This award is for the acquisition of teleconferencing and multimedia technology, and for curriculum changes to expand a curriculum in Telecommunications. The University of Pennsylvania will use a new instructional delivery system, the "video wall", to develop "Telementoring" as a long distance learning technique. The video wall is already being used in research projects by members of the AURORA Gigabit Testbed which is being supported by both NSF, DARPA and a consortium of industrial research partners. Educational materials developed will be made available to other academic institutions through Internet, and results of the educational experiments will be disseminated through publications and presentations at educational and professional meetings. The University of Pennsylvania plans to use a state of the art instructional delivery system, the "video wall", to provide multimedia and teleconferencing support for undergraduate courses in telecommunications. The video wall is an experimental video conferencing terminal with two large screen projection televisions mounted side-by-side creating the illusion of one large screen. Two cameras, co-located with the screens, are arranged to produce a single blended life- size image which is combined with high-quality directional sound. The results of the curriculum and materials development will be disseminated through Internet, and publications and presentations at educational and professional meetings.//
