Room D115 in the Carmel High School Media Department is designated the Distance Education Classroom. It is equipped with a variety of technologies to enable teachers and learners to communicate via telecommunications in a multitude of ways to share and participate in instruction across the state and around the world. A special structural feature of Room D115 is that its east wall is collapsible, allowing for combining Room D115 with the adjacent Room D116 to accommodate large groups for special events.
Carmel High School is a Vision Athena site, and as such is connected to an entirely ISDN compatible fiber-optic network. Multiple cameras and microphones permanently installed in the Distance Education Classroom allow complete two-way motion image and sound communication in real time with other similarly equipped sites. Various uses of the system have included drama students at CHS exploring play analysis with directors and theatre technicians at the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis; a class of science students at CHS examining White River water quality and comparing data with a like class at a Muncie, Indiana high school; and a group of international business students at CHS discussing product selection and marketing with their partnered counterparts at a school in Kilmarnock, Scotland.
Students in Distance Education Classroom
Another telecommunications network in which Carmel High School participates is the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System, or IHETS. A dedicated IHETS satellite receiving dish on the school's roof allows learners in CHS's Distance Education Classroom to receive live or prerecorded instructional programming from any of the participating state colleges or universities in Indiana. Learners at CHS and other receiving sites can communicate back to instructors in real time during live lessons via a digital tele-response system. In just the past year, adult learners at CHS have received college credit for taking Financial Accounting, Survey of Economics, International Business Strategy, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Technology Management, and a range of other courses using the IHETS connection.
Live Presentation to Remote Site Via Telecommunications
Additionally, Carmel High School has a steerable, multipurpose, C and Ku-band satellite receiving dish on the roof which is connected into the Distance Education Classroom. The multipurpose dish allows the reception of special events, teleconferences, staff development workshops, and other types of programming from the U.S. Department of Education and other providers around the world. A standard land-line telephone in the room gives participants at CHS the capability of asking questions, making comments, or otherwise interacting as appropriate with presenters during satellite telecasts.
The Distance Education Classroom, like all other instructional areas at Carmel High School, is connected to the in-school video distribution system that allows for receiving a range of cable channels from the community cable television system as well as originating a live television signal from the Distance Education Classroom for distribution throughout the school complex or even for telecast to the community at large. Also, there is the capacity for conveniently connecting computers, extra cameras and microphones, and VCRs or other playback devices (one VCR stays connected to the system full-time) as desired for special situations.
|
