The Educational Enterprise Zone: Where Knowledge Comes From! (Company Business and Marketing)(Abstract) STAN SILVERMAN; GENE SILVERMAN.

Abstract: The Technology Based Learning Systems department of the New York Institute of Technology forms a partnership with Bell Atlantic, the Hitachi Foundation, the New York State Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, the New York State Education Department, the New York City Board of Education, New York State Teacher Centers and numerous content providers, establishing a consortium called the Educational Enterprise Zone (EEZ). Many different kinds of institutions, such as research sites, hospitals, museums, cultural institutions, businesses and government agencies will be developing curricular programming for the Educational Enterprise Zone.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1999 T.H.E. Journal

Technology Based Learning Systems department of the New York Institute of Technology, in partnership with Bell Atlantic, the Hitachi Foundation, the New York State Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, the New York State Education Department, the New York City Board of Education, New York State Teacher Centers and numerous content providers, has created a consortium called the Educational Enterprise Zone (EEZ).

Members of this consortium are educational providers, in both formal and informal settings, who will create programming for K-16 classrooms to be delivered via videoconferencing. Many different kinds of institutions, such as research sites, hospitals, museums, cultural institutions, businesses and government agencies will be developing curricular programming for the Educational Enterprise Zone.

The changes in, and development of, new and revised State and National learning standards have triggered the question: "Where will the knowledge come from that will enable our students to meet these goals?" We know that to prepare students for living and working they will need to continually construct and reconstruct knowledge and to wade through vast seas of information. Schools are trying to build technology supported instructional environments in which students, faced with real world problems or circumstances 1) seek needed information, data and resources; 2) organize those ideas into constructs; and 3) apply these constructs to the issues or problems that they are trying to understand. Teachers find themselves in a variety of roles: teacher, facilitator, mediator, guide, leader, team member and advocate. Facts and content take on new meaning as they are integrated and applied to knowledge constructs, which are organized, processed, analyzed and combined to form a new basis for knowledge.

Teachers and Learners Everywhere

If knowledge is knowing, how do our students and teachers come to "know"? In the past, knowledge came from a specific expert in the area of knowledge being "investigated," a person (teacher), a resource (textbook), and, more recently, videotapes, computer disks and CD-ROMS. With the extension of the Internet into the classroom it has become clear that the "expert" exists in many places beyond the classroom, and the "resource" is no longer singular and linear but has many information points and must be viewed in a nonlinear fashion. It is in this context that the New York Institute of Technology developed the Educational Enterprise Zone.

The philosophy of the EEZ is that teachers and learners exist in all places in our communities: home, libraries, workplaces, museums, government agencies, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and that we all share the same mission: to facilitate the maximum learning experience for the student. The EEZ puts in place the technology infrastructure and management structure that allows the learners to connect to resources worldwide.

The enabling technologies that the EEZ is based upon are designed to ensure equitable access to the resources via voice, data and video. The connections that the EEZ designs are intended to be connections of learners to people and not simply to databases of information. To ensure that these connections are enablers and do not become barriers for equitable participation, the NYIT/Bell Atlantic Research Lab at NYIT has developed a series of strategies and technologies to ensure participation for all schools through the public switched network. Since connectivity represents a major barrier for participation, the EEZ utilizes a large number of communication technologies.

Facilitating Access

In schools that have limited or no access to broadband connections, the EEZ uses POTS (Plain Old Telephone) lines and POTS CODECS (Compression Decompression e.g. Cphone, ViaPhone) units based on the H.324 standards. These low cost units ($300-$1,000 including camera) allow schools to establish content quality video conferences (6-12 frames/sec) even on low quality lines. The quality of the video image, while not TV quality, is significantly faster than most Internet-based connections and are at rates that allow for dynamic interaction between the sites. The EEZ has used this type of equipment to connect students and teachers to locations all over the world including Kenya, China and the former Soviet Union. In a connection utilizing this technology this past summer, students from K-12 schools connected with Bill Nichols of USA Today as he accompanied Vice President Gore on his visit to Chernobyl.

Schools with access to ISDN connections are utilizing H.320 CODECS ($800-$45,000) to connect with content resources. This type of connection provides superior quality (8-30 frame/second video) and also supports the sharing of software applications and whiteboarding amongst the connected sites. In working with the Smithsonian Natural Partners and PASCO Scientific, the EEZ is creating the ability for students and teachers to connect with scientists in active research sites, share data, manipulate scientific probes and interact via video with other schools and scientists.

Schools that have access to broadband connectivity (Cable TV, T3, ATM networks) have access to high quality video but often find themselves in closed loop environments. NYIT has developed at the NYIT/Bell Atlantic Research Lab the capability to open the loops and to allow the interconnection of POTS and ISDN-based delivery into their systems. This interconnection helps insure that all schools can participate in the learning activities. The NYIT/Bell Atlantic Research lab supports a Multipoint Video Conferencing Unit (MCU) for ISDN CODECS and has developed multipoint devices allowing for connections across all the various connection technologies including ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) connections, which support high speed connections via phone lines. Many of these combined and varied structures help insure access to information by all.

Enhanced Learning Through Collaboration

Through funding from the Hitachi Foundation and Title III, teachers from schools in New York City, Long Island, Washington D.C. and other locations are collaborating with museums, cultural institutions, research sites, Hospitals, Colleges and businesses on lessons and activities that share knowledge and resources. Some of the participating Museums include The Museum of TV and Radio, American Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), The New York State Museum, The Smithsonian Institute (Natural History and American History), The Philadelphia Fine Arts Museum and The Bronx Zoo.

The Natural partners of the National Museum of Natural History are working with EEZ to develop a concept called "The Museum in the Box." Schools will receive a box with three compartments. The first compartment has the technology required to connect the school to the museum, the second contains the instructional materials required for the activities (lesson plans, student lab materials, specimens or replicas of items in the collection, etc.). The third section of the box is perhaps the most exciting because it is empty. Students will construct knowledge after interacting with the museum and placing results or products into the empty section to send back to the museum in order for them to be shared with their peers and the educational community.

What we have learned is that the technology must be seamless. Once teachers and community partners are trained, together they develop effective and rich learning activities. They use the technology as a means to plan, train, and collaborate with one another, just as they expect their students will do in the 21st century. Area experts, teachers and scientists find their own knowledge growing and professional expertise expanding from the new collaborations.

Videoconferencing offers students real time mentors and real world problem solving: adults who serve as role models and guides in expert systems previously unavailable to schools. The President of NYIT, Dr. Matthew Schure has often said, "It is not simply about the technology but it is about the teaching and learning." Imagine the possibilities as the researchers, curators and educators and millions of artifacts become part of the community of learning in every school location. As a community and as individuals we are constructing knowledge. NYIT's EEZ paradigm puts forth and supports the notion that community members can provide not only resources, but the real world problems, support and encouragement needed for students to build constructs that lift them to high levels of achievement, applied critical thinking and problem solving. We call on all who join NYIT's EEZ to open the doors of wonder and to build the whole village that will raise our children.

Stan Silverman is the Director of Technology Based Learning at the New York Institute of Technology.

Gene Silverman is the Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction at Nassau BOCES.