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VIP

VIP. Visually Impaired Program A specialized program to train and certify teachers for visually impaired children and adults at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches Texas is asked to help fill a need across Texas and in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming in the summer of 2001.

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VIP

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  1. VIP • Visually Impaired Program • A specialized program to train and certify teachers for visually impaired children and adults at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches Texas is asked to help fill a need across Texas and in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming in the summer of 2001.

  2. Visually Impaired Program • The program is mature, the professors are experienced with distant learning technologies including multi-point interactive television ( ITV ). • Courseware consists of face to face, web, email, chat and interactive television • Part of the problem is the number of and remoteness of several endpoints where students are located.

  3. VIP – Internet 2 • Commodity internet including dial-up connections will support web, chat and email, the ITV is another story. • Existing H.320 ISDN networks do not reach all students needing courses and are prohibitively expensive to utilize for trans-continental course delivery where the networks do reach near the students

  4. VIP – Internet 2 • How can we economically deploy ITV to several sites spanning 2300 miles ? • Solution determined to be H.323 for ITV component. Why ? Affordable, relatively easy to implement, sufficient for current needs. • How to accomplish this ?

  5. VIP – Internet 2 • Okay, so its multipoint H.323 for the solution. How can we do this ? • Now we need an H.323 MCU and need to locate or develop H.323 endpoints or locate and schedule bridges from H.323 to existing H.320 networks and endpoints. • MCU choices – Narrowed to Accord or Cisco 3540

  6. VIP – Internet2 • We determined that the Cisco 3540 was a better fit for our needs at SFA (RADVision H.323 stack native H.323 supprort etc.) • SFA has an existing H.320 teleconferencing network built around a Teleos / Madge Model 200 ISDN switch with interconnectivity to other H.320 networks. • Along the way we decided to migrate our existing H.320 teleconferencing systems to H.323 as our aging Teleos / Madge Model 200 ISDN switch needs an upgrade path

  7. VIP – Internet 2 • So we now have a grant, order and deploy the 3540 MCU October2001. Now how can we reach the students ? • All states involved have Internet 2 and Abilene connectivity. However these are large states and the connectivity is several hundred miles away from several students’ locations ( K-20, SEGP ? Not yet. )

  8. VIP - Internet 2 • We need at least 384k of reliable bandwidth to the students for the H.323 to function reliably. • Internet 2 connected sites are a solution. • H.323 is not widely deployed. • We can’t get Abilene to all the endpoints • We settle for switched ethernet connections near the students hoping our ISP will get us there.

  9. VIP – Internet 2 • We order Polycom Via-Video units to be shipped to remote endpoints without H.323 nor Internet 2 connectivity – these must suffice for now. • We locate and schedule H.323 rooms for students where and when available. • Testing begins. • Classes begin January 2002

  10. VIP – Internet 2 • Problems include : • Endpoint technical support – students may be visually impaired themselves, sites do not always have H.323 expertise yet. • Firewall issues – public IP or ‘hole’ in firewall • Connectivity issues where we have yet to achieve Abilene connectivity, our ISP ( NTT-Verio ) provides excellent connectivity, the ‘last mile’ can be a problem.

  11. VIP – Internet 2 • Solutions include : • Developing expertise with H.323 ITV at many locations – ViDE can help here. • Solving firewall issues ( NAT etc. ) • Extending Abilene access to more endpoints, the K-20 Initiative, and the Sponsored Educational Group Program can help with this.

  12. VIP – Internet 2 • This program is funded for 5 years, intended to train and certify teachers and to develop programs in other locations beside SFA. We have an opportunity to learn much and enhance affordable and ubiquitous interactive television services for many other applications on the horizon.

  13. VIP – Internet 2 • Communication, coordination and collaboration are necessary to ensure success. • Network engineers, administrators, ITV technical support, security administration and course coordinators need to work together. This often crosses many administrative domains.

  14. VIP – Internet 2 • Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches Texas is utilizing Internet 2 to deliver programs to students who will aid visually impaired citizens in cities and in remote rural locations in Idaho, Montana, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. • The problems being resolved now can allow many other programs to be developed and deployed.

  15. VIP – Internet 2 • What’s next ? • Keep this program going and growing Braille instruction starts Summer 2002 ! • Build an environment for on demand interactive television. • Continue to Communicate and coordinate with many constituents to ensure continued successful programs.

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