Education Direct: Entering the World Beyond the Web.

This paper reports on Education Direct, a project at Lulea University of Technology (Sweden) in which the next generation Internet technology, based on IP (Internet Protocols) multicasting, has been used in practice over large geographic distances involving a wide variety of secondary and postsecondary students and teachers. Education Direct utilizes the mStar tool suite, which exploits IP multicasting to provide fully symmetric use of audio, video, group-synchronized World Wide Web browsers, whiteboards, chat, voting, recording, replay, annotation, and editing. All are integrated into the end user's desktop computer, making education both more available, independent of place and time, as well as of higher perceived quality. This paper reports on the methodology, context, technology, and experiences gained over a year of practical use. Sections of the paper cover: (1) background and context of the project; (2) usage patterns and participant profiles, including technicians, advances users, end users, and technologists; (3) technology, including IP-multicast, components of the mStar environment, and protocol standards; (4) network and preparations, focusing on the basic communications platform; (5) experiences and observations; (6) the mStar system as an educational innovation; and (7) related work. Contains 11 references. (Author/DLS) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************