Overview of the National School Network Testbed

Overview of the
National School Network Testbed

Goals and objectives of the National School Network Testbed

Nature of the NSNT community

Profile of members' affiliated schools

Facilities and support offered by the NSNT

1. Goals and objectives of the National School Network Testbed
The National School Network Testbed (NSNT) was organized by the Educational Technologies group at BBN Systems and Technology and funded by the National Science Foundation of the U.S. Phase I of the Testbed, conducted over 18 months in 1992 and 1993, resulted in an understanding of the ways in which schools and other educational institutions could take advantage of internetworking to build their own local information infrastructure and support reforms in education. The goal of the National School Network Testbed (NSNT) Phase 2 is to research the following question:

"Can we construct and manage communications networks and information services to support educational innovation on a local level in such a way that taxpayers, governments, and private industry will view their benefits and cost-effectiveness as warranting the investment needed to support them on a large scale?"
There are four major objectives in Phase II. The first is to develop an understanding of how a community can create and maintain an information infrastructure with connections to the Internet. Considerable investment is required to create the technical and organizational infrastructure to support broad scale participation. The Testbed is collecting, organizing, and sharing information on what those costs are and what benefits are perceived by the learning community. Such an empirical base of knowledge is urgently needed in order to make sound policy decisions about investment on the part of local, state, and national governments and taxpayers.
Broad participation in the National Information Infrastructure (NII) is another objective of the Testbed. The reason for stressing participation is the belief that people learn in the process of doing and of actively constructing knowledge, both alone and in collaboration with others. Participation is key to the growth and use of the vast information resources available over the Internet. As more students, teachers, and administrators create educational materials from the vast raw materials of the NII and construct their own local resources, they add new value to the information infrastructure. The more valuable the information and services available on the NII, the more schools and communities are likely to invest in additional connectivity.
A third objective of Phase 2 is to research and understand how to expand the use of networking in schools to support use in the curriculum and in professional development for teachers, to provide new approaches to school administration and to managing town and district offices, and to link schools with the local business community. In many instances, the network is used in a single classroom or by an isolated project. To expand integration in the schools, the network must support the larger purpose of curriculum reform and serve a multitude of functions within the school and the community.
Assisting schools and institutions in their efforts to restructure education through use of technology is a fourth objective. Technology will only be seen as valuable when it is understood how it can support the larger goals and current methods for educational reform. The National Information Infrastructure (NII) has a vast collection of raw materials that teachers can incorporate into their curriculum, that they can use to create their own local resources, and that they can share with others across the networked community. Using the network, students and teachers have the opportunity to investigate, to explore by doing, to learn scientific methods, and to work on projects and problems of intrinsic interest.

2. Nature of the NSNT community
Currently, approximately 248 institutions are participating in the Testbed, 95 organizations working with 153 individual schools across the United States (with one in Canada and one in Australia). In regard to the 95 organizations, about a third have a national scope. Eleven have a statewide scope of operations. Eleven are regional within a state. Thirty-two are local institutions such as individual schools, museums, school districts, or towns. A few are international or multi-state in scope.
These organizations are on the forefront of both educational reform and the creation of local and national information infrastructure. They are an important resource to their local communities and to the nation's agenda for educational reform. They are creating new models of learning and teaching for the information age. They are pro-actively seeking to assist schools and other places of learning and teaching to benefit from information infrastructure. Many of the organizations and projects are specifically addressing needs and resources of particular groups such as minorities, women, Native Americans, bilingual teachers, physics teachers, urban schools, rural areas, etc.
Click here to view a complete list of Testbed member organization with links to their organization and school web sites.

Examples of Testbed member organizations
The Allegheny/Schools Partnership is a group of eight school districts in Western Pennsylvania and Allegheny College. Teams of change agents from each district are using the National Center for Teaching Mathematics Curriculum and Evaluation Standards as a guide to identify concepts that block students' understanding of critical mathematics concepts and to develop instructional solutions to help students grasp these concepts.
The Ralph Bunche School in Harlem, New York and the Graham and Parks School in Cambridge, MA have collaborated on discussions about shadows, the sun, earth, and other astronomical and physical phenomena. Activities including measuring shadows continue over the Internet with participants from other schools across the world.
Another group of member organizations is creating digital libraries and making them accessible to others via the Internet for learning and teaching. For example, Earthwatch provides access to a worldwide network of university-based scientists, a resource network of 6,000 Earthwatch teachers and students who have worked in the field on Earthwatch projects and written reports and lesson plans based on their field experience. Earthwatch is building a Global Information Network for understanding our planet, including digitization of all print documents, photographs, maps, video resources, and expedition logistics from its worldwide scientific expeditions. Earthwatch also sponsors fellowships for teachers and students to work with scientists on field research expeditions around the world.
Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is working with six other science museums and their collaborating teachers to create a virtual museum that is accessible to Internet users. It is especially suitable for use by elementary and middle school teachers.
Two other Testbed partners, the California Department of Education and the Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Technology are working to develop state networks that will support and leverage state systemic initiatives.

3. Profile of members' affiliated schools
Information gathered in a baseline survey conducted this spring, showed that Testbed member schools comprise a diverse array of schools across the country. Most have unusually strong histories of involvement in leading-edge technology and telecommunications programs. About one-half serve high school grades, one-quarter cover middle grades, and one-quarter are elementary schools. The schools tend to be located in northeastern and west coast communities. Although they tend to have middle-class clientele, they are still a diverse group, including approximate equal numbers of schools in large cities, suburbs, small cities, towns, and rural areas. In addition, underrepresented minorities constitute 24% of the collective student body and 9% are limited-English proficient.

Examples of Testbed schools:
Many of our NSNT schools show how students are thriving and how the network has enriched and empowered their learning. For example, students at the Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School in Juneau, Alaska worked together with state and federal agencies to create an online resource about Alaska called Alaska Online. Throughout the project, students faced and overcame many challenges. Many of these students were at risk, lacked writing skills, and had lost pride in their community. In many ways this project helped them overcome these problems. Getting involved, learning about their community, taking on the responsibility of working with professionals in the Alaskan federal agencies, all gave them a sense of ownership, awareness of their abilities, and pride.
Leslie Backus, an Earth Science teacher at Montgomery Blair High School, brought her classes to the computer lab to look at earthquake data after the quake in Kobe, Japan. Her students were amazed that they could see images of the quake damage. They were far more engaged in learning about earthquakes than they would have been using traditional textbook methods.
Click here to read more stories from our Testbed member schools

4. Facilities and support offered by the NSNT
The NSNTestbed acts as a facilitator to support efforts underway and to encourage collaboration among the participants. It has built and will continue to enhance a support infrastructure and web site that not only assists the Testbed members but serves as a model for members to implement locally. This support infrastructure is called the National School Network Testbed "Exchange". It serves as a clearinghouse for the Testbed members to share their initiatives, to disseminate materials, and to discuss issues electronically. The tools and techniques used in creating this "Exchange" are available to Testbed members to enhance their own local information infrastructure. There are six "Exchange Desks" which have resources, pointers, and the latest developments on topics of particular interest to Testbed partners. Each desk serves as the focal point for resource collection and development relating to the theme of the desk, and for interactive discussion between Testbed participants.

The "Exchange Desks" are:
Local Information Infrastructure Desk
Mission: To explore and clarify the many dimensions of Internet connectivity in the educational setting: topics can include (but are not restricted to) technical issues involved in local and wide area networking infrastructure, the organization and management of information resources to support work in the instructional and administrative arenas, policy and finance issues, and building a culture of effective technology use.
Curriculum and Instruction Desk
Mission:To focus on systemic school change initiatives, curriculum integration of network tools and resources, and exploration of such issues as project-based learning and portfolio assessment.
Staff Development Desk
Mission: To develop and share staff development models, frameworks, resources, and opportunities.
Finance Desk
Mission: Financial planning and funding of local and community infrastructure.
Evaluation Desk
Mission: to help Testbed members and projects design and conduct useful evaluations of their activities -- for example, in clarifying evaluation goals; in selecting evaluation frameworks, research methods, and research designs; in developing research instruments; and in analyzing data.
Reference Desk
Mission: Reference and dissemination of information, knowledge, and materials related to the Testbed Project and its members.

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