9454822 Bossert The Hawaii Education and Research Network (HERN) requests $4 million over three years for the statewide deployment of networking infrastructure to support all public education in Hawaii. It does so through the strength of an existing partnership: the Hawaii Educational Networking Consortium. Founding members of the Consortium are: Hawaii State Department of Education (DOE), which provides all K-12, adult, and community-based learning services; University of Hawaii system (UH), which provides all public higher education programs including community colleges and research institutes, and; East-West Center (EWC), a Federally sponsored non-profit research and graduate education institute. The Consortium's purpose is to develop and promote the use of telecommunications technology in education and research in Hawaii. It represents all public education and research in Hawaii, and has a proven track record in collaborative applications of information technology including distance education, site licensing, and the deployment of the Internet. The technical networking infrastructure proposed includes the expansion of Internet access to every public school and campus in Hawaii, largely through existing resources and a unique partnership with the cable companies mandated through Hawaii's regulatory environment. The infrastructure also includes a distributed statewide Internet server architecture, a statewide Network Information Center and a Network Operations Center, to be managed by the University of Hawaii, and a training program for teachers in the middle and high schools. The goal of deploying this network is to support educational reform. In the middle and high schools, we will use the network to reform the school day. By building on the existing School Community Based Management program, schools will have the option and opportunity to move from a traditional class based schedule to a tea m oriented, multidisciplinary project based program. In higher education, the State's community colleges will use the network to collaboratively develop a network-based curriculum in pre-engineering that will be delivered statewide to students who have previously had no access to such courses. In both cases, the network infrastructure will facilitate ongoing visions and programs within the DOE and UH. By building on ongoing programs and the existing infrastructure there is a significant cost-sharing component by the proposers. In the course of Project HERN we will address the following types of research questions: What types of organizational and management structures best support the deployment and operation of a statewide educational network? What technological and management issues will be faced in knitting together Ethernet-over-CATV networks provided by cable TV companies throughout the state? What set of network interfaces and filters will support appropriate educational access to the Internet at all levels across an entire state? How can effective training be provided to an educational community numbering in the hundreds of thousands? How can collaborative curriculum development and delivery be supported over the Internet?
