From A Cluster Of Servers, Great Ideas In Education Can Grow

Can centralized management of technology free
far-flung schools to focus on the business of teaching?

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

GOAL
The intent is to determine how resources, including computing power, applications, content and scientific tools can be shared in a distributed environment. The model will be applied beyond the NC State campus to facilitate collaboration among Friday Institute staff and researchers and schools throughout North Carolina. The goal is to centralize the management of the resources while minimizing operational and maintenance requirements at outlying schools – allowing students and teachers to focus on learning and teaching instead of the complexity of the technologies.

PROGRESS
Initially, the investigators are establishing a proof-of-concept that demonstrates how this architecture can better support faculty and students at the Friday Institute and the College of Education at NC State University.

FUTURE
Date from two distinct sources – technical performance and social science research – will be combined and evaluated to answer two central questions: Are the tools transparent and easy to use? And are users likely to want to continue to use them and/or expand their use?

“By mining both collections of data,
the actual roadblocks to utilization can be uncovered.”