Common Knowledge: Pittsburgh

1995 - Annual Report



I. Moving in the Right Direction

1995 was an important transitional year for the CK:P project. At the start of the year project funding was shifted so that the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) replaced the MPC Corporation (representing a partnership of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University) as the project's prime contractor. Technical support, assessment and project management are now handled through subcontracts to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the University of Pittsburgh.
While this new arrangement had no major effect on the project's day to day operation, it had a major impact on the project's position within the PPS. In practical terms, this meant that the school district's financial commitments to the project were easily met in advance of their formal due dates and in amounts likely to exceed the district's formal commitment. In addition, CK:P gained access to policy level discussions pertaining to technology. This movement toward institutionalization has been accompanied by the formation of a number of working groups that are facilitating the migration. Ongoing talks with PPS technical staff are accelerating to meet the anticipated demand for district- wide connectivity. Working groups comprised of CK:P staff and PPS technical staff are meeting, discussing and piloting a PPS central site infrastructure that includes home and LAN access, central routers, information servers and servers which provide reference systems for all school sites.
From a technical perspective, there are other indicators which suggest that 1995 has been a transitional year for CK:P. At the beginning of the calendar year most of the school district network accounts were being maintained on a single machine at the project's central site. As the year progressed we were able to deploy servers at all of the participating school sites and move accounts from the central server to the site-based servers. This move realizes an important element of the project's proposed architecture - site-based servers which provide the scaling necessary to reach all students and teachers at each participating school.
From a support perspective there is much more to this step than the simple deployment of site-based servers. Teams - user administrators - at each site are being instructed in the operation of these servers for such tasks as account creation, disk backups and quota management. These teams also provide support and maintenance for local user devices. These project sites are becoming more self-sufficient.
From a curricular perspective, first year CK:P schools have matured in their use of wide-area networks. Each site has created powerful models of how wide area networks can be used to further education and professional development goals: /projects/ckp/pps/schools/www.html. Teachers from these sites are taking a leadership role in the expansion of the project into their schools and the district. They are beginning to provide workshops for PPS staff at their schools and on a district level in subjects such as Research on the Internet, Using HTML, Going Online, and Using Email. These sites use the CK:P model of developing local experts to provide ongoing support and expansion.
To facilitate these changes there have been shifts in the structure of the CK:P collaboration itself and in the approach which the collaborators are taking toward the deployment and support of networking activities. First of all, there has been an effort to identify a set of "products," which are being made available to participating schools and will be available, in the future, to other schools in Pittsburgh and other cities. These "products" include not only the obvious hardware pieces, such as school-based information servers and networked client machines, but procedures which support these activities. These procedures include activities relating to the hardware, such as machine setup and maintenance protocols, as well as activities relating to the presentation of project activities and the project's outlook to teachers and school district staff. A summary of this information can be found on the project's World Wide Web server: /projects/ckp.
A second shift in the CK:P collaboration relates directly to the desire to transfer responsibility for network operations from the Supercomputing Center to the Pittsburgh Public Schools. We have found that the development of CK:P's hardware and software products require major input from the project's educational staff and are best handled in the context of actual school use. This has led us to accelerate the schedule on which we are moving project staff from the PSC side to the PPS side. A search is already underway for the hardware support person budgeted for the PPS side in January of 1996.
The net effect of these changes will be to make the products and procedures that CK:P has developed available to additional schools in Pittsburgh and other cities to assist them in the implementation of their own networking plans. We expect these products and procedures to be completely documented and available for dissemination by September, 1996. This product development has been accelerated through CK:P's collaborations with several community groups. These collaborations have underscored the general need for the sort of products and procedures that CK:P is developing.
The collaborations in question are part of an effort funded by the TIIAP program of the US Department of Commerce. Our TIIAP project has three components - a community networking piece which involves the Hill House Association, a library resource piece which involves the Pennsylvania Room of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and a MAN connectivity piece which involves Digital Equipment and TCI of Pennsylvania.
The community networking project uses the Hill House Association as a community access point and works both to provide network access for members of the Hill District community and to seed networking activities in Hill District schools. In this manner we have provided useful links between the schools in this neighborhood and parents who might lack network access from their homes, http://hillhouse.ckp.edu/.
The library collaboration has led to the construction of an online exhibit of Pittsburgh neighborhood history based upon the library's collection of 30,000 historical photographs. This will be a useful resource for local schools and for the community as a whole.
The third element of the TIIAP project tests the concept of Ethernet connectivity via cable TV. In theory, this architecture, offers the possibility of low-cost, high-bandwidth connectivity to schools and homes around the city. We have found this connectivity option to be more difficult to implement than we first expected. Issues regarding hardware, cable lines and building access have slowed this project down. One link is now in place at Carrick High School, and if these links prove successful, future links are planned for East Hills Elementary School, Westinghouse High School and the Hill House.
The net result of this year's efforts is to place the various products of the CK:P effort close to application in schools across Pittsburgh and in schools and community centers in Western Pennsylvania and across the country.

II. Educational Components

During this transition year, CK:P educational staff was involved in many activities that support the institutionalization goal of the project. These included:
- Sponsoring an ongoing workshop program for all district teachers interested in using the Internet. Materials from these courses - an Internet Primer - can be found at:
/projects/ckp/info/info.html,
- Providing onsite support for school based home pages. Each staff member assists school teams in learning html, designing home pages, scanning documents and collecting resources. These home pages can be found at: /projects/ckp/pps/schools/schools.html,
- Chairing and facilitating working groups in the following areas: modem pool access, central site architecture, MAN/WAN design, user accounts, ethics, user administration, and advisory committees. Online access to minutes and plans generated by these groups can be found at: /projects/ckp/publications/publications.html#minutes,
/projects/ckp/process/process.html,
- Producing weekly newsletters that are sent to all district personnel. These can be found online at: /projects/ckp/publications/publications.html#newsletter,
- Online support at: news://news.ckp.edu/ckp.trouble,
- Providing publications and presentations for disseminating CK:P models. These can be found online at: /projects/ckp/publications/publications.html,
- Providing paid opportunities for teachers, at CK:P schools, to run increment credit courses (18 hours) for district staff on Conducting Research on the Internet and HTML - Publishing on the Internet,
- Working with school district Facilities personnel and local teachers to design LAN topologies for school sites,
- Participating on PPS technology planning committees, and
- Participating in the delivery, installation, configuring, debugging and maintenance of all hardware.
Presently, there are over 2,000 users on CK:P servers, 1,500 PPS teachers and staff, and 500 students. This represents half of the number of teachers in the district. The number of student accounts will grow rapidly, because the distributive infrastructure is now in place at each CK:P school site. Clearly, district-wide demand for access, inservice and support requires that the educational staff continue the above activities. However, we must develop strategies for distributing the workload. As you go beyond pioneering sites and master teachers and begin to work with mainstream populations - institutionalization - support needs increase.
New Directions
In addition to the overwhelming demand described above, two major developments have occurred during this transition year that require CK:P to reconsider its approach towards institutionalization. These are:
1- The district's technology plan is still under consideration by the administration and the board and therefore CK:P does not yet have a district policy to interact with.
2 - Many schools in the district are spending Title 1 and discretionary funds on technology and expressed a desire to connect to the Internet.
CK:P has chosen to view these developments as opportunities and to suggest a new direction consistent with some of the policies presently being discussed in the district.
The new direction suggests opening the process for becoming a CK:P site to any school in the district. We proposed the following arrangement to the PPS Board. To be added as a site, a school must meet the following criteria:
Supply $30,000 for user devices, servers, and network hardware,
Supply an onsite coordinator who dedicates one period a day to technical and educational support, and
Provide a curriculum activity, consistent with the school's overall strategic plan, that describes how network resources will be used in the classroom.
By opening up the process, we expect to double the number of new sites previously mentioned in the Common Knowledge: Pittsburgh - Creating the Urban Research Lab follow-on grant. As expected, this will only add to the demand for support and have obvious implications for staffing, budget, support, and migration. However, this new model attempts to use this increased demand to leverage human and financial support from within the district. We are in negotiations with school board administration about the staffing and budget needs of the new model.
If this new implementation model is not accepted by the district, we will bring aboard six sites in 1996 and nine sites in 1997 as stated in the follow-on grant using existing staff.
Staffing
The CK:P educational staff consists of two teachers funded through the NSF grant, one teacher funded by PPS and one teacher funded by the TIIAP grant (through February, 1996). The four educational staff members support activities at 14 NSF school sites, 6 TIIAP school sites and one TIIAP community center. The educational staff also provides online, in class and at home support for over 2,000 users. The staff is struggling to support existing sites, add new ones in 1996/1997 and facilitate the migration process.
Based on the struggle to meet increased demand, the new model recommends the following staffing for additional PPS support:
PPS supplies CK:P with one additional educational position,
CK:P trains 8 district support personnel over the next two years. This personnel will provide support for CK:P sites after the grant period.
As stated in the extension grant, NSF funds two technical positions on the PPS side during 1996. These technical staff members will support the 14 school sites and help to add new ones. They will work closely with both existing PPS technical staff and CK:P project staff. We've made the following recommendation pertaining to this new staff:
They reside with the educational staff to work in a collaborative, production environment that blends the best of both the technical and education expertise.
Training additional PPS support staff and adding new technical positions should provide the human infrastructure necessary to institutionalize the expanded project.
Budget
The major components of the 1995 PPS/NSF budget address personnel, hardware, travel and supplies. The personnel, travel and supply budgets are being spent at a rate that correspond to the narrative supplied in the grant proposal. The hardware budget for the PPS central site is encumbered and purchases should be completed by the end of the year. This budget is allocated for outfitting the PPS central site with the necessary technical infrastructure to support the present activity, add new sites and provide modem pool access. This hardware purchase will include: routers, servers, modems, CSU/DSU, security systems, etc. The central site working group is in the process of determining the process for replicating PSC central site infrastructure at PPS. The goal is to have the necessary hardware purchased by the end of 1995. We anticipate a carry over and will file the appropriate request with NSF.
If the new model suggested is accepted by PPS, the 1996 and 1997 budgets will have to be modified. These modifications involve a reallocation of the district contribution and a minor reallocation of NSF grant funds. No net change in the level of NSF funding will be required to implement these modifications. The major reallocation is on the PPS side because the new model proposes to expand the six sites suggested in the Common Knowledge: Pittsburgh - Creating the Urban Research Lab follow-on grant to at least twelve. The new model shifts the cost of servers, user devices, and network equipment from central funds to the local school site taking advantage of the district's recent site based initiative. NSF funds will be spent on wiring and access. PPS central funds will be spent on educational support personnel and wiring. This new model substantially increases the PPS contribution to the project by n * 30,000 - 134,000 (where n equals the number of new school sites). For example, if 12 sites are added in Year 4 - 1996 - the PPS contribution will be $226,000 greater than the contribution suggested in the follow-on proposal.
Institutionalization
It is imperative that CK:P's efforts - building infrastructure and adding sites - coincide with the district's overall technology plan. Toward this end, the new model for adding sites was presented to the PPS School Board on November 6, 1995 (see Appendix). The school board agreed that if the district passes its technology plan in the next quarter, CK:P will work with the schools that are in the first implementation stage of the technology plan. This first stage would take advantage of the knowledge-base that CK:P has to offer. The school board went on to say that if the technology plan is not passed in adequate time, Common Knowledge will be allowed to proceed with the model described in the "New Direction" section or with the Request For Proposals process.

III. Technical Components

Over the past year of the grant, we have focused on the following areas: completion of the 1993, and 1994 sites; setting up new sites with start-up clusters ; moving from experimental infrastructure to production infrastructure; and migrating technical aspects of the project to the school district.
In order to adequately support these efforts, we identified new staff members for the technical staff. PSC has recently hired a Coordinator of Common Knowledge: Pittsburgh and Regional Information Infrastructure who will help with the day to day project activities; help harden the CK:P production infrastructure; and support the migration efforts.
Site Completion
From the original CK:P grant we learned that delays in wiring and hardware deployment seriously impacted the progress of the curriculum component of the project. Therefore, as part of the Common Knowledge: Pittsburgh - Creating the Urban Research Lab follow-on grant, we have focused on placing production infrastructure at the sites as soon as possible. Mechanisms we have utilized include:
- Reducing the number of network information server platforms we support.
- Settling on voice grade ISDN as the production MAN link.
- Deploying CK:P Internet starter configuration - server, dial-up router and two or more user devices - at new sites in order to provide baseline Internet access prior to the installation of the LAN.
- Freezing the user device configuration for both the PC and MAC platforms, while developing a process for adding new software that will be included in the next version.
Server Platforms
During the original CK:P grant we experimented with a number of UNIX based network information servers. Platforms we investigated included: Ultrix, Digital Unix, NetBSD, Solaris and AUX. We determined that while supporting the multiple operating systems provided a significant base of hardware platforms for the project, it required an inappropriate amount of staff time to both develop and support. While each OS was UNIX based, each application had to be compiled, configured and installed for each operating system and each required its own specific support. From this experience, we developed the following positions:
- We did not develop an AUX network information server and are not providing any support for this type of server.
- We completed packages for four operating systems: Ultrix, Solaris, Digital Unix and NetBSD.
- We are supporting Ultrix in maintenance mode only.
- We are currently offering NetBSD or Digital Unix based servers to new CK:P sites.
The above strategy has allowed us to harden the network information server architecture we are deploying in CK:P. The NetBSD platform, which currently runs on a Pentium PC, is currently recommended for Elementary and Middle Schools. The Digital Unix platform, which runs on an Digital Alpha workstation, is recommended for larger sites such as high schools and for central locations.
With the advent of hardware platforms which will run multiple operating systems, we plan to test Windows NT, NetBSD and Digital Unix on both PC and workstation platforms. We will develop a core set of flexible hardware platforms and operating systems which will both meet the needs of the varying sites while minimizing the number of different servers we need to support.
User Devices
In order to provide a stable and production environment on the user devices, last spring we instituted a software release policy. Ideally, client software should go through a quarterly development cycle. Each quarter we try to identify new and upgraded software for the client configurations, integrate it into the existing package, test it first at the alpha and beta sites then test at a school site. Each iteration allows us, in collaboration with both the Education staff and site teachers, to identify and correct bugs in the software. Once we have completed this process, we freeze the configuration and deploy it to all the sites. We currently try to time site deployment during school or semester breaks in order to minimize disruption in the classroom. Once the configuration is frozen, we try to provide updates only to correct major software problems or to support special projects at individual sites. By instituting a software control mechanism and a timeline for new client configurations, we have reduced the amount of time spent fine tuning the software configurations. We will continue to evaluate and fine tune this policy over the next school year.
MAN Architecture
During the original grant, we experimented with a number of different types of MAN technology ranging for dial up modems (14.4Kbps) to ethernet over cable (10 Mbps). We discovered that while link bandwidth was important it was overshadowed in importance by the stability of the link. Over the past 6-12 months, ISDN technology has matured. After experimenting with it at two school sites, we decided to make it the standard, baseline connectivity for CK:P sites. In keeping with this goal, we have installed 56K ISDN connectivity at all new sites and 1993/1994 sites with experimental MAN technologies. We are also in the process of determining a cost effective upgrade to ISDN connectivity for those sites without ISDN capable routers. Diagrams of current and planned CK:P MAN topology can be found at: http://tech.ckp.edu.
Production Infrastructure
As indicated in the Site Completion section, our focus has evolved from experimenting with a variety of network, server and user device technologies, to choosing those appropriate for the project and developing mechanisms for supporting these technologies in a production environment. Not surprisingly, we have discovered that in order for the teachers to utilize the technology and integrate it into their curriculum, it must be both stable and dependable. To support our production infrastructure we have implemented the following:
- Created a trouble mailing list which is answered by the CK:P Education Staff and is oriented towards answering common, user questions.
- Created other mailing lists to report outages and more time critical application or infrastructure problems. This list is monitored by the technical staff and answered immediately.
- Instituted an "on-call policy" for the weekend in order to provide stable access to the infrastructure seven days a week. We are in the process of developing a draft 24x7 policy which we can suggest to the school district for consideration.
- Ordered phone lines for all sites in order to provide remote diagnostics for ISDN sites and secondary connectivity for LADs line sites. While this policy adds additional connectivity costs to each site, it provides a fast reliable way for remotely diagnosing network problems.
- Developed a network monitor system to track and alert the CK:P staff to infrastructure instabilities and failures. We believe, that this system will allow us to identify and solve problem and failures before they are noticed by the staff.
- Educated and trained the Site Administrators to take over the routine aspects of supporting both the network information server and the user devices.
- Provided production infrastructure to the new sites at the beginning of the fall 1995 semester. The infrastructure consisted of: a network connection using voice grade modems; 1-3 PC based user devices; and a network information server. Since this cluster does not depend on the existence of a LAN, the staff is able to become familiar with and utilize network information and services prior to the installation of the LAN.
Migration
Shifting the technical infrastructure along with the technical support from PSC to PPS has been a top priority over the past year. We have approached this issue from a number of angles, in hopes of institutionalizing the technology at all levels in the district. As indicated in our quarterly reports, we began holding classes for the PPS technical staff in order to both familiarize and educate the staff on the various components in the infrastructure. We have also established working groups to address issues critical to the migration process.
This past Spring, CK:P staff along with PPS staff determined the site specifications for each new site. Once the specifications were completed, PPS has taken full responsibility for the LAN wiring. CK:P staff continues to assist as consultants when necessary. We expect to see a similar process with the user devices for these sites. Over the summer and early fall, the CK:P staff has provided specifications and recommendations for both hardware and software configurations for the user devices. From this information, the Education Staff has worked with the site teachers and PPS technical staff to determine the mix of equipment for each site. We expect the configurations to be put out to bid within the next month with a timeline of January set for actually deploying the equipment. We are currently working with PPS technical staff to determine the best method for configuring and deploying the hardware once it is received.

IV. Formative Evaluation

During 1995 Assessment activities have focused on three broad areas. First, we continue to study the process of institutionalization particularly the migration of project components to the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Second, we are exploring questions of educational impact by studying how the Internet is used in classrooms. And third, we are disseminating some of our initial findings.
Our study of the migration of CK:P activities to the PPS has occurred primarily through attendance at CK:P-related committee meetings and interviews with PPS and CK:P staff. These activities allow us to understand the many and complex issues regarding the institutionalization of the project in the school district. Additionally, we have participated in meetings of a committee brought together by the school district to produce a viable technology plan. Attendance at these meetings has allowed us to see the impact that CK:P has had on the district's thinking about instructional technology.
It is clear that Common Knowledge has successfully begun to migrate some aspects of the project to the school district. It is also clear that CK:P has generated a great deal of demand for Internet access. Educators at the local school level have responded very positively to the way this technology, which gives them latitude to create their own curriculum applications, has been introduced. On the other hand, there is resistance to the institutionalization of the project, at least within some portions of the PPS. Through interviews and attendance at meetings we have begun to understand the basis of some of this resistance. But further focus on this issue is needed in order to tease out the organizational factors that foster or impede educational change efforts such as CK:P. Another challenge facing the project has been the issue of collaboration across different organizational cultures. Differences in work cultures has affected both the smooth functioning of the project and efforts at institutionalization. This is another area that the assessment staff would like to concentrate more attention on in the coming year.
Assessment activities regarding the educational impact of Internet use have occurred through classroom observations, student and teacher interviews and surveys, as well as collection of "products" of school use of the Internet. We are currently observing activities in two elementary schools, one middle school, and two high schools involved in CK:P. Because of the many delays in getting the computer networks functioning at the school sites, questions of educational impact have been impossible to study until the last six months. But during the end of the 1994-95 school year, and the beginning of the 1995-96 school year we have seen an explosion of activity that indicates that, when teachers are given adequate training and support and the ability to explore and determine their own curricular applications, they will create a large range of opportunities for students.
This explosion of activity has led to significant products including World Wide Web home pages created by a number of schools, and under development at the rest of the CK:P schools. These home pages include teachers' lesson plans that can be accessed and used by others around the world. Students have also posted their work in order to get feedback from a wide audience of experts. The assessment group monitors these home pages as well as other online publications and electronic mail that is exchanged between groups of people in the project. These various products help us observe the evolution of teachers' attitudes and behaviors toward using the Internet for educational purposes. It is evident, from these products, from teacher discussions, and from the number of non-CK:P schools that would like to become part of the project that there is a great deal of excitement being generated within the school district for the educational potential of Internet use.
Assessment activities also include the monitoring of network usage through the collection of login data from the various servers used by CK:P. This data indicates, both that during the course of the project, the number of PPS educators using the Internet and the time spent exploring resources have increased significantly. Educators are not only spending school time, but they are investing a significant portion of non-school time, from home, exploring the Internet. Tables of usage are published on the CK:P web server for anyone to access:
/projects/ckp/ckp.html in the directory Usage and Participation Reports.
Finally, during 1995 the assessment group has begun to disseminate information regarding some of our findings from the original two years of the NSF grant. The CK:P WWW server (URL as given above, under the directory Dissemination) contains several of the conference papers given to date as well as references to in-press journal articles. In addition, we have just completed work on a book chapter for a volume edited by Sara Kiesler of Carnegie Mellon University to be published by Lawrence Erlbaum. During the coming months we will be working on two more papers for presentation at the American Educational Research Association meetings in New York in April 1996.

Unobligated Funds
We anticipate unobligated funds at the following approximate level in December, 1995:

Pittsburgh Public Schools $120,000
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center $160,000
University of Pittsburgh $130,000

TOTAL $410,000

These funds all relate to projected staff expenditures. The reason for a carry-over of this magnitude relates to the project's staging. Many staff expenditures follow the course of the school year, which extends nearly six full months past the current calendar year.