The Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC), a research laboratory of Industry Canada, has a broadband interactive virtual learning facility, known as the VirtualClassroom.

The VirtualClassroom is an electronic meeting place where learners around the world can collaborate on the advancement of learning through technology using CANARIE's CA*net 3 backbone. Regional, national and international networks are used to connect participants to quality data, people and events. An integrated team of CRC and NRC and University of Ottawa researchers, leading educators and private sector representatives is working together to conduct R&D on advanced learning technologies. The requirements to develop and sustain a broadband enabled learning environment are being explored.

VirtualClassroom program provides unique opportunities for learners to interact in real time to build knowledge together. Broadband, real-time, multi-point video conferencing provides learners with the opportunity to debate issues and to participate in collaborative work. Working together within a virtual peer-learning community supported by mentors, students from kindergarten through Grade 12 are challenged to solve authentic problems. Each site hosts a group of students, who have prepared an analytic, esthetic, and/or otherwise creative response to some specified problem or situation. The groups present their respective solutions to each other, and discuss how their solutions might work together, or differences between them. Students are also encouraged to build knowledge together using shared applications during the conference sessions. The VC web site provides tools for asynchronous collaborative work.

To date, CRC has facilitated student broadband encounters with the following school boards across Canada: the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Avalon East School Board, Toronto District School Board, la Commission Scolaire aux Coeurs des Vallées and Edmonton Public Schools. International partners have included schools from Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Singapore. Partnerships with the Netherlands Finland and Middle East are under development.

The VirtualClassroom's control center is CRC's Broadband Applications and Demonstration Laboratory (BADLAB). This facility allows the demonstration and testing of new broadband applications and services through a variety of telecommunication networks across Canada and the world. A principal node of CA*net 3, BADLAB integrates terrestrial wireless and satellite communications to develop broadband-enabled learning environments.

Contact:

John Spence
Program Manager
Communications Research Centre Canada
Tel: 613-998-6521
Fax: 613-990-8382
Email: john.spence@crc.gc.ca