DATE: Tuesday, June 17, 1997                TAG: 9706170300

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   63 lines

UNC CHANCELLOR HAILS EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

For a few stunning moments, University of North Carolina Chancellor Michael Hooker stepped through a cyber-curtain to the future when he told a group of Camden County educators Monday how close their students are to getting college degrees on the Internet.

``Beginning this fall we're starting a three-year computer course in public health that will carry a UNC master's degree,'' Hooker said.

The chancellor of the UNC flagship institution is on a whistle-stop tour of all 100 North Carolina counties to tell teachers and students about the rapidly developing educational techniques that will be available in schools in a few years.

Tiny Camden County was singled out by as an important stop on his missionary tour of northeast North Carolina. Carole C. Smith, superintendent of the Camden schools, is a 1984 Chapel Hill graduate with a doctorate in education

The Camden Board of Education Futures Committee, a group devoted to keeping the county out in front of new scholastic ideas and techniques, welcomed Hooker to the Kermit White Center at Elizabeth City State University. ECSU is part of the 16-campus UNC system.

Hooker told the educators of his enthusiasm for the developing computer techniques at Chapel Hill that he said will bring many changes in North Carolina schools.

The chancellor said he hoped the new techniques will give teachers more time to teach and free them from some of the drudgery that can come with their profession.

``A computer program to grade test papers would make life better for a lot of faculty members,'' he said.

Earlier this year, the UNC administration at Chapel Hill began to implement Hooker's proposals to use computers to extend the teaching range of instructors far beyond the limits of a conventional classroom.

``With modern technology it is now possible to take the classroom to the students,'' said Dr. Michael A. Ibrahim, dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill school of public health.

``Many of our prospective students are employed and unable to leave their jobs for two or three years. They need to have education come to them,'' Ibrahim said.

Hooker's decision to start with a degreed public health program was based on several factors, including the fact that it will reach health professionals who have previously had no access to this advanced type of training.

Patty O'Leary Cunningham, director of the N.C. Public Health Training and Information Network, said the entire state will benefit when the new computer teaching system starts producing skilled graduates.

A grant from the UNC board of governors will offset extra costs that would be expected from the long-range computerized training systems, said Michael McFarland, director of UNC news at Chapel Hill.

``The tuition that will be charged will be comparable to what on-campus students pay,'' McFarland said.

From Elizabeth City, Chancellor Hooker went to Gates County High School in Gatesville and then to Ahoskie where he talked to the Roanoke-Chowan Carolina Club in St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

Hooker will be in Perquimans, Chowan and Bertie Counties today, and he will conclude his statewide circuit riding Friday in Western North Carolina.

Information about where and how the new UNC computer network may be accessed can be obtained from Rachel Stevens, 919-966-1069, rachel - stevens(at)unc.edu.

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