John Morgridge, Cisco Systems Chairman of the Board, introduces the Global Schoolhouse to Japanese teachers at the Internet Association Japan (IAJ) School Networking Seminar.
During the "UK-LA '94" festival (a 67 day celebration of British arts, business, education and technology in LA, CA), student ambassadors from Global Schoolhouse Project classrooms in California, Washington DC, England, and Australia participated in a live interactive video-conference over the Internet (using the CU-SeeMe application), which was supposed to include the Prince of Wales. Prince Charles canceled at the last minute, but the children from the UK, LA, and Australia went on with the show, telling the world how they use the Internet and how it benefits them in their studies. They also got to interact with the President and CEO of Cisco Systems, John Morgridge, who spoke from Cisco headquarters in San Jose, California. At Mr. Morgridge's request, the LA students sang a song they wrote about the Global Schoolhouse Project.
Thousands of people from all over the world observed this historic conference using video applications (both CU-SeeMe and the Multicast Backbone--MBONE) on the Internet, as well as listening to it courtesy of a phone conference bridge provided by MCI. Cornell University, Pacific Bell, CERFnet/General Atomics and Sprint, as well as hundreds of other volunteers, also contributed to make this project happen.
This was yet another successful example of how business, education and government is working together to improve the quality of education in schools worldwide. Cisco Systems is proud to be a sponsor of the Global Schoolhouse Project, which is dedicated to demonstrating how internetworking technology and a connection to the Internet can be used to create a worldwide classroom without walls. In the words of John Morgridge, "The information highway eliminates the boundaries of time and place when it comes to access to information and education. In the networked world, the only barrier to entry is the capacity of one's own mind."