The Digital Divide:
A Country Western Technology Song

Janet Poley
Valorie McAlpin
Dan Cotton

Nashville, Tennessee
October 11, 2000

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1. The Digital Divide: A Country Western Technology Song
   Janet Poley
   Valorie McAlpin
   Dan Cotton
2. The Song of the Digital Divide
3. The Truth: The Digital Divide
   
   • Lumping
   • Knowledge Society
   • Emergence
   • Convergence
4. Song of the Haves and Have Nots
5. Concentration of Poverty Deconcentration of Opportunity
   • Inner cities and isolated rural areas
   • Lack of infrastructure in poor neighborhoods
   • Lack of investment leads to fewer economic opportunities

6. Concentration of Poverty Deconcentration of Opportunity
   
   • Relevant content
   • Social, cultural and professional activities online

7. Concentration of Poverty Deconcentration of Opportunity
   • Barriers to relevant content:
     • Lack of local information
     • Literacy barriers
     • Language barriers
     • Lack of cultural diversity
8. All Those We Teach

9. New Teaching and Learning Models
   • Learner centered vs. teacher centered
   • Constructivist approaches
   • Implications for leveling the playing field

10. New Teaching and Learning Models
    • Four generations
      • Correspondence study
      • Multi-media with print
      • Online learning
      • Internet2 applications

11. New Research Models: Beyond Comparative Studies
    • No significant difference
    • Instructional design and operational environment
    • Media attribute theory

12. Attribute Analysis (Smith & Dillion 1999)

13. ADEC is on the Go!
14. Nondiscriminatory Access
    • Consumer Federation of America
    • Eight Public Policy Principles
      • Access
      • Subsidies
      • Competition
      • Privacy
15. Advanced Internet Satellite Extension Project
    • 3 year, NSF
    • $4 million
    • Partnership
      • ADEC, Internet 2 Universities, smaller and minority serving institutions, rural and remote learners
      • Tachyon.Network
      • CAIDA, NLANR
16. Project Goals
    • Explore and Evaluate:
      • satellite technology to deliver Internet to underserved audiences; and
      • deployment and integration of distance education applications.
17. Research objectives include:
    • “pretty good Internet?”
    • requirements for satellite-based IP network
    • QOS issues per last mile network performance measurements
    • teaching and learning applications
    • business model
18. ADEC/Tachyon Pre-test
    • June 5 – August 4, 2000
    • Six “core” institutions
    • Scheduled service testing
      • C1 = 300Kbps
      • C2 = 800Kbps
      • C3 = 2Mbps
19. Equipment Configuration
    • TAPS
      • KU Band,
      • VSAT, < 1 meter dish, Ethernet
      • 256Kbps return channel
    • Tachyon Gateway
      • San Diego NAP / DS3 connection to UUNet
    • Communication Server
      • data collection services
      • Chariot endpoint software discussion group/sharing capability
20. Institutions
    • North Carolina State/A&T Universities
    • University of Maryland
    • University of Illinois
    • University of Nebraska
    • University of California
    • Washington State University
21. Test Results
• Programmed testing with specific technical data being collected
  • Whatsup
    • Uptime = 97.93%
  • Application testing
    • File send long
    • File send short
    • POP3
    • RealAudio
    • RealVideo
22. Test Results
    
    • General testing by users
      • Web
      • E-mail
      • FTP
      • Real Technologies
      • H.323 / T.120
      • Custom applications
23. Summary and Conclusions
    
    • Worked as advertised
    • Tachyon was a good partner
    • C1 level service is a viable product for remote areas
    • Impressed with C2 (800K) and C3 (2M)
24. References
    • ADEC/Tachyon Test Server
      • http://63.103.96.228/
    • Tachyon General Testing User Log
      • http://63.103.96.228/test
    • Main Street Economist - Center for the Study of Rural America – FRB of Kansas City
      • http://kc.frb.org/RuralCenter/mainstreet/MainStMain.htm
    • Business 2.0 – Milking the Net…for all it’s worth
      • http://www.business2.com/content/channels/technology/2000/06/13/12863