KEN
The Kentucky Education Network
Why does the high speed network exist in the K12 environment of Kentucky’s schools? Simply put--for the benefit of our students educational experience and the use of our teachers and administrators to facilitate their learning. KEN has evolved from a series of improvements in the KETS network beginning in 1993. The first KETS network was implemented as a dial in system with 8 modems and a Wildcat Bulletin Board used to access contract files and other KETS information, much the same way we use the KDEWEB site today. Soon afterwards we added email and could access the Internet via this bank of 19.2 baud modems. At the time there were no networks in schools with the exception of a few stand alone labs and there were no schools or classrooms with Email or Internet. In the summer of 94, the Office of Education Technology led the effort to establish a true wide area network (WAN) and a local area network (LAN) in every district office in the state. Using the first Kentucky Information Highway (KIH) contract all 176 districts and 8 Regional Service Centers received a 56 KB high speed connection along with a common email system and a financial system called MUNIS. This called for new technology items to be installed that districts had not encountered before such as routers, a CSUs/DSUs, network hubs, and CAT 5 wiring. Each of the 56 kb circuits was connected to a local university hub. Eleven hubs existed across the state with as many as 25 districts connected to a single university hub sharing a T1. These hub sites connected to Frankfort via a T1 connection as well. This grew from 1 to 3 T1’s in less than 6 months.
Kentucky Tele-Linking Network (KTLN) made its debut during this timeframe with video conferencing areas for all universities and 60 Kentucky school districts using T1 circuits split between video service and data transmission. The Internet pipe improved to 6 T1’s as demand increased. It quickly became apparent that the current network design could not be maintained to meet the growing demand of school districts. A new technology system, Frame Relay, was established in 1996 allowing the “shared network” concept to connect schools with a much reduced cost in hardware infrastructure. The KETS network migrated to the Frame Relay design providing additional bandwidth and eliminated the need for university hubs. Schools were now pushing the shared Internet connection to greater limits requiring DS3 (45 mb) line speed. Oversubscription to the KIH network and the state Frame Relay system created constricted use during the school day. This led to OET initializing a project to convert every district to point to point or “home runs” design. This design and contract offerings allowed additional T1’s to be provided for district use. The hardware footprint at OET continued to grow in size and the Internet connection was at OC3 (155mb). We quickly outgrew this network design. By 2005 many districts had outgrown the T1 base network. Many schools now had high speed Ethernet networks running over fiber links within their buildings and between their schools. Instructional and administrative use reached an all time high. In 2007 the KETS Network went through yet another improvement. Our legislature and
leaders recognized the need for improvement and provided the financial means to accomplish this project. The improvement was the KEN Network providing for 10 and 100 meg Ethernet pipes into every school district in Kentucky. This pipeline opened the many possibilities we enjoy now. We have, as technology workers, gone through many improvement steps in an effort to meet timely needs and should expect this to be an ongoing endeavor. Continuous improvement is the building block of the modern technology worker. As much as we dislike or resist change we should equally embrace improvement and the KEN Network is just that. The KEN Network is now serving the students of Kentucky. Who are our students and how do they learn or what motivates them? I have a short 4 minute clip to share with you. It is a Century 21 video of kids from YouTube. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AZVCjfWf8 Click button at bottom right corned of video screen to go FULL SCREEN on video Our students need to be digital learners. The State of Kentucky has Standards established in our Program of Studies requiring mastery of Technology skills for graduation by 2012. Digital citizenship and mastery of technology is no longer something that can be added in vocational schools or elective courses. To be successful, Kentucky citizens must be users of technology at home and at work. Some examples of digital citizens use of technology include cell phones, email, online business/commerce, online research, such as buying a car, insurance quotes, medical records, medical research of disease/ailments, remote medical procedures, medical consultations, online banking, income tax filing, access libraries,
museums of art and history, patent research, download music, books, magazines, and educational coursework- and the list goes on and on! Our students will be expected to meet National and International standards of technology skill sets. As our students become citizens and employees they will need to know and be able to demonstrate ISTE Standards (International Society for Technology Education) this organization has student standards, teacher, and administrator standards. Standards are a basis for the Kentucky Program of Studies (a legal document binding expectations for Kentucky high school graduates in all content areas including technology (as adopted in 2007). These technology requirements include three big ideas: Information, Communication, and Productivity; Safety and Ethics; and Research and Creativity. The KEN Network provides the backbone for today’s technology classroom. Today’s classrooms could be equipped with hardware including computers (desk top or laptop), projectors (mounted or mobile), interactive white boards including portable tablet sized options, document cameras, digital cameras (still and video), classroom performance systems (individualized student response and feedback assessment tools). Additionally, the KEN Network provides access and reliability to resources including: KET-Encyclomedia http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm User ID katepd, password: ktlc. Click on grade level (use 68) pick science then pick clip (pick second video with bicycles) enter user name (roverby) and password (richwood59) then click
the play button. Play through intro and an additional 15 seconds and then hit stop button. Encyclomedia is a bank of video aligned to Kentucky curriculum that can be accessed by every educator in Kentucky- the contract cost is paid through KET and Kentucky legislative funding; the video library can be searched by key words from curriculum, grade levels, subject, and by specific core content statements. Teachers or students can download these videos at home or at school. A typical clip might be re-enactment of a Civil War engagement or actual footage of a historical event. Can you imagine as a teacher being able to reach out and retract a piece of history or re-enactment to emphasis or augment your lesson? The encyclomedia library of clips also includes photos, quizzes, lessons, and units. Many of the videos can be edited by teachers and students to create personalized content or assignments. KEN provides high speed access to Kentucky eLearn (KY Virtual High Schools-providing AP courses, professional development, etc. http://www.kyvs.org/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp Go to KVHS tap at top for High Schools KEN provides high speed access to non-credited MIT courses. Any person interested in taking a MIT class can access free of charge and audit the class (no class credit without tuition payment). http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
http://www.internet2.edu/about Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. By bringing research and academia together with technology leaders from industry, government and the international community, Internet2 promotes collaboration and innovation that has a fundamental impact on the future of the Internet. Internet 2 history from Wikipedia (an example of Web 2.0 application) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2#History_of_the_nextgeneration_Internet_backbone_and_Internet2 (museums, other classrooms) TICK http://coekate.murraystate.edu/kate/tick/ Technology in Classrooms of Kentucky, or TICK, is currently a repository of over 1800 learning objects (including units, lessons, files, web sites, etc.). These resources have been aligned (by professional KATE staff and a strong partnership of Kentucky teachers as well as Technology Integration Specialists) to Kentucky curriculum documents including core content and the Technology Big Ideas from the Program of Studies.
Other applications that promote collaboration through the use of the KEN high speed network include: Teleconferencing (education applications such as Elluminate, Breeze, E/pop; personal or educational applications such as Skype, Sightspeed, and others. Web 2.0 applications (changing web-Google documents). Wikis- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page wikipedia-collaborative document produced by a learning community- new way to do student projects, blogs-writing space on a specific topic, examples news blogs, current events and expanded information that had to be cut from live broadcast, these documents may include opinions added by the provider. These examples are just a sampling of what our teachers and students are using and have access to on a daily basis because of the ease of access created by KEN. New and additional programs, sites, and techniques are being developed constantly to help our students become successful citizens in the 21st century and the KEN network is the pipeline allowing these innovations to become a reality. THANK YOU for your attention this morning. I’m pleased to have been a part of the Patterns of Distinction 2008. Introduce next speaker—Allen Lind
I’m equally pleased at this time to introduce your next speaker: Allen Lind is Vice President for Information and Technology at the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. He has responsibility for Information Technology, Data Research, Statewide Networks, the Kentucky Virtual Campus and the Kentucky Virtual Library. Allen has 36 years experience in education technology positions at IBM and at university system offices in Illinois and Mississippi, including the University of Illinois where he graduated with double bachelors degrees in Engineering and Economics.