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May 16, 2006 -- Virginia's K-12 schools, museums and libraries
will be among the first in the nation to connect to both
the National LambdaRail and Internet2 — providing
better access to educational and research resources worldwide.
Through a new program co-sponsored by a group of Virginia
research universities — including the University
of Virginia — and the Virginia Community College
System, schools, museums and libraries connected to NetworkVirginia
will be able to connect to either NLR or Internet2 or both
at no additional cost.
NetworkVirginia is a successful collaborative high-speed
network project that already provides access statewide.
The National LambdaRail is the latest national network
for research and education that goes beyond Internet technology.
Virginia universities have been in a lead role for development
of NLR.
"It provides enormous capacity to support scientific
research for the nation's top research universities, supercomputing
centers, and federal research laboratories," said
Robert Reynolds, vice
president and chief information officer at the University of Virginia and chair of the Mid Atlantic
Terascale Partnership.
Internet2 is a national organization focused on high-performance
network technology for education and research. Internet2's
Abilene network links more than half the nation's colleges
and universities and 35 state education networks for a
total of 46,000 institutions of research and education
nationwide, providing high-performance networking which
enables applications like DVD-quality videoconferencing
and access to advanced tools such as remotely controlled
electron microscopes.
Both networks offer tremendous capacity. Abilene provides
the research and education community with reliable, high-performance
network services at speeds 10,000 times faster than DSL.
NLR is even faster, with the ability to support the capacity
of 40 Abilene networks simultaneously with room to grow.
But speed isn't the total story. "These networks,
particularly NLR, use new technology to provide far greater
flexibility and control to support high-end multimedia
and very demanding scientific applications," said
Erv Blythe, NLR board member and vice president for information
technology at Virginia Tech. "And the economics of
the NLR model are very compelling," he added.
"The availability of research, educational content
and advanced capabilities through Network Virginia for
all education
partners placed Virginia at the head of the class," said
Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College
System. "This advancement will improve access and
delivery of crucial education and training throughout the
commonwealth."
The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
in Fairfax County is the first Virginia K-12 school to
connect to NLR. TJ students have already been working with
coursework in supercomputing and advanced network protocols
directly relevant to NLR and Internet2.
Faculty members
at TJ and Virginia Tech are developing ideas to augment
these programs and expand access to opportunities ranging
from distributed performing arts education to instruction
in distributed supercomputing for high school students
statewide.
"Virginia students will gain access to technology
and hands-on educational opportunities previously available
only to
advanced students at elite universities," said Tammy
McGraw, director of educational technology at the Virginia
Department of Education.
"National LambdaRail is pleased with the leadership
of our university members in Virginia in broadening access
to
the K-20 (kindergarten through graduate school) community," said
Tom West, president and CEO of NLR. "I am particularly
intrigued with plans to integrate high performance computing
and networking technology into advanced high school curricula."
Louis Fox, director of the Internet2 K-20 Initiative, said, "Internet2
has been providing advanced networking for the nation’s
K-20 community for many years and has been successful in
bringing advanced educational programs to Virginia. Through
the use of Internet2’s advanced networks, students
across the state have been able to participate in cutting-edge
experiences like Megaconference Jr., a project that uses
advanced videoconferencing technology to bring together
thousands of students in elementary and secondary schools
from around the world for an all-day learning conference.
"Also, students can receive live undersea exploration
demonstrations from remote locations with famed oceanographer
Bob Ballard,
take master music classes from world-renowned instructors
or use remote-controlled instruments to dissect a biology
specimen from 1,000 miles away," Fox said. “Leveraging
Internet2 technology and our vast network of resources
and partners throughout the world, the opportunities are
endless for students to expand their educational and cultural
horizsons.”
Several Virginia universities are working together with
the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia Department
of Education and vendor suppliers Sprint and Verizon Business
to co-sponsor this initiative. University participants
include the University of Virginia, the College of William
and Mary, George Mason University, Old Dominion University,
Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech. These
institutions are members of the NLR-related Mid Atlantic
Terascale Partnership together with NASA and the Southeastern
Universities Research Association, who also are sponsors.
And the Virginia Department of Education is working with
Virginia universities to help advance Virginia's K-20 National
LambdaRail and Internet2 program.
Sprint Nextel and Verizon Business provide the advanced
network services that make up NetworkVirginia, which offers
low-cost broadband network access statewide. For this project,
Sprint has contributed a high-speed link that will tie
NetworkVirginia to an on-ramp to NLR and Internet2. Verizon
Business is providing local access via NetworkVirginia
to the K-12 schools. In addition, Verizon Business is providing
direct high-speed broadband connectivity for Mid Atlantic
Terascale Partnership to access the National LambdaRail
broadband network.
Virginia's K-20 National LambdaRail and Internet2 program
is led by the Institute for Connecting Science Research
to the Classroom. Schools, libraries and museums interested
in participating may contact John Wenrich, associate director
of the institute, at wenrich@vt.edu, or Jeff Crowder, Virginia
Tech Communications Network Services project director,
at crowder@vt.edu for more information.
Additional Resources:
Institute for Connecting Science Research to the Classroom
National LambdaRail
Internet2
NetworkVirginia
Mid Atlantic Terascale Partnership
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