THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604270128
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 220 lines
IN A CLASSROOM off of Cedar Road, students are exploring the world.
They're learning how to use computers at the school system's Center for Science and Technology to get information and communicate with other computer users internationally.
Meanwhile, they're also teaching the world about Chesapeake.
The center has its own page - kind of like a computerized flier - on the World Wide Web, a part of the Internet global electronic network that allows the transmission of words, pictures and sounds.
The center joins a growing number of Chesapeake-based individuals and groups offering facts about themselves and the city on the Web. The city government, the school system, the library, the Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations, a School Board member, various public and private schools and Hampton Roads Online, a community guide of The Virginian-Pilot's Pilot Online - all have built their own rest stops on the information superhighway.
Some have been motivated by a chance to experiment with exciting new technology; the Internet has become a popular medium only in the past several years.
Others see a cheap way to advertise their groups and broadcast basic information about the city.
``We'd like for it to eventually become a window for the whole world to our school and what we're doing,'' said John B. Tant, a high school math and science teacher at the StoneBridge School. Tant's Web page has had nearly 1,500 visitors since September, and he's been asked a few times for more information about the school.
Anyone around the globe who wants information about Chesapeake, such as the names of city councilmen or details about the school system's budget, can get it almost instantly with the right kind of computer equipment and a link to the Internet. People moving into the area can find out about the schools their children will attend.
``It's an immediate source of information for people who have access,'' said School Board member James J. Wheaton, who has two sites on the Web. One has details about the school system, and another promotes his bid to keep his board seat in the May 7 School Board elections.
``They know that they can go out and search for information. . . and they can pull up all the information,'' Wheaton said. ``That's a lot easier than writing separately to the Chamber (of Commerce) and the city and the school system and hoping you get what you want.''
The amount of information the Web offers about Chesapeake still is limited. You can get the school system's budget, for example, but not the city's.
Also, some of the information out there is not reliable.
A Network Hampton Roads page about Chesapeake, for example, still lists City Council as including some people who have since left, such as state Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., Sherry M. Simmons and former Vice Mayor Arthur L. Dwyer. The page was produced by iTRiBE Inc., a Norfolk-based company that provides Web sites for other companies.
``There's no way to police the Internet,'' said Mark S. Cox, the city's public information director. Cox posted the city's official Web page in March. ``Someone can put up totally inaccurate information, and there's currently no way to remedy that. So it's kind of a buyer beware situation.''
But all involved said they expect to see the volume and quality of information expand.
``Eventually it could be that any record that is accessible to the public would be potentially accessible through the Internet,'' Cox said.
``I'm going to try to get a handle on what types of information people would like to access from their homes and businesses,'' he said, ``or what types of information do they need, say, after hours, when city offices close?''
His aspiration is that someday, a trip to City Hall to pay a water bill or to apply for a building permit would be unnecessary. All could be done by computer.
``Any type of transaction that you would come to City Hall to do, may potentially be part someday of our Internet Web site,'' Cox said.
``It sounds like science fiction right now, except for those who are very forward thinking. But at one point the same skepticism was directed toward the telephone and the television and other things we now take for granted.''
An early example of the sort of thing that can be done is DataPilot, a service of The Virginian-Pilot's Pilot Online, which permits the user to obtain detailed demographic information about any Chesapeake neighborhood.
School officials also see endless potential in their activities on the Web.
For one thing, students enjoy researching facts and figures on computers far more than combing through books and magazines. So it's a tool to entice kids to do school work.
Before he learned to harness the power of the Internet, Steven A. Marshall found it difficult to motivate himself to do school projects.
But now, ``It's what you like doing,'' said Marshall, who helped set up the Center for Science and Technology's Web page. ``So you could be doing the computer and school work at the same time.''
The center's students have spent time at other schools, helping them set up their own Web pages. At least six other schools have them now; more have pages ``under construction.''
Knowledge about the Internet is spreading among Chesapeake's students, particularly at the center and at Oscar F. Smith High. Both schools now have ``Sun Stations,'' labs in which the computers are linked to a single Internet access. The system allows teachers to give Internet instruction while students follow along and practice on their own terminals. Before, teachers would have to work on one computer while students watched.
Teachers gradually are catching Internet fever, too.
``Everybody's curious, because they've heard so much about it,'' said Dorothy W. Sawyer, a media specialist at that center. ``So they want to see it, and once they see it, they want to use it.''
Linda D. Scott, the center's principal, said she wants to see more teachers trained on how to use the Internet, so they can take advantage of its power in their lessons.
``I see it as an invaluable tool,'' Scott said. ``You're searching worldwide.''
Scott, who has been dabbling with the Internet for about six years, said her students already have had contact with other kids worldwide, telling them about life in Chesapeake and breaking their stereotypes of Americans.
She'd like to see Chesapeake's presence on the Web expand. Maybe, for example, Chesapeake schools could put lesson plans on their home pages, so other schools could share them.
``That's where I feel we need to be going now,'' she said.
Other authors of Web pages say they also expect to see more opportunities for sharing information, instead of just posting basic facts and figures.
There's one dilemma, however. Not everyone can afford a computer and a link to the Internet. Not everyone has access to the technology at work.
Cox is working on that problem. He and a team of city workers are proposing that the city spend about $35,000 in the near future to equip public libraries with computers and hookups to the Internet.
The Central Library on Cedar Road now has one computer that has Internet access. But that link is only temporary; it's being provided free through July 1 by WHRO, the area's public broadcasting station.
After that, the city will have to pay for its own Internet access and will need to buy more computers so people can use it. And that means more city residents will be able to take advantage of the information on the Web about their hometown.
``My primary hope is that it becomes a useful tool for just about everyone in the city,'' Cox said. MEMO: If your Chesapeake organization has a site on the World Wide Web you
would like to have included in the Chesapeake Online Guide, please send
the name of the organization and its URL to The Clipper, 921 N.
Battlefield Boulevard, Chesapeake, Va. 23220 or e-mail
comm(a)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including the cover, by MORT FRYMAN
Chuck Anderson, manager of the Central Library, logs on to the
Internet. But that link is temporary; it's being provided free
through July 1 by WHRO.
The Center for Science and Technology joins a growing number of
individuals and groups offering facts about themselves and the city
on the Web.
The school system also has an unofficial home page on the Web.
At The Center for Science and Technology, Chris Berry takes part in
the Great Computer Challenge. Students are given a sheet of topics
to research and look for information on the Web.
Graphic
BROWSING FOR CHESAPEAKE ON THE WEB
Here are the Internet addresses or URLs for some of the
Chesapeake sites on the World Wide Web:
City of Chesapeake - http://www.chesapeake.va.us
Chesapeake Center for Science and Technology -
http://pen.k12.va.us:/Anthology/Div/Chesapeake/Schools/CCST/ccst.htm
l
Chesapeake Public Libraries - http://www.communitylink.org/cpl
Chesapeake Public Schools (unofficial) -
http://www.infi.net/-wheaton/cpshome.html
Chesapeake Public Schools (official) -
http://pen.k12.va.us:/Anthology/Div/Chesapeake/Ches-home/ches.html
Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations -
http://www.infi.net/-ccco/
Chesapeake's Mormon Family History Center -
http://www.communitylink.org/cpl/famhistory.html
The Christian Coalition - http://cc.org
The Cousteau Society -
http://www.math.clemson.edu/-rsimms/cousteau.html
DataPilot Neighborhood Census Data -
http://data.pilotonline.com/DATAWEB/census.htm (enter ``Chesapeake''
in form)
Deep Creek Middle School -
http://pen.k12.va.us/Anthology/Div/Chesapeake/Schools/DCMS/dcms.html
GATE Lab School - http://wwwp.exis.net/-gatelab
Great Bridge Middle School South -
http://pen.k12.va.us/Anthology/Div/Chesapeake/Schools/GBMSS/gbmss.ht
ml
Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge -
http://bluegoose.arw.r9.fws.gov/nwrsfiles/RefugeSystemLeaflets/R5/VA
/GreatDism alSwamp/GDSbrochure.html
Greenbrier Intermediate School -
http://pen.k12.va.us/Anthology/Div/Chesapeake/Schools/GBI/gbi.html
Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce - http://www.infi.net/chamber
Hampton Roads Online Guide to Chesapeake -
http://www.infi.net/pilot/community/chesapeake
Hampton Roads Realtors Association -
http://www.infi.net/REWeb/pcar/
National Heritage Resources for Chesapeake (The Virginia
Department of Conservation and Recreation) -
http://www.state.va.us/dcr-dnh/chec.html
Network Hampton Roads Chesapeake Page -
http://www.nhr.com/chesapeake/home.html
NASCAR drivers from Chesapeake: Ricky Rudd -
http://www.nascar.com/teams/dRRudd.html and Elton Sawyer -
http://www.nascar.com/teams/desawyer.html
Oscar F. Smith High School -
http://pen.k12.va.us/Anthology/Div/Chesapeake/Schools/OFS/ofs.html
Southeast Virginia's Regional Free Net Chesapeake Page -
http://www.seva.net:80/gov/local/chesapeake.html
StoneBridge Schools -
http://pages.prodigy.com/VA/n4xan/stonebridge.html
Tidewater Community College (Chesapeake campus) -
http://www.infi.net/tcc/chesapeake/ches.html
U.S. Coast Guard Finance Center -
http://www.dot.gov/dotinfo/uscg/hq/fincen/finhome.htm
Western Branch High School - http://www.infi.net/-wbhs/
Note: A dash - represents the tilde symbol common in Internet
addresses.
by CNB