perhaps virtual reality based simulation as in HPFI prototype (High Performance Fortran Interpreter) |
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Typically it needs supercomputer performance to simulate full 3D physical phenomena but we can't really give this performance interactively to each student.
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Java appears wonderful technology to support client computing and this has been demonstrated for neural network simulations
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| Could build games based on little models such as a variant of Sonic the Hedgehog where he/she wanders in world traversed by multiple tornados abstracted from realistic simulations |
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| Video Games include travel through race courses (Crash and Burn) |
| or through "Mystical Worlds" as in Donkey Kong or for the new generation of PC games such as MYST |
| Other PC Edutainment systems such as Oregon Trail and Carmen San Diego provide "adventure/knowledge" filled journeys through sort of the real world |
| NASA, USGS and other sources (such as Russia) provide digital terrain data which can be used to provide totally realistic "flight simulations" |
| Current widely available 3D data has 10 to 30 meter resolution but even now, Synthetic aperture radar sensors are being tested which can be flown in a plane and give horizontal and vertical resolution of around 1 meter. |
| The software to implement this is called a Geographical Information System (GIS) |
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| Other applications that will be important with the NII include: |
Yellow Pages
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Travel Agencies
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| Community Information as part of Community network |
| Weather -- Cruise around 3D world with real weather superimposed to plan trips etc. |
Real Estate
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| NPAC's part of Living Schoolbook will provide 3D journeys through both Mars (courtesy of NASA) and parts of New York State |
Computer holds digital maps and basic spatially tagged information such as
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| Teachers can add such information for particular classes to their clients or server. |
| Use for virtual field trips such as simulated trip down Hudson river or Erie canal |
| Note this is a generalized flight simulator and one can build on distributed simulation technology built by DoD for multi-student interactive simulations |
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| The GIS based Interactive Journey can typically be used as a structured learning tool with a planned journey navigating in a structured way through spatially located multimedia information |
This is contrasted with browsing our InfoVision archives which is set up as an Exploratorium with only general principles such as
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guiding students through archives
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| One can of course provide structure by imposing non-spatial navigation paths through Exploratorium archives |
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| Video and Server Technology Network is prototype of Wire Service of future using Web Technology to service Mass Communications Industry |
| Partner with this field (Newhouse School) to find out how to author on-line video and other multimedia material |
| NYNET ATM network extended internally to allow linkage of NPAC to Newhouse School of Public Communications and University Electronic Media Production Unit |
Faculty and students -- the multimedia digital journalists of the future will use:
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| Study Integration digital editing (AVID) technology of media field with digital web and powerful computer technology. |
Industrial partners from traditional print and analog video fields
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| FLAG is an enterprise in which NYNEX Network Systems Company is a major (roughly 40%) investor. |
| Current fiber link from U.K. to Japan (via Africa) is being constructed at an approximate $1.4B cost |
| Natural Strategy is for Web Servers in U.S.A.. to deliver educational material via FLAG to Africa and Far East |
This would set up hierarchically as:
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| Real-Time Compression critical for interactive use of FLAG as lines are costly -- note Internet is free but needs compression as overloaded .... |
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Many students from these countries come to the U.S.A.. now but ...
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| In Virtual University, one sets up a partnership between U.S.A.. and overseas University where key curricula and its delivery are provided over GII (Global Information Infrastructure of which FLAG is one example) |
| High-end PC's should be included as possible Web server for Africa even we use SP-2, multi-processor SGI etc. as server in U.S.A.. University |
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Caching can either be teacher driven (preselect material) or student driven as in computer paging
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Caching helps with both bandwidth and ensuring students browse relevant and appropriate material
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Datamine the WWW for resources relevant to K-12 Classroom
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Selection by teachers provides high-value materials, efficiency in teacher preparation time and K-12 appropriate material
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| Could be useful to produce selections on CDROM for targeted application areas. |
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| We will need caching anyway for both the Global University and indeed general hierarchical Web Server/ InfoVision scenario |
| Comparison with InfoVision and the Entertainment Analogy: |
| Suppose Jurassic Park VI is released on the Hollywood NII Server |
Without Caching -- perhaps 20 million people will videodial Hollywood to get their simultaneous showings at 1.5 megabits/second each
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| With Caching, average person will find new movie cached on local server only a few optical fiber miles away. Will reduce needed bandwidth by about a factor of 100 as must travel about 15 miles not 1500 miles to get movie. |