Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 6, 1994 TAG: 9412060091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The high-tech link between the New River and Roanoke valleys will join existing prototypes in the Bristol-Washington County area and the coalfields of far Southwest Virginia as experiments in integrating the coming wave of technology into public education. It is to go on-line in September.
Bell Atlantic Corp. announced the Montgomery grant with four others across Virginia totaling $1 million. The Philadelphia-based telecommunications company said it will commit that amount per year for seven years to pay for such experiments. It also is providing fiber-optic lines at cost to school divisions that pay for the necessary TV and computer equipment.
The fiber-optic link represents the second generation of electronic classrooms. While the first generation was one-way - a teacher or professor lecturing to students watching on TV via satellite or microwave links - the new wave allows teachers and students to see, speak to and hear each other. They also are able to send electronic data back and forth.
"It'll be the next best thing to having someone there live in the classroom," said John Martin, an assistant superintendent in Montgomery.
Electronic-classroom supporters, such as Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, advocate using the new technology to overcome disparities between the schools of Western Virginia and their more wealthy counterparts in Northern Virginia and elsewhere. Boucher helped set up the first such link in Lee County last year, with Bell Atlantic providing the fiber-optic lines and federal funding paying for the TV gear. Boucher's goal is to link all 83 high schools, community colleges and universities in the 9th District, something he believes will happen in the next four years. There are 11 such connections on-line today; with the new money, another 10 should go into service, representing an investment of approximately $7 million.
Locally, the Bell Atlantic money will go to the New Century Communications Network Inc., a nonprofit corporation set up to administer the funds in the Roanoke and New River regions.
The Bell Atlantic grant will pay for teacher work stations, cameras, lights, microphones, monitors and other equipment. In Montgomery, one rural and one town-based high school will get electronic classrooms. Radford University and Virginia Western will get one classroom each.
The electronic classrooms will allow high school students to take advanced courses at either the community college or Radford. That will give the students - especially ones from either Shawsville or Riner - access to classes they might not otherwise have been able to take, such as psychology, Russian or Japanese, said Larry Arrington, the Montgomery schools' supervisor of technology. The network also could be used for adult education classes and by local government. Teachers and physicians also might use it to update their skills.
The county school staff will make a recommendation to the School Board in coming weeks on which schools should receive the electronic classrooms.
At the college level, Radford can offer courses to Roanoke-area students and thus save them the commute, and Virginia Western may provide remedial classes to Radford students who need them. The university, which already offers social work and nursing degrees in conjunction with the community college, announced Monday it is planning to expand its offerings in other areas.
Montgomery County, Virginia Western and Radford will have to pay the annual line charges for the fiber-optic hookup, about $1,500 per year per school, Boucher said. Though Bell Atlantic is providing the hookups at cost, Boucher will urge the upcoming session of the General Assembly to consider paying such line charges in Southwest Virginia.
The Bell Atlantic project is unrelated to a $99,000 National Science Foundation grant announced in October to hook five Montgomery County schools to the Internet.
by CNB