Network and Education

by Bizhan Nasseh

Introduction

The Internet refers to a wide area network made up of tens of thousands of other computer networks using a common protocol to communicate with one another. Internet is the largest wide area network in the world. It has more than 2 million hosts and over 36,000 interconnected networks covering over 80 countries. It has over 20 million users, and this number may reach 100 million by the year 2000. The Internet allows local and wide area network users to communicate with people and servers around the world. It is revolutionizing the process of our education, business, and human communication. Academic and research institutions, some businesses, and government agencies have made information freely available to the Internet community for the advancement of teaching and learning.

     One of the most popular and fast growing applications of the Internet is the World Wide Web (WWW). The Web is a global, interactive, dynamic, cross-platform, distributed, graphical hypertext information system that runs over the Internet. The reason the Web has become more popular than other Internet applications such as Gopher is its integration of graphics, audio, video, animation, and text. The interface is easily navigateable-just jump from link to link, from page to page, and from server to server. The limitation of the Web is determind by campus wide network design and the user's hardware and software (workstation).

     In this paper I will discuss the Internet in general and the WWW in particular. The first section is connection issues, from client's capability, media for access, and network's design. In the second section, I will discuss the utilization of the Internet and the Web for learning activities based on the learning theory of Bloom Taxonomy. In the conclusion section I will explain the issues related to the preparation of university for utilization of technology in the education.

1. Connection

Access to the Internet for the use of its services such as the World Wide Web for enhancement of learning is a major part of the strategical planning of today's educational institutions. Access is available through commercial on-line services such as CompuServe, Delphi, American On-line, Prodigy, and Iquest. In order to fully utilize Web, having a SLIP (Serial Line IP) or PPP (Point-to-point Protocol) service is very essential for accessing audio, video, graphic, animation, and text. University can purchase or rent a SLIP/PPP router, which makes possible for local area networks to connect to the Internet through a shared modem. In some area such as California (Pacific Bell), phone companies offer ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, which carry data and voice simultaneously, at reduced rates for educational sites. Larger institutions with greater network traffic may lease a dedicated line from their telephone company for high-speed connections up to 1,544 Mbps. The price of the link is usually a fixed monthly fee based on the desired speed.

     In order to evaluate a desired connection for utilization of the Web, first I will identify our current set up at Ball State University. Figure one represent our current campus-wide network at Ball State University. The main components of our network are as follows: Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP):

     At Ball State, our standardized wiring medium for inside the buildings is level 3 of Unshielded Twisted Pair with 10 Mbps transmission speed. UTP has a variety of levels, from 1 to 5. The level 5 cable is the highest rated with up to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second) of transmission speed. The level 4 has maximum of 20 Mbps and level 3 has up to 16 Mbps.

Fiber Optics

Fiber optics cable is more expensive, but it is invaluable for situations where electronic emissions and environmental hazards are a concern. It can serve a very high performance transmission medium for modern distributed applications using multimedia. Currently available fibers have usable bandwidths ranging from 10 Gbps over 100 km to 10,000 Gbps over a few meters. In fiber optics, electronic signals are translated into light pulses by a modular, transmitted over the fiber by a light source, and detected and converted back into electrical signals by photoelectric diodes. At Ball State University all the buildings are connected with fiber optics cables.

Diagram of BSU Campus Network

Ethernet

The Ethernet is the most popular LAN technology in use today. It strikes a good balance between speed, price, and ease of installation. It is suitable for Web and multimedia access. The current ethernet at Ball State has a speed of 10 Mbps. A fast ethernet can provide up to 100 Mbps transmission speed, but it would be necessary to replace our current hubs and upgrade our UTP wire from level 3 to level 5.

Hub

The Hub is a multiport repeater which is usually associated with the connection of workstations in a star topology. It's software is for network management and security. Each building has many regular and intelligent hubs in order to restrict access to only known devices at known floor or wall sockets. Switching hubs enable 10 Mbps to be dedicated to each workstation.

Router

The Router filters out network traffic and interconnects a variety of network architecture. An important aspect of router is the interconnection protocol used for routing the traffic flow among various nodes. The price paid for this type of intelligent forwarding and filtering is usually calculated in speed of the network.

Workstation:

     A capable workstation is essential for taking advantage of Web's sites. The following are the minimum requirements for computers to access Web with text, video, audio, graphic, and animation.

2. Applications

The explosion of the Internet and its new application, the World Wide Web has provided a new hope and direction for communication, business, entertainment, and teaching and learning. At the same time with the progress in the capability of the Web there is increasing confusion about the purpose and utilization of the Web. Millions of people are using the Web, who are those people? Learners? Hackers? Researchers? or None of them? I am sure in the future our experience with Web will help us better utilize the Web in education. Having a practical vision and deep understanding of what we are going to accomplish is the only way to customize the power of the Web in the way that it strengthens our teaching and learning. We have to keep an open mind and be willing to accept input from everybody who has experience with computers in education and faculty in order to design a practical and realistic educational process which can use Web as an effective learning tool. As an educational institution, we should prevent closed door decisions made by a few people concerning the academic future of over 20,000 faculty and students at Ball State.

     The Bloom Taxonomy learning model has been an acceptable benchmark for learning activities by educators. Some educators believe that using this model will provide learners with a deeper understanding of subject matter and help them to gain the needed skills. Bloom Taxonomy has six levels of learning activities.

     The following is an attempt to design a process of teaching and learning by utilizing the Word Wide Web and Bloom Taxonomy. It is my vision and at Ball State University we need to explore different visions and models of computers in education. As an educational institution, we should encourage innovative ideas and provide an open environment for the discussion and evaluation of these new approaches.

     A recent course offered by Computer Science Department provides an example of the Bloom Taxonomy learning model. The offered course was a `C' programming language class in Fall 1995. Twenty students registered for this course. The instructor, Dr. John Robertson used Bloom Taxonomy learning model for the development of students in his course. The followings are steps of Bloom Taxonomy model which he utilized for the teaching and learning process.

Level 1 - Knowledge

In addition to the traditional teaching of `C' programming language by lecture and text book, Dr. Robertson assigned students to search the Web to find information and materials about the application and development of the Java programming language. Students read and printed the materials from Web and prepared questions and concerns about Java. In this step learning materials on the Web was divided in two sections. The first section was topic- dependent materials which were directly related to the application of Java language. The second section was topic-independent materials which in general were related to the topic. These activities provided additional opportunity for students in locating related information, developing critical judgment, and broadening their knowledge base about subject.

Level 2 - Comprehension

One day of the week was allocated to the discussion and comprehension of the learning materials which had been found by students from different Web sites. Class was converted to 20 teachers (the students) and one facilitator (the teacher). In this type of activities enormous sharing and learning will happen about the subject matter. If there was a question which needed additional investigation, the facilitator (the teacher) could assign it to an individual for additional credit or to the whole class. Not only students learned and comprehened a great deal from each other's findings, but also they learned from each other's experience in locating materials and utilizing Web search techniques. This was a beneficial learning activity which had potential for development of critical thinking in students.

Level 3 - Application

Application of the learned materials is very important for all different disciplines. Fortunately there is a great opportunity in Computer Science for application of learned materials in the form of projects. Dr. Robertson designed projects which provided students with opportunities to use their learned knowledge about `C' programming language in the development of the projects. Dr. Robertson reminded students that no matter how much they know, still they could find new information on the Web which could help them in design and structure of the project. Application of learned materials is the hallmark of today's teaching and learning in higher educational institutions.

Level 4 - Analysis

Dr. Robertson provided opportunity for students to work with more complex problems. He gave students assignment to write an application using Java programming language. The Java structure and syntax are similar to the `C' programming language. Students had to analyze `C' knowledge and broke it into pieces which would be useful in the development of a project with Java language. In this assignment students used loop, condition, and object hierarchy in order to prepare the new assignment. This was a great opportunity to breakdown a whole and use pieces in order to achieve a different task. This will help students to develop skills for the utilization of learned knowledge in different situation.

Level 5 - Synthesis

Dr. Robertson designed an assignment which provided opportunity for student to apply their `C' programming skills with new knowledge about a different topic. For example, his new assignment to the students was to write a device driver program in order to customize the reading information from keyboard device. The utilization of `C' programming knowledge was very appropriate for this project, but in addition, students needed to gain basic knowledge about device drivers. In addition to the book and teacher's lecture, Web provided students with some information about device drivers. On the Web, students might find some examples with source codes and execution results. This was a new situation and environment which help them to put two different parts together in order to create a new entity.

Level 6 - Evaluation

The evaluation of learning activities is very important for improvement of performance and development of critical thinking of students. The model of evaluation is a major concern in today's teaching and learning. Who should evaluate the progress of students? The teacher does that for grading and recommendations, but students' evaluation of their own work progress and outcomes is very important for development of students in being a critical thinker of their work. Dr. Robertson explained the necessity of being critical thinker in the improvement of individual's social, economical, and educational life and activities. As a teacher, he gave students authority to evaluate their outcomes and to report the results with some suggestions for improvement to him. Some of the suggestions were shared with the other students in the class. If our students learn and believe in evaluating their academic performance critically by themselves, we achieve one of the most effective elements of being a good member of information society.

     The Bloom Taxonomy is one of the many learning models which can help us to design an effective process for teaching and learning. Design of the process of teaching and learning based on the level-1 (knowledge) as the only goal is a major failure to accomplish the purpose of today's education. In some of the areas it is hard to design a process which can utilize all six levels, but design of process which can offer activities until level-3 (application) should be a common practice at Ball State University.

3. Looking into the Future

Pete Smith (1992) wrote, "external forces are dramatically changing the public's aspirations and expectations from higher education institutions. And the system's perceived inability to respond effectively is seriously eroding public confidence." Utilization of technology in higher education will continue to be one of the higher education's dominant missions in the next few years. Expectations of our students in the next few years will be far beyond what we are offering today. The advancement in Internet applications and explosion in the progress of Web brought many reasons for rethinking our educational goals and missions. Addition of interactive elements (such as Java, Javascript, VRML, etc.) to the World Wide Web will bring additional delivery power for education. In addition to making wise choices, we have to ask the right questions. Why do we want to use technology, for what ends? What is the need? Is the learning process the same or does technology change it? Where should education take place? New technology gives us a reason to reevaluate the way we are using our current technology and designing the process of teaching and learning. New technology gives educational institutions a chance to make learning a richer, simpler, and more accessible experience for students. It is up to the leaders in the educational institutions to recognize the responsibility they have in satisfying the expectations of the information society. One thing is clear: in the case of failing to deliver needed education, no excuse will be accepted by this generation of learners and society.

     The strategical planning of the university must assure that computer and communication technology are physically sound, faculty's readiness and roles are institutionally supported, and teaching and learning is pedagogically strong.

Physical Readiness

No technology is changing as rapidly as computer and telecommunication technology. The expected life cycle for equipment is no more than three to five years. Most of the time the old technology works perfectly, but the new technology is faster, can store more data, and offer users access to more complicated applications in the multimedia and virtual reality. In order to utilize the true power of Internet applications, especially the Web in education, we should have a dependable information about the needs and clear vision about achieving them. Our networks and workstations are starting point of our journey, our faculty, educational software, and development support are our vehicle in this journey, and our outcomes are the true measure of reaching to the destination. We at Ball State should not measure our success only by the starting pointed- equipment. The bandwidth and speed requirements for today's applications such as client/server transaction processing, image/graphic transmission, and distributed database systems are very essential for accessing information. These characteristics (bandwidth, speed) need a capable network backbone and set up for achievement. Within the next few years a standard desktop workstation is likely to offer 100 Mbps multimedia communication. The LAN and WAN can utilize ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) with transmission speed of 155 to 2,488 Mbps. Any consideration and planning for LAN and WAN area networks must include these changing technologies and application's requirements.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode(ATM) for Solution

No other communication technology has drawn as much attention as ATM. It uses fast packet switching and broadband-ISDN areas. The ATM protocol has potential to remove the boundary between local and wide area networking environments. It eliminates much of protocol conversion between local and wide area networks. The ATM is based on a switched network. It uses dedicated media connection and each connection between users is set up physically by establishing its own path. The path, or virtual channel, remains the same for the length of the connection, much like a telephone call. Because the connection has its own pathway, connections are run in parallel instead of sharing the bandwidth. The ATM's use of dedicated media guarantees that the packets will arrive in sequence and on time. The ATM-switched network provides connection for intensive multimedia applications, including video conferencing without affecting performance. The ATM standards for both LANs and WANs are the same, allowing for seamless integration of LANs and WANs. Figure two is the design of Ball State future network with ATM.

Diagram of BSU Campus Network with ATM

     Each department hub has an interface for existing network, but also has an ATM interface. Switched networks will therefore build on the local area network. The ATM hubs and routers will link local area networks and established connections for wide area network, while ATM switches will connect departmental hubs and routers to form a basis of these wide area networks. For maximum utilization of ATM in our current network, the following hardware and software upgrades are necessary.

UTP - Our current unshielded twisted pair is from category 3 with 10 Mbps of transmission speed. We need to upgrade UTP to category 5 which is capable of a transmission speed of 100 Mbps. This upgrading has direct relation to the purpose of the utilization and traffic. In some cases 10Mbps could be adequate for transmission.

Hub - we should change some of the current hubs to the fast ethernet hubs.

Router - we should change the interface of router to support 100 Mbps.

Ethernet - Fast Ethernet can support 100 Mbps without changes in the access method. It is necessary to replace hubs, LAN adapters, and their drivers.

Faculty's Role

Some of today's teaching and learning is designed based on the educational computing technology. This educational computing refers not only to the hardware, software, network, and management system, but also to the intelligence and ideology that guide the use of computers in education. Faculty are the conductors, and directors of these intelligence and ideology. Faculty can envision what technology to use in the curriculum and how to incorporate it in learning activities. In addition to the faculty's role as conductor, faculty has major influence in students preparation and involvement in the technology based activities. The following are some of the suggestions which the university can implement for encouragement and preparation of faculty for utilization of computer technology in the education.

     It is the teacher who knows the best reason for using or not using computer technology in the curriculum. It is the teacher who has knowledge of the content materials and understands the needs of students in his or her class. Finally, it is teacher who makes the final decision for utilization of computers in the education. Provide them with the opportunity and time to learn the technology, stay away and let them do the job.

Pedagogical Issues

Using computers in education in the form of educational software (simulation, case study, and intelligent system), and World Wide Web have many important pedagogical implications. In addition to the computer labs, students should be able to access computer resources, especially the Web sites, from their dorms and homes. University should provide them with ethernet access from all the dorms, and SLIP access with adequate modem pool for local call. The following are some of the concerns.
  1. Faculty should allocate a few hours of semester for orientation of students to educational software and Internet applications.
  2. Faculty should run class in a highly interactive manner in order for students to be able to share with other students their experience in locating information and learning process.
  3. Faculty should deal with not being the only expert in the classroom. There will be many questions and discussions topics that students might gain additional knowledge by surfing the Web.
  4. With the accessibility of vast resources on the Web, it is easy to lose control and concentration of the class discussions. Faculty should perform a balancing act between not being too rigid and not too open in the process of teaching and learning in the classroom. In other words, conducting the class should be based on the student-teacher-centered curriculum not teacher- centered or student-centered one.
  5. It is important that for each learning topic, faculty provides some general guidelines for process of search and learning activities.
  6. Faculty should encourage students not only to find the information about assignments, but also should encourage them for critical review of the materials for development of critical thinking.

     Finally, the World Wide Web will be a major part (not exclusive) of our teaching and learning in the coming years. The addition of the new browser (HotJava) and the new powerful programming language (Java) bring new imagination, expectations, and visions in the utilization of technology in the teaching and learning. Thanks to the SUN and it's decision to open up Java and Java Virtual Machine to everybody, software vendors or individual developers. Everybody from development tool vendors, language compiler developers, RDBMS vendors, middleware vendors, client/server application vendors can use Java Virtual Machine's bytecode language to create internet capable, run-anywhere applications and services. The Java community is becoming broader everyday, encompassing some of the world's biggest independent software vendors, as well corporate CIOs, information technologists, system analysts, programmers, managers, multimedia designers, educators, and students.

     For educational institutions it is essential to make a precise needs assessment for preparation and utilization of WWW in teaching and learning activities. The first step is a departmental assessment about roles of Web in the teaching and learning activities of that department with needed training and equipment. The next step is the arrangement of university level committee for harmonizing activities and providing needed support. We have a major responsibility in making technology an opportunity for teachers and students in the university. We have to understand why we need to use Web (objective of teaching and learning), what we are going to deliver (contents), and how we can achieve it (computer and delivery technology).

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Copyright © Bizhan Nasseh 1996

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