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Bridging the Digital Divide………A Vision Trevor Schofield, Teacher-Librarian, School District 41 Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada The Vision Imagine a perfect Internet world for Education, where web pages arrive on the screen almost instantaneously. The information displayed is accurate and accountable to the schools’ curriculum in whatever part of the world -- whether one is in the middle of the Sahara or high up on Mount Everest -- without the traditional connection to the Internet. Today, this scenario is a reality. It had been a dream for several years for Karim Lakhani, the President and Chief Technical Officer of Advanced Interactive, Inc. Born and raised in Uganda, Mr. Lakhani spent several years seeking ways to deliver the Internet to Africa, where the telecommunication infrastructure is relatively poor, and the Internet access too expensive for most schools. The Technology In 2000, Advanced Interactive, Inc. applied for, and received, a research grant from Industry Canada (Canarie), and support from the British Columbia Ministry of Education and the Open Learning Agency of British Columbia, to study the use of caching Internet content at the local school level. Nineteen schools in British Columbia were chosen, ranging from small elementary to large secondary, in both urban and rural settings. Through the technology of broadcast caching, and a separate server for ordering web sites, the Advanced Interactive system provides a Virtual Internet Library at the school. A graphical user interface (GUI) screen allows teachers and students, using the local search engine, to search the cache, just as they would in searching for books in the school’s library collection. The use of the Internet in education is growing at a spectacular rate. This is putting more and more demand on bandwidth as school labs with Internet access are pulling in web sites that contain increasing amounts of animated graphics. Schools in urban areas, even with access to high bandwidth, are beginning to find that they are experiencing excessive slow downs in delivery times. For the schools in rural and remote areas, it is almost impossible to meet this growing bandwidth demand, because of the lack of availability and expense. The approach taken by Advanced Interactive to address this problem is to use a caching server located at the school Local Area Network (LAN). Caching is a technique that exploits the fact that in a school, many users tend to access the same web-based content. In such a caching environment, a request for a web page is forwarded to a cache system. If the page is already in the cache, the user's request can be retrieved locally, and at the user's LAN speed. This process eliminates the slow speed of the Internet connection. Caching at the school level is not unique in itself. However, what places Advanced Interactive Inc. at the forefront of this type of delivery of the Internet to schools, is its combination of proprietary Broadcast caching techniques using cable TV, RF Terrestrial TV broadcast, or satellite; and the ability to order, categorize and refresh a site (Figure 1) and search the cache locally (SchoolWeb Librarian - Figure 2).   Advanced Interactive’s caching server uses two kinds of caching techniques: “Dynamic caching:” This operates by fetching and storing the pages as they are requested. A second request for a particular page is retrieved from the cache. "Policy-based:" This is a method of pre-caching sites that is the most useful in the school environment. This technique allows sites chosen by teachers to be pre-ordered and delivered by satellite (or other means), to the server for instant access by students. The teacher logs onto Advance Interactive’s host server, and orders the site through a screen. The result is that the files that students need are there when they need them, at a substantial reduction in wait time, and bandwidth is conserved for accessing the Internet for new content, thereby saving on Internet access costs. This technology has given schools the power to control the use of the Internet by pre-selecting the content that students require thus keeping them on task. The content is fully appropriate as it is chosen and vetted by the teacher, and it is complimentary to the curriculum. In addition, the school’s very limited resources are saved by not having to continually scale up bandwidth. From the statistics gathered during the project, all the nineteen schools have benefited tremendously from having the SchoolWeb server in the school. One rural elementary school showed seventy times increase in delivery speed when 1 Mb of content was delivered from the cache compared to 1 Mb delivered from the Internet; a large urban high school with a high bandwidth connection showed gains of 10 times. If these performance improvements can be achieved in British Columbia with an excellent telecommunications infrastructure, imagine the benefits to a developing country? The Vision Realized Advanced Interactive has forged a strategic partnership with WorldSpace (http://www.worldspace.com) in Washington, D.C., USA, a satellite radio/multimedia broadcasting company originally dedicated to the vision of using direct audio broadcast via satellite to inform the public about the hazards of the spread of AIDS in Africa through the AfriStar satellite system and satellite receivers. (See article in the January - March 2002 Issue of TechKnowLogia) One of the receiver products is a PCI-based satellite receiver, PC-card (Figure 3) that can be plugged into a PC for simultaneous audio and data reception.  WorldSpace system, in conjunction with Advanced Interactive’s Broadcast caching technology, can now be used as a powerful tool for spreading any type of knowledge. Traditional distance education platforms rely on books, tapes and other materials that are expensive to produce and difficult to deliver. Internet-dependent approaches involve high costs of preparing Internet-ready materials, and depend on Internet access for delivery. Video conferencing involves very costly equipment. Broadcast caching technology offers a solution whereby content creation and delivery are merged and made cost-effective. Instructor-led lectures and accompanying PowerPoint presentations can be broadcast directly to the SchoolWeb Server, via the WorldSpace satellite. Students can play back the lectures off the SchoolWeb server at their own time. This solution provides the tools to enable the Digital Divide to be conquered. Advanced Interactive Inc. has set up two test SchoolWeb systems in schools in Kenya, which receive information via WorldSpace’s AfriStar satellite. The Digital Divide is certainly not confined to the developing countries. In Canada there are remote communities without Internet access; or have access with an unaffordable price tag. Many of these are First Nations (indigenous) communities. They are constantly looking for enhanced ways to educate their young people - in their own communities, and are trying to find ways to market some of their products to the world. Advanced Interactive Inc., through a strategic alliance with Hewlett–Packard Canada is providing a solution for First Nation communities called 1NterLink. The 1NterLink package is designed for remote and rural communities in Canada - with HP Canada being the hardware provider, Advanced Interactive providing the software solution, and utilizing a satellite to provide the downlink capabilities. The system allows remote communities to deliver fast Internet access, regardless of the community’s location. It was adapted to serve the community needs of the Heiltsuk First Nation (http://www.heiltsuk.com) in Waglisla (Bella-Bella, BC, Canada). The system serves both the educational access needs, as well as allowing the Band Council Office to become a community Internet service provider through their existing limited telephone access grid. The system also provides dedicated access to the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) division and the community Hospital - at reasonable cost. Web catching, in conjunction with related technologies, can address the problem of the “Digital Divide” even in places with no telephone connection. The information is downloaded from a central “knowledge bank” via a WorldSpace satellite and the PC-card receiver into the SchoolWeb server. All personal computers linked to the SchoolWeb server can now access that information at high speed – without even going on to the Internet. Information can also be delivered via TV or Cable. For feedback on this article, please write to: TechKnowLogia@KnowledgeEnterprise.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TechKnowLogia, July - September 2002 Copyright © 2002 Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.techknowlogia.org |
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| SchoolWeb Internet Caching Pilot Project
1nterLink Brings Broadband Access to Bella Bella, BC Bridging the Digital Divide…A Vision |
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