Although "learning" can be solitary endeavor, "teaching", by definition is a collaborative effort. Most would agree that Teacher-Student and Student-Student interactions are the most critical parts of the learning process, whether we envision lectures, recitation sections, or tutoring sessions.

In community colleges, where a large fraction of students often hold full time or nearly full time jobs, it is especially important to develop teaching modes that minimize the problems of scheduling student-teacher and student-student interactions around work schedules. Further, there are synergistic opportunities for collaborations between students and teachers from multiple institutions. Projects can be conducted which combine expertise and/or student interest not available within a single institution, and there are additional benefits to having students (and faculty) critique the joint efforts from multiple viewpoints.

At Space Time Links, we have been developing an internet-based technology (FarSightNet) that permits meaningful interactive "teaching" experiences to occur at odd hours, as well as allowing students and teachers from more than one institution to collaborate on research-oriented projects.

The FarSightNet™ system provides a versatile communication tool to allow both asynchronous and synchronous (real time) instruction or collaboration over a computer network. Unlike most systems, which provide little more than a "shared whiteboard" with optional "wallpaper", FarSightNet efficiently handles the interactive exchange of any information and is especially effective when communicating complex information, including pictures, graphics, mathematics, and large drawings.

FarSightNet™ is a client-server software system for the interactive communication of complex documents. It provides real-time, peer-to-peer conferencing as well as asynchronous collaboration (store-and-forward).

Since FarSightNet can be used with virtually any document format, which may contain any combination of text, graphics, and images, it has application in any area where electronic exchange over distance is important. In its initial incarnation, however, a number of features have been incorporated which are directed at education and training.

As an illustration of its use, suppose an instructor wants to prepare a homework assignment for an astronomy class. Using Microsoft Word, or other capable document creation software, the instructor creates the homework assignment, cutting and pasting text and images from various sources, including textbook-related CD's, and Web sources. Using a special printer driver installed as part of the FarSightNet system, the instructor "prints" the final document from Word. This operation creates a reformatted document which is readable by any FarSight Client, and which is in effect a multi-page image of the original.

When this reformatted document is then read into the FarSight Client software, it is displayed for annotation and review. The instructor can then add a variety of annotations, including freehand drawing, voice, markers, and text boxes (stickies). The document can then be saved to local disk, or to a FarSight Server, in the native FarSightNet format, which includes all of the added annotations.

Another user (in this case, a student) may then obtain the document, either from the FarSight Server or via an e-mail attachment, and then display it with another copy of the FarSight Client software. The student may review the assignment, play back the voice annotations and answer the questions by typing into text boxes or by "writing" on the document using a graphics tablet, or by adding further voice annotations. The student then saves a copy on disk for him/herself, and sends a copy back to the instructor either via the FarSight Server or as an e-mail attachment.

At any time, the instructor and student can join in a conference with the document, either the version as created by the instructor, or the "completed" assignment. In this interactive session, the student and instructor can converse (voice over the network or by separate telephone line) and synchronously review the assignment.

The collaborative review is "peer to peer", meaning that neither party has to obtain any special status to modify the annotations, manipulate the document, or move a shared pointer. Any action by either party is reflected on both screens almost immediately (a delay of less than half a second is typical over the internet). The FarSight Client software maintains near perfect "congruence" throughout the conference, meaning that each screen shows the same view of the document at the same time.

In this simple example, the instructor has utilized FarSightNet both to distribute an assignment, and to provide any needed help the student. The rich feature set of the FarSightNet system can be used to provide much more, however. Annotated lectures can be created using the step-by-step voice annotation format, and ad hoc tutorial sessions can be arranged over the Internet. The applications are tailored both for the distance learning environment (e-education) as well as a conventional course in which the internet may be used only for "virtual office hours".

You will note in the example above that the document to be discussed was present on both computers at the beginning of the conference. This allows the FarSight client software to load the document(s) from the local disk instead of "downloading" from one system to another. While this is not strictly necessary (the system will download when required), there is a great advantage in having this "Independent Access" to data. A multi- page document containing many images could be several megabytes in length, but will load very rapidly on both systems since in each case it is coming from the local disk. And once loaded, all manipulations, including zooming images and modifying brightness and contrast, are carried out synchronously without having to send any image data over the network. Thus, all annotations and even complex image manipulations occur in "real- time" even if the Internet connections are via telephone lines.

The system also allows a user to create a "blank", multi-page document (called a "Multi- board) and add freehand text at will. Especially in math and sciences, this capability can save countless hours, which would otherwise be spent in creating equations with the word processing software. (While the equation editor in Word is a thing of beauty, it is a time consuming operation to create even a simple math homework-set using it.)

Although one can learn to write legibly with a separate graphics tablet, and even with a mouse, the creation of freehand documents is greatly facilitated by the new computer systems known collectively as "Tablet PC's". These are similar to laptops, but with an LCD screen that incorporates an integrated graphics tablet. The user "writes" on the screen with a stylus, thus taking advantage of all the hand-eye coordination learned from childhood.

The following is a brief list of features that are especially important for remote education and training:

• Independent Access (real-time interaction over low bandwidth lines)
• Congruence (What you see is what I see - WYSIWIS)
• Access any document that can be printed (including multi-page documents)
• Review multiple documents at the same time (multiple document windows)
• Annotation by freehand drawing - selectable widths and colors (pencil and paper paradigm)
• Voice, text and marker annotation
• Shared interactive pointer
• Document with annotations wrapped in a single file for easy distribution
• Multi-point conferencing (one to one, one to many or many to many)

Many modern textbooks are available in digital format via CD's from publishers. In almost all cases in the sciences, there is at least an associated CD with supplemental material that can be used in a variety of ways. A large portion of this available material can be imported to FarSightNet for use in all phases of teaching

Since any browser is capable of printing an html document, any reasonably static web page can be imported to FarSightNet. In addition, GIF, JPEG, and many forms of TIFF are "native" to FarSightNet and are directly readable. Also, since the text annotation boxes (stickies) can be any size, and support clipboard-mediated cut/paste from other applications, there is a wide range of material available to create or enhance content within the FarSightNet environment. Finally, images and documents can be scanned from hardcopy and imported.

In all of the above scenarios, the student has a variety of means of responding to problems posed by an instructor, both in synchronous ("live") conference, and in asynchronous mode. Direct drawing via mouse or graphics tablet is supported with a wide range of line widths and colors, and all text annotation boxes permit simple editing and text entry.

In this scenario, Virtual Office Hours or tutoring sessions can be scheduled which do not require travel on the part of either the student or teacher. This allows sessions to occur at hours more convenient to working students and those with family responsibilities. In addition, reducing the need for travel, especially to inner city schools at night, can enhance student and faculty safety. Since the teacher has the option of providing illustrative problems from textbook-related CD's, literature samples from works in electronic format, or even scanning in documents from other sources, it is possible to make these sessions as productive as face-to-face meetings.

Finally, there are attractive scenarios for distance learning, and for giving unusual courses in an urban environment or basic courses in an extremely rural environment.

In the last two cases, there are usually not enough students easily transportable to a single location to justify the expense of having a teacher for a specific course on site. With the independent access feature of FarSightNet, however, all of the complex images that may be required for a course can be stored on one or more CD's. Then, with one copy at the remote site and one at the originating site, a "live" lecture can be carried on with a simple telephone connection, greatly reducing the costs of supporting such remote courses.

Finally, in the standard web-based course environment, FarSightNet can be used to provide the student-teacher and student-student interactivity that is so often missing. Without such a tool, web based courses tend to be too much like "correspondence courses" with e-mail substituted for the Postal Service.

FarSightNet is a software-based system designed to operate on any platforms that support the Java? environment. This will include systems utilizing Windows? operating system, as well as Macintosh? and UNIX systems. Native code implementations will be available for several operating systems as well. A Java Applet form will also be available to run in a web browser within the usually Java security model. The client applet is a download of less than 300 KB.

The client software (utilized by both the students and teachers) can be used with as little as 64 MB of RAM if the documents imported are not too complex. The amount of RAM needed depends on the complexity of the data being shared. 128 MB is strongly recommended, and even more can be needed if many high-resolution, images are used.

Raw CPU power is usually not an issue. Most machines at the Intel Pentium II? level are more than adequate. Disk space, of course, depends on the number and complexity of the documents that must be stored, but the requirements are not excessive compared to the size of the usual disks supplied even with the least expensive systems.

For hand drawn annotations, a mouse is usually adequate for "marking" or "highlighting" words or other features on the screen, but is almost never adequate for legible writing on the screen. Graphics tablets are available for about $100 that greatly ease the task of making legible, hand drawn characters and diagrams. An even better solution, certainly for the teacher, is to use a fully integrated graphics tablet computer, allowing the user to draw directly on the display screen, taking advantage of the decades-long development of hand-eye coordination that is involved is writing.