RFC 1709 (rfc1709) - Page 2 of 26
K-12 Internetworking Guidelines
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1709 K-12 Internetworking Guidelines November 1994
II. Rationale for the Use of Internet Protocols
In 1993, the Bank Street College of Education conducted a survey of
550 educators who are actively involved in using telecommunications.
(Honey, Margaret, Henriquez, Andres, "Telecommunications and K-12
Educators: Findings from a National Survey," Bank Street College of
Education, New York, NY, 1993.) The survey looked at a wide variety
of ways telecommunications technology is used in K-12 education.
Their findings on Internet usage are summarized below.
"Slightly less than half of these educators have access
to the Internet, which is supplied most frequently by a
university computer or educational service."
"Internet services are used almost twice as often for
professional activities as for student learning
activities."
"Sending e-mail is the most common use of the Internet,
followed by accessing news and bulletin boards and gaining
access to remote computers."
The following chart shows the percentage of respondents that use each
network application to support professional and student activities.
Applications Professional Student
Activities Activities
Electronic mail 91 79
News or bulletin board 63 50
Remote access to other 48 32
computers
Database access 36 31
File transfer 34 19
The value of the Internet and its explosive growth are a direct
result of the computer communications technology used on the network.
The same network design principals and computer communications
protocols (TCP/IP) used on the Internet can be used within a school
district to build campuswide networks. This is standard practice
within higher education, and increasingly in K-12 schools as well.
The benefits of the TCP/IP protocols are listed below.
ISN Working Group