THE BOULDER VALLEY INTERNET PROJECT The Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) and the University of Colorado at Boulder have initiated a collaborative project to deploy Internet technology throughout the District, train teachers and students in its use, develop curriculum and to build a community network. The Internet is a telecommunications network comprised of government, education and business sector participants from around the world. The vast resources and opportunities which the Internet will bring to teachers and students make this technology a powerful and innovative teaching tool. The project is an ambitious endeavor facilitated by the collaborative efforts of the District, the School of Education and Computing and Network Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the regional and state networking agencies, the local business community, the Boulder Area Chamber of Commerce and the National Science Foundation. THE INTERNET The Internet is a world-wide network of networks interconnecting the smallest PC's to the largest mainframes. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has fostered the network (also known as the NSFnet) which has grown tremendously as a result of continued development by NSF as well as efforts by regional, state and local networks. In September, 1991 it was estimated that the Internet was comprised of more than 5,000 networks connecting more than 350,000 host computers and 3.5 million people. The Department of Education and the U.S. Congress have recognized the importance of electronic communications and resource retrieval in K-12 education as well as in educational research. In the Fall of 1991, Congress approved a five-year project to create a national electronic "super-highway" which will build upon the existing NSFnet; this project will create the National Research and Education Network (NREN). Utilization of the Internet resources in K-12 education has been sporadic. In most cases the technology has been championed by individual teachers in their own classroom or perhaps school-wide. The challenge which school districts must meet is to create a district-wide deployment and dissemination model - a goal which the Boulder Valley Internet Project seeks to fulfill. The Internet is used primarily to facilitate communication and to give access to an abundance of resources. The communication aspect includes world-wide electronic mail, online, real-time discussions with other people on the network, and discussion groups (bulletin boards) on a multitude of topics. Available resources include, but are certainly not limited to curriculum projects, ideas and materials; electronic library catalogs; huge databases on a variety of subject areas including teaching and research; electronic books and documentation; free computer files and software; computer white and yellow pages to assist in finding people and resources on the Internet; and access to information and data from organizations such as NASA, NSF, and NOAA. THE PROJECT The Boulder Valley Internet Project is comprised of a set of coordinated initiatives designed to deploy Internet connectivity to the Boulder Valley School District, enhance curricula, analyze the effect of the network technology on the educational process, and integrate the activities into the workings of the district and surrounding community. The project is intended to pioneer a comprehensive approach to K-12 use of networking and the Internet, where planning and implementation involve district, teacher, university, community, and regional participation. The overall project, from deployment to curriculum, will be subject to ongoing assessment, with active dissemination of results. Three underlying premises drive the project: that the Internet can provide a rich variety of tools and resources that will augment existing pedagogy and provide the training in basic information skills necessary for future generations; that deploying the Internet into K-12 requires a comprehensive district-wide approach that focuses on curriculum and minimizes issues of connectivity and operation; and that the involvement of multiple participants, including community and regional resources, enhance the likelihood and value of success. The Boulder Valley project is a joint undertaking of several organizations: %Boulder Valley School District - a K-12 educational system that spans 45 schools, 500 square miles, and 23,000 students; %University of Colorado at Boulder - A broad array of University departments are involved, including the School of Education and Computing and Network Services; %Colorado Supernet - the provider of Internet services for the state of Colorado; %Westnet - an NSF-funded regional network that provides Internet connectivity to a six state region. Resources for the project come from a number of sources. The District is contributing funds, staff, release time, and the testbed itself. The University is providing funding, facilities, staffing, assessment, network expertise and curricular guidance. Local companies such as US West and IBM have expressed an interest in supplying training and curriculum funds, equipment or employee effort. Colorado Supernet and Westnet are furnishing connectivity, network platforms and operational support. The National Science Foundation has granted funding for two components of the project totalling $627,000. To deliver network-based services widely and effectively to K-12 requires significant funding. The challenge is to provide sufficient services to enable utilization while exploiting economies of scale. Local funding and use of community resources will be essential to stretch state and federal funds. The Boulder Valley Project is modeled after these realities. The school district has supplied $40,000 in funding as well as release time and other in-kind services. The University is contributing additional funding and staffing, and support services. Local corporate sponsors are being approached to provide additional funding to extend the initial connectivity. Westnet and Colorado Supernet (the relevant regional networks) have provided significant resources and support services. THE INITIATIVES The Project is composed of four coordinated initiatives which formally span a three year period. However, the infrastructure of the Project will develop such that at the end of the three year period the District will be equipped to perpetuate continued deployment of the technology, teacher training and curriculum development. Initiative I is the deployment of the technology throughout the Boulder Valley School District. This includes both hard-wired direct connectivity to the Internet network as well as dial-up access through modems via Colorado Supernet. The Project is a large and comprehensive one. The initial cost of direct connectivity is not a cost that the District alone can bear. We are therefore seeking University, corporate and foundation funding to facilitate the technology deployment. The proposal calls for direct connectivity to a minimum of 25 schools (55% of the District's schools) in the three year time period. All schools will have dial-up access. The projected one-time cost of district-wide connectivity is approximately $331,335. The Project has commitments from the University, the District, the regional networking agencies and local business which total $148,632. Thus, the remainder of the connectivity cost to be raised is approximately $182,703. There will also be annual operating costs which will be built into the district MIS budget as the project matures. As of November 1, 1992, three middle schools in the district (Angevine, Centennial and Platt) have dedicated connectivity. Initiative II is the teacher training component of the Project. A core-group of 25 lead teachers from all grade levels and a cross-section of disciplines is receiving extensive training on the tools of the Internet. This group will evolve into a team of peer trainers, instructing their colleagues in the use of the Internet. Teachers, University education specialists and networking professionals are working cooperatively to develop training materials and curriculum. The Project employs a Director, an experienced public school teacher, who is responsible for teacher training and network support. This initiative is partially funded by a $427,000 grant awarded by the Teacher Enhancement and Preparation division of NSF. The first year of the Project will examine two models of Internet deployment: a vertical, feeder system model and a horizontal model. In the feeder system model, three schools which matriculate students upward will pioneer mentoring and cross-cutting curriculum projects. For example, a tenth grade biology class might want to do a collaborative research project with a seventh grade earth science class. The older students must take on an academic leadership role. The work of the younger students is validated by the interest of the older students. Potentially, all of the students will expand their horizons and perhaps their interest in the subject matter. This model also permits mentoring programs such as students in the middle school, perhaps sixth grade, adopting a student in the fifth grade so as to facilitate the fifth grader's transition into the middle school in the next year. The horizontal model involves deployment of the technology in three middle schools which have Internet Labs. This approach will provide a cross-section of teachers from different schools who teach the same curriculum thereby providing a larger testbed for specific, area-related Internet curriculum. This model will also facilitate collaborative projects among a large group of students at the same grade level, but in different schools. Initiative III is the community network component of the Project. The School District will offer its district-wide network as a platform from which to launch a community network. The Boulder Area Chamber of Commerce is working cooperatively with the Project on this effort. We envision bringing all facets of the community onto the network including city and county government, social services, libraries, parks and recreation, the Chamber of Commerce, local businesses and interested individuals. Initiative IV is a specific curriculum initiative called "Kids as Global Scientists." Internet connectivity within the middle school Internet Laboratories will allow classrooms of students to collect and interpret National Weather Service data and satellite images of an extensive variety of weather phenomena. The middle school students will conduct extensive study of North American and world weather, and communicate and personalize weather phenomena with scientists of all ages, both locally and world-wide. The foci of this component of the larger Project are two-fold. First, to study seventh graders' understanding of atmospheric science concepts while investigating multiple representations of the same weather phenomena and secondly, to investigate and develop effective Internet interfaces for a K-12 audience. This piece of the project is led by Dr. Nancy Butler Songer of the University of Colorado School of Education and has been funded by the Advanced Technologies division of NSF ($202,000). THE UNIQUENESS OF THE PROJECT The strength of the Boulder Valley Project lies in the common focus of a diverse group of professional educators and networkers. This concentration of skills and interests makes the Project distinctive in several important areas: 1. Unlike the relatively limited nature of many other efforts nationally the planning and implementation of the Boulder Valley Project are at a district-wide level. Through utilization of existing District structures, connectivity, support, training, and materials can be effectively provided. The pioneering use of feeder systems creates new opportunities for network-based services as well as insuring that students can continue to use network tools throughout their education. By using release time, recertification options, and operational efficiencies, the District can encourage teacher involvement while assuring a comprehensive and coordinated approach. 2. There is a singular level of commitment by the University of Colorado. It begins with the School of Education, which will host the Project, assist in curricula development, and assess the impact of networks in K-12 education. The School has established a major Internet Lab for educating pre-service teachers as well as practicing teachers. Computing and Network Services has coordinated the deployment and is providing training and technical support services. Other agencies throughout the University, from Language Departments to Disabled Student Services, will contribute to providing services across the network. 3. The involvement of regional networks brings a set of network resources and staff that can ensure state-of-the-art installation and operation of the underlying infrastructure. The resources and assistance of state and NSF midlevel networks provide a rich web of connectivity services and allow the educators to center on curricula issues. 4. With its deep commitment to education and its high level of technical sophistication, the Boulder community is a natural site to explore a comprehensive approach to educational networking. The involvement of the city and the business community are powerful factors in enhancing the usefulness and reach of the Project. At the same time, the insistence of the Project on common technologies, public domain software, and open information (i.e. Internet posting of teacher training and curriculum materials) suggests that the results will be widely applicable to other communities and districts. A goal of the Project is to develop a prototype of Internet dissemination and integration which is generalized enough to be transported to school districts nationwide. 5. The Boulder Valley Project is intended to be a catalytic influence for a wide variety of educational activities. The Project's confluence of K-12 teachers, university education specialists, and networking professionals insures that ongoing developments in the Project will be widely shared with all the key segments in K-12 educational networking. Further, companion proposals will emerge that seek to extend and enhance the results on a regional and national level. THE INTERNET AND K-12 Below is a sampling of projects facilitated by the Internet which have been completed or are in progress with children in K-12 classrooms. These are projects that are not easily undertaken without the electronic communications and the resources offered by a network such as the Internet. This short list demonstrates the diversity of opportunities which is now open to the students and teachers of the Boulder Valley Schools. 1. A teacher in a school district in the Bronx, NY has developed a weather curriculum using data which he downloads from the Internet. One of the resources the Internet offers is real-time weather data from all over the world. Students use the same weather maps and data that the National Weather Service uses. All of the students in that school district circulate through this weather curriculum while they are in middle school. This spring, the Boulder Valley Schools will pilot a similar weather curriculum (Initiative IV of the Boulder Valley Internet Project). We anticipate that our students will forecast weather for the Bronx and vice-versa. This will be an exciting opportunity for the students to put their weather knowledge and forecasting skills to good use as the two sets of students discuss electronically the accuracy of their predictions. 2. A grocery basket study in which third graders around the nation took identical shopping lists to the grocery store and priced the items. The students in each location then traded their shopping results via electronic mail. The students discussed with their teachers the reasons for such geographical differences in grocery prices opening windows of insight into geographical differences, climate, transportation costs etc. 3. The Disabled Data Link Group and Chatback Project for Children involves disabled students at approximately 60 schools using the network. The goal is to assist those with special needs. Students have access to advice, peer support and resources. 4. A school district in New York City has provided some of the New York Jets players with laptop computers (donated), instruction and ground rules. The participating players, who all have college degrees, are matched with at-risk students in the school system and serve as mentors. The children communicate from school via electronic mail with their mentors. The goal of the program is to provide positive minority role models who will encourage students to stay in school and achieve. Apparently, there are plans to bring the Yankees into the project as well. Numerous opportunities for mentoring programs exist on the Internet. The Boulder Valley Project will undertake similar mentoring efforts. 5. Newsday is a "multi-curricular project in which students in each participating school produce a local newspaper based on the news dispatches submitted on the NEWSDAY news wire by student correspondents. Students become news gatherers and reporters, editors, layout and graphics artists, and publishers. Participation on a national and international scale leads to understanding of broad issues which transcend local concerns." (Jonathan Kochmer, NorthWestNet User Services Internet Resource Guide (1991), pg 180) One of the observed results of projects such as this is that when students write for an audience of their peers, their writing skills improve more rapidly than when they write exclusively for the teacher. 6. SPACELINK is an online database which is a gold mine for elementary and secondary science and math teachers. NASA maintains this interactive system which includes NASA information and activities, including curriculum utilizing NASA data. Any teacher can access this material via the Internet and may become a partner with NASA in the evaluation and design of educational materials. The Boulder Valley Project will promote this type of K-12 curriculum development and posting by national labs in the region such as NOAA, NCAR and the National Bureau of Standards. 7. Foreign language students in schools all over the United States put their knowledge into action when they use telecommunications to speak with students in foreign lands. This brings the foreign language alive for the English speaking student and gives the student concrete reasons to expand his or her foreign language vocabulary and facility. These are only a few examples of projects which employ the Internet and its resources. This list does not even begin to suggest the plethora of potential K-12 projects. This is a technology that can be used across the K-12 curriculum, in a variety of different types of school settings and to the benefit of many -- students and teachers alike. We believe it will offer students opportunities for more experiential learning and facilitate the role of the teacher as a coach rather than as a dispenser of knowledge. It is clear that the Internet, with its singular resources and powerful communication tools, can reduce teacher isolation and provide new alternatives to traditional education. We believe that this broad-based collaborative effort which includes the Boulder Valley School District, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Westnet, Colorado Supernet, the National Science Foundation, corporate and foundation support can make this happen in Boulder Valley. Furthermore, we can provide for the rest of the nation an efficient and effective model for developing Internet connectivity, teacher training and curriculum development. For more information on the Boulder Valley Internet Project contact: Libby Black Dr. Kenneth J. Klingenstein Project Director Director, Computing and Network Services Curriculum and Instruction Campus Box 455 Boulder Valley School District University of Colorado, Boulder Box 9011 Boulder, CO 80309 Boulder CO 80301 e-mail: kjk@spot.colorado.edu e-mail: blackl@bvsd.co.edu phone: (303) 447-5090 fax: (303) 447-5024 For specific inquiries about the Kids as Global Scientist curriculum contact: Dr. Nancy Butler Songer School of Education Box 249 e-mail: songer@spot.colorado.edu University of Colorado office phone: (303) 492-4914 Boulder, CO 80309-0249 fax: (303) 492-7090 1/4/93 .