by Dave Spreen, TCETP Volunteer Coordinator and SMUG Member
The first bulletin focused on the development of the Tri-County Educational Telecommunications Project locally. The second bulletin took a look at a few things happening on the national level. Bulletin #3 detailed developments of the Blackberry Bramble Network Project locally. This bulletin ventures back to the national level which I thought might be appropriate in light of Humboldt County Office of Education's implementation of frame relay technology.
HCOE's LAN will connect via the frame relay to San Francisco State for Internet access. Like an extended local calling area, the frame relay extends from SF to Southern Oregon. Local districts would need to buy a frame relay connection, at an estimated cost of $3,000 to $5,000, to switch from analog to digital lease lines allowing them to connect with HCOE's LAN. Monthly costs would be about the same as those of many district administrations currently connected to the LAN via analog lines. Most districts will need to upgrade their phone line "backbones" sooner or later and HCOE has provided another incentive to do so sooner rather than later. Incidentally, a program in the Denver area will connect the Univ. of Colorado with public schools in 2 counties. Funded by a grant from the Together Foundation in Burlington, Vt. and planned in stages, they expect to have 3,000 users online by the end of the year. With an icon based interface, they will carry about 100 educational conferences from the Internet. Anyway, or those schools and districts that decide to take the telecom leap all the way to the Internet, following are a few services you might find interesting. I accessed the information via America Online's Internet Center.
"As one of the largest companies dedicated to the education of young people, from pre-schoolers to secondary school students, Scholastic is delighted to welcome you to our Scholastic Network Internet site. We'd see ourselves as a stop on the information highway where educators and students can find information, resources, and materials that offer real, immediate use in the classroom and other educational settings."
Features include:
Information about Scholastic Inc., one of the nation's leading publishers and distributors of children's books, classroom and professional magazines, professional books, technology products and other educational materials.
The Ultimate Education Store, an online catalog of wonderful books and education materials for teachers and students. Through the Ultimate Education Store you may order products online, as well as by phone, fax, and mail.
The Ultimate Learning Libraries. These curriculum-based libraries for teachers and students offer timely, valuable lesson plans, activity guides, research, and resource material.
Scholastic Electronic Newsletters provide current information, ideas, and discussions of topics in areas of particular interest to educators, including educational telecommunications policy, teaching with literature, and using educational software in the classroom.
Scholastic Network, our interactive online service, provides teachers and students with discussions, materials and services that fit right into the classroom.
Send email to
feedback@scholastic.com
or write us at
"An innovative computer and telecommunications-based science curriculum for grades 4 through 6 in which student-scientists investigate new ideas and exchange information with students around the world.
HELLO!, ACID RAIN, WEATHER IN ACTION, WHAT'S IN OUR WATER?, TOO MUCH TRASH?, WHAT ARE WE EATING?, and SOLAR ENERGY. Also now available are HOLA!, Spanish Supplement for HELLO! and the NGS KIDS NETWORK RESOURCE KIT FOR TEACHER PREPARATION AND ENHANCEMENT. NGS Kids Network is available on the three platforms: Apple IIGS, IBM, and Macintosh. Write to:
National Geographic Society, Educational Services, Department 5416, Washington, D. C. 20036. Call: In the U. S., toll free, 1-800-368-2728, weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern time. Or FAX your order to 1-301-921-1575."
"KIDS-95 is a grassroots project aiming at getting as many children in the age group 10 -15 as possible involved in a GLOBAL dialog. KIDLINK is the name of the organization that runs the yearly KIDS-nn projects. The KIDS-95 project will run from May 8, 1994, until May 6, 1995. Then the KIDS-96 project will start. Since the start in 1990, the projects have had over 23,000 participating children from 64 countries on all continents. In its simplest form, the dialog between the children is an exchange of personal presentations and views on the desired future of this world. The primary means of communication is electronic mail (email), but it may also be ordinary mail, fax, video conferencing, ham radio, or whatever. We hope that your children be allowed to participate fully, so that they can join the other kids in the ongoing global discussion using electronic mail. It is not so difficult. Besides, world-changing marvels to us, are only wallpaper to our children.
To learn about our projects, and keep current about important developments, subscribe to the KIDLINK announcement service. You do this by sending an email message to <LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU>
All KIDLINK youth activities are only for kids age 10 through 15. Students in grades where kids are normally age 10-15 at the beginning of the school year may participate in KIDLINK as part of class (in the United States, this means grades 5-10), but youth under 10 or over 15 may not participate individually. Fourth grade classes are too young and may not participate. KIDLINK is free. The children do *not* have to pay money for using our various services, but there is one requirement: The children have to answer these four questions before starting:
Send the answers to the four questions by email to: <RESPONSE@VM1.NODAK.EDU> When this is done, the kids are welcome to join and enjoy the rest of what KIDLINK has to offer."
Scholastic, NGS, and KIDLINK are just three of many services available to students and educators that have access to the Internet and a pioneering spirit to surf the ewaves. After falling off the "board" a few times you'll be "hangin' ten" in no time!