
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 12, 1990                   TAG: 9007120312
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

ACADEMICS LOG ON TO AID VA. STUDENTS

A worldwide computer network is changing the way students and professors at the University of Virginia do research and is making its way into public schools, computer scientists say.

Scientists were using the USENET network this week to debate what went wrong with NASA's Hubble Telescope. A Virginia astronomer has worked on the Hubble project for 27 years.

USENET forms a kind of global bulletin board that allows scientists, computer experts, graduate students and other academicians to work together on research problems.

And through a pilot program with the state Department of Education, the university is helping bring electronic mail and bulletin boards to Virginia's schools, said Timothy M. Sigmon, associate director of Virginia's academic computing.

When a Charlottesville teacher involved in the program couldn't answer students' questions about a problem in a physics textbook, Sigmon said, the teacher logged onto the network and asked scientists from around the world to help him. The textbook's author responded.

Charlottesville students hooked up to a classroom in Alaska to learn about each other's cultures and discovered the Alaskan children's favorite food was Domino's pizza, Sigmon said.

"When I send something out it goes everywhere in the world," Sigmon said. "You put in a question and the next day you have a mailbox full of answers."

Every day, the electronic mailboxes at Virginia receive the equivalent of 2,500 to 5,000 letter-size pages of information.

"You couldn't get this kind of detail anywhere else that quickly," Sigmon said. He said trade and academic journals that come out weekly or monthly are far behind the computer network.

John Knight, associate professor of engineering and computer science, uses the bulletin board to get help from colleagues across the world. But he says journals are necessary for archival purposes, and journal articles must go through a rigid review process.

by CNB