broadband education services, 11-12 june 2009, crete, greece broadband services for schools through...

Broadband Education Services,11-12 June 2009, Crete, Greece

Broadband services for schools through the Greek School Network


The Greek School Network

• Objectives– Operate, maintain and extend national school network infrastructure

– Connecting schools with the Greek School Network

– Hosting, development and support for telematic services

– User support and education in the use of the network and services

• Educational goals– Support learning through the use of digital services

– Provide access to certified digital content

– Facilitate cooperation among distributed teams

– Facilitate the communication among the members of the educational community in national and international level

– Facilitate administrative and organizational actions for education

• An environment that encourages educational innovation, promotes utilization of investments and creates the environment for the creation of digital educational content


• Under the MoE design for issuing and utilizing ICTs in education:

– Distributed infrastructures development (school laboratories, networking, telematic services)

– Creation of digital content and software

– Education for teachers in ICT

– Modernization for educational management and administration

• Funding

– 2007-today: national funds

– 2000-2006 : EU - Operational program for Information Society

• Implemented with the cooperation of human network:

– Ministry of Education

– 2 Research Institutions

– 9 Univercities & Technical Univercities (NTUA, Athens, Aristotle, Aegean, Macedonia, Democritus, Thessaly, Ioannina, Crete)

– 2 Technological Educational Institutions (Athens, Salonica)

• International best practice

Funding - implementation


The human network

• Roles:– Design and implementation for network infrastructures in

educational units and administrative bureaus– Design, development, provisioning and support for telematic

services– Procurement for network and service infrastructures– Management and operation for network and services– Technical support for schools and users

• Utilization of excellence centers in research and educational institutions:

– Produce and digest know-how in national level– Produce and promote experienced, specialized personnel– Bridging the IT competences gap– Save operational costs


Some numbers and stats …

• Single largest operational national network in extent and size

• Connects 14.390 schools, 7.500 school LANs, 2.937 education administration bureaus, 594 libraries (494 in schools, 71 national, 29 municipal), 60 general national record bureaus

• Provides personalized access to 73.413 teachers, 21.835 students

• Numbers 119.819 active e-mail accounts

• Provides network services complementary with GRNET

• Closed educational intranet – security for students is on of the prime objectives

• Provides a value added services designed for education

• User training and support in offered services

• Promotion and application of the open source development model – significant participation in OSS community

• Provides digital social space and the means for the creation of Greek Educational Internet - based Communities

• Internet penetration: 100%, Broadband penetration: 70%


Certified users:

• Schools

• Students

• Teachers

• Administration staff

• Administrative offices

User categories


Current network architecture• Backbone network: GRNET –the Greek Network for Research and Education:

– cooperation

– complementary

– operational cost minimization

• Distribution network:

– 51 owned nodes installed in National Telecommunication Organization centers

– Gigabit connections via GRNET-2 in 16 points (Athens, Salonica, Patras, Heraklion, Larisa, Ioaninna, Siros, Xanthi, Chania, Rethimnon, Serres, Korinth, Komotene, Chios, Mytilene, Kozani)


Network architecture


Future network architecture


• Basic services – Network access– Automated teacher and studen registration– Regulated internet access– Schools portal and students portal– User support

• Communication services– Electronic mail and e-mail anti virus and anti spam protection– Electronic communication lists– Discussion forums– Teleconferencing

• Content pomotion services – Web pages for schools and teachers– Wizards for automated web page creation– Blogs– School electronic magazines

Telematic services to users (1/2)


• Advanced services – Video on demand– Live casting– Synchronous and asynchronous tele-education

• Complementary services – Electronic cards– Electronic magazine e-emphasis– Web folders– Digial certificates and PKI– Property registry– GIS

Telematic services to users (2/2)


• Central infrastructure services– NMS network management system– Monitoring tools– Domain name service– LDAP directory service– Users management service– Single Sign On (SSO) service– Identity management and Federation services

Administration Services


Will provide students and teachers with:

• Authentication and secure internet access services • Asynchronous tele-education services• Creation and common document services• Synchronous and asynchronous tele-education• Content creation, communication and promotion • Collaborative learning and social networking• Integrated communication• Student portal

New educational toolbox


• PKI service

• Single Sign On (SSO), federation and identity management (IM)

• Quality of Service (QoS)

• Synchronous tele-education

• IPv6 activation

• Remote network and system management for school labs:– inventory - asset management– software distribution– Remote desktop control– System and network monitoring

Innovative actions and services


• Benefits:– Reduced costs in acquiring and maintaining software, fro example

Clam-AV reduces operational costs by 80.000 euros/year– High national added value– Contribution leads to know-how

– Internationalization, translations and adaptations (horde, moodle, free radius)

– Development and contribution (dialup-admin)– Reduced times for setting-up services, applications or

environments– Customization of software to needs– Quality, acceptance, reliability, performance and security– Security is checked by the community

• Defects:– Lack/inaccurate/out-dated documentation– Limited support

Open source in the GSN


Conclusions

• Greek School Network: the national intranet of first and second level education

• Successful implementation due to the collaboration of MoE&R, Research Institutions, Univercities, Technical Educational Institutions, GRNET and school communities

• Exploits know-how from academia

• Utilizes critical national resources (GRNET)

• Offers a wide range of added value services

• Promotes educational innovation and IT usage in education

• Minimizes operational costs and pursues valuable solution

• Fosters the exploitation of educational infrastructures for broad purposes with national impact

• Collaborates with local communities and organizations


… for your attention!

• More information can be acqired at

www.sch.gr

www.sch.gr/leaflets

www.sch.gr/docs

• Communication:

[email protected]

Thank you ...

broadband education services, 11-12 june 2009, crete, greece broadband services for schools through...

Documents

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network services complementary

greece broadband services

services promotion

services technical support

network infrastructures

use of digital services

greek school network