• Created by Unknown User (jwerle), last modified on Dec 23, 2010

2010 Fall MM - K20 Advisory Committee Business Meeting Notes

Monday, November 1, 2010
1:00-4:00pm
Atlanta, Georgia

ATTENDEES

Denise Atkinson-Shorey, EAGLE-Net
Joseph Barrow, Ware County Schools, Georgia
Ruth Blankenbaker, CILC
Tim Boundy, JANET UK
Lisa Bridge, Khalifa University of Science, Technology & Research (KUSTAR), UAE
Randy Brogle, Internet2
Jeff Harrington, NYSERnet
Larry Gallery, NYSERnet
Peggy Norris, Dusel Project
Brian Miller, Kansas Research and Education Network
Kim Owen, North Dakota State University
Sheri Prupis, NJEdge
Emilie Stawiarski, Internet2
Randy Stout, Kansas Board of Regents/KanEd
Heather Todorov, Internet2
Heather Weisse Walsh, MAGPI
Ann West, Internet2
James Werle, Internet2 K20 Initiative
Carol Willis, TETN
Ann Zimmerman, OARnet

NOTES

1:00-1:15pm - Welcome/Introductions/Agenda Review (Carol)

1:15-1:40pm - Project Updates (5 min each)

Remote Instrumentation (James/Kim O)

Developing an inventory of resources (both existing and in development) that potentially could be used by institutions connected to Internet2 via the Internet2 K20 Initiative.

We're building an inventory through surveys and word-of-mouth, and recording everything we possibly can about the resources.

Describe the instrument - what is it? what is it used for? where is it? URL?
how do you connect to the instrument? is there software already written? how is it accessible?
Who can currently use the instrument?
Would you be interested in exploring how to extend access to the instrument?
What are the constraints to extending access? Costs?
What are the technical requirements to use the instrument (bandwidth, etc.)
do they have an outreach requirements?
Is there a fee involved? Can you collect a fee or not?
Does software exist already?

We're continuing to send schools to Kemi Jona's iLab project at Northwestern University.

Kemi Jona is hosting the 1st annual Cyberlearning Tools for STEM Education (CyTSE) conference in San Francisco in March 2011 - www.cyberlearningstem.org. James Werle and Ann Zimmerman are planning to attend/present. The goal of the conference is to bring together researchers, developers and K-12 STEM educators who want to use new cyberlearning tools to engage and educate the current net-savvy generation about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The team will work closely with Peggy Norris to explore outreach possiblilities offered by DUSEL. Also, the Regional node observatory (aka NEPTUNE) under John Delaney's leadership will be commissioned about the same time as US UCAN.

Peggy: can send name of a person from Brookhaven National Labs – has a light source he uses for education.

ISTE - conference update (Heather Weisse)

Heather Weisse Walsh's IVC Showcase proposal was accepted at the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) conference in Philadelphia. Heather will emphasize the importance of having advanced networking connection when doing videoconferencing events in K-20 organizations.

Virtual Kaleidoscope: Converging the Arts Through Videoconferencing
Monday, 6/27/2011, 8:45am¬-9:15am

The K20 Initiative proposed another session exploring breadth of applications enabled by next-generation broadband capacity and the implications for teaching/learning in the classroom. Unfortunately this session was not accepted at ISTE this year.

Heather also submitted a demo proposal where we can highlight Internet2 enabled applications. Still waiting to hear back. There will be a connection to Internet2 at the conference facility.

Question: what is the response of teachers in classroom demonstrations? Were classroom teachers involved in any of this?

Heather: ideally we would like to have classroom teachers share their experiences. This conference is well attended by classroom teachers and we would like to encourage them to participate.

Carol: In Texas they're called instructionally focused – the ones that are focused on training teachers in the classroom.

COSN -conference update (Kim O)

Kim: Per strategic planning discussions in Bozeman, K20 Initiative submitted a proposal to the COSN conference and it has been accepted. The conference is March 14-16 in New Orleans

We are looking for additional people to attend and present. If you plan to attend or are interested in assisting in a presentation, please let Kim know. COSN is not allowing remote presenters. So far we have Marla and Tom Rolfes presenting in person. Carol may attend as well.

Carol: COSN is more a K-12 CIO event as opposed to classroom teachers.

Immigration Project (Larry Gallery)  SLIDES

NYSERnet hosted a videoconference program with an immigration theme. 41 classes participated along with five panel experts.

The following content providers participated - Ellis Island, Hull History Centre, National Guard, National Archives in Fort Worth, and NASA.

The project had to be timely, had to have global interest, and stimulate discussion. We found it was not easy to set up and get discussion.

For some reason there is no centralized form to send information out to the end user. Out of the 41 classrooms that participated in the series, there were only three classrooms that decided to participate. Because of Internet connection problems, it was decided that it would now be part of the Mega Conference Junior program.

Time zones were a problem – not all the classrooms were connected to Internet2. It came in through a video bridge that wasn't connected to Internet2. Testing schedules need to be accelerated.

Future plans: Fall is the best time to do this project; advanced planning and logistics is a must. Looking for volunteers to run the 2011 project and topics. Jeff kept us all on track. Need more regions involved and more participation globally. Schools need to get their own presentations together.

See slides for more on future plans

Bottom line – it turned out being a lot better than we thought it would be. Students and teachers LOVED it. They said: "When's the next one, we want to do it again." Such positive feedback, we will do immigration again and then add to the movement. If you want to get actively involved in Internet2 – please contact us.

James: What if we partnered with ISTE to help get the word out about this program? They have excellent reach down into the classroom.

National Parks (Randy/Kim O)

We did our first annual interactive series with 4 national parks in the Midwest. The conversation at this point is they want to expand it in March through May. We marketed it as a series and schools can sign up for 1 or more video sessions. This is a great way for parks to extend their outreach to classrooms. National parks were thrilled with it.

Brian Miller: 85% of the participants were Internet2 connected.

Kim: Brian is our video conferencing expert. The Internet2 connection really helped and we should make sure the park system knows that.

MAGPI Content Provider Carnival (Heather Weisse-Walsh)

MAGPI recently held their very first content provider carnival. We had 22 different classrooms and they interacted with a virtual meeting at 30 minutes.

22 Videoconference Content Providers under one virtual tent.

Museums, science centers, cultural centers and aquaria around the world prepared a 20-25 minute "mini-lesson" that showcases their organization's virtual field trips (not just described what they offer).

The the entire Carnival was webstreamed live and archived so that MAGPI members can preview a content provider before registering for one of their programs in the future.

Over 300 sites connected. They were up on Twitter, it was 5 ½ hours and our video conference room looked like Mission Control. When a session went live, we moved people in and out, and it was an intense 5 ½ hours but lots of fun.

We are looking to expand in the spring so if anyone wants to jump on board in the spring, please contact us. We have a wonderful manager so that when I cook up these crazy ideas, he makes it happen.

http://www.magpi.net/Community/Programs/MAGPIs-First-Content-Provider-Carnival

1:40-2:00pm - U.S. UCAN

NLR has dropped out of the project. Couldn't meet the cash match requirements. Internet2 will be building the entire footprint as proposed along with corporate partners. Last few months have been conducting negotiations with NLR to give them a smooth exit and discussing the proposed changes with NTIA to get their approval.

The network build has started - ordering equipment. First segment NY to CA lit by next July. The build is on track.

US UCAN .org effort with be set up initially as a project within Internet2. Moving over 6-8 Internet2 staff members to jump start activity.

The Executive Director position has been posted. Internet2 has received about 20 good applications - some within our community, some from private sector and gov.

Some Internet2 members have stepped forward to lend people to the US UCAN effort. Texas A&M contributing a public safety person 1 day a week. Bringing on someone to help organize relationships between national, regional, and local networking entities involved and work on a business model. Also, working with ALA to find someone to join the team.

Dave Lambert is putting together a blue ribbon task force to figure out how can we pay
for US UCAN.org over the long run. Mike Roberts from CA, chairing - one of the founders of Internet2 and ICAN. The Task Force will begin its work after the new year.

Internet2 K20 Initiative received a thoughtful response from Dave Lambert to our letter. Below is a parsing.

With input from the K20 Initiative, Internet2 would like to:

  • Establish baseline data for the existing regional networks;
  • Establish baseline data for the anchor segments they serve; and
  • Establish baseline data for the total number of anchor institutions in each anchor segment analyzing available data on the existing broadband capacity serving K-12 schools and other anchor institutions
  • your ideas on how to best present this data
  • the leadership of Internet2 is keenly aware of the need to take a measured approach in considering the many intricacies of standing up a new organization
  • it has been determined that the Internet2 SEGP program and related fee structure will remain intact during the network implementation while we undertake a full review of the operational costs associated with creating a U.S. UCAN organization to identify applications that demonstrate the capacity of the U.S. UCAN network.
  • We invite the K20 Initiative to take a lead role in developing a work plan to describe the use cases that will be of benefit for the participants of U.S. UCAN.
  • Develop a robust business model that will provide for a stable network for the next generation of network users.
CAI Data Collection

Current US UCAN Data Collection Efforts
Heather Todorov: Internet2 and the Quilt have been doing phone surveys and making calls with the regional connectors — putting together a list of questions that would put together some of the data collected to find out what communities are being connected today. K-12, libraries, museums – a comprehensive list that was put forth and how they're connected. The intention is that once the survey is complete – we will have a better idea in the community on how many institutions are connected, how many will need to be connected, and how many more would we be willing to serve, how many we are serving.

Carol: You just want to know the anchor institutions identified in the BTOP grant?

Heather: it's pretty much those categories – finer grained to tribal schools and categories not mentioned in BTOP.

Randy Brogle: we are synthesizing the data we have in 26 out of 35 and another 7 extra — and we will extract that data. We will look at the top down approach – who they serve and where – they really don't know. In the K-20 area, you will be able to help us. The good news is K-20, libraries, museums – everyone agrees that we know we should serve them and we want to serve them, but we have outliers with the health care institutions – are they for profit or not-for-profit, etc.

Carol: did you come up with a definition of a K-12 school?

Randy Brogle: we will really look at who is a community-served institution. There is no strict definition and the federal government left us with a broad definition of who we can serve.

Question: how much have you been doing with broadband mapping? It's unclear if the definition we have is the same from state-to-state.

Randy Brogle: there will be at least two different definitions if not 50 different definitions.

Heather: the best data we have still lies with the K-20 initiative.

James: We need a simple Google map pinpointing all the CAIs in the country. Each would have a tiny dot – red, yellow, or green. Red would indicate they don't have the targeted broadband capacity. Over time we would see the map go from red to green when everyone is connected. I think something like this would help us (our country) visualize progress, galvanize support toward what we're trying to achieve together - nothing short of 1 GB fiber capacity to every CAI across our country (it doesn't all need to be turned up at once but the capacity is there as demand for broadband grows over the next 30 years).

Another question: is there much consideration to include the enabling organizations, the content providers like zoos and museums to include them in this?

Randy Brogle: there are community groups that really help in this. The key is that in most of the states, you are on the leading edge and how do we get people involved to use this, getting the content developed, and making sure it is available out there. Part of the plan is to determine how it will work.

2:30 - 4:00pm - K20 Middleware 101

K12 Joint Task Force on Federated Identity Management

The Internet2 K20 Initiative has joined with the Consortium of School Networks (COSN), StateNets, Educause, and the Internet2 Commons to help raise awareness and stimulate the adoption of federated identity management beyond higher education and into K12 schools. The Joint Task Force is headed by Denise Shorey, a COSN board member and Internet2 K20 representative from Colorado. The mission of the Task Force is to answer several key questions:

  • Why should school district CTOs care about identity management;
  • What does a CTO need to know about the technology;
  • What are the key technology challenges, and;
  • How does K12 involvement in identity management impact higher education, service providers and others?

Several deliverables have been identified and assigned to subcommittees.

101 Federated ID Management Video - To help educate district CTOs, the K20 Initiative recorded the presentation by Clair Goldsmith (notes below). Here is a link to the youtube video series. Feel free to embed these presentations in your organizational websites as appropriate. http://www.youtube.com/user/k12federatedID

External Communications - Examples of how the Joint Task Force will inform and share their progress with others include utilizing webinars to make the information widely available, a panel presentation at the COSN annual meeting, and a primer on federated ID management to be published by COSN.

Use and Business Cases – Important to providing answers to the key questions include proven and theoretical use cases. North Carolina, with its recent federated ID management pilot in K12, will be included as a proven use case, and examples in higher education that could apply to K12 will provide theoretical cases. On the service provider side, examples will be identified and explored with services providers such as the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC). "If identity management makes it easier from a human endeavor perspective to use our services then I am attracted to using the technology," said Ruth Blankenbaker, Executive Director of CILC, which hosts a popular interactive videoconferencing programming directory.

The task force plans to complete the deliverables by spring 2011.

Federated Identity Management: Infrastructure for Collaboration  

Clair Goldsmith along with Paul Caskey will present a 101 class on federated identity management.  Following the presentation, Ann West and Steve Olshansky will be available to answer questions and talk about the Day/Advanced InCommons Camp in which identity management services are discussed.

Clair W. Goldsmith is Chief Information Officer at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.  His responsibilities include academic, instructional, and administrative computing and telecommunications. 

Clair's entire presentation is available for viewing here: http://www.youtube.com/user/k12federatedID

Below are a few highlight notes from the presentation:

Clair – will provide a demonstration using the classic college freshman lecture approach - some basics, why institutions want to participate; a little bit about traditional identify management vs. federated identify management. Compare a couple of federations for you and let you make up your mind on what appeals to you. Then get to the crux of the matter --- people do not understand this until they've worked with it awhile – we're trying to automate trust. It's not simply a matter of technology – trust in how we do business in society is based on personal relationships, etc.

I will present a roadmap for you to build your own federation.

One of the other things federated management allows is single sign-on for shared services. Gives you the possibility of a lot of interesting things. You can create a portal for students, for faculty – where none of the portals are local. You would never have to log on again – it is mostly for web-based applications. I'll talk about definitions:

  • Identity management
    • It's a unique intersection of technology and policy
    • It's the life cycle of an identity
    • An identity is a label or a name
      • A name may have attributes shared with it
      • Your address, your telephone number, what courses you're taking, your weight, your height
    • Identity is owned by somebody – like my social security number
  • Authentication – verification of identity owner
    • Can you believe me? Can you trust that I am who I say I am?
    • If I have a drivers license, then you might believe me
    • We have measures on how certain we are on the identification
  • Authorization
    • Shows the capabilities that are assigned to my identity
    • Place of employment, volunteerism, etc.
  • Federated identity management has 3 main parts
    • Federation operator --
    • Service provider – the resource I want to use
    • Identity provider – the identity that is going to try to access the service
    • These 3 components can be at one institution or at three institutions or spread over several institutions.
  • Why do educational organizations participate     
    • It is scalable
    • It is secure: encrypted, well protected
    • Interoperable:  based on standards
    • Trivial to share applications
    • Reduced sign-on
  • Traditional & federated identity management
    • Federated identify management is more secure and easier to use
  • Technology:  known and available
  • Policy: complicated and evolving
  • Two examples of federation:
    • InCommon -- -designed from the group up to be privacy based
    • UT Identity Management Federation is business-based
  • InCommon
    • 7 national laboratories: NIH, NSF, Lawrence Berkley, etc.
    • 66 sponsored partners
  • www.utsystem.edu
    • pull up all the documents and use them if you want
  • InCommon documents are free to use as well
    • Use their documents so you don't have to develop your own policies
  • What will be different if you do your own federation
    • Technical people can put it up fairly easily
    • Priorities vary by institution
    • Governance entangled with power/autonomy conflicts
      • When you have rules, then you will have complaints
      • You need to work within the priorities of the institution
    • Managing trust relationships is complex
      • Complexity increases as diversity of membership increases
      • More of an issue 4 years ago than it is today; more companies understand what a federation might be
  • The Future:  inter-federation
    • This works today
    • Technology exists
    • Policy does not exist
  • No labels