area school districts closing digital divide Page 1 of 2

Printed: Monday, December 18, 2006 12:52:17 PM

Article published Dec 17, 2006

Area school districts closing digital divide

By John Bartlett john.bartlett@timesnews.com

SAEGERTOWN -- Penncrest School District here has maxed out its connections to
the Internet, limiting what teachers can provide in classrooms and the
district's reach to the outside world.

It's a daily example of the digital divide that separates locations with ready
access to the fastest and widest broadband and those that do not, said Connie
Sitterley, Penncrest School District's technology coordinator.

But that could soon change for all of northwestern Pennsylvania's school
districts. The state Department of Education announced a $5.2 million grant that
will lead to development of a dedicated wide area network serving schools
throughout the region.

"If it's not the toppling of the digital divide, it's the beginning of the
toppling," Sitterley said.

And the benefits will be seen directly in the classrooms at participating

schools, she said.

"Teachers will have access to a lot of resources and be able to do things in the
classroom that they cannot do now," she said. "Now a teacher can show a
classroom of 30 kids Google-Earth, but those 30 kids in the class can't go and
use it themselves and do projects. It would kill our network."

Many of the new curriculums now being bought by districts include Internet
resources, but without true broadband connection, students cannot fully use
them, Sitterley said.

The benefits are not limited to rural schools, Millcreek Schools Superintendent
Dean Maynard said.

"We have fiber-optic to all our buildings, but it will still help us," he said.
"The benefit is not as great as to the rural schools, but it will still benefit
us. It prepares us for future growth."

Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit 5, which serves Crawford, Erie and Warren
counties, joined with three other intermediate units in a consortium to develop
the dedicated WAN, said Vince Humes, IU-5's director of technology.

The $5.2 million grant provides funding for schools in 85 districts to connect
to the $15 million dedicated network. Sting Communications of Lebanon was named
to develop and construct the WAN, Humes said.

Individual school districts have the option of whether or not to participate.

Representatives of the districts in Crawford, Erie and Warren counties will meet
at the IU-5 offices in Edinboro on Tuesday to discuss participation and go over
the details of the project, Humes said.

"We won't own the network, but we will have a dedicated network," he said.

In Erie and Crawford counties, schools will be connected by fiber-optic cable.

In other areas, some schools will be reached through wireless services, Humes
area school districts closing digital divide Page 2 of 2
Printed: Monday, December 18, 2006 12:52:17 PM

said.

School districts should see significant savings in addition to much improved

access. T-1 lines now used by many schools cost about $230 per megabyte of
bandwidth, whereas the dedicated network would only be $60 per megabyte, he
said.

And the network will do much more than cut costs and increase the bandwidth for
schools. It will tie all the schools together, opening the possibility of
sharing programs and classes through real-time, two-way videoconferencing or
inter-active computer work, Humes said.

Maynard said one example of how that could be used is for the Mandarin Chinese
language class taught at McDowell High School.

The network would enable the district to offer that class through distance
education at schools throughout the region. Current bandwidth limitations and
having to piggyback on open Internet connections don't allow for that type of
distance education, he said.

Sitterley said it comes down to more possibilities and opportunities for

students throughout the region, no matter where they are located.

"Our district has been a leader in technology and the use of the Internet until
the last couple of years. We are suffering not because we are not keeping up,
but because the connection was not keeping up."

JOHN BARTLETT can be reached at (814) 724-6979, 870-1723 or by e-mail.

Last changed: Dec 16, 2006