US/ND-4: Re: Week Four Assignments
Re: Week Four Assignments
Betty Dawn Hamilton (bhamilt@tenet.edu)
Tue, 17 Sep 1996 05:58:02 -0500 (CDT)
On Mon, 16 Sep 1996, Kevin Conde wrote:
> The question asked for week four was "How can schools and libraries share
> services with each other and with other community groups? How can these
> activities be structured so as to foster competition among
> telecommunications providers?"
Kevin, your response to this question is correct. Coming from a rural
community myself, I understand the problems of collaboration. I am in the
largest school district in a county having 4 districts. (Two will
consolidate next year, I think.) Our community now has direct dial to
Lubbock, 40 miles away, but going through a commercial provider is still
costly and not all of the districts are in local-dial area for Lubbock.
One of the major problems I see is in personnel. I understand that to have
a viable direct connect that will allow the small schools in this area to
share a connection, the community/school/consortium must hire a full time
person to oversee the connection hardware and software and everything
that goes with it. There is no way a person with a teaching load (or full
time school library operation, for that matter) could do that, even if
one had the expertise.
Each time I have approached my school with ideas (one was about 4 years
ago when there were some $150,000 grants made available -- ABC/CLIO?) to
schools for technology. I asked about a television studio/distance
learning connection (we already had a satellite and an ideal place to
build the control room and studio). My district was interested until they
decided we would have to hire a person to run it.
Now, as we explore a direct connection, I see the same problem. We need a
full time *knowledgeable* person to keep everything operating smoothly,
and I just don't see many small school districts shelling out salaries
that would attract computer/connectivity experts. I have thought that
perhaps the city/county governments could perhaps share with the schools
in the salary of such a person, but the red tape for setting up such a
personnel unit boggles the mind when you consider the benefits packages,
etc. Also, I don't know how such a person would operate if he/she had *3*
"bosses" (each entity -- not individuals, necessarily) who are very
"territorial" in their thinking and who might not understand the needs and
operating procedures of each other.
That last statement is not being critical of my local governments/schools;
it's just a fact. I'm sure such collaboration would be somewhat of a
problem *anywhere*, not just in my locale.
Add the salaried person issue to those of physical connectivity and staff
development, and the proposition gets more expensive.
Betty
.----.
Betty Hamilton, LRS | | 701 Cub Drive
bhamilt@tenet.edu ____|* ~~~~~~. Brownfield TX 79316
Brownfield High School \ | (806) 637-4523
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