Senior Design Project Proposal

“The Interactive Classroom”

Group #17

October 22, 2001

Advisor

Professor Hongbin Li

Group Members

Oscar Rodriguez

Henry Rivera

Diego Cevallos

Juan Guzman

Randy Slater

Jonathan Lugtu

“We pledge our Honor that we have abided by the Stevens Honor System.”

I. Abstract 2

II. Project Proposal Plan

II-1. Introduction 3

II-2. Design Requirements 4

II-3. Design Approaches 6

II-4. Financial Budget 6

II-5. Project Schedule 6

III. Conclusion 7

IV. References 8

V. Appendices 9

Abstract:

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."
-- Malcolm X

One of the most influential technologies of the last century has been the development of the computer. Computers were initially built for Corporate America for business purposes. As time progressed, computers made their way into our educational system serving as a teaching aid. The main purpose of integrating computers and schools is to make classrooms more conducive to learning, make instructors more efficient, and allow for more attention to individual students.

In this day and age computers have certainly aided the classroom. Preparing our children for a lifetime of computer use is now just as essential as teaching them to read and write and do math. Yes, research shows that computers in the classroom are a benefit to the educational system. We must ask ourselves one question, have we been using computers to their maximum capabilities? We at Educational Computer Networks (EDCN) feel that the current educational system has not utilized the computer to its full potential. Our product “The Interactive Classroom” is a computer network that will bridge the gap from making the computer an occasional teaching tool to an indispensable part of the classroom. With our product in the classroom we will make students learn faster and better. Our product will make the computer an essential and integral part of the classroom. It will forever change the face of traditional education. .

Introduction:

The whole computers in schools issue began in the early 1970s, with the introduction of special purpose terminals connected to central mainframes. This model gave rise to the concept that a computer is a sort of teaching machine, that a computer could help the teacher do the same job, only better, faster, and with more attention to individual students. As time progressed the idea of computers being integrated into schools gained a lot of popularity. Schools all over the United States have made an effort to have as many computers as possible in their classrooms. The educational system believes that computers and technical advancements affect more and more of our daily lives. Jobs that used to take hours now take just seconds. Projects that used to go on for days or weeks can now be completed with a click of a mouse. Our group still believes that computers in the classroom have not reached their maximum potential. This is the main reason why we have chosen this topic.

Our project consists of a number of major goals that we eventually expect to meet successively. We will be designing, implementing, and managing a small computer lab for a school. We expect initially to be facilitating connectivity for 20-30 users. Our eventual goals will be to build a secure, scalable, reliable, and cost efficient network that will assist in the school’s needs, as well as provide remote access over the Internet. The proposed design that we have engineered will be very scalable and can support well over 100 users.

Our group has decided on building the network from the ground up using Cisco equipment. We will develop a computer network which we are calling “The Interactive Classroom” that will use the technology of computers to its fullest, in order to make teaching more efficient and learning easier. Why should a student miss a lecture because the night before he got injured and has a cast in his legs and can’t walk to the classroom? Why should a professor wait until the next day of class to see if the students understood the material that was given, when he could know in real time, just by the click of the mouse? Our product will allow teachers and students to have greater flexibility and a more enjoyable learning experience. This will result in an overall better quality of education.

Design Requirements:

The equipment being used for the network portion of this design will involve routers and switches made by Cisco Systems. The reason why we are using Cisco equipment is because of the hardware’s reliability, scalability, and wide array of configuration capacity. The specific equipment we’ll be using is meant for a remote office, and not meant for enterprise scalability. Since we’ll only be facilitating services for a maximum of up to 200 users, this equipment will be sufficient.

Security will also be a major issue in this design. With the use of Cisco equipment, we’ll be able to permit or deny specific traffic traversing outbound or inbound from the Internet. Security issues between PC’s within the network will also be handled as we will implement a network operating system, Windows 2000 Professional, so meet the school’s security-related needs. The security model that we have devised will also protect the school’s internal network infrastructure from outside attacks from hackers through the Internet.

We will also provide a solution for remote access connectivity through the Internet by using Virtual Private Networking. This method of access can be accomplished by configuring a Windows 2000 Server as a VPN server to accept users. To access the network remotely as a remote node, a prospective user would need access to the Internet via Dial-Up or any other methods. The user would also need a user name and password to gain access to the internal network.

Network management software will also be in place so that easy administration of the network may be established. This network will also provide fault-tolerance and reliability as seen in the design proposals. It can also facilitate the use of wired or wireless users with laptops. Simplicity of the network addressing schemes will be provided by means of the Cisco routers acting as DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) Servers.

Once the network infrastructure is in place, this computer lab will also be used as an “Interactive Classroom” will be implemented. We are assuming that this would be a classroom which all students would have a laptop with a network interface card be it wired or wireless. All students will be given a unique username and password to which will provide security and at the same time a way to keep track of each individual student’s records.

A Unix machine running Apache HTTP Server version 1.3, will be plugged into a port on one of our Cisco switches. The Unix server will have a 100-megabit Ethernet card to provide the high speed connection between itself and the computers in the classroom that will connect to it. Apache is an industry recognized standard in web servers. It provides us with a scalable website that has low latency.

Perl 5.0 will be the scripting language that will be used to create common gateway interfaces. Perl will give us the ability to create dynamic web pages that will be able to provide the interaction in the classroom. Perl offers the ability to encrypt passwords, which will allow us to provide security against password theft. .

The main reasoning behind using Unix, Apache, and Perl is that these products are available free of charge, they do not require the need of a high performance machine, and there are large support groups for the products throughout the Internet. We feel that it is important to minimize the cost of our product to our customers. By staying away from proprietary software we can significantly lower the price of our system.

Design Approaches:

The design approaches that our group has created can be viewed on the following pages. All three drawings are possible designs that we’ll be using to implement this project. A listing of advantages and disadvantages of these proposed design models are on the next page. Our design proposals are on Appendix A.

Financial Budget:

This will be provided on Appendix B.

Project Schedule:

For a complete project schedule, please see Appendix C.

Advantages/Disadvantages of the Proposed Designs

Design 1

Advantages:

Full redundancy and reliability amongst all devices.
Increased security of unwanted traffic.
Scalability for future expansion.
VPN (Virtual Private Networking) for remote users.
Provides full functionality for wired or wireless users.
Excellent support for traffic-intensive users (i.e. streaming video or graphical applications).

Disadvantages:

Very Expensive.
Complex Configuration.

Design 2

Advantages:

Provides redundancy, but very minimal.
Inexpensive.
Simple Configuration.
VPN (Virtual Private Networking) for remote users.
Provides full functionality for wired or wireless users.

Disadvantages:

Not scalable for future expansion.
Limited support for traffic-intensive users.
Minimal redundancy.
Reliability is questionable.

Design 3

Advantages:

Least inexpensive of the three design models.
Provides full functionality for wired or wireless users.
VPN (Virtual Private Networking) for remote users.
DMZ (De-militarized Zone) functionality is added for security measures.
Simple Configuration.

Disadvantages:

No redundancy.
Security becomes a risk.
No scalability.
Limited support for traffic-intensive users.
Not reliable.

Conclusion:

We firmly believe in the ability of our product to change the foundation of education. The “Interactive Classroom” will provide the teacher a way to gauge if the students understand the material being taught. If the data coming back from the “Interactive Classroom” gives the teacher the impression that the students are not quite grasping the information, the teacher will be able to go over the material until he is satisfied with the data coming back from the “Interactive Classroom”. We feel this will force the students to pay more attention in class.

The “Interactive Classroom” will also stream video of the teacher’s lecture allowing persons who are unable to get to class to participate fully from the comfort of their own home. We will provide a secure link to the classroom network by establishing a virtual private network. This will ensure that only those who are given access to the network can connect to it.

The network portion of the “Interactive Classroom” is primarily based on Cisco equipment. It will be a system that can be maintained with minimal knowledge of the products. It will be set up so that it is fully redundant and easily upgradeable. We are confident that our “Interactive Classroom” will be in high demand because of its easy of use, stability, and potential as a learning tool.

References: