K12 students and teachers are creating unprecedented opportunities for inquiry-based learning by expanding the geographic boundaries of their classrooms - - virtually and cost effectively.

Advanced Video Technologies

Advanced video technologies and collaborative tools are allowing organizations on the MAGPI and Internet2 networks to communicate in new and exciting ways.

Access Grid® is a suite of collaboration technologies that enable large scale (wall or room sized) group collaboration including live video, audio, and data sharing. The Access Grid® is an ensemble of resources including multimedia large-format displays, presentation and interactive environments, and interfaces to Grid middleware and to visualization environments. These resources are used to support group-to-group interactions across the Grid.

Microsoft Research's Conference XP software allows for distributed interactive collaboration spaces using a virtual venue. It integrates recent advances in high-performance audio, video, and network technologies to seamlessly connect multiple, distant participants in a rich, immersive environment for distance conferencing, instruction, and collaboration. ConferenceXP provides an extensible foundation for interactive collaborative environments and serves as a research platform for designing and implementing distance conferencing and learning applications. Currently, it is being used for multi-institutional instruction, distance learning, and advanced research collaboration. MAGPI runs a Conference XP test node that is available to MAGPI Members.

The Digital Video Transport System (DVTS) is a simple and inexpensive method of transmitting high-quality video and audio over the Internet. DVTS uses 30 Mbps uncompressed video to provide high-quality images with low latency. DVTS can also be used in multicast mode to allow three or more sites to participate in a single conference. More broadly, DVTS is a step toward a world in which you will be able to tune your computer to a series of educational channels the same way you tune your television to satellite channels—send and receive high-quality video across the Internet with the same ease as sending and receiving email - - and do all this without any significant capital expenditure.  DVTS-based telemicroscopy is used for real time clinical case consultation between pathologists at the three Philadelphia hospitals that make up the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The Office of Cultural Affairs at Montgomery County Community College used DVTS to conduct dance critiques between dancers in Pennsylvania and choreographers in Japan.

Interactive Videoconferencing

Videoconferencing allows people in geographically distributed locations to see and hear each other and collaborate in real-time. Increasingly, videoconferencing is becoming part of the standard set of tools used by teachers, students, faculty, staff, librarians and researchers to enhance communication, training, and instruction. Public and cultural organizations are using videoconferencing to expand their outreach opportunities and reach audiences beyond their geographic proximity through virtual lectures and field trips. MAGPI supports the use of videoconferencing within our member community through interactive educational programming, training and technical support.

MAGPI Members can facilitate multisite videconferences through MAGPI’s Internet2 Commons subscription. This service provides a large-scale deployment of tools for one-to-one, one-to-group, and group-to-group collaborations enabling the Internet2 research and education community to hold distributed working groups, classes, meetings, and events. As of July 1, 2009, this MCU service available to our members for $15/connecting site/ hour for your events. Through this service offering, MAGPI members can conduct multi-site videoconference events, as well as webstream those events live and archive them. Click here to find out more or schedule a session.

Megaconference

Each year, the Megaconference occurs as a result of a tremendous amount of volunteer effort and good will, with the goal of connecting people together everywhere on Earth where someone chooses to participate, in order to further the use of videoconferencing in education and research and to advance the state of the art in videoconferencing technology. 
On the chosen date, speakers from across the globe share their latest real-world uses of H.323 videoconferencing and other compatible systems, while using these videoconferencing systems to do so. The audience consists of active participants who have access to advanced Internet connectivity and an H.323 or other compatible videoconferencing endpoint, and observers who watch the simultaneous stream using a web browser and freely available stream players.

Megaconference Jr.

Megaconference Jr. is a project designed to give students in elementary and secondary schools around the world the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and contribute to each other's learning in real time, using advanced multi-point video conferencing technology. Presenters will design and conduct videoconference-based presentations and activities focused on both academic and cultural issues. Participants are able to address questions to presenters and to collaborate with geographically diverse peers in collaborative learning activities, thus building international cultural awareness.

Remote Instrumentation

Remote instrumentation allows for shared, real-time access to scientific instrumentations in the field or lab over the network. With funding and support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Gemini Observatory established an Internet pathway in August 2002 that provides its twin telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and on Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes with the data transfer capabilities required to handle the enormous amounts of scientific information created by Gemini's sophisticated instrumentation. Lehigh University provides K12 students with real-time remote access to their scanning XL-30 electron microscope through their ImagiNations Project.  Acadia University has developed the MusicPath software that interconnects digital acoustic pianos through advanced high-speed networks allowing one pianist to play several pianos in real-time, assisted by videoconferencing. This creates a new learning dimension for teachers, institutions and musicians.