Arizona Students Expand Their Horizons on Virtual Field Trips

Supported by Trillion’s High-Speed Broadband WAN

 

Trillion’s broadband network helps Central Arizona Community College and Pinal County ITv Consortium offer more high-quality distance learning opportunities to students

 

AUSTIN, Texas (Aug. 24, 2009) – With the help of Trillion Partners’ broadband wide area network (WAN) and 24/7 monitoring services, Central Arizona College and the Pinal County Interactive Television (iTV) Consortium are able to offer high-quality distance learning to students. During the 2008-09 school year, the Consortium provided more than 65 virtual field trips to 11 member districts to bring 21st century learning opportunities into the classroom, without the travel expense and administrative hassle.

As the school year begins, Arizona educators are planning to significantly increase the number of virtual field trips and videoconferencing sessions they offer to engage students in rich learning experiences that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Recent research studies on how people learn indicate that one of the best ways for students to grasp academic concepts is through project-based learning and exploration, but travel costs and the time required to coordinate field trips often prevent schools from offering these opportunities, especially when faced with tight budgets and limited resources. With the increased demand for digital learning opportunities, districts also are facing a bandwidth crisis.

Prior to working with Trillion, one of the nation’s largest providers of Priority 1 E-Rate eligible broadband WAN and Voice over IP (VoIP) services for schools, the Pinal County iTV Consortium provided videoconferencing to members through a combination of analog broadcast signals and T1 lines, which was expensive and limited the number of distance learning sessions offered. The Consortium relies on Trillion’s high-speed, reliable broadband network services to minimize operational costs and network downtime while providing high-quality distance learning.

“The expanded reliable bandwidth has enabled a huge increase in the quality of the video conferencing,” said Bill Steber, director of technology for Eloy Elementary School District in Eloy, Ariz. “We plan to double or triple the number of sessions that we provided last year because of the bandwidth capacity provided by Trillion.  This will significantly enhance the education our students receive”

During the 2008-09 school year, Eloy students traveled virtually to the Toledo Science Center in Toledo, Ohio, to connect with educators presenting a physics class on roller coasters. Students learned how roller coasters work, and then built their own coaster. Another highlight of the year for students was the Planetary Patty session from the Challenger Learning Center at the Schenectady City? School District in Schenectady, N.Y. Students explored the vast solar system without leaving their desks. To the excitement of 6th and 7th grade students, the district connected them to an interactive class from St. Louis University Medical School that covered the dissection of a sheep’s brain and a pig’s heart.

Without the critical communications infrastructure, schools in the Consortium wouldn’t be able to access high-quality educational programming from sites around the world. Formed in August 2005, the Pinal County ITv Consortium promotes and provides support for videoconferencing in central Arizona to more than 50 locations in 11 school districts, Central Arizona College, and other organizations. The area served by the Consortium is rural with mountainous terrain, preventing travel and limiting schools’ access to high-speed fiber networks because of location and expense.

According to Richard King, executive director of multimedia support for Central Arizona College, which provides technical services to the Consortium, the demand for virtual field trips has grown rapidly in the past few years. He upgraded to Trillion’s wireless WAN to increase connectivity between sites and to improve network speed by five times. This year, he plans to add high-definition videoconferencing and connect more K-12 schools through Trillion’s network.

Bear Poth, CEO of Trillion stated, “At the heart of our company is our value system. We strive everyday to exceed our customer’s expectations by providing outstanding service and delivering the results our customers expect. The most important result our customers expect is to significantly improve the education of their students. I am very proud of our professional team for delivering a 21st century learning environment that is benefiting so many Arizona schools.”

For more information about Trillion broadband WAN and VoIP services, visit www.trillion.net.

 

About Trillion Partners

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Trillion Partners Inc. is the leading provider of Priority 1, USAC E-Rate-oriented broadband WAN and VoIP services for the education market.  Trillion’s WAN services include network design, installation and management using state-of-the-art licensed wireless and fiber technologies to ensure 24/7 availability and performance. Trillion's VoIP services, based on the ShoreTel platform, enable districts to take advantage of the advanced features of VoIP without the responsibility of day-to-day management. Trillion enables 21st century learning by providing districts with the core communications infrastructure required to deliver education technology applications key to student success in the classroom. Serving more than 1,000 schools across the United States, Trillion is one of the largest national service providers of VoIP and broadband WAN services of K-20 education.  For more information, visit www.trillion.net or phone (512) 334-4100.

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