Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 16, 1995 TAG: 9509170005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHILHOWIE LENGTH: Short
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said electronic classrooms in Chilhowie and Marion senior high schools would be linked to sites in Carroll and Washington counties and the city of Bristol when the work is complete. The Rural Utilities Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will provide an $80,000 grant at Boucher's request.
Boucher named a task force of educators and telephone company representatives three years ago to develop plans for districtwide distance learning, connecting all 83 high schools, community colleges and four-year colleges in a fiber-optic network.
"Our fiber-optic-based network is fully interactive," he said. "That means that the teacher can see and hear all of the students in each of the outlying sites, and the students in all of the sites can also see and hear each other.
"With this technology, the barriers of distance rapidly fall away, and the teacher and students begin to treat each other as if they were all in the same room."
It provides a way to offer certain classes that a single rural school division could not afford, he said.
The linkages began two years ago between two Lee County high schools and Mountain Empire Community College in Wise County. Now, 21 schools have electronic classrooms and function as part of the network.
by CNB