BYTE MARKS
Students are on the cutting edge of Internet2
By Burt Lum
While members of my generation try to figure out how to manage their e-mail, thinkers in our high schools are dreaming of the next-generation Internet. Unencumbered by economic oscillations and tech-bubble deflation, students are free to think about new ways to use the Net.
On a short survey of what's going on around town, I found I was just scratching the surface of what the potential could be. One Bytemarks column will not do this groundswell justice, so let me just start by sharing what I found.
Interest in a project called Internet2 (www.internet2.edu) lead me to David Lassner and the University of Hawai'i. Lassner has put Hawai'i on the map as a gigaPOP site for Internet2 activity.
Let's just say gigaPOP means loads of bandwidth for UH. With this bandwidth, researchers are working on projects that will define the next-generation Internet. Tele-immersion and virtual reality in cyberspace begin to take on new meaning.
The present Internet resulted from work by federal agencies and universities. Internet2 is founded on the same principles.
What is also exciting and somewhat different from development of the original Internet is the involvement of secondary schools. One initiative is coming from Moanalua High School (www.mohs.k12.hi.us/imagine/index-imagine.html).
Students here participate in an Internet2 K-20 initiative called Imagining the Future (thinkquest.org/future). This three-year project explores how students, provided with advance technologies such as fast broadband access and digital media tools, develop and learn.
The 5th Annual Technology in Education Conference (www.k12.hi.us/~eschool/conf2002) today and tomorrow at the Sheraton Waikiki hotel is a glimpse into how education can embrace new technologies to create rich learning environments.
The pace of technology is relentless. Through conferences such as these, new ideas are nurtured into what may become tomorrow's killer applications. ;-)
Reach Burt Lum at burt@brouhaha.net.
