TV-Centric technologies to provide remote areas with two-way satellite broadband access

October 1-2, 2007, Rome, Italy TV-Centric Technologies To Provide Remote Areas With Two-Way Satellite Broadband Acces

A two-way interactive broadband satellite architecture to break the digital divide barrier

September 24-26, 2007, Turin, Ital

Multimedia broadcast and internet satellite system design and user trial results

The EU funded project, System for Advanced Multimedia Broadcast and IT Services (SAMBITS), has created an enhanced and synchronised, multimedia terminal for merging satellite broadcast and internet telecommunication services in a way that efficiently combines the large bandwidth of the broadcast channel and the interactivity of the internet. This paper proposes a novel broadcast and internet service concept, illustrates this concept with two service scenarios and develops a system architecture to demonstrate the range of key benefits provided by these new technologies. It then describes the interactive multimedia terminal that was used for consuming this new service concept. Finally, the results of the user trials on the terminal are presented and discussed

FORGE: An eLearning Framework for Remote Laboratory Experimentation on FIRE Testbed Infrastructure

The Forging Online Education through FIRE (FORGE) initiative provides educators and learners in higher education with access to world-class FIRE testbed infrastructure. FORGE supports experimentally driven research in an eLearning environment by complementing traditional classroom and online courses with interactive remote laboratory experiments. The project has achieved its objectives by defining and implementing a framework called FORGEBox. This framework offers the methodology, environment, tools and resources to support the creation of HTML-based online educational material capable accessing virtualized and physical FIRE testbed infrastruc- ture easily. FORGEBox also captures valuable quantitative and qualitative learning analytic information using questionnaires and Learning Analytics that can help optimise and support student learning. To date, FORGE has produced courses covering a wide range of networking and communication domains. These are freely available from FORGEBox.eu and have resulted in over 24,000 experiments undertaken by more than 1,800 students across 10 countries worldwide. This work has shown that the use of remote high- performance testbed facilities for hands-on remote experimentation can have a valuable impact on the learning experience for both educators and learners. Additionally, certain challenges in developing FIRE-based courseware have been identified, which has led to a set of recommendations in order to support the use of FIRE facilities for teaching and learning purposes

Online Learning and Experimentation via Interactive Learning Resources

Recent trends in online learning like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Educational Resources (OERs) are changing the landscape in the education sector by allowing learners to self-regulate their learning and providing them with an abundant amount of free learning materials. This paper presents FORGE, a new European initiative for online learning and experimentation via interactive learning resources. FORGE provides learners and educators with access to world- class facilities and high quality learning materials, thus enabling them to carry out experiments on e.g. new Internet protocols. In turn, this supports constructivist and self-regulated learning approaches, through the use of interactive learning resources, such as eBooks

Classifying public display systems: an input/output channel perspective

Public display screens are relatively recent additions to our world, and while they may be as simple as a large screen with minimal input/output features, more recent developments have introduced much richer interaction possibilities supporting a variety of interaction styles. In this paper we propose a framework for classifying public display systems with a view to better understanding how they differ in terms of their interaction channels and how future installations are likely to evolve. This framework is explored through 15 existing public display systems which use mobile phones for interaction in the display space

The development and evaluation of computer generated material for 43.220 Information and Communications : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Technology - Information Engineering at Massey University

The information age is upon us. Technological advances, particularly in communications, have facilitated the conveyance of accurate and updatable information in vast quantities. Educational institutions have recognized the potential of such technology to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their organizations. Institutions that depend almost entirely on technological knowledge transfer already exist and those who are not investigating how it may best be used in their university are likely to be left behind [1]. The impact of technology on education has been the subject of much speculation [2,3,4]. What is becoming apparent is that views of education are changing from that of 'option' to 'commodity' [5]. This has lead to an increasing demand for a varied education and an even greater burden for educators, given that there has been little change in the modes of delivery [1]. Therefore, in education, it has been argued that "more must be accomplished with less. Automation through the successful application of powerful new technologies is undoubtedly one of the key enablers" [6, p. 59). The Department of Production Technology at Massey University has been investigating how current technologies may best be utilized to facilitate multicampus teaching. Massey University, with its main campus at Palmerston North, now has a new campus situated approximately 600 kilometres north at Albany where the Department of Production Technology intends to offer one of its courses in the near future. Instead of duplicating many facilities, resources and staff at Albany an alternative is to have the courses remotely delivered. This has lead to the establishment of two systems whose objectives are to increase flexibility in delivery modes without decreasing the quality of education delivered