Integration of Multimedia and Satellite Communication Technologies for Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This paper presents a study on integration of both multimedia and satellite communication technologies for teaching and learning. We design an experiment with use of these technologies on the Internet and WWW to provide a hybrid information delivery system for teaching and learning. The experiment, one of Pennsylvania Link-to-Learn technology testbed project, is to design, develop, implement, and evaluate a hybrid information delivery system that integrates the broadband capabilities of direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and the peer to peer attributes of Internet technologies using satellites. The hybrid system was designed to integrate networked, broadcast, digital, interactive and multimedia technologies for delivery of media rich content to targeted users. With the use of large screen multimedia PC/TV convergent systems, multimedia-based teaching materials can be comfortably viewed by all students in the classroom and can be easily manipulated by the teacher via wireless controls. This research demonstrated the use of these technologies in selected K-12 classrooms and community agencies in the Lehigh Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, USA.