South Dakota

In 1996, South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow began implementing creative, inexpensive solutions to several expensive problems plaguing South Dakota schools, governments, and businesses. Those significant problems focused around how to make 21st century technology available everywhere in a rural state. By using a one-of-a-kind program to wire SD schools with electrical and local area network computer cabling using inmate labor, the Governor launched the Network in order to:

• Establishing a leading-edge infrastructure for existing/future technologies to build on;
• Provide the foundation for students to become better educated;
• Teach valuable skills and work habits to incarcerated men and women so they can become productive citizens of society.

All of this was accomplished at an estimated $15 million, an absolute fraction of the $100 million estimate given to accomplish with private-sector resources. Through June of 2000, over K-12 schools, universities and libraries have wired representing over 100,000 LAN drops. The Connecting the Schools (CTS) Project builds on the above-listed (a) and (b). As the fiber optic and copper cabling was laid within the schools, it was expected that the schools would take advantage of that infrastructure by taking the responsibility and moving onto the next steps for providing the remainder of the technology infrastructure. In reality though, that process was slow in occurring for various reasons, primary ones being financial, knowledge/expertise and ability.

The genesis of CTS began in the winter of 1998/1999 with dedicated resources being applied in April 1999. CTS is highlighted by three phases:

1. Equipment seeding - the distribution of hardware of software;
2. Digital Dakota Network - the building of the network infrastructure across the state;
3. Distance Learning - the creation of the video conferencing infrastructure.

The CTS project distinguishes itself from other statewide programs by the shear breadth and depth of services. It is the most comprehensive program of its type in the country. All aspects of the technology life-cycle are covered. Building local infrastructure, providing standardized equipment, establishing wide area network facilities, offering hardware and software training, network management and reporting of the WAN infrastructure and finally, most importantly - all of this is done with state financial resources. Local school costs are focused solely towards the daily support requirements unique to their educational community.

Phase 1 - Equipment Seeding
This targeted solving the problem created by the Wiring the Schools project. That being - 'what do we do now that we have all of this wiring in place?' Hence, the state provided the technical, financial and training leadership required to provide the hardware and software necessary to 'light up' the wiring. In other words, the state gave those members of the K-12 community wanting to participate, the technology and experience necessary to build and support their own local area networks. Survey information was gathered in May 1999 with equipment ordering, delivery and implementation taking place through September 1999.

Following is a list of equipment that was provided to each K-12 school in the state:

• LAN switches. 24 port, local area network 10/100 ethernet switches. 1 switch was provided for a school population tiered every 200 students with a minimum of 2 switches per school building.
• File servers. Designed with redundancy and growth as the primary requirements, three configurations of file servers were established and each school received 1 or 2 high-end servers with the configuration again dependent on the school population.
• UPS. Each server from #2 was provided a uninterruptible power supply to give protection against uncertain environmental conditions.
• Room display systems. On an average of two per school building, personal computers with 36" monitors and wireless controls were distributed to provide teachers the ability to teach entire classrooms from a single computer.
• Network operating system software. The software necessary to run the file servers was available on every server.
• Client licensing. To insure each computer on the school campus was legally licensed to access the information on their file servers, client licenses to match the network operating system were distributed.
• Internet software. In an attempt to make the "internet experience" safe for the students, internet caching, proxy and filtering software was distributed to every school in the state.
• Personal computers. Contracts offering highly discounted state-of-art personal computers are available exclusively to the educational community.
• Cisco Networking Academies. The state is providing the startup synergy and financing necessary to build and train the resources required establishing Cisco Local and Regional Academy centers across South Dakota.

The final aspect of Phase 1 is the training necessary to put all of these pieces together. This has become an annual event and is foreseen to continue for years to come. The training opportunities focus on three approaches that vary depending on the experiences needed:

i. One day seminars with focus on an individual topic/technology;
ii. Multiple-day / 1 week sessions of multiple topics. If a single topic is going to require multiple days to teach & reinforce the subject matter, those topics are scheduled appropriately. We also provide week-long sessions with a variety of topics covered to expose and teach school technology coordinators/support personnel the skills necessary to plan and support their technology environments.
iii. Month long fundamental and introduction classes. Beginning technology administrators have the opportunity to participate in a 4-week class that immerses them with the skills necessary to support their data networks.

Phase 2 - Digital Dakota Network
This step is characterized by the building of the Digital Dakota Network (DDN). The DDN is a high-speed statewide telecommunications network that provides data and video services to the educational and governmental communities of South Dakota. The clientele includes K-12 education, public universities, private universities, libraries, city governments, county governments and the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government. Furthermore, direct links to the parochial and Indian school systems are being designed. The DDN will encompass almost the entire public sector community of South Dakota.

Every public K-12 school building in South Dakota is provided a minimum of one high-speed T1 (1.544 Mbps) telecommunications circuit. Larger schools and districts receive multiple T1s with the largest having OC-3 (155 Mbps) access. This circuit(s) is the building block for access to intra-district resources (specific grade level curriculums), inter-district resources (student management systems, testing applications, etc.), statewide resources (grading system, information databases, e-mail) and Internet-based resources (use your imagination). School buildings with grades 1 - 6 are served with a frame relay circuit that provides data services. Grades 7 - 12 are served with asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology for dynamic delivery of data and video. Internet access is an integral part of the DDN. The initial design incorporated 39 Mbps of bandwidth split amongst the three core sites. This was been increased to 49 Mbps in early 2000 with an additional 45 Mbps being added in the summer of 2000 for a total of 94Mbps available by fall.

Presently, there are four specific statewide applications that are made available to schools through the DDN with many more on the near-term horizon. These include the following: E-mail /groupware to provide collaboration and communication abilities; web hosting for educational and informational usages; grading system for widely available parental access; and web-based information/encyclopedia databases for the educational experience.

The final piece of Phase 2 is the CTS LAN Integration aspect. To insure the DDN was quickly and efficiently incorporated into the school technology infrastructure, a team of technicians was dispatched across the state to insure a seamless WAN - LAN integration. The tasks performed here were crucial to the success of the project. It was the final step to insure the students, teachers and administrators in the school could simply "click" on their computer and access school resources or the Internet. The specific steps included TCP\IP addressing, proxy, cache, filtering solution installation, file server tuning, LAN switch installation, personal computer configuration, tape backup/restore installation, testing of the e-mail and web hosting solutions along with a knowledge-transfer process for all of these to increase on-site skills. Network design tasks for the DDN began in February of 1999 with the first schools coming on-line in October 1999. 99% of all schools were completed by March 2000. This averages out to an incredible 3+ buildings connected per day.

Phase III - Distance Learning
Provided to every school as part of the wide area network service is a router and for grades 7 - 12, an ATM switch and a full room-system video conferencing equipment. The PC-based video system includes two (2) 36" monitors, two (2) cameras, audio components, codec, document camera, electronic whiteboard, LAN connectivity, T.120 collaboration software and picture-in-picture capabilities. Each system can deliver H.320 and H.323 video standards. Bridging and scheduling services are provided at two (2) video hub centers. Two centers have been built to provide redundancy and maximize service availability. Distributed amongst the two hubs are 9 video bridges, 2 digital access cross connects and support personnel. One central scheduling system manages the service.

Initially, schools will be able to arrange distance learning classes via the telephone, fax or e-mail. In the future, web access will be available. The total number of video studios directly connected to the DDN exceeds 220. The video conferencing opportunities are limitless. The most obvious usage will be the ability to eliminate distance from the equation for making increasingly scarce teaching resources available. Students from anywhere in the state will be able to take fundamental or advanced classes from other schools, districts, university or government sources. In-service instruction for teachers will be common along with informal collaboration, short-term instruction and special guest lecturers. In June 2000, there are over 375 school buildings connected to the DDN with over 400 T1 and 3 OC-3 connections. The core network is connected together with an additional 6 OC-3 circuits. It is truly a state-of-art telecommunications network providing ubiquitous access to South Dakota's students and governments.

Professional Development Components:
Technology for Teaching and Learning (TTL) academies, launched in 1997 represented a major professional development initiative for South Dakota teachers. The program includes a 20-day summer immersion institute and a series of follow-up activities that span a 12-month period. The Governor leveraged federal funds (Goals 2000 and Technology Literacy Challenge Fund) to support TTL. Over 25 percent of the 10,000 K-12 teachers in South Dakota have attended a TTL academy. Three public universities and a post-secondary technical Institute have hosted the TTL summer immersion sessions.

In 1999, the Academies for School Administrators (TTLSA) and for Network Administrators (TTLNA) were added to the roster of summer professional development activities. The 10-day school administrators session was designed to provide school leaders with the knowledge and skills to support the efforts of teachers in integrating technology into teaching and learning. TTLNA was designed to provide training to school technology coordinators and others responsible for creating and maintaining connectivity in schools and troubleshooting technical problems.

Last year, the South Dakota Legislature created a new office within DECA called the Office of Educational Technology. Its responsibility includes researching, analyzing, procuring, and distributing programs and methods using educational technology in South Dakota K-12 schools and classrooms. This Office works directly with administrators and teachers to advance their abilities to integrate appropriate technology into their curriculum, including the use of videoconferencing. They also serve as a conduit to connect educators who have common interest or needs that can be met through the capabilities of the DDN.

Contact
Tammy Bauck
Office of Technology
South Dakota Department of Education & Cultural Affairs
700 Governors Drive
Pierre, SD 57501
605-773-6118 (p)  
E-mail: tammy.bauck@state.sd.us