Presentations
Building a High-use Campus-wide WLAN, COL Donald J. Welch
The United States Military Academy at West Point has the mission to develop educated leaders of character who will contribute to the nation’s defense. A first rate education is a key aspect of officer development. As studies have shown active learning is the most effective educational form, and we believe that an information rich environment best facilitates active learning. So West Point is using a high-bandwidth campus wide wireless LAN to facilitate active learning.
West Point has about 4200 students and about 550 faculty. The largest class size is eighteen students. Cadets already enjoy a 100 MBit per second wired network connection in their dormitories so the wireless project focuses on making the library, and academic buildings wireless. The 369 access points are distributed across six buildings; the largest is 140 access points while the smallest is just 10.
Use of the WLAN is not evenly distributed throughout the day because it is and will be integrated into the classroom learning experience. Peak usage will be very high as demonstrated by this example: the freshman chemistry class is giving an exam using Blackboard and the exam has many graphics and photos embedded in it. Since all chemistry classes meet in the same section of the science building, the load on this portion of WLAN will be very heavy during the exam hours. Using the WLAN in a coordinated way such as this requires both high bandwidth and a reliable network. West Point is implementing an 802.11a based WLAN with a third-party security component overlaid on the network. Each classroom, laboratory, conference room and meeting room in the academic area has an access point. This means that on the average a user can expect about 1.3 MBit per second of bandwidth even under peak usage. It also means that it takes failure of 2 or more access points in adjacent classrooms to degrade WLAN availability.
802.11b offers about 5.5 Mbits per sec that is shared among all the clients in a wireless cell (associated with a single access point). 802.11b offers 3 non-overlapping channels. If wireless cells with the same channel overlap, the clients in the overlap area will have far lower effective bandwidth. In a building like an academic building where wireless network design is a 3-dimensional problem it is impossible to design the network with complete coverage and cells on the same channel that don't overlap. When you optimize a design like this, the cells are will be very large. In our case we estimate the average cell would include 7 classrooms. This means about 125 clients would be sharing 5.5 Mbits of bandwidth. This would not be sufficient to meet our requirements.
802.11a offers about 25 Mbits per sec of bandwidth per cell. 802.11a offers 8 nonoverlapping channels. The design problem is now trivial and the result is one access point per classroom. This means 19 clients sharing 25 MBits of bandwidth - plenty to meet our needs. An added benefit of being able to put one AP per classroom is robustness. If an AP fails, there is sufficient overlap from the adjacent classrooms such that the clients usually don't even know the AP is down.
The WLAN component of the campus network is separate both physically and logically from the wired component. We use a firewall between the wireless and wired components of the network to deny network access to unauthenticated clients. The wireless component is also on a separate VLAN which facilitates the use of remote control utilities like Altiris Vision.
No network is robust without an effect support structure. West Point has chosen to try to match support to the wireless network to our existing IT support structure. In most cases, wireless is an addition to what our IT people already do; in a few cases it significantly changes their tasks. We already had a distributed support staff designed to maximize support for teaching. Every classroom, laboratory, conference room and meeting room already has a wired network connection, computer and projector. The faculty are experienced enough to be able to fix simple problems and quickly determine whether or not they can use the IT equipment in the classroom as planned. They must now be able to do the same for the wireless network. The academic departments provide the first-line support for this infrastructure with their internal IT support. They now also pick up support for the wireless network. West Point has a centralized repair facility for student computers. They are responsible for troubleshooting the wireless client and security software. The campus networking branch maintains the access points and other hardware associated with the WLAN as components or the campus network. The difference is these workers must now add radio frequency skills to their portfolios.
West Point has been working with WLANs for the past five years and is in the middle of a campus-wide deployment. The architecture we developed and the lessons from this experience are valuable for any institution planning wireless deployment.
Campus Apollo: Seamless Roaming Between 802.11 and 3G - Prashant Chopra, Jeff Gumpf and Kevin Chan
(PDA and Laptops users able to move from an 802.11
wireless local area campus network to 3G network no interruption
in service)
Case Western Reserve University
Laboratories (Case Labs) and Peesh along with support from
Cisco, Sprint, HP, Proxim, Dell, Toshiba, and Verizon announced
the successful seamless handoff of a wireless video and voice
from a "WiFi" or wireless local area network (WLAN) to a third-generation
(3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network,
enabling mobile laptop and PDA users to browse the Internet
while roaming between the two network types with no interruption
in the session. Users are able to initiate a secure Internet
session on an 802.11 WLAN or a 3G UMTS network, and maintain
it while moving from one network to the other.
Code named Campus Apollo,
the successful system incorporates a key standard established
by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Mobile IP,
that enables seamless inter-technology handoffs between 802.11 and
3G technologies, which are essential to maintaining "always-on"
high-speed mobile Internet connections. This technique is made
possible by a unique mobile network architecture developed
by Case Labs and Peesh.
These capabilities have tremendous applicability today in the education
environment, particularly for student and workers that need to access
substantial volumes of information while on the move. For instance,
this technique would allow a medical doctor to begin downloading large
files -- such as bioinformatics -- from a wireless LAN at his healthcare
center, and continue to receive this information while en-route to a
lecture, cutting response times substantially and making the travel
time between locations more productive.
Chasing the Digital Puck, Kenneth C. Green
Hockey star Wayne Gretsky once quipped that the reason for his success was that he skated to where the puck was going, not to where it is. Many involved in the broad array of initiatives and activities known as “campus computing” feel as if they are chasing a fast moving digital puck, propelled by new technologies, student and faculty expectations, competitive pressures, and decades of great aspirations for the role of technology in education. Concurrently, campus IT personnel and campus IT advocates know their efforts to “skate where the puck is going” are often impeded by the pace of academic decision making, budget challenges, and a growing chorus of individuals in and around higher education who are asking hard questions about the value and benefits information technology.
Green’s presentation will track the “path of the digital puck,” focused on where we have been, where the puck is going, and the challenges of tracking and controlling the puck.”
Managing Wireless on the Campus, Patrick Rafter
Mobile devices and wireless LANs are changing how
and where students, faculty, staff and alumni learn, work
and interact. Keeping this liberating technology creates
interesting challenges for campus IT departments.
This session will cite
real-world case studies and lessons learned, as well touch
on current issues and technologies being used in unwired universities
from London School of Economics to Singapore Polytechnic, and
from community colleges to large universities (e.g. UPITT,
Rutgers, Harvard).
Universal authentication,
airlink privacy, interoperability and support for legacy
infractructure will also be discussed.
The Next Level of Distributed Learning: The Introduction of the PDA, Robert R. McKenney,
Ph.D.
The Ohio State University
College of Medicine and Public Health medical students are
required to do a 12-week ambulatory clerkship in their third
year. During this period, they are given materials (broken
down weekly) that they must review/learn. Each week has different
health care components. Example:
Week 3
Nose/Paranasal Sinus
Head & Neck
Clinical Otology
Ped ENT
Week 4
Clinical Pharmaceutics
Lipids
Thyroid IS
Cholesterol IS
These various learning objects (e.g., PowerPoint
slides and .pdf files) incorporate a number of disciplines
(Othopaedics, Ophthalmology, OB/GYN, Geriatrics, Dermatology,
etc.) that have been pulled together and made available on
an in-house CD. In the past, the delivery of these modules
was tried via the Internet. This, unfortunately, revealed certain inherited
problems. First, connectivity via the Internet for some users/from
certain geographical areas were not optimal. Secondly, not
everyone has Internet connectivity. Another factor is that these
students, during this time period, are located throughout the
state (hospitals and other healthcare facilities). At times,
the location may not lend well in taking advantage of Internet
connectivity or CD usage. Hence, the primary idea was to take
these instructional components to the next level of distributed
learning and to create a model that may be extended to other educational
areas (inside and outside the school of medicine). That is, create
the “tools” that may be used in pulling together such materials.
The resulting template’s by-products would be the creation of
not only transportable tools to other areas of study, but also
the ability to remove obstacles or barriers for obtaining the
materials within a setting characterized by reasonable/low costs
to create, simple to distribute/download, easy to update, and
available anytime and anywhere. This solution would incorporate
the PDA’s that were been distributed to the third and fourth
year medical students (and residents).
QuickTime VR on Handhelds, Jared Bendis
QuickTime VR is one of the
most exciting forms of New Media that exists today. VR Panoramas
offer 360 degree (cylindrical or cubic) views of a place
while VR Objects allows you to study an object from all sides.
Regretfully, there currently is no QuickTime VR viewer for
handhelds.
This presentation will demonstrate a workaround/presentation
solution that will allow viewers to get effectively the same
experience with a handheld device. This presentation will
outline the steps used in the creation of QuickTime VR (both
panoramas and objects), the procedures needed to port them
for display on handhelds (and possibly cell phones), and also
the technical and aesthetic compromises that come into play
when developing for handhelds.
Scalable Communications
for Wireless Handheld Devices, Adesemowo Kayode
Text messaging rapid adoption,
whether via Short Messaging Service (SMS) on cellular handsets
or Instant Messaging (IM) over the Internet, can be attributed
to its low bandwidth, economical and privacy characteristics.
Despite the rapid uptake, text chat's limited turn-taking
and feedback capabilities have poised challenges to full adoption
and integration for formal interactions like group meetings
and decision-making tasks in the corporate world. In general, text messaging
does not provide a strong notion of telepresence. In particular,
handheld users suffer from limited screen real estate.
The emerging cellular PDA's and smart phones targeted for
the 3G mobile network offer native support for the Internet
Protocol (IP) and thereby constant connectivity to the Internet.
MobileIP devices will be nodes on networks that are independent
of underlying transport (cellular, wireless IP, etc.). Though
IM and SMS systems both support multiparty texting, IM differs
by being synchronous, whereas SMS is typically asynchronous.
The synchronous nature of IM sessions enables telepresence.
The rapidly evolving Session Initiation Protocol (SIP),
an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) protocol, continues
to be extended. SIP for IM and Presence Leverage Extensions (SIMPLE)
provides a platform for building IM systems on a SIP network.
This IM system enables fast-track feedback like 2D and 3D
emoticons and presence indicators as user-defined hotkey
button/menu items.
These hotkeys enable online presence awareness
with event driven progress trackers. This project implements
a multiparty texting service with fast-track IM to be deployed
on wireless handhelds on a IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN. We
expect the functionality to serve as a proxy for upcoming
MobileIP data networks and the accompanying handsets. The research seeks
to overcome fundamental text chat problems with a SIMPLE-based
fast-track feedback approach to IM applications. Slater's (UCL,
UK) standard presence questionnaire is being utilised for
comparative analysis of user satisfaction and usability concerning
the fast-track feedback system.
Working around a prototype WLAN network (http://www.cs.uwc.ac.za/~kadesemowo/report/CoE_WLAN.htm
), the fast track IM is being ported over to Pocket
PC 2002 based Fijitsu-Siemens Loox PDA. The satisfactory
level of presence in Text messaging will facilitate uptake
of IM being embedded and extended in Web-boards, schools Web
Learning Environment scalable from desktop to handhelds.
Wireless Classroom Experiments and Success, Hernandez, Angel H. and Wood, Kevin
To maintain Purdue University's world-class service to its 38,000 students, we are adopting campus-wide, wireless devices (e.g., palm pilots) for classroom and lab instruction. Our two pilot studies tell of our goals for this massive project, device selection, ways to encourage faculty and student use, and technical support suggestions.
Wireless R&D — From the Campus to the Community
Presenters:
Gil Gonzales, CIO, CSU Monterey Bay
Arlene Krebs, Project Director, Research Center on Wireless Education
Viji Murali, VP & CIO, Western Michigan University
At No Strings Attached in
May 2002, we described an initiative to plan a National
Research Center On Wireless Technology in Education. This
year, we will provide updates on the Center as well as on
the research and demonstration projects that faculty at CSU Monterey
Bay and Western Michigan University are conducting.
CSU Monterey Bay has completed an analysis and Business
Plan concerning the need for a coherent, centralized information
source—a Clearinghouse—that K-12, higher education and industry
can rely upon for timely and accurate information about an
array of wireless technologies and applications—from case
studies in teaching and learning to technical and cost models.
Concurrently with this research, faculty at each university undertook
unique curriculum projects to demonstrate wireless technology
deployment in various areas—some campus and some field based—in
the earth sciences, sociology, archaeology, computing and engineering
arenas. We’ll highlight these projects and discuss their implications.
WLAN Threats and Countermeasures, COL Donald J. Welch
High bandwidth wireless local area networks are gaining popularity. Along with this popularity has come a well publicized series of vulnerabilities in the IEEE standard implementations. In response, a number of standards from wired networking (e.g. 802.1x and IPsec) are being adopted to wireless. Vendors are also developing and selling proprietary security solutions. The normal security risk assessment/risk mitigation process can be complicated by a misunderstanding of the range of available options and the strengths and weaknesses of each. However, the nature of wireless technology raises the stakes in performing a proper risk assessment and deploying a wireless network that meets local security requirements.
To better architect the West Point wireless network
we developed a taxonomy of attack techniques. Some of the
techniques are used to violate the privacy of the information.
They are: traffic analysis, passive eavesdropping, active
eavesdropping with partial known plaintext and active eaves dropping
with known plaintext. The active eavesdropping techniques involve
modification of the network packet, but do not alter the packet
payload. By themselves they do not result in data modification
so they are result in privacy violations. One attack technique,
unauthorized access does not modify the payload by itself,
but changes the data path of the packet facilitating modification
of the payload. The other attacks are against the integrity
of the information, in other words they modify the packet payload. They
are: man-in-the-middle, session high-jacking and replay.
The techniques can be used individually, or combined to form
more sophisticated attacks. All known attacks against wireless
networks can be decomposed into techniques that fit into one
of these categories. Using these attack technique primitives
one can construct an attack tree for any known attack, and
defeating these attack techniques then defeats the known practical attacks.
We do not address denial of service attacks on wireless
networks. It is easy to deny legitimate users access to
a WLAN. With currently available technology there are no
effective solutions, therefore we do not include them in
our taxonomy.
We have identified four components of wireless LAN
security that must be effective to mitigate the security
risks to the privacy and availability of the information. First,
a WLAN needs mutual authentication, or authentication of both
the client and the access point. Second, the information must
be encrypted using a strong block cipher algorithm. Stream ciphers,
like WEP, are insufficient. Third, a strong cryptographic integrity
check is necessary. Finally, a firewall between the wireless
component and wired network must block unauthenticated use of
the wireless network. These four components, working together,
will practically defeat the threats that we have enumerated
above and which make up the widely known threats to wireless
networks.
PDA Solutions for Connectivity, Communication and Collaboration. Kevin Mamajek
As a leader in providing mobile
communication solutions in the handheld computer space,
we will highlight the Palm Solutions Group's current handheld
models and the technologies they are built upon, highlighting
connectivity, communication, and collaboration. This technical
discussion will include methods of networking Palms in a
campus infrastructure, an update on communication protocol support,
wireless database access server, and other tools providing connectivity
to campus information services.
The Challenges We Face: Network Capacity, Management & Control, Convergence and Cyber Security , Mark Uhart
Institutions are going wireless at a rapid pace.
Campus network infrastructures are being upgraded to bring
broadband services to nearly every user. Precious bandwidth
is being gobbled up at an alarming rate while the risk of the
new technology bringing potential chaos to campus networks
continues to increase. And along with this risk, converged networks
are providing additional security considerations in a world
of mounting cyber threats.
The next generation of students, faculty and staff
will face new challenges in deploying, managing and using
new information systems. However, expectations for WAN ubiquity
in a secure telecommunications environment will not diminish.
This seminar will increase awareness of these issues and allow
for an open discussion on what actions some universities are taking
to meet these challenges. The facilitator will provide a preview
of what Sprint has done to assist education and government organizations
in meeting these challenges.
Sprint is a world-class global communications company
at the forefront of integrating wire-line and wireless communications
services. A global carrier of Internet traffic and a leader
in broadband communications, Sprint operates the largest 100-percent
digital, nationwide PCS 3G wireless network in the United
States. The network serves the majority of the nation’s metropolitan
areas including more than 4,000 cities and communities.
Video Conferencing, Video Broadcast, and Video-on-Demand – A Case Study
Presented by John M. Kundtz
Last summer The Cleveland Municipal School District
and IBM Global Services designed and implemented an IP-based
video network covering 130 locations for the District.
The project included three main technologies: Video Conferencing,
Video Broadcast, and Video-on-Demand. Although the school
is heading towards high-speed networking, the existing project had
to be designed to work on relatively low bandwidth.
The Video Conferencing combined both IP-based and
legacy ATM-based video conferencing as well as being suitable
for participation of home-bound students with a basic PC
- all easily usable by non-technical people. Included was custom
designed video projection cart suitable for a school environment.
Video Broadcast allows video (including video conferences)
to be multicast to all locations simultaneously as well as
recording conferences for later playback.
The Video on Demand system involved building a Cisco-based
video content distribution network as well as providing a
Web-based content browsing/ordering system. This system allows
educators to browse for content cataloged by state standards
and order clips (typical 3 – 10 minutes) that fit directly
into their lesson plans. The ordered clips are shipped to the
individual school's content server over night and become available
for local high-resolution playback. In addition we tied the
system to a e-mail based calendaring application. The calendar
maintains the "Pacing Chart" which helps teachers (especially
new ones) keep track of what standards should be taught each
day in order to be prepared for the state tests at the end of
the year. (When the video clips were selected and cataloged
by the teachers they were tied to this pacing chart.) The Content
Manager sends the clips designated on the Pacing chart to all
the appropriate schools (elementary, middle, high school) automatically
each week so that at any given time a three week window of
video tied to the pacing charts is available at all times
for immediate use. All an educator has to do is go to the calendar
and click on one of the video selections and it will play.
This presentation will cover the challenges of designing
the network infrastructure to support these video applications
including QOS issues; the Cisco and FVC hardware and software
that went into the design of this solution; and the Web/Notes
application that allowed for video both dynamically pulled
by and automatically pushed to the educators. Truly an innovative
solution for both education and other industries. Additionally,
examples of how the system is being used to extend the e-Learning
environment across the district and globe will be discussed
as well.
The school district is very excited about "spreading
the word" on this unique and innovative solution. This presentation
will be a case study of the solution and not a vendor "sales
pitch".
Focus Session—Creating a National Research Institute on Wireless Technology in Education & Industry
Led by Arlene Krebs - Director, Technology Development,
Gil Gonzales - Chief Information Officer, CSU Monterey
Bay
Over the past year, CSU Monterey
Bay has been conducting research—a needs analysis--and planning
for the Research Institute. This session will review what
we learned, and spotlights the activities, research, initiatives
and partnerships that the Institute will begin. You, the end-user
and “customer”, are of critical importance, so we need to
hear from you and learn your ideas. Participate in our focus
discussion and survey, let your thoughts and concerns be heard,
and assist us in creating a national center that well serves
the education community.
WLAN – An Operator’s Perspective, David Deas, SBC
With
the explosion of 802.11b WLAN over the past few years, there have been
many attempts to commercialize the technology. From an operator’s
perspective, WLAN will not revolutionize the business much as cellular
telephony has done over the past 20 years. WLAN will however provide
operators with a technology that can blend traditional wireline and mobile
networks together from the services perspective creating unsurpassed customer
convenience and flexibility.
This presentation addresses the emerging 802.11b market and
looks into future unlicensed band technologies. Additionally,
a preview into new service concepts targeting customer convenience will
be presented.
Finally, an overview of the necessary success factors from a
business perspective that will be necessary for WLAN to move from a consumer
electronics trend to an embedded part of the U.S. telecommunication
infrastructure.
802.11 Wireless Overview, Dan Cusick, Cisco
This presentation will provide an introductory review of 802.11 technologies
and an industry overview. It will then explore current technology
trends and applications for wireless LAN in today’s business environment.
Along with the technology trends, there will be a discussion on ROI models
and productivity gains seen with mobile networks.
802.11 Standards and Security, Dan Cusick, Cisco
This presentation will focus on providing a general update on IEEE
802.11 standards initiatives and their impact to the market.
It will also discuss the various aspects of wireless security and the
impact that 802.11i and WPA will have on the market.
Other technologies areas to be discussed that help drive security include
Authentication types (LEAP, PEAP, TLS, …), VLANs and VPNs.
Interactive PowerPoint® - can it really enhance learning?
Mike Broderick, Turning Technologies
"You tell me and I forget. You teach me
and I remember. You involve me and I learn". Benjamin Franklin.
The use of PowerPoint® as a tool for curriculum and presenter
support increases annually. In fact, it has become nearly ubiquitous
to most classroom and distributed learning environments. Simultaneously,
a major debate has grown over the real benefits of adding PowerPoint®
to the classroom. Proponents of PowerPoint® tout the value of
quality visual and multi-media support in the learning process, while critics
believe that it often actually quenches real creativity and innovation
in education.
Increasingly, rather than joining the debate, educators are
looking for solutions that make PowerPoint® better. Consequently,
many new tools and "Add-Ins" to PowerPoint® have entered the marketplace.
PowerPoint® based, wireless group response systems are one growing
way that instructors are now quantifiably improving learning results.
This presentation presents success stories of how Interactive
PowerPoint® with wireless group response is being creatively used
at several universities and the direct benefits that those universities
are achieving with the technology.
The Role of Roaming Between 802.11 and 3G in Taking Critical
Care from the Bedside to the Roadside, John M. Clochesy, PhD
Faculty from Case Western Reserve University and MetroHealth Medical
Center are developing a project that builds on the successful seamless
handoff of wireless video and voice between wireless local area networks
based on IEEE 802.11 and a third-generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UTMS).
Code named, Critical Care Anywhere, the system under development
will build on Campus Apollo, a unique mobile architecture developed by
Case Labs and Peesh with support from Cisco, Sprint, HP, Proxim, Dell,
Toshiba, and Verizon.
The capability to stay connected to an advanced tertiary care
health system is being developed to support the collaborative acute
care nurse practitioner/flight nurse program offered by Case and Metro
Life Flight. Tablet PCs with 802.11/UTMS connectivity and GPS
capability will allow specially prepared teams of health professionals
to provide the highest level of care while at a distance from tertiary
medical centers. This capability is essential in an era of increase
risk of technologic disasters, where an accident or injury scene might
become contaminated with biologic, chemical or radioactive material that
prevents rapid transportation of the seriously ill or injured.
Facilitating
Clinical Supervision and Distance Education to Students in Community
Practice Settings, John M. Clochesy, PhD, Marilyn J. Lotas, PhD
Faculty from Case Western Reserve University are
developing a project that builds on the successful seamless handoff of
wireless video and voice between wireless local area networks based on
IEEE 802.11 and a third-generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UTMS) and the Kelvin Smith Library’s Center for Statistics and
Geospatial Data.
As part of the School’s commitment to civic engagement and service
learning, undergraduate and graduate students in nursing participate
in concentrated clinical experiences away from the University campus
and major medical centers.
The system under development builds on Campus Apollo, a unique
mobile architecture developed by Case Labs and Peesh with support from
Cisco, Sprint, HP, Proxim, Dell, Toshiba, and Verizon, as well as Case’s
Media Vision (streaming media) project.
The capability to stay connected with campus-based faculty will
facilitate closer supervision, clinical consultation with specialists
at our affiliating agencies (University Hospitals, MetroHealth Medical
Center, and Cleveland Clinic Foundation), and permits immediate documentation
of clinical findings and treatments performed.
PDAs and Tablet PCs with 802.11/UTMS connectivity and GPS capability
will allow community-based students with access to large clinical data
bases and reference materials. Always connected devices with
embedded GPS receivers add to the safety of students when they are away
from the University campus.
A New Dimension
of Student-Teacher Interaction, Sudipa Kirtley
For the past decade, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) has
provided its students the best computers available, and has supported
the required infrastructure, in order to enhance students’ learning
experiences. In 1995, RHIT became one of the first colleges in
the world to require each incoming student to purchase an institute-selected
laptop computer and an associated suite of software. All classrooms
at RHIT are wired for high-speed network connections, and the majority
of the laboratories are now equipped with wireless capabilities.
Students use their laptops in the classroom on a daily basis in most first-year
and some upper-division classes, and data acquisition in many laboratory
activities is achieved through these laptops.
As a result of a recent grant from Hewlett Packard, several
classrooms and projects will be using a number of wireless pocket-PC’s
and tablets. This session will highlight, in particular, the usage
of a software package called Class in Hand, which has been developed
at Wake Forrest University. This software will enhance the already existing
“studio” environment of physics classes, by adding a new dimension to
the teacher-student interaction. The professor can conduct paperless quizzes,
get real-time feedback on topics just taught, and receive anonymous questions
about the topic from the more reticent students. The presentation will
also focus on how wireless computers can enhance the hands-on learning
environment, since the wireless capabilities add the “real-world” flavor
to experiments by extending the laboratory boundaries, to, perhaps, the
entire campus. Some specific examples of laboratory experiments will be
illustrated.
Wireless OPAC Today
Doug Randall, Innovative Interfaces Inc.
A review of the state of the wireless OPAC art today -- beginning
with user expectations of presentation and access in today's wired
Online Public Access Catalog, continuing with examples of Innovative's
new wireless catalog -- AirPAC -- addressing some of the many challenges
of meeting those expectations through the needle's eye of today's
2.5G wireless world on a myriad of devices, and a look toward the
future.
- Wired OPAC Today
- 3G taste in a 2.5 G world -- making every display linecount
- Flexibility is key -- stretch to fit every device
- Ready for the future -- multi-tiered architecture to accommodate emerging technologies
- Existing staff and patron functions via wireless LANs-- WiFi, 802.11b and Bluetooth
- The future is here, there -- Wireless technologiesoutside the US
- Future wireless applications
Maximizing the ROI on Wireless
Implementations
Tom Gaylord, University of Akron
Given
the need to articulate the trade-offs every academy has to address
when having to choose what to fund, proposing any high cost technology
project today requires an assessment of centrality to mission, delimiting
risk - both the risk of going forward as well as the risks if nothing
is done, anticipating benefits and opportunities, metering quality improvement,
deriving annual performance measures - including satisfaction surveys,
analyzing business processes that could change and the resulting effect
on jobs and training, primary and secondary technology obsolescence rates,
modeling financing scenarios, and collecting intelligence on specific vendor
and product attributes. This presentation will look at these key
factors in relation to 802 wireless architectures including wireless access
points, wireless-enabled devices, and an array of software applications
developed with mobility being a key environmental assumption.
Going Mobile - Developing Handheld Applications for Students, Faculty and Administrators, Deborah Elias-Smith, VP SCT
Experiments with handheld devices on campus abound. Success, as measured by
student, faculty and administrative adoption, depends on the right applications,
providing the right capabilities.
This presentation will provide examples of two handheld applications
enabling key constitutions to employ specific task-related tools
in a mobile, wireless environment. One, SCT PocketRecruiter, is
a one commercially available application for admissions counselors.
The other, SCT PocketStudent, is the result of a collaborative pilot
project with Des Moines Area Community College.
Identification of key considerations in handheld application development will
be discussed. Case studies from two institutions using handheld applications
to increase service and productivity for administrators, faculty and students
will outline the specific objectives and benefits of these handheld initiatives.
From No Strings I to II - John DuBois
In year's time many of the technologies
discussed at the first No Strings Attached conference have arrived or
matured. Next generation mobile networks, devices and applications
present a complex equation for successfully leveraging useful, easy to use and affordable
mobile solutions and technologies. New devices have arrived, what are the
implications? How have enabling technologies evolved to support new
capabilities? This session is a progress report, informed by on-going
findings and project work at the University of California at San Diego, Drexel
University and MIT and a progress report on device evolution and the tools to
support them in Higher Education.
Video Broadcasting over Data Networks, by Tim Ward
Twenty entertainment television channels are being delivered to campus in Northwestern
University's undergraduate residence halls in a new and innovative way via the University's
IP multicast-enabled data network and students' desktop computers. Northwestern University
Information Technology (NUIT), in partnership with the Division of Student Affairs and using
technology developed by Video Furnace LLC., has implemented "NUTV" in response to student requests
for access to expanded television options in their individual rooms. To access the service, students simply
pen a Web browser and click a link that brings up the video viewing application and support web pages.
There is no need to download, set up, or maintain a client utility tool. NUIT representatives will discuss
the technical implementation and customer support aspects of delivering this new service.
Using PDAs for Research Data Collection: Choosing the Right Tools, By Paul Stork
Research designs frequently include the collection of periodic logs or journals to be filled out by research
participants. This type of data can be difficult to collect and even more difficult to validate when there
are a number of subjects involved in the study. PDAs can provide a structured method for collecting such
data that can also be validated by using reminders and time stamping. But which PDA is best for this type
of work and what program or development environment should be used to develop the data collection tool?
This talk will examine the different models of PDAs and development tools available for implementing such
surveys. A framework will be presented that can be used to select the right PDA and development environment
based on the constraints of a particular research design.
Student Use of Handheld Computers in Ambulatory Clerkships, by Jason Chao, MD
Handheld computers are being used by an increasing numbers of physicians and offer many advantages to enhance
medical student education. Decentralized ambulatory clerkships need information about patient care experiences
for monitoring and improving clerkship education.
A 16 Meg Visor Pro PDA was loaned to Case students during their 8 week combined Family Medicine and ambulatory
Internal Medicine Clerkship. A program on the PDA recorded all programs used of the PDA. Students were required
to use the PDA to record information on all patients seen during the Clerkships. Data was collected by hot-synching
the student PDA's during weekly didactic clerkship sessions. Two textbooks and multiple freeware programs are loaded on the PDA's.
72 students received PDA's in the first six months. Twelve had no prior experience with PDA's; seventeen were
familiar with non-clinical applications; thirty-seven were familiar with medical applications; five also used
other applications. Programs were used 28,944 times, for 37,282 minutes. The required log program and pharmacology databases were the most often used programs. The pharmacology databases were used an average of one minute per use. Textbooks were used 1.4 1.9 minutes per use.
PDA use was not uniform; use varied from none to over 1 hour per day. In general, students accepted the PDA's
well. We have started to incorporate use of the PDA's into didactic sessions. We recommend that Case issue a
PDA to all students by the time they begin clerkships or at least mandate a uniform PDA platform for students
to use. The internet and wireless technology will enable better communication with student PDA's in the future.
Bluetooth Basics, by Andrew Jones, Case undergraduate student and Case Apple Campus Representative.
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless protocol operating in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz radio spectrum ensuring communication
compatibility worldwide. The Bluetooth specification use a spread spectrum, frequency hopping, full-duplex signal at up
to 1600 hops/sec to give a high degree of interference immunity. Bluetooth devices can form ad-hoc networks allowing for
instant information sharing between devices.
With the technology now starting to increase in popularity, Bluetooth compatible devices are appearing in many commonly
used devices: computers, PDAs, cell phones. Come learn more about this wireless protocol, its current applications, and
its future as a viable wireless protocol.
Wireless Use by First and Second Year Medical Students at Case, by Thomas M. Nosek, Ph.D. Associate Dean, Biomedical Information Technologies & David M. Pilasky
The Office of Biomedical Information Technologies began implementing limited wireless access for first and second year
medical students in the winter of 2001. This past fall (2002), wireless access was made ubiquitously available throughout
the student classroom areas (large lecture halls and small group conference rooms) in the School of Medicine. At that time,
all first and second year students had 802.11b wireless cards installed on their notebook computers.
Our presentation will discuss where, when, and for what purposes the students are using wireless access to the Internet.
We will compare and contrast first and second year student use. We will provide statistics from a survey of students,
as well as bandwidth and user connection statistics. Campus-wide statistics show that during the morning class time hours,
medical student use of the wireless system ranks at or near the top of all campus use.
' Turn those things off! ': Controlling Wireless Networking during class and exams, by Ed Cloutier
The benefits of wireless networking are often summarized by the expression "anytime - anywhere". However, in higher education,
there are indeed some times when access to the Internet -- and to each other -- is at the least inappropriate (during certain
class events), or in the extreme flat-out wrong (during exams). Many faculty are challenging the "anytime - anywhere" idea and
responding that it need not mean "everytime - everywhere". At the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western
Ontario, an experimental project is underway to implement "Wireless Network Controls" at the individual student level so
that faculty can have some say over those times when network access will be inappropriate for their classes or exams, and
to what extent. This presentation will discuss the ideas, technology and implementation of this experiment, and the plans
for production in the fall.
Sandeep Singhal presenting with Peesh:
In this presentation, we will discuss the delivery of wireless voice within a campus environment--and the underlying technical
architecture required to support the delivery of voice services. We will highlight the key issues of seamless mobility, policy
management, and voice-and-data co-existence that must be addressed within a successful deployment. We will further describe how
campus voice can be integrated with 3G networking to support seamless mobility both on- and off-campus. Using the Campus Apollo
blueprint, we will describe how a wireless middleware network architecture can address these technical challenges in a scalable manner.
Structuring a scalable, flexible and long-lasting WLAN campus, By Sandeep Singhal
The campus wireless LAN must address the needs of multiple constituencies: students, who require easy access with mobility; faculty,
who seek to use the network as both a research and teaching tool; administrators, who use the network to improve productivity; and
IT managers, who much deliver a manageable and scalable network environment. In planning a wireless LAN deployment, consideration
must be made toward the different types of applications and services that can and will be deployed on the network, the network
scalability, and the investment protection required for infrastructure that survives rapid technology evolution.
In this presentation, we will discuss techniques for structuring a scalable, flexible, long-lasting wireless LAN for the campus.
Through deployment of a wireless services middleware, IT managers can deliver the wireless LAN today as part of an overall campus
network infrastructure, while taking advantage of an open architecture to develop and deploy new capabilites and applications in the future.
Exploring Wireless Wilderness, by Youngjin Yoo, Lewis-Progressive Assistant Professor of Information Systems, Weatherhead School of Management
Mobile and wireless technology is being widely diffused in many different aspects of our lives with a great fanfare. Some predict that it will fundamentally transform the way in which we live, work, and learn. Yet, in reality, it is not quite clear how and if the mobile affect higher education. Based on my past research projects and experiences in internet-based e-learning, I will highlight three key reasons why technology developments has not yet produced the much anticipated fundamental transformation in higher education. Building on these points, I will describe two exploratory projects at the Weatherhead School of Management that explored the potential impact of mobile and wireless computing in supporting local and remote mobility. Two prototype applications were developed for local (iTrack) and remote mobility (SMS alert system) support. The presentation will highlight some of the lessons learned from the project as well as the results of students' survey. Key insights for future successful applications of mobile and wireless computing in higher education will be shared.
Developing Wireless Applications for Higher Education: Lessons from the Trenches.
Moderator: Youngjin Yoo. Panelists: Scott Harrah, Manit Satitsamitponh, and Martha Shaw
The Weatherhead School of Management recently developed two mobile applications
to support learning processes. In this panel, the developers of these
applications will share key technical challenges-both expected and
unanticipated-that they faced during the development and deployment
of these tools. In the first presentation, Scott will share his experiences
in the development of iTrack. iTrack is a wireless classroom management
tool built for handheld devices. iTrack's features include a classroom
layout GUI which dynamically displays where the students are sitting
in the classroom by reading from a centralized database that the students
log on to via the internet, and gives the instructor the opportunity
to give that student participation points. The participation is wirelessly
read and written to the database at any time with the click of a button.
Taking advantage of Java's object-oriented API, the iTrack application
is very expandable, and future versions of iTrack will include features
which let the instructor access various information about students
and the course at his/her finger tips. In the second presentation,
Manit will share his experience with developing SMS (Short Message
Service) alert tool. The system allows students to register their
cellular phone numbers to receive alert message from the staff and
faculty members. The application is integrated with the course registration
information through Blackboard. Using this system, a professor can
inform students via mobile devices regarding classroom changes, cancellation,
or homework updates. With thirty percent of MBA students are part-timers
and many more of full-time students are currently experimenting with
this service, receiving critical information in a timely manner is
very important. Finally, Martha will discuss the wireless PDA project
from the viewpoint of the instructional designer, highlighting challenges
and both predicted and unanticipated difficulties along the way to
rollout and distribution of the wireless Pocket PCs to MIDS458 students,
and subsequent support.
The Campus Commons, by Shirish Netke, Director of Sun ONE Education Line of
Business, Sun Microsystems
The role of IT management has evolved from managing systems and applications
to providing services to user community. This is extending to every facet of
operations on a campus from the registrar's office to back end administration
to the student desktop. A shared services architecture provides the foundation
for these services by leveraging existing infrastructure and information assets
acquired over a period of time. In the past few years, new tools and standards
have evolved to facilitate the integration of applications, manage network identity
and optimize the utilization of information assets. These can be used to create
a user-centric services environment or a "Campus Commons" with interfaces tailored
for various user communities.
In the Eye of the Tornado
Next Generation Digital Services From a Business School's Perspective
Kalle Lyytinen, Case
This talk will discuss changes in the information and digital service landscape
in the next decade. Digital convergence, changes in the telecommunications infrastructure,
the shift to wireless and establishment of an electronic trading infrastructure
Examples of new service concepts from Japan, Finland and the U.S. are provided.
The major part of the talk will focus on highlighting what this change will
mean for business school education. What types of business school models, service
concepts and management strategies will be at the core of our education when
agile, small services are available provided by a very complex technological
infrastructure I will also discuss what role wireless delivery channels can
play in business school education and pushing content to the students' terminals.
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