With another school year set to begin soon there are certainly many things for students and parents to anticipate: new teachers, classes, updated wardrobes, extracurricular activities, and the new educational technology enhancements that make their way into the classroom. The dynamic nature of educational technology persists in challenging administrators, faculty, students, and parents to determine what is right for the students and the taxpayer’s pocketbook.

In dealing with these challenges it is often helpful to review a success story where educational technology allows students to take giant leaps in the learning experience. The following success story was noted by the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council.

In 1993, students ages 10 to 13, from four geographically distant schools—Jefferson Junior High School in Oceanside, California; Cedar Bluff Middle School in Knoxville, Tennessee; Longbranch Elementary School in Arlington, VA; and Oldfield House School in Hampton, United Kingdom—met over the airwaves to discuss their findings in a collaborative study of the environment. The students were part of a demonstration of the Global Schoolhouse that occurred during the National Science Foundation’s U.S. National Science and Technology Week.

The students’ goal was to read Earth in the Balance by Vice President Al Gore and then conduct ground water pollution studies in their communities. They were given 6 weeks to complete the project and prepare for a videoconference with students from other schools to compare findings. Beginning three weeks before the demonstration, students met in 2 weekly videoconference rehearsals over the Internet to give progress reports and show video clips of their research.

The Global Schoolhouse was established to demonstrate how people and information resources on the Internet can be used as a classroom tool for research and as a medium for interactive collaborative learning.

In addition to its administrative and educational benefits, in a number of areas the Global Schoolhouse is providing community access to school resources. Some schools and network projects are encouraging parents to become involved and have offered access via dialup accounts to school systems. Homework assignment archives, schedules, calendars, lunch menus, etc., are just some of the things that can be made publicly available through this network. Additionally, teachers are more accessible via electronic mail for parent/teacher conferences.

Established in 1993, the Global Schoolhouse was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, as well as many local and national businesses. Additional information regarding this project may be obtained from the Director, Ms.Yvonne Marie Andres at 619-433-3413, e-mail andresvw@cerf.net. The Global Schoolhouse project also has a web page at http://gsn.org.

This project is a good example of using the Internet to form collaborative networks to attain common objectives. In many industries this collaborative networking concept is gaining popularity both here in Florida and throughout the world. Gaining familiarity with collaboration in this manner in the school systems helps to prepare our young for the information age work place.

Not long after school begins our chamber will be presenting "Silicon Beach" Internet & Information Technology Exposition at the Holiday Inn on September 6-8. The theme is "Bringing The Community To The Information Superhighway" and the event will be an opportunity to experience firsthand the technology, businesses, culture, and opportunities in the information age. The exposition is designed to be user-friendly and supportive of educational technology initiatives. If you plan on conducting business or educating your children in the 21st century you must attend this exposition.

Several of our chamber committee’s participants have been actively involved with helping the schools get connected to the Internet. Ted Holoway of Sverdrup, Dicke Fallon of ETS Computers, Bill Harris of Webmasters have been a couple of our champions. Special thanks also go to Joe Kocanowski of Computer Systems Technology for loaning a computer for the chamber to connect to the Internet with.

This article was published in the August 1996 issue of Coastlines, a publication for the Fort Walton Beach (FL) Chamber of Commerce courtesy of the Daily News.

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