Wednesday, October 31, 2001

LOGGING IN WITH . . . Ronald L. Hamberg Community Colleges Turn to High-Speed Network for Distance Education By MICHAEL ARNONE Known primarily for their use by researchers, super-fast computer networks are finding new uses in distance education at the community-college level, says Ronald L. Hamberg, vice president for instruction at Seattle Central Community College. Mr. Hamberg is in charge of distance education for the three campuses of the Seattle Community College District, which has one of the most active distance-learning programs among community colleges. Q. Why did you decide to get a connection to Internet2's Abilene network? Is there a lot of research going on here? A. No. It was an interesting situation. The University of Washington is one of the leaders in research and application of Internet2, and we are in their backyard. We were approached about the idea of being a kind of junior partner, in fact one of the first community colleges to be involved in Internet2. It was going to be primarily as an example of what the future was going to look like for high-speed media, streaming-Internet applications. So you could look at us as a pilot. And we said, What will it cost us? We could see the potential down the road for this. Internet2 is just the start. There will be Internet3's and Internet4's, and now Internet2 is being spread out to other four-year institutions, nonresearch, and other two-year institutions. To watch something over Internet2, it's high-definition television. If you have the opportunity to watch it demonstrated, it will make you sit up. Q. It seems that you're very excited about the potential for Internet2. A. Here's what you have to imagine. I'm an instructor in Peoria, Ill., and I want to show a clip about some significant historic event. I will be able to go to my computer, order that up for a small fee, and integrate it into either my classroom or over television or bring it in over computer or embed it into my distance-learning course. You're going to get a really quality image for the student to view, so you're going to have a very sophisticated visual component of your curriculum. Q. Are you able to forecast where your community college, and maybe community colleges in general, are going to be five years from now with the changing technologies? A. At this school, we're about access, we're about having technology, we're about diversity -- that's a big deal for us. I would think in some ways, we can expand that diversity through having Internet2. There's only so much space at Seattle Central. Space is one of our major problems, right up there next to money. We're not going to be able to expand, so how are we going to reach out to our community? We're going to do it through distance learning. And Internet2 is going to be a very enabling part of that effort because of the quality of the video. It's one thing to watch kind of a herky-jerky, fuzzy picture of somebody doing something; it's another thing to watch them come on as good as anything television's got. There are thousands and thousands of streaming videos that you can go to. And you can edit it. Q. How is Internet2 going to help your diversity? A. Everyone out there is not being reached. There are people who can't afford computers. Our tuition is at a level that some people find it very difficult to pay it. Some people find it very difficult to get here. So that's what I meant. Everyone's going to have a television set with a PC because that price will go down. Certain things get priorities. You can go into the poorest neighborhood and the poorest houses, and you will find a TV. Q. And eventually you think a computer will be the same? A. Eventually. I think also that the international aspects are important. American education is the most desired kind of education in the world today. Our degrees are prized, they really mean a better living in Third World countries. I think that could be seen as part of diversity, too. Other countries will be able to get their degrees from us. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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