Charleen Worsham
Lesson 12

Develop a who's who listing of people and places forming telecommunications networks for delivering instruction in which you are personally and professionally interested in gaining more in-depth learning and familiarity.

Make an on-line visit to at least three of the websites and these people and places and develop a one-page handout listing the URL addresses and interesting information you learned to share with other students in class and instructor.

There are several things going on around our area that interest me as far as existing, expanding, and new networks are concerned. Many of these are for purposes of maximizing distance learning opportunities in the East Texas area.

TIF
http://www.tifb.state.tx.us
TIF is great and has done a lot for many of us- but - we could have done so much more had the agency structured their grants so that we could be better connected, particularly in creating distance learning networks. Can't wait until the next non-competitive round comes about!

Region 7 ESC
http://www.esc7.net/
Here's a network in my back yard that I would like to hook in to. They are in the process of building a ITV network in our area high schools.

Begun in March 1997 at the request of Region VII superintendents, ESC7Net is a consortium of educational institutions, formed to develop a regional integrated telecommunications network. Its mission is to improve student learning, offer additional educational opportunities, equip teachers with new instructional tools, and provide the best technology services.

Utilizing the latest technologies for high speed, robust Internet access, this educational telecommunications network is designed and managed for member K-12 schools in East Texas. Connectivity is offered to other degree-granting educational institutions, university/colleges, community colleges, libraries, and K-12 schools within Region VII.

SuperNet
http://www.sprnet.org/
Some of these schools are within our college's service area. Many of them have gone after TIE grants to install ITV equipment in their schools.

University of Texas Health Center at Tyler - NETnet
http://www.uthct.edu/pubaff/nr012601a.htm
We should be installing our ITV equipment to get hooked into this network late this summer (after our building is done.)

Satellite Dish Installed to Increase NETnet
Distance-Learning Opportunities

A new satellite dish, located north of the Biomedical Research building at The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, has been installed as part of a $730,000 grant from the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) to increase opportunities for distributing distance-learning educational content to rural communities through the Northeast Texas Consortium (NETnet).

Kevin Roper, director of NETnet, said, "We will use the system to pick up a variety of satellite programs including those offering credit for health care education, training for K-12 educators, and content for college courses. These seminars, classes, and events will be broadcast to our video conference network, which now includes 10 hospitals, 15 public school districts, and (by next year) 15 colleges and universities."

ET-LINC
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/technology/petd/cctp.html
I would like to eventually figure out a way to tie into this network since several of the ISD's in the network are in our college's service area.

Because of the sheer number of small and rural schools, the relative isolation of many of them, small staff and enrollments, there is a need: To implement a telecommunications distance learning system using fiber optic networks in order for 32 school districts to provide the best curriculum, courses, and staff training for their 40,287 students and 6,070 teachers without regard to geography, distance, resources, or disability. Implementation will result in linking 26 on-line and remote capable school districts and two universities through multi-site, two-way, full motion, multi-channel DS3 fiber broadcasts that provide for instant interaction for learners located in 11 Northeast Texas counties. The Creating Connections Project will provide for electronic consolidation of small schools that are struggling to maintain standards of excellence and will open doors to telelearning, telementoring, and telecommuting. The project will focus secondly on the training and professional development of teachers, administrators, and community.