KSCADE Network at the Top
Of the Distance Learning Peak
Wideband Integrated OC-3/ MPEG Network
Designed by Evans Associates
Telecommunications Consultants is First in the World
By Kirk Manley
In Waupaca, Wisconsin, a class of high school students listen intently to their teacher's lecture and ask a number of questions. Sounds like a typical classroom. But, there's one catch. The class is taught live from many miles away in Menasha. Two other schools are also participating in the same class session. Each participant at all of the locations can see, hear, and speak to each other. How is this possible you might ask?
It's a networking educational program called KSCADE, designed by Ralph Evans of Evans Associates in Thiensville, Wisconsin (www.evansassoc.com). KSCADE stands for K-12 Schools/ College Alliance for Distance Education. The KSCADE program, beginning in January 1998, consists of a 230-mile fiber optic network linking more than 30 schools and 70,000 students throughout the state of Wisconsin's Fox Valley region.
It's a partnership teaming up numerous technological communication companies. The KSCADE network partners include Midwest Visual Communications, Marcus Fiberlink, Time Warner Cable, Anixter, AG Communications, and FORE Systems.
Midwest Visual provided classroom electronics, a customer user interface, control system programming, and development of communications protocols between classroom electronics and time scheduling software. "Our goal was to provide a feature-rich system that is user-friendly," said Barbara Holck, Milwaukee Branch Manager at Midwest Visual. "Accomplishing this required creative and inventive software programming and hardware integration allowing, for example, city to city control system communications via Ethernet over the ATM network."
The KSCADE network works by using MPEG-2 video compression and ATM switching technologies to produce a voice, video, and data interconnect. This connection relays multiple video channels and a data overlay, with Internet access, to distant participants.
Using these network and projection technologies, the KSCADE program has provided an interactive solution to communicating the learning process between students and instructors, whether they're two or 200 miles apart. And it's the largest and most sophisticated educational network in the world employing MPEG-2/ ATM technologies. "What sets it apart form all other distance networks is its technology and capacity. The quality and speed has far exceeded our expectations and other competitive offerings," said Greg Joseph, President of the KSCADE consortium.
The KSCADE network allows teachers to send live audio and visual signals to conduct classes at multiple schools simultaneously from a single site. This technological innovation has moved the educational world much closer together. And education remains as interactive and productive as the traditional classroom setting. It provides a learning environment for those who are either unable to attend or aren't offered the class at their particular site, but are willing to learn from a distance.
For more information please contact:
Evans Associates
210 South Main Street
Thiensville, Wisconsin 53092
(262)242-6000
fax: (262)242-6045
http://www.evansassoc.com
These pages produced and copyrighted by Evans Associates ©, Consultants In Telecommunications Technology, Thiensville, Wisconsin.