If you are a Teacher from outside of Spring Branch please feel free to look at the school sites that have Video Conferencing capability.

Description of Distance Learning System

Spring Branch I.S.D. faces some exciting challenges. Across the nation, everyone is trying to address a projected teacher shortage. At the same time, every school district wants to meet the individual learning needs and desires of the students and staff. Spring Branch I.S.D. is looking to Distance Learning to help meet these challenges. 

The first part of the distance learning initiative is a high-quality, H.323 video conferencing system. The product selected and implemented is PowerPlay by Broadband Networks, Inc. Almost half of the district's schools have at least one video conferencing system. The unit is on a roll-about cart and can be connected to just about any location in a school. We have students who actually take classes, daily, using the PowerPlay system, from teachers at varying schools. For example, students at Frostwood Elementary School take a class from a teacher at Memorial Middle School every day. The PowerPlay system also extends beyond the Spring Branch I.S.D. schools. Currently, a Spanish teacher at Northbrook Senior teaches her students as well as students from LaMarque Independent School District and the students at LaMarque never leave their classroom. 

As the Spring Branch ISD teachers and students have become more comfortable using the PowerPlay video conferencing system on a daily basis, we have more requests for outside Spring Branch ISD connections. The district is installing a connection to the Texas GigaPop as well as installing our own H.323 to H.320 converter. The Texas GigaPop connection will allow SBISD to connect via a high-speed link directly to classes being taught at Rice University, Texas A&M University, University of Texas, University of Baylor and many more. Students and teachers will now have the opportunity to interview experts and take classes without leaving the comfort of their classroom. The Texas GigaPop connection will also allow all SBISD students and teachers to connect to the vast resources on the Internet2. The Internet2 hosts many libraries of high definition video tours and 3D animations. 

The H.323 to H.320 converter will allow SBISD to easily and quickly connect the internal video conferencing network to older, ISDN based video conferencing systems. The H.320 systems are widely installed around the world and are more affordable for smaller organizations. In addition to video conferencing, SBISD has installed a web-based training system. Initially this system will provide SBISD employees with employee only training. Within the next three years, SBISD plans to offer courses to parents and students through this on-line, on-demand system. 

Finally, SBISD is using web-based training systems available on the Internet or Extranet such as www.childu.com and NovaNET. These systems allow customization of learn plans for students and allow them to progress through subjects at their own pace. SBISD has increased its Internet connection bandwidth from just 3 MB last year to 9 MG this year and added an advanced web-caching system. At least a 3 MG increase in Internet bandwidth and a 50% increase in the caching system is planned every year to address the growing integration of Internet resources into teaching and learning.