Friday Institute Collaborates with World-Leading Technology Companies to Enhance Education

Four of the world's leading technology companies - Cisco Systems, IBM, Nortel and SAS - are collaborating with the Friday Institute to help design and deliver the future of education to teachers and students in North Carolina K-12 classrooms today.

Academia-industry partnerships abound, but North Carolina's is different than most. It combines:

• Research to develop new teaching and learning tools and practices.
• Pilot projects and data-driven assessment for measurement, feedback and evaluation.
• Government support to collaborate and deliver statewide solutions.
• Long-term involvement and support of technology companies that provide equipment and expertise.
• Professional development for teachers in K-12 classrooms and new teachers through the N.C. State College of Education.

Technology in the classroom can inspire and engage students at all grade levels to learn the skills they need to compete in the 21st century. Beyond basic reading, writing and math, students preparing for many professional jobs in the 21st century must be proficient in science, technology and culture with a thorough understanding of information in all of its forms.

From mobile phone text messages to blogs, chat and video games, children have developed new learning styles and communication skills outside of the classroom. Too often, they are "unplugged" when they are in the classroom. A 21st century education leverages modern communications and students' interest in technology to inspire students and create a passion and skills for lifelong learning. Lessons are designed to lead students to become critical thinkers, problem solvers and effective communicators.

To create schools where students learn 21st century skills, teachers must also be innovative. Delivering new and innovative teaching and learning tools into the classroom requires teacher education, assessment and ongoing professional development.

The Friday Institute, the four leading technology partners and many others are collaborating to achieve these goals. The alliances are enabling the creation and delivery of a new breed of educational tools and resources for classrooms throughout North Carolina and beyond, including collaboration on pilot projects in support of the N.C. School Connectivity Program, an initiative to provide broadband connectivity to every K-12 classroom in the state.

While the four technology companies are involved in many aspects for the statewide connectivity projects, below are a few examples of the ongoing collaboration:

Cisco

In order to fully participate in the exciting changes occurring in education, schools must connect within each district, state, region, and country and to the world outside of education.

Cisco provides the foundation for the Friday Institute's technology initiatives through a high-speed wired and wireless networking infrastructure that enables access and content distribution at the Friday Institute and to teachers, students and others in schools throughout North Carolina.

An example of extending the advanced networking and connectivity to K-12 schools is taking place at Hunt High School in Wilson County, where SAS has donated laptop computers to teachers and students.

With approximately 1,400 laptops, wireless access to the Internet and shared content through the N.C. Research and Education Network is critical. Cisco is providing equipment and expertise to help develop a wireless network to provide connectivity to each laptop.

IBM

IBM is partnering with the Friday Institute to deliver in-classroom material, including educational videos, demonstrations and lab experiment modules, to enhance the learning experience for students. This on-demand approach allows teachers to easily tap into valuable resources that are managed by the Friday Institute over the Internet - when they need it.

IBM is providing the technology foundation for this solution at N.C. State University, through Shared University Research (SUR) and other awards, as well as IBM software through the company's Academic Initiative.

The Friday Institute is using IBM BladeCenter servers that are part of the campus Virtual Computing Lab. With this innovative solution, students in their science lab can access everything they will need from their computer to perform a scheduled experiment, from instructional material and video demos to the scientific equipment they will need to conduct the experiment.

The technology platform enables video, data, software applications, scientific equipment and computing resources managed by the university and the Friday Institute to be shared by teachers and students throughout the state using an advanced network design called a service-oriented architecture.

Through an IBM Shared University Research (SUR) award, the Friday Institute received 30 BladeCenter servers to explore how a centralized computing cluster, the Virtual Computer Lab, could be better used to serve K-12 education in North Carolina.

As part of the N.C. School Connectivity Program, the Friday Institute, IBM and Wake Forest University are collaborating with the WinstonNet Consortium to demonstrate the success of sharing networked resources in 10 schools systems in six counties in central North Carolina.

The Friday Institute and other N.C. State technology experts in the College of Engineering and Information Technology Division delivered several presentations in an IBM International Conference in May examining the Virtual Computing Initiative.

Nortel

Nortel provides technology that is designed to enable real-time, multi-media collaboration services that seamlessly combine voice, data and video communications at the Friday Institute. The services are being extended to schools through the development of the Friday Institute's technology platform to connect partner schools throughout North Carolina.

Multimedia services include on-demand audio and video conferencing, IP telephony, whiteboard and file exchange, instant messaging, and personalized call management and routing. The services can be leveraged to address key education challenges, enhancing the learning experience for students, delivering new affordable communications capabilities to administrators and improving collaboration across the entire learning community - with students, teachers, parents and school administrators.

Through the N.C. School Connectivity Program, the Friday Institute is installing Nortel network equipment and providing technical support for online teacher training and certification programs in a five-county area in Northeastern North Carolina through the Roanoke River Valley Education Consortium.

Through phone conferencing, desktop sharing, Web-based collaboration and video-based distance learning, certified teachers can teach classes in other schools, sharing a valuable resource throughout the school system. In addition, video conferencing will enable teachers to take training and certification classes remotely at universities, and the robust network enables access to online resources to use in the classroom, including courses, enrichment programs, teaching collaborations and workshops.

SAS

In the last two decades, a priority has been placed on teaching students basic fundamentals and giving them tests to prove they know the material. Yet, many skills needed in the 21st century are not measured by the existing tests. Technology is enabling a new look at how students and school achievement are measured.

Through its business intelligence software and services, SAS is providing analytic applications for data-based decision making, integration of analytics into new teaching and learning methods, and resources to measure and assess new educational practices and policies. Through the SAS partnership, researchers at the Friday Institute have state-of-the-art tools for aligning resources and evaluating the effectiveness of new teaching and learning methods with evidence-based outcomes.

In addition, the founders of SAS created Cary Academy, a preparatory school for students in grades 6-12 that is a model for the integration of technology into the classroom. SAS has also donated laptop computers for 8th graders at the Centennial Campus Middle School, co-located with the Friday Institute, and for all students and teachers at Hunt High School in Wilson, N.C., to better engage students in learning and make their schools more relevant to teaching and learning skills needed to succeed in the 21st century.

SAS analytic tools are being used to measure and assess the impact on teaching and learning in the schools. In addition, analytic tools are being used to assess and study the effectiveness of online classes being deployed by Friday Institute researchers and through the N.C. Virtual Public School initiative.