ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170053
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Class Notes
SOURCE: HALE SHEIKERZ
In the Cyber zone
More people are relying on the Internet for information than ever before. With more than 19 million sites on the World Wide Web, information can be found on just about everything from political parties to exotic animals from Africa. One the Internet's greatest assets is that it provides parents and students information about their schools.
The Montgomery County public school system made its debut on the Web in January 1995. Since then, the site ...
(http://www.bev.net/
education/schools/)
... has been improved and expanded to include lunch menus, job opportunities and information about county School Board members.
The site also has links to individual schools, departments and outside resources. Currently 18 of the 20 schools in the system have their own homepage. Individual school Web sites are owned and maintained by each school. Some of the sites are designed and documented by students who call themselves "Webmasters."
The Web site for Auburn Middle and High School ...
(http://www.bev.net/education/
schools/auburn/index.html)
... has links to homepages of alumni and current students. These sites include photos and graphics as well as text and links to other pages. A virtual art tour, where Auburn students' artwork are displayed, also is on line.
Larry Arrington, supervisor of technology for the county schools, said the school Web sites are designed for both parents and students. For example, the main page includes links to various WWW search engines (that is, software to search for specific topics) and the USA Today weather. It also has a link to the one of the best sites for children. Election 96 for Kids ...
(http://www.dayton.com/
kidsnet/election.html)
... includes information about the election process, how the United States came to use a two-party system and information about the Electoral College. The site also has links to each official party and candidates' pages.
Arrington plans to include more student-oriented links and on-line activities in the near future. He said the county has a lot of ideas, including putting video and sound on the Web pages. Eventually students will be able to link to the Web site and listen to tutorials or original stories by the children themselves.
Arrington estimates that Montgomery County is further along in computer technology in its schools than most other counties in the state. In addition to the recent federal technology grant awarded to Riner Elementary School, the county also has received several other grants.
One of the problems that many schools now face is that they don't have the right hardware to run software programs, including Internet browsers. However, Arrington said that in the next few years the county will receive about 350 new computers, both Power Macintosh and Pentium machines. Local area networks also will be set up at all 20 county schools, allowing Internet access directly from each classroom.
Christiansburg High School is celebrating homecoming week until Friday. The homecoming parade will be at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Paul United Methodist Church. On Thursday, the PTSA will have an open house from 7 to 8:30 p.m. A bonfire will be held afterwards. On Friday, the football game against Radford High School will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Alumni will be recognized at the game. In addition, the homecoming sock hop will be from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. Music will be provided by Mike Sparrer.
The Blacksburg Middle School PTA will have an open house from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium. Due to limited space, only parents are encouraged to attend. For more information, call 951-5716.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB