The Jason “Virtual Argonaut” Project Internet2 Virtual Briefing September 2003 George Loftus Executive Director Connecting people and information whenever, wherever and however.

Lifespan Community College of Rhode Island Providence College University of Rhode Island Export Assistance Center at Bryant College RINET Rhode Island State Government Cooperative Libraries Automated Network Johnson & Wales University Rhode Island College Rhode Island School of Design Brown University OSHEAN Membership Roger William University Wheaton College Care New England

University of Rhode Island URI is a founding member of OSHEAN URI’s Office of Marine Programs is responsible for delivering marine science programs to RI’s K-12 students URI has been PIN site for the Jason Project for over 10 years Provided Content Experts for the VAP

RINET A member of OSHEAN who provides connectivity and network services to over 400 K-12 schools in Rhode Island Provides H.323 equipment and MCU services for over 50 schools throughout the state Has worked with OSHEAN and URI on the Jason Project for three years

OSHEAN’s Jason History Jason XII - used H.323 to deliver Jason video content to 3 Rhode Island middle schools Jason XIII – used H.323 to deliver Jsaon video to 6 RI schools, Maine’s Baxter School for the Deaf, Gallaudet University’s MMSD and RI School for the Deaf Jason XIV – developed the “Virtual Argonauts” Project

Jason Project

Virtual Argonauts Phase I – broadcast Jason XIV expedition live via H.323 over Internet 2 Phase II - build “Virtual Argonaut” teams of schools to hold H.323 session with experts Phase III – Virtual Argonaut team members present to each other

Virtual Argonauts Phase I 22+ sites participated States Represented were: –RI(9), VA(6), MN(2), DC(2), TX,IN,MD, –MI, CA (?) Included 5 deaf schools

Virtual Argonauts Phase II –Scott Bryan – St. Clair, MI ISD is project lead 13 Schools Interested –MI(4), MN(2), MD(2), –Deaf Virtual Argonauts ( 5 ) RI,IN,DC,TX,CA Conducted interactive VC’s with Pinniped Expert –URI providing experts –Deaf team taking the lead

Virtual Argonauts Phase III –Had more success with the established teams, such as the schools for the deaf –Had difficulty with scheduling – ran out of time in the school year

Virtual Argonauts Lessons Learned –Still requires a lot of “manual intervention” to attract participants –Bandwidth to the classroom OK, but your mileage will vary –There is a genuine interest in this type of content within the K-12 community. –We need to establish better interaction with content provider & align better with their delivery strategy –We need to measure the outcomes of these learning experiences