[156] in Information Retrieval
FYI
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (ganderso@Athena.MIT.EDU)
Fri Apr 2 11:02:20 1993
From: ganderso@Athena.MIT.EDU
To: hal@altdorf.ai.mit.edu, libtalk@Athena.MIT.EDU, elibdev@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 93 10:59:24 EST
Thought you might be interested in this announcement.
Greg
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 93 11:48:41 -0500
From: steve@avalon.dartmouth.edu
To: nearnet-plan@nic.near.net, nearnet-k12@nic.near.net
Subject: Dartmouth / NYNEX Project
Last week NYNEX and Dartmouth announced a joint networking project called the
Learning Network. A copy of the press release follows. What the release
doesn't get into is that the project includes a data network in parallel to
the switched video network that is the centerpiece of the project. The data
network will in effect extend Dartmouth's TCP/IP and Appletalk network to
include the high schools, library and science museum that are part of the
project. Some of us think that's as exciting as the video portion.
A typical installation in the schools consists of a NYNEX Shuttle station
comprising video camera, monitor, and audio, plus an off-the-shelf computer
- - a Mac or a PC - that is used as the control station for establishing video
connections to other stations on the net. The control computer talks to its
peers and to the video switch using TCP/IP. The TCP/IP network is built from
standard telco T1 lines and cisco routers. It's straightforward to attach
other computers to the LANs in the remote sites. We plan to route IP and
Appletalk to those sites so the schools can participate in the Dartmouth
network as well as the Internet.
The target date for having it all up and running is July 1. We are meeting
almost weekly with NYNEX and NET people to plan facilities and management.
Our development groups are looking at what applications to offer to the
schools.
Here's the press release. It's typical, long on puff, short on details.
The contacts listed at the end are press contacts. You can direct technical
queries to me.
Steve Campbell
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 24, 1993
NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE & NYNEX HELP DARTMOUTH
COLLEGE CONNECT SCHOOLS TO NEW LEARNING NETWORK
HANOVER, N.H. - Educators and K-12 students in Vermont and
New Hampshire will soon use the New England Telephone network to
dial into text, audio, video and image-based educational resources
provided by Dartmouth College and others.
Dartmouth College, New England Telephone and NYNEX Science
and Technology will collaborate in a three-year project to develop
the NYNEX/Dartmouth Learning Network. The network will connect
campus facilities with schools, libraries and museums in the area.
The network's initial phase will link several Dartmouth sites
with Lebanon High School (N.H.), Hanover High School, the Howe
Library in Hanover, Thetford Academy (Vt.), St. Johnsbury Academy
(Vt.), Hartford High School (Vt.) and the Montshire Museum of Science
in Norwich, Vt.
Teachers and students using the Learning Network will be able
to communicate by voice and video, while sharing or retrieving other
video, image or text resources during their session. Some of these
resources already exist at Dartmouth. Others will be acquired or
developed for the Learning Network. Dartmouth also plans to make
multi-media course materials available over the network in areas
such as language and science.
"We at Dartmouth are excited about our participation in this
project," said Bruce Pipes, Dartmouth associate provost for
academic affairs, "because it will test the feasibility of extending
our philosophy of easy and open access to technology-based teaching
and learning resources to a broader, more diverse educational
community."
Dartmouth President James O. Freedman and NET President
Paul O'Brien met today at the college and signed a letter of
understanding beginning formal planning for the Learning Network.
"This partnership joining Dartmouth's expertise in education
with ours in high-performance telecommunications will help us
understand how the telephone network can benefit teachers and
students," said NET President Paul O'Brien. "We want to create the
model for future multi-media communications services, with
special emphasis on K-12 education."
Plans call for the Learning Network to be ready in time for the
new school year. Most of the NET network facilities are already in
place, with the balance to be installed over the next few months.
For NET and NYNEX Science and Technology, the project builds
on the companies' work to develop the NYNEX Shuttle and Media
Broadband Service - two initiatives which use the network for real-
time sharing of voice, video and text to support collaborative work
among people in different locations.
The technologies being used in the Learning Network will
mirror a conversational work and classroom environment, rather
than a traditional computing environment.
Dartmouth has long been considered a pioneer in computing. In
1940, Dr. George Stibitz of Bell Laboratories and later a Dartmouth
professor, first demonstrated remote access by using a Dartmouth
Teletype machine and standard telephone lines to operate a New York
computer.
The college again made computing history in the 1960s when
professors and computer pioneers John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz
invented BASIC, the programming language originally used by most
personal computers. The two went on to develop one of the world's
first computer time-sharing systems.
Today, Dartmouth operates a campus-wide computer network
linking about 9,000 personal computers in its academic,
administrative and residential facilities. The Dartmouth College
Information System provides easy access to approximately 40
databases, ranging from the full text of the American Heritage
Electronic Dictionary to catalogs and indexes for most holdings in
the college's nine libraries.
All Dartmouth undergraduate students have access to personal
computers, and more than 90 percent own computers.
NYNEX Science and Technology is the research and development
unit of the NYNEX Corporation, with laboratories in White Plains,
N.Y., New York City, Cambridge and Framingham, Mass.
CONTACT: Dartmouth College : Kathryn Clark (603) 646-2117
New England Telephone : John Johnson (617) 743-3677
------- End of Forwarded Message
