SECOND DRAFT
Proposed Book
"Electronic Global University System and Services"
To be published by
Idea-Group Publishing Company
Harrisburg, PA
(In negotiation)
September 20, 1998
Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D.
Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
Founder, Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education (CAADE)
President, Global University in the U.S.A. (GU/USA)
A Divisional Activity of GLOSAS/USA
(GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.)
43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A.
Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer email)
Mailto: utsumi@columbia.edu
(Note: Some of hypertexted diagrams and news clippings
are not in high resolution, since they are scanned images.
Those images with green border
are not linked.
One page image is for presentation and double page one is for reading.
Please feel free to send me your
comments. Thanks.)
Part 1
GLOSAS ACTIVITIES
Chapter 2
"GLOBAL LECTURE HALL (GLH)"
1 "Global Lecture Hall (GLH)" videoconferences
1.1 GLH in July, 1986
1.2 GLH in October, 1987
1.3 GLH in February, 1988
1.4 GLH in November, 1989
1.5 GLH in November, 1990
1.6 GLH in October, 1991
1.7 GLH in October, 1992
1.8 GLH in 19931.9.1 Greetings by Dr. Colin Power of UNESCO/Paris
1.9.2 Premises
1.9.3 Brief Evaluation and Comparison of Delivery Systems1.9.3.1 Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) Units
1.9.3.2 TCP/IP Oriented Internet
1.9.3.3 Other Delivery Systems1.11.1 Summary of achievements
1.11.2 Delivery systems used
1.11.3 Programs2 Teleconferencing for Electronic Distance Education (EDE)
2.1.1 Non-Internet Televideo
2.1.2 Internet Televideo
2.1.3 Experiences at Houston Community College2.1.3.1 With Non-Internet Televideo
2.1.3.2 With Internet Televideo2.2 Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Multimedia Conferencing System (CMMCS)
REFERENCES
INSERTIONS (Images, graphs and diagrams, etc.)
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them,
we learn by doing them."
Greek educator and philosopher Aristotle
1 "Global Lecture Hall (GLH)" videoconferences
During the second decade of GLOSAS activities from 1986, Utsumi realized that text-oriented e-mail was not enough for distance learning, especially in engineering and medical education which requires graphics, images and full-color, full-motion video. He then organized and conducted a series of videoconferences what came to be called the "Global Lecture Hall (GLH)" (TM). It originated at university campuses in the U.S., Italy, Brazil and Hungary, and spanned the globe. It employed inexpensive media accessible to less developed countries. This type of event was characterized by the involvement of participants at many sites, using several media to facilitate interactions among them. Participants in several countries could hear, talk, and see each other while using affordable methods for developing countries. Our GLH has now been well established as an annual event.
* Technologies used:
This multipoint-to-multipoint, multimedia, interactive videoconference used Internet-based desktop conferencing packages, telephone-based conferencing (from slow scan TV, fully integrated color, motion, audio and whiteboard packages), computer conferencing, and audiographic conferencing, facsimile, etc. These were done with the combined use of various inexpensive delivery systems, e.g., Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS), digital switched lines, Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN), packet-switching networks, packet-radio and packet-satellite, and analog, digital channels on U.S. domestic satellite, INTELSAT and INMARSAT, and so on. By these means audio, data, text, graphics, images and video could be sent at great distance at an acceptable cost. Some of these methods were accessible to nearly everyone. Recent configurations combining some of the mentioned media seemed impossibly complicated on paper but proved workable in practice.
* Purposes:
Many less developed countries lack good analog voice-grade telephone networks and, hence, lack Internet access. Subsequently, use of electronic distance education, though an economic advantage to them, is not realized. Therefore, the purposes of the GLH are;
* Objectives:
* Remarks:
The series of GLH events have clearly demonstrated how people could be linked across political and geographic boundaries for joint study, discussion, research, global problem-solving, and political action. In so doing, they have also helped foster a participatory spirit and a sense of transnational identity amongst participants. Moreover, the demonstrations of the inexpensive uses of telecommunications for educational purposes helped GLOSAS learn how to deal with technical, regulatory and financial impediments to the creation of a workable global electronic university network. The GLOSAS projects have shown, combining a variety of improved and presently more affordable and accessible technologies, that global educational exchange via international telecommunications is a feasible endeavor. They also helped prepare the way for global peace gaming on the scale of Pentagon's war gaming -- more later.
Similar to the motto of the Olympics, one of the basic principles of our GLH is "participation" (or, at least "an effort to participate") in a global project and the use of various telecommunication media. Even if struggling to accomplish such a feat one gains invaluable information as well as the confidence to engage in future trials. Incidentally, some who took part in our previous GLH took advantage of the following event to install new facilities or test a new videoconferencing technology -- incidentally, some of those participants received hardware and/or software donated from commercial firms which were necessary for their participation in our GLHs. The second principle is to have each participant contribute to, as well as draw from, the cooperative effort to co-produce a learning experience which surpasses the simple sum of its parts.
Many participants of our previous GLHs appreciated their involvement with colleagues in various countries. Such collaboration further ensures comradeship among colleagues, an important step toward world peacekeeping. For example, CU-SeeMe videoconferencing via Internet can be used without software and telecommunication costs and without an expensive studio and dish antenna. Many colleagues (such as Dr. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General, at Dartmouth College and Dr. Peter Knight at the World Bank, and many in Australia, Latvia, Poland, etc.) began using CU-SeeMe on the occasion of our GLHs -- photos of the former two appeared in TIME, October 10, 1994, Page 24. Worldwide, they helped each other via e-mail to set it up. This activity has not only fostered camaraderie among our project members, but also promoted the use of videoconferencing through Internet. In many countries, it has also increased understanding of the need for high-speed Internet lines which enable users to retrieve advanced information in many formats (MBone and World Wide Web (WWW), among many others). The MAVEN audio conferencing system of CU-SeeMe has also saved considerable telephone costs for K-12 children conversing with overseas counterparts on a real-time basis.
Our GLH demonstrations in the past decade have helped build a network of leaders in the global electronic distance education movement in many countries. The GLH demonstrations by the GLOSAS Project have been a most effective illustration of the capabilities available in the interactive multimedia environment.
We were deeply grateful for generous cooperation and superb technical
support of many parties and participants of our GLHs, particularly of those
organizations which provided us with "in-kind" services [1]. Followings are the brief list of GLHs in the past
decade [2].
[Back to CONTENTS]
The GLOSAS project began with a demonstration of global-scale peace-gaming at the conference on "Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution" by the World Future Society (WFS) in New York City, in July of 1986. It was one of the largest and perhaps most successful demonstration of global gaming/simulation organized so far. The event was a global gaming simulation sessions on a crisis scenario involving the U.S.-Japan trade and economy issues. The multimedia teleconferencing sessions used voice, slow-scan TV [SSTV], computer text and data, graphics, and a simulation model. Nearly 1,500 persons took part, in New York, Tokyo, Honolulu and at the World's Fair in Vancouver, B.C. Fred Campano of the United Nations wrote a game scenario, and Akira Onishi of Soka University in Tokyo supplied his FUGI model of the world economy [3] (Onishi, A., 1986).
Noted U.S. economists (Professor Lester C. Thurow of M.I.T., Provost William Nordhaus of Yale, Mr. Keith Johnson of Townsend and Greenspan Company) were panelists of this event and electronically interconnected with Japanese counterparts (Professor Onishi of Soka University, and President Shishido of International University) for three days of computer-assisted negotiations. Several hypothetical policies were examined. One question raised by Donald Straus (President Emeritus of American Arbitration Association) was the effect of raising military expenditures in Japan to the American level while lowering those of the U.S. to the present Japanese level. Simulation ran overnight predicted that the balance of trade would thus be even by the year 2000, with necessity of cooperation, rather than competition, by both countries in the future (Nikkei Shimbun, Aug. 8, 1986 in Japanese and with English translation). This clearly indicated the cost and dilemma of American's nuclear umbrella protecting Japan's economic prosperity, thus threatening American's economic prosperity.
This gaming simulation lasted three evenings. At the end of each session, Onishi executed new economic parameters on his FUGI model which parameters were discussed and agreed by both parties in New York and Tokyo, and sent his computational results back to New York at the next session for continuing discussions. All participating sites had Colorado Video's slow-scan image transceiver which were connected through a telephone bridge so that all sites could receive/send their images. Audio/voice could be sent through the same POTS line, except while transmitting images. Onishi's computer outputs were sent to New York by fax via another telephone line. As soon as it arrived, it was copied to transparencies, and projected on to a large screen which was then transmitted by the slow-scan transceiver to all participating sites. We used real-time chatting feature of EIES for back-stage coordination.
This event with combined use of inexpensive delivery systems afforded an opportunity to see how academic departments might become linked across national boundaries for the purpose of joint study, research and planetary problem-solving without expending high cost for satellite video. After this successful sessions, several former high ranking officers of the U.S./Japanese governmental agencies expressed their strong interest in a similar multi-media teleconferencing on a more regular basis to establish an early warning system of the both countries' ever-closely interwoven economic and trade relationships. Systems analysis for systemic change at the global level is a precondition for any significant resolution to today's global-scale problems, as has been advocated by the GLOSAS Project since it was originated in 1972.
From this initial effort, a series of "Global Lecture Hall (GLH)"
(TM) has commenced, spanning many countries around the world.
[Back to CONTENTS]
The GLH at the 1987 WFS/Education Conference held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology encompassed fourteen sites linked together, from the East Coast of the U.S. to Japan, and from Anchorage, Alaska, to San Diego, California and Honolulu, Hawaii. This spanned 14 time zones and two calendar dates!
In keeping with the WFS theme of "Education for the Twenty-First Century," GLOSAS previewed the "classroom of tomorrow" with discussion on "Globalization of Higher Education Around the Pacific Basin." Lecturers and students at widely dispersed locations in the United States and around the Pacific "assembled" to exchange ideas. The panelists included Takeshi Utsumi from the headquarters of the National Technological University (NTU, which is a consortium of engineering schools, based in Fort Collins, Colorado) at Colorado State University; James Grier Miller, chairman of the University of the World, from the EDUCOM Annual Conference in Los Angeles; and Lionel Baldwin, president of the NTU, from San Francisco; Robert Muller, Honorary Chancellor of the United Nations University of Peace in Costa Rica (former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations); Hazel Henderson, economist and futurist; Glenn Olds, president of Alaska Pacific University; and Parker Rossman -- the last four of them from M.I.T. in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
All panelists were provided with an audio teleconferencing connection. Their conversations were uplinked to a satellite from a conference monitor center so that the conversation as well as panelists' video (full-motion or freeze frame) were downlinked at any other off-site locations with their receive-only antennae. Slow-scan TV was used in conjunction with NHK's (Nihon Hoso Kyokai = Japan Broadcasting Corporation) leased INTELSAT satellite channel (Dambrot, Stuart M., 1989, The Japan Times, Oct. 18) [4]. Some of panelists and off-site participants who had a slow-scan TV unit could send/receive their freeze-frame image via POTS to the monitor center at low cost which was then uplinked to satellite. EIES was used for on-line, real-time chatting for back-stage coordination to save valuable audio lines and conference time. Facsimile communication was also used in parallel to receive questions from off-site participants.
This GLH was during the conference of the Pacific Telecommunications Council in Honolulu, Hawaii, on "Distance Learning Around the Pacific Basin." The teachers in the "global classroom" included J. O. Grantham (founder of the National University Teleconference Network (NUTN)); C. Urbanowitz (associate dean of the Center for Regional and Continuing Education, California State University, Chico); J. Southworth (College of Education of the University of Hawaii); R. Mills (assistant vice chancellor of the California State University System); D. Wydra (Pennsylvania Teleteaching Project); L. Baldwin (President of National Technological University); and T. Utsumi (Chairman of GLOSAS). This GLH encompassed 14 sites ranging from the U.S. East Coast to the Republic of Korea, from Anchorage, Alaska to Brisbane, Australia.
During this event, we connected about a dozen Lumaphone freeze-frame units with an AT&T's Alliance audio bridge via POTS, and found that was too many to be handled by the bridge. However, its lunch box size and low price (less than $700/unit) was convenient for portable use through the POTS at low cost compared with ISDN or satellite approach. We could hook it to regular TV monitor and even uplinked its image to satellite, albeit black and white.
We also had several Colorado Video TV units connected via POTS through its bridge, many sites with receive-only dish antenna via U.S. domestic satellites, and all of them connected with audio teleconferencing bridge via POTS for clear voice during question and answer sessions. EIES was used for coordination to prepare and check the inter-connectivity of the audio, slow-scan TV, full-motion teleconferencing, and back-stage coordination with its real-time chatting which effectively eliminated wasting air time of expensive satellite transmission.
Dr. Baldwin's description with full-motion video was recorded a few days prior to our demonstration. However, he could provide his answer to a questioning person at PTC/Honolulu site from Pacific Bell Corporation/San Ramon Valley office (nearby Berkeley, CA) through the audio teleconferencing bridge on his way back from a business trip. This fact vividly proved the convenience and importance of the GLH's multipoint-to-multipoint multimedia interactive videoconferencing approach.
We fortunately had overwhelmingly enthusiastic endorsement and support
of this demonstration as well as for the Global (electronic) University
Consortium project and participation from many educational institutions
in the Pacific area, including the Dr. Arthur C. Clarke research center
in Sri Lanka (Clarke originated the idea of a geosynchronous communication
satellite), and from Dr. Paul Baran in Cupertino, CA, (who originated the
packet-switching technology).
[Back to CONTENTS]
The conference site of the World Future Studies Federation in Nagoya, Japan, was connected with Wassily Leontief (a Nobel Laureate in economics) at New York University to discuss the relationships between "Environment and Development" with Colorado Video's slow-scan TV units via POTS line [5]. The real-time chatting feature of EIES was also used for back-stage coordination.
[Back to CONTENTS]
In order to support the efforts of Latin American distance educators, GLOSAS/USA organized a demonstration of large scale interactive satellite videoconference with the use of various inexpensive global telecommunication media to show the possibilities of global education. This was at the occasion of the XVth World Conference of the International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) in November, 1990, in Caracas, Venezuela, with participation of 1,300 persons from more than 80 countries. Our videoconferencing center was at William Paterson College in New Jersey.
In this particular GLH, emphasis was placed on the use of various inexpensive telecommunication media, particularly packet-radio and -satellite, to show the possibilities of global education. The GLH was a panel discussion on "Tools, Methodologies, and Principles for Global Education in the 21st Century" with worldwide prominent scholars. The event reached as far as the East Coasts of North and South America, west to Japan, north to Fairbanks, Alaska, and south to Caracas, Venezuela. More than 20 schools were interlinked for an interactive questions-and-answer session.
The slow-scan TV (SSTV) videoconferencing could effectively send images of panelists and their gathering rooms. Since most of participating locations, particularly in overseas countries, did not have satellite uplinking facility, SSTV was the most convenient and inexpensive unit, and only means to broadcast their images to others.
One of significant events during this GLH was the presentation of packet-radio and -satellite technology by Professor Gerald Knezek of the University of North Texas. This enabled inexpensive telecommunication for educational exchange at remote areas without use of wired telephone networks or where the networks were poor quality, such as in Latin American countries. With packet delivery protocols, 40 channels could be programmed into a transponder where only one channel exited. The major advantage was that "time-sharing" the same frequency by several people (up to about 7) would reduce the cost of using the frequency with an inexpensive transceiver at about $2,500 for each -- possibly on the order of five or ten times less expensive than commercial communications systems in place.
Professor Knezek demonstrated a file transfer from Western Samoa to EIES via NASA's ATS-3 satellite free of charge. The message said that a cyclone had interrupted most public utilities, including running water and telephone services. The PEACESAT ATS-3 ground station, running on a portable generator for a few hours per day, was one of the few channels of communication to the outside world. Packet-radio allowed the memo to be transferred to and captured in Texas, while the station at that site was unattended. This example illustrated the potential usefulness of packet-radio for low-cost social and disaster relief service communications, including slow-scan TV image transmission. The system could be especially useful in education for distributing assignments and meeting agendas, submitting homework, and administrative activities such as advising and enrolling students.
The other significant experience at this GLH was the clear reception of satellite signal at Caracas gathering via a U.S. domestic satellite, -- without going through INTELSAT satellite. Albeit one-way, this would make it possible to send educational courses from North America to some Latin American countries at low cost, since the former costs about one half to one-third of the latter.
Audio and slow-scan TV videoconferencing via ubiquitously available POTS enabled us to have participants from remote area where satellite signal could not reach. Their use combined with the satellite was a feature of our GLH, having enabled us to reach out to even "have-not" areas, i.e., not under the foot-print of the satellite. In a sense, our demonstration was to enable the "disabled" (due to limitations in equipment) to participate. We needed to face these situations as challenges to maximize what they get from what they have. The full-motion TV satellite systems often seemed to try to indicate that they were the "only way to go" for distance education and telecommunication. Until when prices dropped significantly, many people, especially those overseas and in the most geographically isolated places, would have to learn to appreciate, and make the best of, alternative forms of various available telecommunication media.
This GLH demonstration indicated vividly the future of global education. For example, a professor in Pensacola, Florida, received our satellite signal at his home while he was feeding his dog and cat. He could receive a lesson from a Japanese professor. He could raise his question to the Japanese professor via audio or computer conference immediately. For the same token, a person in a remote site in Venezuela might have done similarly with his packet-radio or -satellite transceiver. Global education could be done transcending parochialism as well as national boundaries.
After the Caracas conference, Utsumi successfully conducted a tutorial on the use of SprintMail -- a commercial e-mail service -- for distance educators from various countries of the region at the Technical Workshop on Training of Distance Education Trainers which was organized by Universidad Nacional Abierta (UNA) and Regional Center for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CRESALC) of UNESCO.
The dramatic growth of distance education in Latin American countries was in part a result of educational policies enacted at the national level, and in part an outcome of the execution of the Organization of American States (OAS)/PREDE Multinational Project for the Development and Application of Distance Educational Systems. The multinational and cooperative nature of this OAS project had another impact among the implementing institutions: the development of an infrastructure and expertise for cooperation, as attested by the creations of the Latin American Cooperative Network for the Development of Distance Education (REDLAED) in May of 1989 [6], and of the Latin American and the Caribbean Electronic Distance Education Consortium (CREAD) in the fall of 1993 under the auspices of the Interamerican Organization of Higher Education (IOHE) in 1990 with funds provided from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) [7] (Villarroel A., 1991).
GLOSAS joined efforts with REDLAED, CREAD, PREDE, CRESALC, and many other
colleagues in the region. As the result of Utsumi's demonstration and tutorial,
the decision was made as to declare a priority interest in the development
and participation in some pilot experiences in the use of SprintMail telecommunications
network that would link, by means of electronic messaging services, the
group of key coordinators of REDLAED and CREAD members as well as their
technical advisers from Organization of American States (OAS) and UNESCO/Venezuela.
GLOSAS/USA supported their activities with the provision of SprintMail's
e-mail and fax services free of charge for the several years which amounted
almost $75,000/month usages in commercial rates -- this was thanks to the
generous offer of US SprintMail's returning a favor to Utsumi's effort of
helping their overseas expansion, particularly to Japan, as mentioned above.
Because of this efforts, GLOSAS/USA is founding members of REDLAED and CREAD.
[Back to CONTENTS]
The World Association of the Use of Satellite for Education (WAUSE) [8] (Gentile, A., 1990) requested GLOSAS to conduct a joint GLH from the University of Lecce in Lecce, Italy, at the occasion of the "Computer Architecture Conference" held at the university in October, 1991. There were four video teleconferencings, two of them as two-way between Italy and the United States. The conference gathering discussed the parallel processing architecture of the so-called "sixth generation computer."
In the session "Round-table on Satellites for Global Education," Barry University in Florida uplinked to GALAXY-II satellite over North America. The feed was then downlinked to an earth station of PANAM in Florida and uplinked to the PANAM satellite over the Atlantic. It was received by a small (2.5 meter diameter) VSAT antenna in Lecce. At the University of Lecce, Florida's feed was mixed and uplinked to the EUTELSAT over Europe. From there, it was downlinked in Belgrade, uplinked to the PANAM satellite, downlinked to an earth station in Florida and uplinked to GALAXY-II for distribution to North American viewers. It was very complex scheme requiring the original signal to travel a round trip of about 250,000 miles.
It connected many universities of the Community of Mediterranean Universities (CMU) in Izmir in Turkey; Zagreb in Croatia; Budapest in Hungary; Rome, Venice and Bari in Italy; Paris in France; etc., in Eastern and Western Europe, Mediterranean countries and Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, etc., in the North America. Panelists and participants at Bell Laboratory in New Jersey and Barry University in Miami, Florida also sent their voice or video images to the University of Lecce, so that other downlinking participants could hear or view them (Utsumi 1991b).
American participants could send/receive their video and our signal to/from PANAM satellite over the Atlantic Ocean and Europeans from a EUTELSAT. A turn-round between them was made by Radio Televizja in Beograd, Serbia whose service benefitted the presentation from Zagreb, Croatia. This fact clearly showed the possibility of peaceful collaboration with our GLH, in spite of war between Serbia and Croatia at that time. (La Gezzetta del Mezzogiorno and Il Giorneli/Milano -- in Italian)
GLOSAS/USA organized two large scale GLHs at the occasion of the annual international conference of International Council for Educational Media (ICEM), a non-governmental organization (NGO) of UNESCO with members from the Ministry of Education of over 30 countries [9]. The GLHs were originated at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, in October, 1992. The theme was "Global Education in the 21st Century: Design and Delivery."
The GLH on October 12th covered the range of North, Central and South America, Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Far Eastern and North Eastern Asia, and the one on October 13th the range of North, Central and South America, Africa and Middle East, Western, Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltics as well as the Mediterranean. We used thirteen channels on ten satellites over five continents during this event.
During October 12th event, Dr. Joseph Pelton, Director of the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder spoke on "Global Satellite Education for Third World Countries" and examined the available alternatives for developing nations and made suggestions on how to best harness the new technologies. He was the Executive Director of INTELSAT, and during his tenure there, he was a key person behind the development of Project ACCESS [10].
Dr. Lionel Baldwin, President of the National Technological University (NTU), Fort Collins, Colorado, then talked about the NTU's courses which employed digital video compression technology. He provided evidence of how this technology was both cost-effective and viable alternative to satellite two-way video and data transmission. The drastic cost reductions which this technology permitted ushered in a new era of truly global, universal, satellite education. NTU was created by him about a dozen years ago as a consortium of engineering departments of almost 45 colleges and universities in the U.S. At that time, NTU had almost 4,000 master degree level graduate students, and was one of the top ten largest engineering schools in the U.S.
Dr. Norman Coombs, a Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, talked about "Global Empowerment of Impaired Learners: Data Networks which Transcend Both Physical Distance & Physical Disabilities." His concern was how technology would affect the impaired user. This had great significance to Dr. Coombs who is blind himself. He was the winner of several awards and the author of many articles on the subject of the effects of new education technology on the physically impaired. He was conducting a distance education course for the physically impaired students at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., from Rochester via computer communication.
During October 13th event, Dr. Tapio Varis, former Rector of the U.N. University of Peace in Costa Rica, made his greeting via POTS and with photo slides from the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland, which is located close to the Polar Circle, while he was viewing our sessions from OLYMPUS satellite of Italy.
On behalf of Dr. Federico Mayor, Director General of UNESCO, Dr. Colin Power, Assistant Director General for Education at UNESCO in Paris, spoke on "UNESCO and Global Education Imperatives" and outlined the international education agenda for the 21st Century. He answered questions via overseas telephone line from Paris [11].
From the University of Lecce, Italy, Dr. Mario De Brasi, President of the World Association for the Use of Satellites in Education (WAUSE), and Dr. L. Ambrosi, President of the Community of Mediterranean Universities, defined in specific terms, how the Mediterranean countries might best avail themselves of satellite connections. Both cost and logistics options and constraints were addressed.
In our final segment, Ms. Julie Stanfel, of the National Film Board of Canada, and a research team from the Vivid Group in Toronto, Canada, brought together school children from three very different locations (Orlando/Florida, Ottawa/Canada, and Lecce/Italy) and asked them to remotely "enter" and manipulate an electronically shared urban environment. This was their newly developed "Virtual Reality" for the joint design of a future city in the 21st century with children in various overseas countries.
The National Film Board of Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and The Vivid Group, was producing a series on urbanization and the design of "green" cities. Entitled, URBAN UPDATE - A REGIONAL DISCOVERY PROJECT, the program established a network of groups of young people in a number of countries to investigate the environmental and social effects of accelerating urbanization and the need to establish strategies for sustainable cities, with greater participation of local populations.
URBAN UPDATE was designed to provide students aged 12-17 with opportunities to explore the cities in which they live, visually document their findings and share them with young people around the world using modern communications technologies.
With a unique human interface technology developed by The Vivid Group in Canada and known as the MANDALA SYSTEM (TM), students would step into and control virtual worlds of their urban ecosystems, live, without physically touching anything! Viewing their own true video images mirrored on televisions in front of them, the interaction would occur when their images come into contact with visuals that surround them on the TV screens, allowing the users to control and manipulate elements of the urban environments around them, all in real time.
By exploring the elements of their own urban environments and then defining with their peers from other countries the parameters of habitable urban spaces, the interdependence of urbanization issues at the global level was unfold. Then, using a virtual world telephone, MANDALA PHONE (TM), young people in separate parts of the world was able to step into a single virtual reality together, and interact with one another to design the cities of the future -- together.
This was truly a great show in a "Global Theater" aided by
the shiny satellites as chandeliers. Children in Orlando/Florida, Ottawa/Canada
and Lecce/Italy demonstrated the use of a newly developed "Virtual
Reality" technology via satellites. They were the stars, the actors,
and the directors of this great show!! (TeleMedia MONITOR, November-December, 1992)
GLOSAS/USA organized "Global Lecture Hall (GLH)" (TM) videoconferences
on August 21st at the occasion of TELETEACHING'93 in Trondheim, Norway.
It was the first attempt for our U.S.-Russian Electronic Distance Education System (EDES).
The main purpose was to demonstrate compressed digital video technology
which drastically reduce satellite transmission costs and therefore represented
a major step towards global electronic distance education. The Teleteaching'93
was the third international conference on the applications of telecommunications
to enhance human knowledge and skills organized by the International Federation
for Information Processing (IFIP).
(Utsumi, T., 1993a, Diagram and Footprint of GLH/Norway in 1993)
The videoconferencing center was at the studio of National Technological University/Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. This covered North, Central and South America; Western, Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, including the Newly Independent States and the Baltic -- with 7 satellites.
Utsumi described the philosophy of Global (electronic) University System -- more later.
Mr. Ori Bar-zemer described his innovative digital video link between Brown University and Moscow Space Research Institute via Intersputnik. His video was transmitted with his PictureTel via Sprint Meeting Channel in Atlanta, GA, to a CLI equipment at California State University/Sacramento, which uplinked to a satellite, which video was then downlinked at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, which video was then uplinked to another U.S. domestic satellite which was then turned around to international satellites for worldwide viewing.
A panel discussion on "Compressed Digital Video, Its Quality and Applicability to Instructional Television" was held with the use of multi-channel on the satellite of National Technological University (NTU), Fort Collins, CO. The moderator was Dr. Tom McCall, Director of R & D of the NTU and panelists were Professor F. Lawrence Bennett, P.E., Head of Engineering and Science Management of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK and Professor Russell Mersereau of Electrical Engineering Department of Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.
Videos of the panelists from Georgia and Alaska were simultaneously uplinked to a single satellite transponder using compressed digital video (CDV) technology. Their videos, video from studio at Colorado State University, and slow-scan TV image of TeleTeaching'93 via ordinary telephone line were put into four split windows. All of windows were broadcast via analog satellite as a composite video to all participants around the world.
Professor Kevin Jeffay at Computer Science Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, demonstrated the potential of the new color, full-motion videoconferencing technology via a packet-switching data communication network, without use of satellite nor dish antenna. His presentation via slow-scan TV described his current campus-wide videoconference system with which several participants could show their videos while discussing a same application program on either MS/DOS or Macintosh computers.
CU-SeeMe's black and white videoconferencing system with Macintosh via Internet was demonstrated by Mr. Scott Brim, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Mr. Steve Cisler, Apple Library, Cupertino, California; Ms. Kathy Fernandes, California State University, Chico; and Ms. Jean Armour Polly, NYSERNet, Inc., Syracuse, NY. This was our first time of its use, and ranged from the West Coast to New York, with parallel use of ordinary audio teleconference. The computer screen was broadcast via satellite for worldwide viewing. This was a historical event, as revolutionizing videoconference technology, which could lead to personalizing education in worldwide. (Apple/Moscow also successfully received their video, though we did not receive their video back due to bandwidth problem between the U.S. and Russia.)
A video of NASA's "Advanced Communications Technology Satellite"(ACTS) described its advanced capability of digital satellite technology with 1 giga bits per second high speed transmission with on-board processing and switching, using multiple high-powered spot beams and small, low-cost ground terminals.
Dr. Pierre Patry, President of Tele-university, Montreal, Canada, presented
his project to coordinate leaders of distance education worldwide. This
was conveyed via a Canadian satellite, and Dr. David Johnson, Chair of Fulbright
Association Task Force on East Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union
at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, made a presentation with
a photo of Senator Fulbright which was also sent via another U.S. domestic
satellite to our videoconference center at Colorado State University for
worldwide viewing.
(Utsumi, T., 1993b, Summary and Videotape of GLH/Norway in
1993)
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This GLH was held at the occasion of the 15th Annual Satellite Communications Users Conference in San Jose, California. California State University (CSU) in Sacramento hosted our videoconference center. The GLHs ranged from Tokyo/Japan, Melbourne/Australia, Fairbanks/Alaska, San Jose/Costa Rica, Cartagene/Colombia. It was our excitement to incorporate the most advanced desktop videoconferencing through Internet and ordinary audio telephone lines (without the use of a satellite and a dish antenna), with the conventional analog satellite videoconference technology (Utsumi, T., 1993c, Diagram of GLH/Japan in 1993). We accomplished several significant milestones.
California State University (CSU)/Sacramento had a unique technical advantage of having both CLI digital video equipment and Ku-band uplinking facilities with well equipped studio and competent personnel. PictureTel in Tokyo was linked with the CLI unit via ISDN line which demonstrated much less cost than satellite route over the Pacific. The CSU could become an important gateway to Japan and to the Pacific at much less cost than the satellite route. This would benefit particularly Australia and New Zealand, since there was only costly INTELSAT available in the Southern Pacific at that time.
Originally, Keystone Communications kindly donated two INTELSAT transponders for our videoconference over the Pacific. However, because KDD of Japan could not absorb the costs of down- and up-linking in Japan, we could not use the INTELSAT for two-way video satellite communications. Then Fujita Corporation in Tokyo rose to the challenge and managed to link their PictureTel with CLI unit at CSU/Sacramento via Sprint Meeting Channel in Atlanta, GA. Fujita's PictureTel was successfully connected just 30 minutes prior to the start of our session! Of course, this alternative involved video of lesser quality at 64 Kbps than that with satellite. Nonetheless, it proved, as always, wise to have an alternative back-up system. Also, the low cost of the alternative provided a good example of how the Americans and the Japanese can cooperate to help developing countries in Asia and the Pacific achieve better communications.
Speaking of alternatives, the Japanese government gave us their permission to send our signal to users of Engineering Test Satellite-V (ETS-V) in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, etc. Utsumi requested PEACESAT at the University of Hawaii to relay our signal downlinked from C-band U.S. domestic satellite to their uplinking facility of the ETS-V. Unfortunately, codec equipment at PEACESAT malfunctioned recently and we could not have the connection to ETS-V.
CU-SeeMe videoconferencing with Macintosh was made by video exchange via Internet and by audio exchange via POTS line. Each window of four active (send/receive) participants, including Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, was positioned at four corners of a TV monitor which screen was broadcast via satellite for worldwide viewing. Ms. Andres of Global Schoolnet Foundation and her school children described their impressive global environmental project with the use of CU-SeeMe and e-mail. Officials of several Melbourne area universities observed this historical event.
A question was also raised from Deakin University in Australia, one of the receive-only CU-SeeMe viewers, even though they installed it just a few days prior to this event. The Universidad de Costa Rica also received its video successfully. Although the video quality of such transmissions was still relatively limited, they demonstrated growing availability of videoconferencing tools among educational communities in the U.S. and the countries of the Pacific Rim countries, without use of satellite nor dish antenna. This could be of particular interest to K-12 educators.
Another significant event was Mr. Jim Miller's (of SYNECTICS, Ltd. in Seattle, WA) demonstration of another desktop computer based videoconferencing technology, i.e., ShareView (the predecessor of ShareVision of Creative Labs) videoconferencing system. He demonstrated it as connecting successively via POTS line, a Macintosh at CSU/Sacramento with the one at the San Jose State University, the one in Seattle, and the one at the Distance Delivery Consortium in Bethel, Alaska, (with additional two satellite hops). ShareView operated over a standard POTS line (capable of data transmission speed of 9.6 Kbps to 14.4 Kbps), and transmitted voice, color video, and data over the same line. The video speed was typically 5-10 frames per second (fps).
Although only a point-to-point connection system, it delivered full color, full-motion video which was very clear. Both connected parties could draw or write using different colors on a whiteboard, swap stored annotated images (such as X-ray pictures) and manipulate spread sheet parameters, while seeing each other and discussing the subject matter at hand.
ShareView videoconferencing with inexpensive equipment and telecommunication line would be very valuable in developing countries where Internet data communication networks (with TCP/IP nodes) had not been well established yet. It was previously tested from a shop in Baring Sea for medical application via INMARSAT. The University of Hawaii recently succeeded to test it with the University of Guam via 9.6 Kbps channel of GOES-3 satellite.
Professor Heisuke Hironaka, Chairman of Japan Association for Mathematical Sciences in Tokyo (Field Prize Laureate, which is an equivalent to Novel Prize in mathematics), gave an impressive talk on distance education in Japan via PictureTel at Fujita. A video clipping made by CSU/Sacramento vividly envisioned the future of electronic distance education using a laptop and flat screen display. Mr. Spencer Fruend of CSU/Sacramento provided an excellent explanation of DELTA (Direct Electronic Learning Teaching Alternative) project of the California State University system.
We prepared Colorado Video's slow-scan TV (CVI/SSTV) units as back-up; one was loaned from the International University of Japan to Fujita, the other from Colorado Video to CSU/Sacramento and to San Jose State University. We succeeded in connecting Sacramento and Tokyo a day before, though the adaptor for the Japanese telephone system was difficult to figure out. In the end, we did not use the CVI/SSTV since PictureTel/CLI connection was successful. However, ShareView connection between Sacramento and San Jose malfunctioned during our panel discussion session, and we had to rely for this connection on a robust CVI/SSTV unit via POTS.
After this event, we assisted the demonstrations of ShareView desktop
videoconference system between Tokyo and Los Angeles; at School of Visual
Arts in New York City; at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.; between the
University of Hawaii and the University of Guam, and so on. Incidentally,
the University of Guam has been using it to connect with a college in Palau
Island for nurse training via GOES-3 satellite. Fujita Corporation in Tokyo
demonstrated its use with their Los Angeles office at the annual conference
of the Association of Global Electronic Networking Educators in Tokyo. Our
experiences with the desktop videoconferencing are now leading our projects
in several interesting directions.
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This GLH with the theme of "Compare and Evaluate Available Technologies:
Learning Through Using" was held at the occasion of the First International
Conference on Distance Education in Russia which was taken place in Moscow
with theme of "Distance Learning and New Technologies in Education."
The University of Tennessee in Knoxville (UTK) hosted our videoconferencing
center to celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of the university. The
conference in Moscow was held by the Association of International Education
[12].
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Among greetings made by many prominent dignitaries from the UTK and Moscow conference site, following is the excerpt from the one made by Dr. Colin N. Power, Assistant Director General for Education of UNESCO/Paris office.
"As a specialized agency of the United Nations, UNESCO, which presently comprises 182 Member States, has a universal mandate and commitment to the provision of education for all.
The organization has early recognized the important contribution that open and distance education can make in this respect. UNESCO's General Conferences, Conferences of Ministers of Education and the 1990 World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand have stressed the need to make greater use of distance education delivery systems.
Due attention to new delivery systems is also given within the framework of the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century. Our concern is to adapt educational structures, contents and methods to the requirements of the next century. Also the "Learning without Frontiers" programme envisions worldwide networks of open learning and distance education to reach those who until now have been deprived of learning opportunities.
What gives urgency to these concerns is the rapid development of information and communication technologies which presents a global challenge to all education. Indeed, the means of communication have developed more rapidly than education's capacity to make use of them.
Therefore, the central issue is how to ensure that the new communication means are available while reducing the costs involved. These are vital problems especially to the newly independent countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and in other less affluent Third World Countries.
UNESCO is fully aware of the challenges ahead. At its 1980 General Conference, the Organization adopted a resolution recommending that member States apply special tariffs to press agencies and other media in the developing countries for the transmission of press bulletins and television news. This led to further work by UNESCO and ITU to examine and decrease the economic constraints to the effective use of telecommunications in education, science, culture and in the circulation of information. The recent ITU/UNESCO Telecommunication Development Conference was properly based on a study: "The Right to Communicate - at what price?"
Therefore, there is a need for improved dialogue between governments, telecommunication systems and educators, in general, and in the Third World, in particular. The shared use of communication technologies deserves to be singled out as an important policy issue among decision-makers. The "information superhighway" should not be narrowed to a village path, because there are no opportunities for participation.
The question, therefore, is how to bring together those who provide education for all and those who possess the technologies to reach all. lt is precisely this capacity of reaching new groups of potential learners, without the constraints of time and space, that makes telecommunication media an attractive and increasingly indispensable partner to education. If a wider access to them can be ensured, electronic distance education will undoubtedly be expanded to all regions, and before long they will become as normal a part of education systems as are now textbooks, calculators and computers.
While the space is being turned into a global network of communication, the actual human needs continue to be down-to-earth, peace being the most obvious one. The use of communication networks to foster international understanding and cooperation towards a global citizenship is very much within the framework of UNESCO's mandate as an organization of peace.
Education, science and culture through which UNESCO's founders aimed to pursue peace are all affected by new communication technologies. The former one-way traffic, whereby learners physically had to go to institutions of education, culture and science if they wished to profit from them, is giving way to a two-way traffic, whereby education, science and culture will go to learners if learners cannot go to them. This historically significant development towards greater mobility of delivery systems, which frees learners from the constraints of time and place, will open up a number of structural and methodological possibilities for learning.
I believe that still more bridges need to be built, electronically and otherwise, to cope with the challenge caused by numerous conflict situations, problems of hunger, economic recession, unemployment, environment and others. All these have their impact on the form and content of education. The question is then not only how to communicate but also what to communicate. The ultimate aim goes beyond communication itself to generate a communion, the sharing of universally accepted values based on peace and international understanding.
As in the past fifty years, UNESCO is now more determined than ever to
contribute to that aim, towards a unique culture of peace."
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Followings were the premises underlying our GLHs which set it apart from conventional videoconferencing.
Possible uses of the
information superhighway are in (1) education, (2) business, and (3) entertainment.
Education is social investment, business is for return of the investment,
entertainment is for relaxation. This is the order of importance for building
a new nation and a new global society in the 21st century [13] (Utsumi, Benkyo).Several systems will be interconnected to form a global neural computer network [a term coined by Utsumi in 1981 and used by Vice President Al Gore in his speech] of a global brain -- in such a way that the total system will act as a single system with parallel processing of those subsystems in individual countries. Here each game player with his submodel and database corresponds to a neuron, TCP/IP oriented node to a synapsis, and packet-switching Internet the nerves of a global brain.
Because of the dynamic nature and rapid advances in technology, we must
constantly test and demonstrate various delivery systems, and choose the
appropriate one or combinations thereof, depending on distance education
courses, their target/recipients/students, and their surrounding environment,
such as language, culture, economy, telecommunication regulation and its
technical standpoints, etc.
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There are as yet no advanced telecom networks in most of developing countries, particularly those of such a high-tech nature as satellite dish antenna, last mile of switched 56/64 Kbps or ISDN lines, or TCP/IP oriented Internet. Thus, whenever we conduct GLH type videoconferencing -- particularly with overseas countries -- or global electronic distance education exchange, it is always wise to use a backup delivery system with the almost universally available Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) line around the world -- usually at lowest telecommunication costs compared with other telecommunication media [16].
* Slow-Scan TV Units Without Computer Capability
Lumaphone (not used during this GLH) is the most inexpensive portable unit, with a small black and white freeze-frame image (although it can be blown up with regular TV monitor for large viewers) which can also be readily printed out. Up to about half a dozen units can be hooked up through an ordinary telephone bridge. No computer capability. Good for small group of K-12 educational community on a global scale.
Colorado Video' slow-scan TV units (black and white as well as color) (not used during this GLH) are standard, with medium to high price tag (around $4,000 to $10,000). The unit's freeze-frame images can appear on a regular TV monitor -- about 30 seconds per frame of image transmission speed. About up to a dozen units can be hooked up through an ordinary telephone bridge. No computer capability. Voice is interrupted while image transmission takes place.
There are now several units similar to the above from AT&T, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation, etc.
* ShareView with Computer Capability
ShareView units with 2 boards and a camera (for Macintosh IIci up and for IBM compatible with Window 3.1) are priced around $4,000 (at that time but now less than $400), in addition to the computer platform costs. ShareView gives complete computer capability (data, text, graph, diagram, freeze-frame image, photo, application and simulation programs, whiteboard, etc.).
A freeze-frame picture sent from Moscow to UTK was superb!! And its transmission took only a few seconds. Its real-time, live video window in color is small, and crude at 10 to 15 fps. However, its freeze-frame image in high resolution can be supplemental to the real-time video, with good audio quality through POTS line -- and most importantly, saving lots of telecommunication costs. Voice is not interrupted during freeze-frame image transmission or while the application program is interactively executed.
If the computer of ShareView has two telephone lines, one can be used for the connection with other ShareView via POTS, and the other telephone line to access various databases and World Wide Web, etc., via Internet. This enables to grab web page to send it to the other ShareView with the use of its whiteboard. Its greatest advantage is the use of POTS at the low speed of 9.6 to 14.4 Kbps anywhere in the world, usually available at the lowest telecommunication costs.
Disadvantage of ShareView is still for one-to-one interactive connection,
although it is an ideal education methodology, but not feasible from economical
viewpoint. There is a need to achieve economy of scale, in which it would
be one-to-many.
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Telecommunication costs of Internet are usually the lowest (or nil) compared with other media. Accessibility to Internet can provide e-mail for coordination, interaction among instructors and students, and various databases around the world, in addition to the following videoconferencing capabilities.
* CU-SeeMe
Software is available free of charge for Macintosh and for IBM compatible from Web of Cornell University. Its black and white video in a small window is crude, but good enough for daily conversation. The voice quality of its associated MAVEN for audio conversation through Internet is still crude -- it is wise to have an audio teleconferencing system through POTS as a back-up. White Pine version of CU-SeeMe is in color, has better capabilities than Cornell version with better audio quality.
* World Wide Web
This would be ideal for one-to-many, asynchronous, "just-in-time," individual education on a global scale with all text, data, graph, freeze-frame, audio, video, etc., computer capabilities. Its hypertext enables retrieval from any computers hooked with Internet around the world. However, this requires a connection with TCP/IP oriented Internet, which is not yet readily available in overseas countries.
* MBone
Color video in large window and voice quality are better than with CU-SeeMe. MBone can also have computer capability (including execution of simulation models) with accessibility to various databases of Internet. However, this requires a high-priced workstation. Multiparty interactive videoconferencing can also be done around the world wherever Internet has been extended with more than 256 Kbps bandwidth.
* ShowMe
When ShowMe is available with 3 to 4 Mbps (which is almost equivalent
to using spectrum-saver of CLI on a satellite) through Ethernet of Local
Area Network (LAN), it gives high resolution video in a large window with
near perfect voice quality. It also gives full computer capability. However,
it requires Sun Microsystems' SPARC-10 at around $10,000 to 15,000 range.
Its performance through Internet is still to be seen.
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* Switched Digital and ISDN
Telecommunication costs of these lines are higher than POTS, but less than satellite. High-cost equipment is also needed. Digital video equipment through these lines gives good voice and video quality at near 30 fps. Versions with computer capability are now appearing on the market, but they cannot interconnect with Internet. Although major cities in developed countries have now been equipped with these lines, the so-called "last mile" problem always exists not only in overseas countries but also even in the U.S. Analog TV monitor for the equipment does not convey the high resolution of a computer screen. As same for satellite, the equipment through these lines is good for "talking-head" type presentation for large number of students, but not for "experiential learning" with computer application or simulation model executions.
* Satellite
Telecommunication cost for satellite, especially over oceans, is the
highest compared with others, but it gives the best analog quality video,
although not suitable for reading a computer screen. Satellite route usually
requires large initial investments for satellite segment, up- and down-linking
facilities, studio, turn-around services, their scheduling, etc. Satellite
is good, especially for one-to-many, "talking-head" type presentations
to large number of dispersed viewers. NASA's Advanced Communications Technology
Satellite (ACTS) would give computer capability, although its footprint
covers only the North American continent yet.
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In spite of some technical difficulties, this GLH was full of exciting demonstrations of advanced desktop videoconferencing technologies that seemed to indicate the future direction of global electronic distance eduction. This particular GLH was the most complex one organized in the past decade, with demonstrations greatly appreciated by viewers around the world. (Utsumi, T., 1994a, Diagram of GLH/Moscow in 1994)
Technology demonstrated during this GLH were advanced web with audio and video annotations, CU-SeeMe, MBone, ShowMe, etc., through TCP/IP oriented Internet for the realization of asynchronous, just-in-time, individualized education, and of one-to-many multimedia ShareView (predecessor of ShareVision) system. Japanese Kanji character teaching was demonstrated during this GLH with the use of ShareView's whiteboard capability via POTS by Nebraska Educational TV to students in Illinois which was broadcast worldwide via INTELSAT. Followings are brief accounts of them.
* "Friends and Partners" World Wide Web (WWW) Server:
By Mr. Greg Cole of UTK and Ms. Natasha Bulashova, Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Russia, -- mixed media (text, graphics, image, audio, and video) information exchange via Internet, as integrating information from all of the best Internet-based tools and utilities -- Listserves, Gophers, WAIS databases, FTP archives, etc. -- a forerunner of asynchronous, "Just-In-Time," individualized education.
* CU-SeeMe via Internet:
By Mr. Richard Cogger of Cornell University, Prof. Jose Brenes of the University of Costa Rica, Prof. Marc Eisenstadt of the Open University in U.K., Mr. Allyn J. Radford of Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, -- a black and white video (10 to 15 frame per second [fps]) with Macintosh -- also audio conferencing with MAVEN via Internet. (Screen capture of CU-SeeMe)
Albeit crude video quality yet, this showed readily available videoconference among educational communities around the world with TCP/IP oriented Internet, even including passive participation of Warsaw University in Poland, without use of satellite nor dish antenna -- and even without use of overseas telephone calls.
* MBone via Internet:
By Messrs Mike McCann, Donald Paul Brutzman, and Mike Macedonia of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, -- text, graphics, image, whiteboard, audio, and video (1 to 3 fps) via 256 Kbps bandwidth -- with scientific visualizations with a simulation model of a global ocean current circulation, particularly with three dimensional analysis of equatorial Pacific for El Nino effect.
* ShowMe via Ethernet LAN of UTK:
By Mr. Greg Cole of UTK and his student -- text, graphics, image, whiteboard, audio, and video (near 30 fps).
* ShareView via Plain Old Telephone (POT):
By Mr. Jim Miller of SYNECTICS -- text, graphics, image, whiteboard, audio, and video (10 to 15 fps) via 9.6 Kbps bandwidth. Video of instructor, handwriting in color on an electronic whiteboard, freeze-frame exchange, image/graphic with annotation, dynamic graphic presentation by real-time execution of an application program/simulation model, etc., were demonstrated in windows on computer screen at both sites. They were seeing each other while discussing the subject matter through the same POT line.
ShareView videoconferencing with inexpensive equipment and telecommunication line can be very valuable in developing countries where Internet with TCP/IP node has not been well established yet.
* "MultiMedia of America (MMOA)" (TM):
Interconnection of two ShareView units via terrestrial POTS line was demonstrated by Mr. Timothy Cook of Nebraska Educational TV and students of Niles High School in Michigan at Governors State University. Each of them uplinked analog signals which were downlinked at the UTK. Teaching on Japanese Kanji brush stroke sequences was demonstrated on whiteboard of ShareView units.
These demonstrations were toward the development of a one-to-many, receive-only
multimedia system via inexpensive narrow-band channel of satellite (i.e.,
our MMOA project), for those students in rural and remote areas where there
is no Internet node yet.
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The demonstrations were greatly appreciated by viewers around the world,
not only in the U.S. and Canada, but also in Russia, Costa Rica, Colombia,
Italy, Poland, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, etc. Thus, we successfully attained our
goal of comparing and evaluating various delivery technologies for global
electronic distance education exchange, which is one of the most important
uses of the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) [17] The GLH was also a clear example of cooperation
of international and domestic, governmental, industrial and academic organizations
for a global scale project. (Utsumi, T., 1994b, Summary and Videotape of GLH/Moscow in
1994) (Virtual, December, 1994, in Italian) (Read,
Jean, 1994, "Global Classroom," The Computer Paper, September, 1994)
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GLOSAS/USA organized a "Global Lecture Hall (GLH)" videoconference on October 25, 1995, on the occasion of the VIth International Conference on Distance Education: "Technology and Distance Education: Sharing Experiences around the World," (October 24, to 27, 1995, in San Jose, Costa Rica). The GLH with the theme "Affordable and Accessible Global Electronic Distance Education" was from Ohio University. Its signal was sent from our videoconference center at Ohio University to Central and South America, to Scandinavia and Japan using several INTELSAT channels and via Internet (Utsumi, T., 1995, Diagrams of GLH/Costa Rica in 1995). Individuals involved in the conferences included prominent educators and government officials (e.g., Dr. Federico Mayor, Director General of UNESCO) as well as individuals from both the private and not-for-profit sectors. This GLH also connected student group in Helsinki with the support of local universities and telephone companies.
Followings are excerpts of greetings from some of prominent dignitaries;
* Dr. Federico Mayor, Director General of UNESCO (video tape from UNESCO/Paris headquarters)
Greetings to the participants in the 1995 "Global Lecture Hall"! On behalf of UNESCO, I wish to say something on this year's theme - Technology and Distance Education: Sharing Experiences around the World - since I believe educational development through the sharing of knowledge to be one of the keys to a more equitable and peaceful world.
Distance education has progressed a great deal in recent years, and UNESCO can claim to have made some contribution to this process. As the UN specialized agency responsible for international cooperation in education, communication, science and culture, it is particularly well placed to play a role in this area, where inputs from a variety of disciplines are required.
The "new media" have demonstrated their potential to contribute to effective learning. But it has become clear that their effective use is crucially dependent on good instructional design. Experience has also shown that imagination and political will are essential if inertia is to be overcome and educational alternatives are to be properly exploited. This is why one of the aims of UNESCO's "Learning Without Frontiers" programme is to change the policy environment so that the technology of the classroom is no longer seen as the only option available to educational planners.
We need to explore all possible means to reach out to the massive numbers of people around the globe who are deprived of opportunities to learn. There are still almost one billion illiterate people in the world. One hundred thirty million children of primary-school age do not attend school. The demand for learning opportunities is constantly rising, but the cost of delivering education by conventional means makes it impossible for many countries to satisfy the growing demand.
The largest proportion of the unreached live in parts of the world that are difficult to reach by any means - conventional or modern. To solve problems in these areas, we need solutions that are both affordable and accessible. If appropriate measures are not taken, there is a risk that the developing global information infrastructure will bypass the 600,000 villages without electricity and simply widen the knowledge gap still further. While it is important to explore the potential benefits to education of the emerging information superhighways, we must also think about creating the infrastructure that reaches out to remote communities which have so far had little contact with modern technology. As we move rapidly into the information age, old divisions between the haves and the have-nots are being replaced by new ones - between those who are and are not connected. The challenge is not simply to find suitable hardware solutions, but also to prepare communities to become technologically literate. Alternative energy technologies, such as solar powered communication devices, have an important role to play here.
The search for media solutions to educational problems must not be dissociated from the learning context itself. What is required is the creation of examples of good educational practice, using the technological solutions in question. This is what impresses policy-makers and decision-makers. It is also important to show that significant cost savings will result from such applications.
Together with the International Telecommunications Union, UNESCO is currently involved in developing technologies within relevant educational contexts. For example, we are currently setting up a pilot project on the Educational Application of Interactive Television for implementation in South Africa. Partnerships among countries are important for the dissemination of innovative approaches. They allow countries to learn from each other, to collaborate on developments and to create unprecedented economies of scale for applications such as satellite communication. This is the rationale behind UNESCO's involvement in the Joint Initiative on Distance Education of the Nine High-Population Countries. Like the Interactive TV project, this nine-country initiative is part of UNESCO's "Learning Without Frontiers" programme. The participating countries - Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, Brazil and Mexico - make up half the world's population and include almost three quarters of its illiterate people. By cooperating, these countries have created an excellent environment for new technological applications to achieve global impact.
Finally, one of the most important features of emerging technologies is their potential to make the learning environment more interactive and flexible. Dialogue is one of the most powerful stimuli for the development of the mind. It is probably the main area in which traditional distance education has been found wanting. Thanks to recent technological developments, we are finally capable of making a real breakthrough in this area and of creating an effective global learning environment to which everyone will have access, anywhere, at any time, at any age, in any circumstance.
Lifelong learning for all - this is the goal. We are delighted to be associated with partners such as the Consortium for the Advancement of Affordable Distance Education (CAADE) and the Global University in promoting our shared objective.
* Mr. Charles W. Fox, Director of WORLDNET Television and Film Service, U.S. Information Agency (video tape from Washington, D.C.)
One true test of a society is its power to inform and educate. Distance learning through satellite communications expands the impact of that power, and in order to succeed, a world wide satellite broadcasting system such as WORLDNET must communicate to its viewers information that is both new and relevant. Although WORLDNET does not use the virtual classroom to teach, it has established a virtual seminar. Some of the following WORLDNET programs that can be easily adapted to professional level distance learning include American Business English, Computer Literacy, American Business History, Law, Mathematics, Science and Health.
Another part of the WORLDNET Seminar focuses on a lively exchange of ideas among experts establishing the airwaves as a bridge to understanding and learning. We call this "interactive programming." In many industrial societies, vast resources are devoted to education. That capability can be put to great use in developing nations.
WORLDNET Television, at the United States Information Agency, has been in the business of international communications for ten years, and I can speak with authority on the potential of making university and professional training available globally. In the United States distance learning benefits those who are working, disabled, and for whom travel time is prohibitive.
The United States benefitted enormously from the wholesale education of its people, and I believe that these initiatives for university-level distance learning will further advance the principle of global access to education.
Universal access to education is key to participatory democracies. History will recognize the pioneers of distance education as the ones who turned that key to opening the door to democracy-building world wide.
Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you. I look forward to hearing about your continued success in this exciting endeavor.
* Dr. Tapio Varis of the University of Art & Design, Former Rector of the U.N. University of Peace in Costa Rica and Executive Advisor of GLOSAS/USA (with PictureTel via digital switched service from Helsinki Telephone Company Ltd. in Helsinki, Finland)
We are now celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations. According to the UN figures there are 1,000 million illiterate people in the world - two thirds of them are women. There are also 800 million unemployed people.
Today the education field everywhere lags seriously behind other areas in the use of technology and telecommunications even though the emerging global information society will depend on knowledgeable citizens. As pointed out by the Deputy President of South Africa, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, "the debate about the information society is of relevance to all humanity and therefore cannot ignore the position, the needs and role of the developing world."
Without knowledgeable people who also are computer literate with enough communication competence and media skills in the new media environment there will be no information society, stability nor peaceful and sustainable development.
In this occasion, I want to inform you of our planned Conference on "Emerging Global Electronic Distance Education" in Helsinki in 1996 which we are preparing here with the international team and my colleagues from the University of Technology. This is to discuss and set strategy of the practical application of available technologies for establishing a collaborative system of global electronic distance education across national boundaries.
The purposes of this conference will be [1] to learn about the needs and conditions from motivated enthusiasts in underserved countries who can communicate with e-mail, [2] to connect these enthusiasts with decision-makers of their countries, who can finance their demonstrations, [3] to identify pilot projects and [4] to have a convention on global distance education policies and regulations for standardization of course exchange, credit transfer and accreditation, for forming an institutional network on a global scale and for institutionalizing global electronic distance education activities.
We hope that step by step following the examples of telemedicine and
telecommunications training we can create a new Global University as envisaged
by Dr. Tak Utsumi.
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* Multicast Backbone (Mbone):
By Dr. Donald Paul Brutzman, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (from Monterey,
CA)
A demonstration of the Multicast Backbone (Mbone) -- text, graphics, image, whiteboard, audio, and video -- via Internet with a new video tool named "vic" delivered high-quality live video to viewers using H261 encoding. The demonstration also included uses of the MBone for distance learning, as in the presentation "Learning to Learn: the Future of Science and Engineering." An "MBone Unplugged" rig combined standard video gear, an inexpensive Indy workstation, wireless microphones and a wireless bridge to create a mobile Internet-based Mbone station.
* FORUM:
By Dr. Bill Klemm, Texas A&M University, (live satellite from Austin,
TX)
A demonstration of simulated asynchronous computer-mediated multimedia conferencing (CMMCS) with FORUM via Internet took place between two geographically separated sites in a brief academic exercise dealing with the topic of epilepsy. "Student" and "teacher" interacted with some instruction on the mechanisms of epilepsy and provided each other with in-context links to World Wide Web sites that contained useful reference material on epilepsy.
* Global Telecommunications University (GTU):
By Dr. Renato Cortinovis, Training Officer of the Human Resource Development
Division of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
This presentation involved a computer slide show given from Geneva, Switzerland.
* ShareVision:
By Professor Jose Brenes; Lic Marta Salazar, Professor at the Nursing School
of the Universidad de Costa Rica; Ms. Lucrecia Vasques, student at the Nursing
School of the Universidad de Costa Rica; Dr. Kathleen Rose-Grippa of Ohio
University and Mr. Jim Miller of SYNECTICS, Inc.
A nurse training course exchange was demonstrated using ShareVision -- with text, graphics, image, whiteboard, audio, and video (10 to 15 fps) -- via POTS at 9.6 Kbps in a two-way, interactive mode between Ohio University and the Costa Rica conference site.
* Global School House project:
By Mr. George Brett, Director of the Clearinghouse for Networked Information
Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR) in Research Triangle Park, NC
A presentation of the Global School House project -- sponsored by the US National Science Foundation -- was given with CU-SeeMe (black and white video, 10 to 15 fps, with Macintosh and IBM compatible machines). The presentation included MAVEN audio conferencing via Internet.
* KarlNet:
By Dr. Doug Karl, Director of Networking and Communications, Ohio State
University (from Columbus, OH)
A demonstration of KarlNet's 2 Mbps wireless telecommunication technology
(spread spectrum) also took place with CU-SeeMe via Internet providing a
one-to-one connection for high resolution video and audio.
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Our highly successful, 10th anniversary GLH for "Spreading Spirit
of Global Understanding to Every Corner of the World" was held on August
16, 1996, which focussed on environment protection and telemedicine with
electronic distance education. It was on the occasion of the International
Conference "The Spirit of Global Understanding" for celebrating
the 50th anniversary of Fulbright exchange program and the 1100th anniversary
of the Nation of Hungary. The face-to-face conference was organized by the
Hungarian Fulbright Association and the Hungarian Fulbright Commission and
held in Budapest, Hungary [18]. The GLH viewing site in Budapest was at the auditorium
of the Central European University. Norwalk Hospital in affiliation with
Yale University/School of Medicine and World Health Organization Collaborating
Center for Health Informatics in Norwalk, Connecticut hosted our videoconferencing
center. This GLH covered the entire globe and had the largest number of
participants in the past ten years. (Yomiuri America, July 5, 1996) See also <http://198.64.57.10/tgcccc/HCCS/glh.htm>.
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Albeit some technical difficulties, this GLH accomplished to demonstrate (Brightful Outlook, Vol. I, Issue 2, Oct. 1996);
Various models of PictureTel units were connected to a video bridge at the PictureTel Headquarters in Massachusetts through ISDN line (128 Kbps), i.e., from Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut, the University of Tennessee/Knoxville (UTK), Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, Michigan, and the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary (through a video bridge in the United Kingdom). The computer screen of PictureTel/Live 100 model (on Hewlett-Packard machine with Window95 operating system) at the UTK was uplinked to a GE Americom's U.S. domestic satellite (Ku-band), which signal was downlinked at other locations (GLH/Hungary/Diagram 1).
The signal received at the MSU from the PictureTel's video bridge was fed into CU-SeeMe for worldwide dissemination via Internet. A CU-SeeMe reflector at Yale University was connected to this CU-SeeMe at MSU for further worldwide dissemination among medical colleagues through Internet. Houston Community College and several other universities also connected to the CU-SeeMe at the MSU.
The involvement of UNESCO's "Learning Without Frontiers" program
assured us to obtain the endorsement of the United Nations for 6 free INTELSAT
satellite channels that enabled the GLH to be extended to overseas. We also
obtained "in-kind" services of a U.S. domestic satellite (Ku-band)
of GE Americom which covered North America. Videoconferencing via TCP/IP
oriented Internet (e.g., CU-SeeMe, etc.) and ISDN (e.g., PictureTel, etc.)
also enlarged its coverage around the globe.
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Panel Discussions on international educational exchange and experiences
in encouraging global understanding was moderated by Dr. Huba Bruckner,
Executive Director of Hungarian Fulbright Commission. This GLH had great
honor and privilege of having excellent greetings and discussions by distinguished
delegates and panelists from the U.S. and Hungary, including Mrs. Harriet
Mayor Fulbright, Mr. George Soros, Dr. Michael D. McDonald (on behalf of
Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General), and many others. Mr. George
Soros sent his greetings from his home in New York to audiences in Budapest
via POTS line, which was distributed by satellite, PictureTel via ISDN and
CU-SeeMe via worldwide Internet.
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The objectives of these demonstrations were:
* Telemedicine via Inexpensive Telecommunication:
by Mr. Sunao Miyazaki of Noguchi Medical Research Institute and Dr. Khalid
Moidu of Norwalk Hospital in affiliation with Yale University School of
Medicine.
A wrist-watch type blood pressure gage and cardio-phone for cardiogram (Yomiuri America, Sept. 13, 1996) were demonstrated via inexpensive narrow-band POTS at 9.6 Kbps in two-way, interactive mode between the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, PA and Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, CT. Each of them can complement, yet using only inexpensive, ubiquitous POTS which data can be sent from patient anywhere around the world to his/her doctor. The demonstration was made with the use of ShareVision for high resolution image via POTS, which computer screen was then broadcast worldwide with PictureTel via ISDN line, CU-SeeMe via Internet and satellite (GLH/Hungary/Diagram 2).
* GLOSAS/KNOWLEDGE BASE:
by Professor Anton Ljutic of Champlain College on behalf of Dr. Andrey S.
Narvsky of St. Petersburg University of Ocean Technology.
A prototype version of GLOSAS/KNOWLEDGE BASE was demonstrated from Budapest conference site. It is of GLOSAS members about their course offerings to less developed countries via inexpensive multimedia telecommunications networks across national boundaries. This demonstration was a three dimensional (3D) display of a rotating globe in a head with blinking locations of the members in various countries with their audio and video greetings, -- a metaphor of the global brain with global neural computer network, which leads to World Wide Web (WWW) home page design. The page will be hypertexted with audio and video greetings, and many information, reports, papers about GLOSAS, GU, GLH video clippings, CAADE projects and GLOSAS NEWS.
* "Education for All" from Anywhere to Anywhere with the
combined use of ShareVision and CU-SeeMe via POTS, satellite and Internet:
By Mr. Jim Miller of SYNECTICS in Seattle, WA, Mr. Roger Carter of Arizona
State University, Mr. Gary Blievernicht and Ms. Lih-Er Wey of Michigan State
University, Mr. Roger Boston of Houston Community College and Mr. Allyn
Radford of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
"Education for All" is the motto of UNESCO.
Our mini-GLH on July 17, 1996, dubbed as "MultiMedia of America (MMOA)" (TM) Project #1 (one-way, interactive broadcasting of ShareVision via U.S. domestic satellite) (GLH/Hungary/Diagram 3), had a pseudo-teacher (active or retired at his/her home) in Seattle who described his Teacher's Instructional Mapping & Management System (TIMMS) in multimedia ShareVision system. He sent to a ShareVision unit at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, AZ, his video (color, motion) in a small window and voice via ubiquitously available POTS line. He also sent stored freeze-frame, high-resolution images and graphics (which could be the ones retrieved from web-sites of Internet).
TIMMS is a useful tool for integrating curriculum design and planning, school administration, student performance and portfolio, resource identification, student tasks, student outcomes and assessment records into a cohesive management system.
The ShareVision computer screen at the ASU was then uplinked to a channel of the National Technological University's (NTU's) satellite (1/17th of its full transponder). The signal was downlinked at Michigan State University (MSU) and fed into a Sharevision unit.
The received signal with ShareVision at MSU was transferred to CU-SeeMe for students around the world via Internet.
The received signal with ShareVision at MSU was also transmitted to a ShareVision at Houston Community College via POTS, where a large number of students watched it with 50 inch TV monitor.
The received signal at Houston Community College was further transmitted to a ShareVision unit at a disabled student's home via POTS.
This demonstration successfully accomplished the following objectives;
* Interactive Satellite with the combined use of ShareVision via a
portable dish antenna for INMARSAT satellite in two-way, interactive mode:
By Dr. Jan Visser at UNESCO/Paris and Mr. Mauricio Manhaes of Terravista
in Florianopolis, Brazil.
In spite of major advantage of wide coverage by satellite, its disadvantage is the one-way, non-interactive broadcasting nature. On the other hand, videoconferencing requires, by its nature, two-way interactivity. Electronic distance education is also increasingly toward the utilization of computer capability.
Our mini-GLH on July 26, 1996, dubbed as "MultiMedia of America (MMOA)" Project #2 (GLH/Hungary/Diagram 4), accommodated those two features, as connecting ShareVision unit at SENAI in Florianopolis, Brazil with the one at UNESCO/Paris/"Learning Without Frontier" distance education project for the description and demonstration of CATARINA educational CD-ROM program of Terravista in Florianopolis, Brazil [20], and next with the one at Houston Community College, both via INMARSAT-A with a portable dish antenna. INMARSAT is the only commercially available satellite of this capability in international arena.
Following objectives were accomplished by this demonstration;
* Collaborative Gaming Simulation for Sustainable Environment with
ShareVision via POTS from The World Bank in Washington, D.C. to SENAI in
Florianopolis, Brazil:
by Dr Gerald Barney of Millennium Institute in Arlington, VA, with WWW page
of the program;
During "MultiMedia of America (MMOA)" Project #3 session (GLH/Hungary/Diagram 5), we had following two presentations;
* European Union Negotiation Gaming:
by Dr. Colette Mazzucelli, Budapest Institute for Graduate International
and Diplomatic Studies, and Dr. Peter Szollosi, Hungarian School for Tourism
and Trade, with the technical assistance of Dr. Janos Tolgyesi of ELTE University.
Our Hungarian colleagues presented their plan to incorporate the use of CU-SeeMe televideo with the European regional version of the International Communication of Negotiation with Simulation (ICONS) at the University of Maryland (