Principal Investigator Harold Abelson
Co-investigators Vijay Kumar , Richard Larson , Thomas Magnanti
Project Website http://web.mit.edu/alliance/globed.html
Starting September 1999, MIT and Singapore are linked as never before. Via Internet2, students at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and at MIT are joined in a single classroom, taught by professors from MIT and NUS, the students separated only by 12,000 miles of plains, mountains and oceans. To the best of our knowledge, this will be the largest use yet of Internet2 for semester-long accredited distance learning. Internet2, the "fat digital pipe" cousin of the standard Internet, represents the type of broad bandwidths that will be available to most of us within the next few years.
Working collaboratively, researchers at MIT, NUS and Microsoft will examine the classroom activities as they evolve and attempt to find out how to design an educational system for such global education that optimizes student learning. This first MIT Microsoft collaborative effort will be in the form of a "planning grant." The focus of the planning effort is to assess how the students can best learn in this global classroom. The effort will not be bounded by currently available technology, but instead will focus first on the student's educational needs -- that being the driving force for new technologies down the road. Examples of the questions to be asked are:
What types of real-time interaction do students need and for what kinds of subjects?
How can we assure student active participation when they are 12,000 miles from "their professor"?
Considering the realities of time zones, how do we use best asynchronous interaction -- made possible by the web and Internet2 fast connectivity?
How can we learn from those involved with "best practice" in distance learning?
What do the students themselves have to say?
Can real laboratory experiences be provided over such distances?
Can highly interactive case courses be taught in this medium?
How do we assure that any technological "friction" associated with the distance learners does not impede the learning of the on-campus students? (We want the addition of the distant students to be a large positive factor.)
MIT's Center for Advanced Educational Services (CAES), under the direction of Professor Richard C. Larson, has assumed responsibility for the technology and operation of the distance learning aspects of MIT Singapore relationship. Professor Larson with his CAES colleagues will lead the MIT part of this planning activity. While the focus of this planning effort is not technology per se, it is likely that part of the summary recommendations will focus on the design and development of software technologies that would best support both synchronous and asynchronous learning at such great distances. It is hoped that as a result of the planning project, a more substantial project can be launched, aimed at creating excellent technology-enabled learning environments for students and teachers who are up to 12,000 miles apart.