Distance Training Gets Better: Interactive Whiteboards Plus Video

Travelling to teacher training classes subtracts from productivity and adds to a schools/ college’s carbon footprint.

Now, the growing availability of video endpoints in educational establishments means teachers and staff don’t necessarily need to travel for training. “Increasingly, teachers are joining live training sessions over the network, using PCs, IP phones, or high-end telepresence systems,” says Scott Aukema, Cisco’s telepresence architecture manager for the public sector.

Even interactive whiteboards can serve as video endpoints, with the necessary tools. Then remote participants see everything the trainer displays or writes on the whiteboard as if they were in the same room as the trainier.

I See What You See

Suppose a new teacher named Sarah is hired and needs training on school security policies. Just before class begins, she can log in to the video collaboration session from her desk, a conference room, training room, or telepresence room.

When class begins, the instructor initiates the video call, and Sarah and her fellow trainees in all locations see and greet each other. Then the trainer starts sharing the desktop of a PC connected to the whiteboard to show a presentation, diagram, image, webpage, form, or anything else. As Sarah watches her display, she sees as the trainer annotates the diagram appearing on the interactive whiteboard. The trainer might circle an area on a facilities map and draw an arrow pointing to a critical location.

Keeping Perspective

Until recently, the in-person experience broke down after the trainer made the presentation or video window larger or smaller. “Then the annotations no longer aligned with the image and did not change size proportionately with the image,” Aukema explains. “As a result, a circle the instructor drew on part of a diagram might no longer be around the item of interest.” This was distracting, shifting people’s focus to the technology instead of the training content.

The solution is Cisco® Synch technology, which works with Cisco devices used to display live video on the whiteboard (Figure 1). Trainers can freely add video calls from multiple locations to their interactive whiteboard training sessions, and rearrange and resize the presentation and video however they’d like. “You can repeatedly move and resize the PC image display, and all your markups will move with it, retaining the right size and position relative to the image,” says Kerry Best, manager for public sector telepresence at Cisco. “Combining interactive whiteboards with video helps trainers keep remote participants engaged, making it practical for schools or local authorities, to offer more types of training at a distance.”

To watch a video showing Cisco Synch in action, visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A4imn7SzY8 To read more about Cisco Synch, visit: http://www.tandberg.com/interactive-whiteboards-video-conferencing-synch.jsp

To find out more about Synch and SWOT-NET you can reach us here http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/

Simple Ways of Teaching Presents Green Practices That Save Money with Cisco Systems

At SWOT NET, we are constantly looking at how technology can deliver, while ultimately remaining light in terms of both energy consumption and complexity.With rising costs on one side and budget cuts on the other, colleges and universities need creative ways to save money. “Energy consumption is a good target because it also supports campus green initiatives,” says John Speicher, public sector industry solutions manager for Cisco.

Here are four ways that campuses are reducing costs and their carbon footprints at the same time.

1.Collaborate Over the Network Instead of Across the Highway

“Web sharing and video conferencing can often replace travel between campuses, saving money, time, and greenhouse gas emissions,” says John Tuohy, education solutions manager for Cisco. University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana, uses Cisco WebEx® technology for meetings ranging from collaborating with remote architects on building blueprints to training alumni association members on development. Travel costs decreased by $1 million in 2009 alone, significantly reducing the university’s carbon footprint.
Similarly, the 53-campus Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system uses Cisco WebEx for staff software training. “The trainer reduced travel by 90 percent by eliminating three roundtrips a week of up to 10 hours apiece,” Tuohy says.

2. Build Smarter Buildings

Constructing new buildings with a single IP network instead of multiple separate networks for building systems can also reduce energy consumption. Ave Maria University in Florida took this approach in new construction, adding thousands of network-connected sensors to monitor the environment in every building on campus. The sensors communicate with automated building systems to conserve energy while making sure people are comfortable. For example, lights turn on and off automatically, depending on whether a motion sensor detects a person in the room. The university is saving an estimated $600,000 in annual utility bills and avoided $350,000 in annual personnel costs.

3. Green the Data Center

Campus data centers also are good targets for energy reduction. “A popular project is consolidating different application servers onto a private cloud platform to lower data center space, power, and cooling needs,” Speicher says. “In addition to saving energy, campuses that virtualise their applications save time for IT staff, freeing more time to work on projects for learning or administrative efficiency.”
Other campuses are reducing data center energy use by consolidating to fewer network switches with more ports apiece. The University of Arizona reduced power consumption per port by 30 percent by using Cisco Nexus® switches in the data center. And the Apollo Group, parent company of University of Phoenix, freed up several rows of power-consuming devices in the data center by implementing Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches.

4. Green the Desktop

Yet another green IT strategy is replacing desktop PCs with more energy-efficient thin clients. Each person’s applications and data reside not on the desktop, but on a cloud platform in the data center, like a Cisco Unified Computing System™. “You just turn on your thin client and your desktop appears just like it would if the information were stored on your PC,” says Tuohy. This arrangement is called a virtual desktop infrastructure, or VDI. “Not only do VDIs reduce energy use, they also lower capital costs because thin clients cost less than PCs and don’t have to be replaced as often,” says Tuohy.

Claremont McKenna College in Southern California uses a Cisco Unified Computing System to host a VDI for the Joint Sciences Department, which also serves other colleges in the Claremont University Consortium. During classes or research sessions, students check out specialized scientific software, returning it to the shared pool when finished.

Calculate the Savings

Cisco has developed Green Business Value Calculators that colleges and universities can use to project economic as well as environmental benefits of several technologies. The projected green benefits have been validated by Domani, a leading environmental consulting firm, and are consistent with customers’ real-life experience.

To use the calculator, visit: www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/ppt/Cisco_IBSG_Green_Business_Value_Calculators.ppt

To read about Cisco® Connected Learning solutions for higher education, visit: http://campustechnology.com/microsites/cisco-connected-learning_10a/home.aspx

To read about Cisco solutions for environmental sustainability, visit: www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/environment/

To find out how SWOT NET and Cisco can help reduce your energy consumption and move towards a greener ICT infrastructure to support your teaching and learning needs, please use the link here to reach us http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/

SWOT Net and Cisco: Extending the Classroom Outside the Walls

The old classroom staples of chalk and slate have formidable competition from electronic whiteboards. Teachers are embracing these whiteboards to enliven classroom learning by displaying and annotating digital content, such as applications and programs, maps, diagrams, or webpages. “Instead of having to stand near their PCs, teachers can stand at the front of the class as they do normally, and control the application or computer by touching the electronic whiteboard,” says Kerry Best, manager for public sector telepresence at Cisco.

Now campuses with networks designed to carry video calls can use their interactive whiteboards as telepresence and video endpoints, extending the classroom beyond the physical walls. “Students on U.K. campuses can see their peers in India, or take a virtual field trip anywhere in the world,” says Scott Aukema, Cisco’s telepresence architecture manager for the public sector.

Keeping Perspective

The good news is that teachers can now more easily combine presentations and video on the same interactive whiteboard. The experience used to break down if the teacher made the presentation or video window larger or smaller. Then the annotations no longer aligned with the image and did not change size proportionately with the image. As a result, a circle the instructor drew on part of a diagram might no longer be around the item of interest. “This was distracting, shifting students’ focus to the technology instead of the content,” Aukema says.
The solution is Cisco Synch® technology, which works with Cisco devices used to display live video on the whiteboard (Figure 1). With Cisco Synch, teachers and instructors can freely add video calls from multiple locations to their interactive whiteboard training sessions, and rearrange and resize the presentation and video how ever they’d like. “You can repeatedly move and resize the PC image display, and all your markups will move with it, retaining the right size and position relative to the image,” says Best. “Combining interactive whiteboards with video helps teacherss engage students and visually interact with people anywhere in the world.”
For more details on the solution please contact the SWOT team by using this link
http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/

Learning Without Frontiers - Our Blog - Sir Ken Robinson

Learning Without Frontiers - Our Blog - Sir Ken Robinson

The SWOT Team love Sir Ken and the LWF'ers. Some great clips here from some great thinkers in the learning space

SWOTNET Meets with the SAVI Foundation to enhance learning events with ICT

This week, SWOT NET met with Selina Patel, the dynamic driving force at The Savi Foundation, responsible for some innovative events, helping to develop interests in education among our inner city students.
Our team are jumping at the bit to begin developing engaging systems to support future projects and we look forward to embracing the upcoming events....Watch this space...

You can follow Selina's great work on Twitter http://twitter.com/savifoundation

SWOT Partners on most ethical companies list

Avaya, Cisco, Juniper named to ethical companies list

By Alex Scroxton on March 16, 2011 12:45 PM | No Comments

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Ethisphere, a think-tank specialising in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability, has named Avaya, Cisco and Juniper Networks to its 2011 rundown of the world's most ethical firms.

This is the fifth year that Ethisphere has published its WME rankings, which recognise 110 firms that surpassed their industry peers in areas including codes of ethics, litigation and regulatory infraction; investment in innovation and sustainable practices; activities that improve corporate citizenship; and nominations from peers, suppliers and customers.

"As companies strive to maintain a competitive advantage, good ethics translate into better business, and better business means better bottom lines," said Ethisphere executive director Alex Brigham.

Brigham talked of the "important role" that role that principled practices play in brand reputation, which he claimed was "ultimately ... the most valuable asset for a corporation".

Other tech firms listed include Adobe, Hitachi Data Systems, Ricoh and Salesforce.com.

SWOT-NET Partner Airtight Networks to ensure the stability of educational mobility networks

SWOT-NET is pleased to announce a partnership with Airtight Networks, the global leader in wireless LAN security.

Comprehensive WLAN planning, performance, and security

As wireless becomes a pervasive technology for connecting users to teaching/learning networks on and off campus, wireless security has emerged as a critical requirement for academic IT departments.

Today in education, wireless networking is demanded by students and teachers alike, driven by the proliferation of mobile and wireless enabled devices. The challenge of maximising the WLAN performance while minimising its vulnerabilities and risk of intrusion becomes increasingly complex for network administrators. New platforms such as Windows 7, Android and devices such as tablets and mobile smart phones have opened a world of new issues in how we protect our users and our vital learning systems. Open policies such as, allowing students to bring their own devices on to campus networks all play in to this pool of new problems to solve.

SWOT-NET provides a world beating solution with AirTight SpectraGuard Enterprise. The solution provides continuous protection against all current and emerging wireless threats while identifying performance issues that can affect critical applications and end user satisfaction.

With Airtight and SWOT, you can have confidence that your information is protected over any wired or wireless network and on any device, on or off campus and your network uptime is maximised.

Key Benefits for IT Admins in education

• Gain full visibility of your airspace and wired network
• Support for 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b and 802.11a Wi-Fi technologies
• Block unauthorised access and rogue traffic without disrupting genuine use
• Locate unauthorised access devices on your floor map for quick removal
• Proactive WLAN performance management and troubleshooting
• Centralised management for securing wireless end-points
• Faster analysis and resolution with 2-click Smart Forensics

The SpectraGuard suite of products automates all aspects of wireless security and performance including:

• wireless intrusion prevention
• wireless security audits and regulatory compliance
• wireless vulnerability scanning
• WLAN performance and security planning

It can be delivered on premise of via the cloud or by way of a Simple Ways of Teaching Managed Service. If you would like to organise a F.O.C. demo of the Airtight Solution, please contact our helpful staff. Our team can also help you plan network usage policies, providing best practice training for your staff. At SWOT-NET we believe ultimately, Network and user security can be enhanced by a greater access to training, allowing users to better interpret risk. Talk to our team to learn more

http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/

SWOTNET Creating Green, High-Performance Schools with Cisco Systems

The SWOT-NET Team is happy to announce a partnership with Cisco Systems, creating Green, High-Performance Schools, Colleges and Universities here in the UK.

Enhance Education with a Single-Network Solution

Today's schools are complex systems that serve large numbers of mobile students, teachers, administrators, and support staff.

Until recently, each building subsystem from access control to heating and ventilation required a separate network, resulting in a complex, costly environment that was difficult to operate and maintain. But today you can efficiently deliver all building services over a single, converged, centrally managed IP-based network. And this same network forms the backbone of a 21st-century education environment.

To find out more about how SWOT-NET and Cisco System can ready schools, colleges and universities for 21st Century learning you can reach us at the following link

http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/

The SWOT-NET team

SWOTNET Partners Talari Networks

The SWOT team are happy to announce a partnership with the ground breaking technologists Talari Networks.
When asked about the news, CEO of SWOTNET, Andrew Dominic had this to say, "Honestly, it is rare that we find new tech that has such potential. Talari really changes the way we look to provision network connectivity with our clients.”
At SWOTNET, we believe Talari’s Adaptive Private Networking Solution has a myriad of benefit for the academic sector, not least because of the ability for the technology to drive down overall bandwidth cost without sacrificing performance but, in the possible collaboration opportunities the technology presents.
Talari’s (APN) does for the Wide Area Networks what RAID did for Storage, bringing Internet economics to academic WANs by transforming affordable broadband links to deliver business-class reliability at consumer prices.
Andrew said “Schools and local authorities now have an immensely powerful solution which could revolutionise the way we deliver education today and tomorrow. School, colleges and county council infrastructure such as, library services and or departments directly related to the education system could all be joined together, offering a secure and predictable private network to be created using low cost DSL technology. The possibilities of this technology are limited only by our vision.”
To find out more about Talari and SWOTNET, you can find a contact us section here.
http://www.swotnet.co.uk/contact/
The SWOTNET Team