Tammy Jones                            						August 4,  1995
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Md.  20771
(301-286-5566)
Tammy.Jones@ccmail.gsfc.nasa.gov

Jarrett S. Cohen
Hughes STX Corp.
High Performance Computing Branch
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Md.  20771
(301-286-2744)

Doug Mohney
Digital Express Group, Inc.
Beltsville, Md.  20705
(301-847-5105)

Release No:  135

NASA/GODDARD AND DIGEX CONNECT 18 MARYLAND SCHOOLS TO THE INTERNET

	Schools across the state of Maryland are being connected to
the Internet in an innovative collaboration between NASA/Goddard
Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md., and Digital Express Group, Inc.
(DIGEX), Beltsville, Md.


   	This effort is part of the GSFC-led Maryland Earth and Environmental
Science Teacher Ambassador Program, aimed at improving Earth science education by
getting teachers and students directly involved in the research process.  The central 
concept is to provide teachers with the latest scientific knowledge and technology  and allow them to act as ambassadors of change in their districts.


 	GSFC decided on a low fixed-cost, local dial-up approach using 14,400
 bit-per-second modems and the point-to-point protocol (PPP). While employing 
telephone lines, PPP is more advanced than similar protocols in that it allows caller sites
 to become multifunctional nodes on the Internet.



   	 "A particularly important aspect of the connection approach for the Maryland 
Initiative," said J. Patrick Gary, head, GSFC's Computer Networks and Communications Branch, "was enabling pre-determinable, fixed, inexpensive access via 
 local calls to an Internet service provider.  Only through a fixed-cost arrangement not 
based on usage or connection time, such as with a 1-800 service, could GSFC and the school systems know in advance exactly how much to budget for these connections."



    	The participating schools can obtain educational resources, both text- and graphics-based, and communicate among themselves, with GSFC advisers and echnical staff, and with other schools around the world.

    	"Most teachers do not even have access to the educational resources on the
 Internet,Ó  said Dr. James Latham, principal investigator of the Maryland Initiative and
 former director, Division of Instruction, Maryland State Dept. of Education.  The
 Teacher Ambassadors are able to share teaching strategies and data from student investigations with their colleagues." 

    	One teacher is excited about this ability to obtain real-world data for class
 experiments.  "Instead of taking data from the textbooks or making it up, we'll have the
 latest, state-of-the-art data," said Kevin Connelly, Perryville High School, Perryville, Md.


    	A great challenge for this program was overcoming the geographic and cost
 barriers to connect the schools, 18 in all. "It turns out that there were really two support
 problems," explained Javad Boroumand, principal network engineer, Hughes STX 
Corp., Computer Networks and Communications Branch.  "One was finding a place to 
get an Internet account.  The second was solving the long-distance problem."

    	Of the available alternatives, commercial provider DIGEX was chosen for its
 willingness to engineer local access solutions for more schools, which also resulted in a 
solution to the long-distance problem.

    	DIGEX's Maryland customers obtain PPP service by dialing into Points of
 Presence (POPs) that are close enough to allow access at the price of a local 
telephone call.  Before, the POPs only covered ten schools in the Baltimore-Washington 
area. DIGEX added several POPs and one dedicated line and arranged call forwarding 
points to reach the remaining schools, including a few across the Chesapeake Bay.

    	"This program is an engineering challenge as well as a commercial 
opportunity," said Doug Humphrey, president of DIGEX.  "Once in there, we can 
expand knowledge to other facilities and provide access to them as well."

	 With the need for long-distance calling eliminated, this scheme is more 
cost-effective and will allow schools to afford the service on their own after the end of 
NASA's three-year commitment.  "There is a reduced government cost in providing for
 [access]," Boroumand said. "We either would have had to reduce service or pay for 
everything.  With this service the schools will be able to afford it."  A second set of 
schools will be added during the 1995-96 school year.
	
	This project is funded by the High Performance Computing and 
Communications Office's Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications 
Program at NASA Headquarters.

    	The teachers and schools involved in the Maryland Initiative
network are as follows:

    
    Michael S. Anikis, Oakland Mills High School, Columbia, Md.
    Allen B. Campbell, Oxon Hill High School, Oxon Hill, Md.
    Karen L. Cifranick, Joppatowne High School, Joppatowne, Md.
    Kevin Connelly, Perryville High School, Perryville, Md.
    John Doherty, Queen Anne's County High School, Centreville, Md.
    Kathleen Fulcomer, Briggs Chaney Middle School, Silver Spring, Md.
    Michael Gooch, Brunswick High School, Frederick, Md.
    William H. Guth, Easton High School, Easton, Md.
    Karen Gurley, Sykesville Middle School, Sykesville, Md.
    Laura E. Jerome, Lockerman Middle School, Denton, Md.
    Joan Johnson, Northern Senior High School, Baltimore, Md.
    David Kistler, Calvert High School, Prince Frederick, Md.
    Robena D. Robinett, North Caroline High School, Ridgely, Md.
    Doug J. Romano, Cambridge South Dorchester High School, Cambridge, Md.
    Barbara Stancil, Woodlawn High School, Woodlawn, Md.
    Ann M. Sullivan, Hammond High School, Columbia, Md.
    Andrew Witko, Forestville High School, Forestville, Md.
    George R. Wright, Lindale Middle School, Baltimore, Md.

-end-