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Title  : NSF 95-25  NSF Awards First Series of Networking Infrastructure for
         Education (NIE) Grants
Type   : Dir of Awards
NSF Org: EHR
Date   : January 27, 1995
File   : nsf9525a



NSF Awards First Series of Networking Infrastructure for Education (NIE) Grants

In FY 1994 the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and
Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorates established the Networking
Infrastructure for Education (NIE) program. NIE represents an expanding
effort to encourage innovation and leverage the power of computer and
networking technology to support science and mathematics education.

Co-funded with the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the
Department of Defense, the program awarded 19 planning grants and policy
studies, eleven multi-year projects and 10 one-year supplements to existing
awards.  These awards total $13.8 million, with over $15.8 million received
by awardee consortia in cost-sharing.

NIE's two goals are (a) to build synergy among technology and education
researchers, developers and implementers so they can explore networking
costs and benefits, test self-sustaining strategies, and develop flexible
educational networking infrastructures that will be instrumental in the
dissemination, integration and application of technologies to speed the
pace of educational innovation and reform; and (b) to build capacity in the
field and encourage innovation and experimentation by educational groups
who are new performers to the Foundation and/or to the integration of
technology with education reform.

The NIE program will help lay a foundation on which strategies for the
appropriate use of technology in support of increased student achievement
in science and mathematics can build.


Planning Grant Awardees:

William Beldham - Allegheny (PA) Intermediate Unit - "Planning for Regional
Technology Initiative" - $98,165: To create a technology planning
consortium involving stakeholders in 10 intermediate school units in
Western Pennsylvania. The consortium will apply lessons learned from other
regional initiatives to yield a formal regional infrastructure
implementation plan.

Thomas Clark - Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance - "Discovering
Community Networks" - $96,248: To investigate potential strategies to be
used by communities to plan for and manage self-sustaining
telecommunications networks. The project will focus on developing links in
and among three diverse sites participating in the State Systemic
Initiative in the state of Maine, and will involve teachers, students,
parents, industry and businesses, research laboratories, higher education,
local government, civic organizations, and network service providers.

William Coberly - University of Tulsa - "Metropolitan Tulsa Education
Network - Planning Grant" - $99,776: A group of representatives from area
business, education and government, in existence since 1992, will offer
community workshops to heighten local awareness of the benefits of access
to the "Information Superhighway," develop public support through local and
state bond initiatives, and offer network and curriculum integration
training for a team of teachers whose mission will be to champion
technological change in their home school districts.

Norman Dodl - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University -
"Planning for Virtual Schools in Electronic Villages" - $99,824: This
planning grant will pave the way for the establishment of a "virtual
school" in which collaborative classrooms involve the entire community and
utilize resources available from schools, libraries, homes, businesses, and
local and global networks. This environment has been enabled by the
implementation of the Blacksburg Electronic Village, which provides
high-speed connectivity to the entire town of Blacksburg, Virginia.

Pamela Keating - University of Alaska - Fairbanks - "Coming into the
Country: Pioneering K-12 Internet Access Across Alaska's Interior" -
$101,343: This effort will bring together the Schools of Education and Arts
and Sciences, as well as computing personnel, from the University of Alaska
with 11 state school districts to develop Internet connectivity plans for
schools. The project team will study a novel distribution strategy which
will include satellite-to-cable connectivity.

James Laffey - University of Missouri - "Planning Grant for the Development
of NIE Most (Missouri Supporting Teachers) Electronic Support System to
Promote Problem-Based Learning Using a Computational Science" - $96,020:
This project will plan the implementation of a network infrastructure which
will feature a electronic teacher support system designed around the
practices and challenges of teaching and learning, and to support teacher
professionalization and school restructuring.

William Lamb - Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology -
"Developing Oregon's Technical, Human and Organizational Networking
Infrastructure for Science and Mathematics Education" - $99,924: The
project team will establish a coalition between educational, governmental,
business and community interests across the state that will serve as a
policy and management board to research issues involved in the
implementation of technology, develop a set of prioritized goals, and
develop a comprehensive statewide plan.

Kam Matray - Monterey Peninsula Unified School District - "The Ultimate
Electronic Field Trip...from abyss to Andromeda" - $112,000: This project
will support the creation of testbed K-12 classroom to be linked via
network technology to video images and other data from research institutes,
museums and aquaria, through a virtual field trip experience involving the
marine and environmental studies and astronomy curricula.

Shirley McBay - Quality Education for Minorities Network - "Expressway to
Quality Mathematics and Science Education for Low- Income Minority
Communities - A Planning Grant" - $100,000: This project will formulate a
plan to use technology to enhance Community Service Centers on the campuses
of predominately minority institutions in Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Maryland, New York, and Virginia in their mission to address science and
mathematics education needs of students and families in neighboring
low-income housing projects.

John Shacklett - Morse High School, San Diego - "Morse High School (San
Diego) NIE Planning Grant" - $91,690: This project will develop a plan to
deploy infrastructure that will support Morse High School's effort to
implement educational reform. The school will work with local industry to
implement a curriculum based on producing a biomedical product, and will
include a focus on research and development, regulatory affairs,
manufacturing, and marketing.

Josef Stagg - University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee - "The Virtual Community:
A Telecommunication Model for the Inner City" - $93,136: Efforts will focus
on community master planning using advisory committees of community
residents, and using distance education as a tool for teaching residents
how to take control of the planning process.

David Thomas - Montana State University - "Development of a Rural
Networking Infrastructure in Support of Systemic Change in Mathematics and
Science Education: The Network Montana Project One- Year Planning Grant" -
$105,807: A statewide coalition featuring partners from all public and
private stakeholders, including the Statewide Systemic Initiative, will
work to plan for the development of a lasting infrastructure that will
support a variety of educational telecommunications services, paying
particular attention to the special conditions in this largely rural state.

Frank Watson - Vermont Institute for Science, Math and Technology -
"Vermont Technology Alliance" - $99,000: This project will create a
statewide alliance of technology-related, education, and business groups to
plan for a sustainable telecommunications network for use by rural
educational concerns and the community-at-large. This alliance will help to
coordinate the many efforts already underway in Vermont into a unified
effort directed toward systemic educational reform.

Michael Williamson - Wheelock College - "WhaleNet - Interdisciplinary
Curriculum" - $86,395: This project will seek to foster communication
between students, teachers, scientists, and content-area experts using
telecommunications and other advanced technologies to deliver programs and
data related to the study of the marine ecosystem. Students will have a
chance to participate in actual research projects and interact with
researchers in the field.

Judith Yoho - Keystone Central (PA) School District - "Keystone Community
Network" - $50,000: The objective of this project is to bring together
ideas and resources from individuals in a widespread, diverse community to
create a network infrastructure accessible to all. Collaborating with
nearby Lehigh University, the network will bring local and worldwide
(Internet) resources to all users and create a forum for collaborative
problem-solving.


Policy Studies and Small Grants for Exploratory Research Awardees:

C. Victor Bunderson - Brigham Young University - "Differentiated Staffing
in Global Village Learning Communities" - $49,728: This research effort
intends to delineate a set of new roles for staffing patterns in support of
technology-based (digital multimedia and networking) education in
elementary schools. Particularly, the project seeks to define the
interrelated roles of teachers, administrators and professional and
technical support personnel in technology-intensive learning environments.

Robert Kozma - SRI International - "A Community Learns On-Line: Planning
Activities to Explore the Use of Interactive Cable for Education" -
$99,986: SRI International will work with partners Viacom and the Castro
Valley Unified School District and community to develop models for using
interactive cable networks for educational reform. The project will use
Viacom's interactive cable system in Castro Valley as a testbed.
Investigators will identify present educational needs that can be matched
by products and services deliverable over the experimental cable system,
and determine development, dissemination and evaluation activities for the
future.

Karen Buller - American Indian Science and Engineering Society -
"Electronic Pathways Alliance: A Native American Think Tank" - $96,069:
This grant will allow for the planning necessary to implement a national
center designed to reach out to American Indian and rural communities. The
center will provide technical, educational, and personnel support for the
development and/or enhancement of telecommunications applications to be
used to further science and mathematics education and the general reform of
these content areas in American Indian schools and communities.

Charles Warlick - University of Texas - "Role of State Networks in
Educational Reform" - $218,315: This grant, with additional support from
the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Agency
and the Department of Education, will bring together state educational
organizations, network service providers, and public utilities
commissioners to address the role of individual state networks in the
development of educational infrastructures in supporting systemic
educational reform goals.

Charles McClure - Syracuse University - "Policy Issues in Assessing the
Role of Public Libraries in the NII" - $102,529: This project seeks to
develop models to describe the alternative roles of responsibilities that
libraries might assume in the National Information Infrastructure (NII),
and assess the impact of the models in terms of universal access to
information, cost, training and personnel requirements, etc. The authors
also will analyze the existing Federal public library system to determine
how the existing policy system might be changed to meet current NII
objectives, and offer recommendations.


Multi-year Awardees:

Ann Billings - Maine School Administrative District #45 - "A Community of
Learners Network" - $927,800: This joint proposal including two Maine
school districts and Bowdoin College will develop a regional data network
to connect schools, libraries, and community centers to individual
households, the network itself, and the Internet. The project will also
establish a education and training for students, teachers, citizens, and
business members, and will construct a teaching model that focuses on
problem-finding and problem-solving. These activities will be coordinated
with ongoing Statewide Systemic Initiative efforts.

Alan Feldman - TERC, Inc. - "Enabling Widespread Telecollaboration" -
$2,835,229: This project seeks to give students and teachers access to
resources and experts outside the classroom using wide- area networking
technology. This testbed will examine the use of networks by students and
teachers in collaborative efforts with geographically remote partners, and
the effect of this use on educational reform and the creation of new
classes of collaboration.

Edward Friedman - Stevens Institute of Technology - "NIE Testbed Within the
Context of Statewide Systemic Reform in MST Education" - $2,901,234: This
project is an integral part of New Jersey's Statewide Systemic Initiative
efforts toward educational reform. Through the creation of a technical
infrastructure that will enhance student learning and empower teachers,
researchers will seek to determine how best to integrate technology into
the classroom, develop a broad public understanding of the benefits of
educational telecommunications, and assure that these benefits are
available to all students in an equitable manner.

Carrie Heeter - Michigan State University - "A Digital Learning Center for
Microbial Ecology for K-12 Education" - $461,568: The center will bring
together scientists, educators, and multimedia designers to develop
interactive, computer-based learning tools that will motivate learners to
explore, discover, manipulate, and interact with the microscopic world of
organisms. This will serve as a pilot program for collaborative development
and delivery of K- 12 interactive science learning experiences that may
ultimately be applied to many other curricula.

Paul Helfrich - Franklin Institute Science Museum - "The Science Learning
Network" - $3,511,089: The Science Learning Network (SLN) is a unique
online collaborative of science museums, industry, and schools to support
the teaching and learning of K-8 science, mathematics, and technology. The
SLN will incorporate resources from science/technology centers to provide
online support models for use in schools and school districts around the
nation. A major feature of these models will be the development of a
database and software package that will permit interactive Internet
searches by K-8 teachers.

Martin Huntley - BBN Systems - "Toward Universal Participation in the NII -
Phase II of the National School Network Testbed" - $2,231,881: This testbed
partnership features over 1,000 schools in 19 states. The goal of Phase II
efforts is to provide empirical evidence to taxpayers, governments, and
private industry that "scaling up" the National Information Infrastructure
will require active participation, and not just access, by everyone.
Efforts will focus on providing an understanding of the design,
construction, and management of communications networks information
services to support educational innovation in local schools and
communities.

David Lassner - University of Hawaii - "HERN - Hawaii Educational and
Regional Network" - $2,152,673: Seeks the development and deployment of a
networking infrastructure to support all public education in the state, and
features the participation of the state Department of Education and the
federally-sponsored East-West Center. The project will address issues such
as the optimum organizational and management structures necessary to
support such a network, and the technological questions involved in
deploying an Ethernet-over-CATV delivery system.

Bernie Manning - Pittsburgh Public Schools - "Common Knowledge: Pittsburgh
- Creating an Urban Research Laboratory" - $3,170,565: This project will
extend the existing networked educational environment in Pittsburgh and
create an urban research laboratory with which to explore issues such as
student usage, community access, teacher enhancement, institutionalization,
dissemination, and content.

Roy Pea - Northwestern University - "The Co Vis Testbed: A National Science
Education Collaboration" - $3,539,105: This project builds on a existing
NSF testbed to focus on project-enhanced science learning, collaboration,
and scientific visualization as a means for transforming science education.
This second phase will work with Chicago public schools to develop a
research framework combining cognitive science, survey methods, and case
studies to help expose challenges for deploying high-bandwidth networking
infrastructures for education and to clarify ways in which these
infrastructures can improve the effectiveness of science education.

Philip Sadler - Harvard University - "Micro Observatory Net" - $1,312,897:
This project will network together several remote telescopes to test the
feasibility of their use by students in grades 4-12. Special software will
allow students to collaborate on research projects with each other as well
as working astronomers. The authors will examine problems inherent with
using remote instruments and develop solutions to improve ease-of-use and
accessibility.


One-year Supplements to Existing Awards

Jack Buchanan - University of Tennessee - Memphis - "Memphis Educational
Computer Connectivity Alliance (MECCA)" - $263,304: This project connects
universities, K-12 schools, a city housing project, senior citizens groups,
libraries, and a medical school using a variety of network tools including
authoring tools and e-mail to local libraries and navigation. The project
examines the use of network infrastructure relationships with academic
institutions to deliver educational resource not previously available to
certain parts of the community.

Kerry Davidson - Louisiana Board of Regents - "Integrating Educational
Needs With Networking" - $564,000: This project will assess the current
state of technology and related networking activities in Louisiana, and
build upon the State's Systemic Initiative to develop transferable models
of networking implementation for the State, including standards of
evaluation and district-level technology plans..

Wallace Feurzeig - BBN Systems and Technologies - "A Distributed
Multi-Server Architecture for Scalable Educational Applications" -
$523,030: This project will develop and test MuseNet, a technological
infrastructure for network-mediated science and mathematics education. This
generic distributed computer and communications environment will be
simultaneously accessible by multiple users over interactive network
connections. MuseNet is a response to the need for the need for more
user-friendly interfaces that will be better equipped to handle fluctuating
user loads and computational demands.

Gerhard Fischer - University of Colorado - "Mastering High-Functionality
Systems by Supporting Learning on Demand" - $374,907: The technical focus
of this proposal is on the creation of an instrumental version of
computationally-based learning environments that are open enough to allow
workers and learners to pursue their own tasks and at the same time provide
technical support and the opportunity to learn new things relevant to the
task at hand.

Louis Gomez - Northwestern University - "Augmenting the Collaborative
Visualization (Co Vis) Network" - $301,858: This grant will extend the
present Co Vis testbed so that it will become a more accurate model of
next-generation educational networking, help to develop new technology
transfer techniques to enable greater sharing of Co Vis results, and aid in
the examination of the technical and social issues involved in deploying
telecommunications applications in support of learning communities.

John Klensin - International Nutrition Foundation - "Network Start-Up
Resource Center" - $63,281: This project will build on the development and
extension of technologies to enable networks to be established in
developing areas of the nation. Specific tools will be adapted to the
Internet in support of K-12 access, and a methodology will be devised for
the transfer of the technology and expertise necessary to install and
operate sustainable Internet connectivity.

Robert Panoff - University of Illinois - "An Affiliates-Based Educational
Infrastructure Testbed" - $553,157: This project will continue work to
establish a community-based infrastructure consisting of a testbed network
and a variety of school environments for the purpose of evaluating the
impact of community networking and support with teacher training on reform
and improvement in science and math education. A major goal is the
establishment of a sustainable environment that will be scalable to other
communities.

Perry Samson - University of Michigan - "The Weather Underground:
Application of Computer Technology to Science in Michigan Secondary
Schools" - $623,261: Funds will be used to implement a unique weather
display system known as Blue Skies in a statewide testbed to focus on
network and content development. This will include programs to address
curriculum preparation and inservice training of science teachers, and to
develop the framework and personnel necessary to provide technical
assistance to participating schools.

E. Michael Staman - CICNet - "Networking Native Americans and Education
Futures" - $152,000: This request is designed to ensure that Native
Americans are included in the future of electronic networking, and are able
to take advantage of programs to enhance math and science education.
Activities will include roundtable discussions and workshops with
communities in the Great Lakes region to determine the level of need,
demonstrate networking benefits, and assess local technology capabilities.

Robert Tinker - TERC, Inc. - "Alice: A Collaborative Infrastructure
Supporting Educational Use of NREN - Phase I" - $187,535: This grant will
extend work to develop a server and client software that provides the
functionality needed to make the National Research and Education Network
meet the needs of pre-college educators. Activities will focus on providing
easier access to NREN and developing software to support collaboration
among users.

About the NSF

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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Dr. Barbara Weibel Mihalas, Program Director
Networking Infrastructure for Education, EHR & CISE
National Science Foundation
Stafford Building Suite 855,
4201 Wilson Blvd,
Arlington, VA 22230
Phone: (703) 306-1655 X 5875   Fax: (703) 306-0434
Email:  bmihalas@nsf.gov
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