March 2000
Online
Newsletter for Greater Essex County Computer Using
Professionals
What's
tall, anchored in concrete, and has an itsy bitsy
parabolic dish at the top of it? If you
answered "'those towers that are going up at
schools in the county", you are
correct. With
all of the nice weather that we've been having
lately, I've been on my bike to drive by Anderdon,
General Amherst, and then once I was ambitious and
went to Malden Centre. They sure are nice and
tall. But, they also bring the promise of
high speed network connections.
That's
a piece of the puzzle for some of our schools that
really has been missing and heavily in demand. Over
the past month, I've done a number of First Class
workshops at the Dowswell Building. When you
get there, in preparation for the workshop, you
check out the facilities and the connection is one
of the things that must work and work well to make
the session worthwhile for the participants.
If I try it before 3:00, it is literally the
analogy of trying to suck peanut butter through a
straw. However, the minute that schools are
dismissed, the connection becomes viable
again. It's this continuous stream of high
speed connection that is appealing to
everyone. So,
let's jump ahead in time when the connection is
there, fast and reliable. What can we
do? Most people are looking forward with
great anticipation to the ability to pick up email
anytime during the day. But that's just one
of the immediate benefits. High
speed access to the Internet has long been promised
and something that most teachers are looking
forward to with anticipation. For the past
couple of years, workshops and institutes dealing
with the Internet and Internet topics have been
very well subscribed. What was missing was
the actual high speed to be able to use it
effectively. There
are some issues that do need to be addressed.
Before any student is allowed Internet access, the
district Acceptable Use Policy must have been sent
home, signed by parents and returned to be placed
on file. What
do you do first? The Internet access should
provide the facility to work with the sites that
have been reviewed in this newsletter.
Unfettered and undirected student use should not be
an option. Webquests, for all that we've been
promoting them, remain one of the highest level
applications to integrate the Internet effectively
into the curriculum. Elementary school
teachers should use the Social Studies, History and
Geography CD-ROM as a starting
point. Finally,
we have another GECDSB Webquest to brag about. Why
not start there? Look for Susan Moroz' fantastic
offering later in this newsletter. Teacher
librarians, in particular, should see all kinds of
immediate application of her
efforts.
January-June
Computer
PD Calendar
