Week 1 Assignment

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Hello to all. I looked over the assignment for week 1 and here is my shot
at it...

>  1) What are the one or two most pressing needs of
>           your PA school or library for the implementation
>          of effective and sustainable telecommunications
>           programs?

One of the more pressing needs is for a cultural change regarding
telecommunications. In other words, I don't think that many of the faculty
and staff members understand how current and future technology can change
the face of education.   Therefore, we are trying to establish some means
of bringing everyone up to speed as to the potential uses of this
technology. This may mean benchmarking, bringing in outside speakers to
in-service days, Involving community and business leaders who are on the
cutting edge and whatever else it takes.

A second need is for increased funding and resources in several areas.

	- We need hardware, software and connections. 

	- We need a LOT of training and informational seminars. This can get
extremely costly when you have to hire substitutes to free up the teachers,
Pay for trainers etc.

	- We need to have personnel on board with a combination of technical
expertise, a vision of the future and a knowledge of education. Bringing
these people on board can be very costly.


>       2) How do the needs of schools and libraries differ,
>           and how are they complementary?


Some thoughts on this in terms of the needs of a school:

- A school will probably have different administrative needs than a
library. There is a very real need to safeguard the confidentiality of
records of children at a school.  There is also a different set of
standards as far as reporting to federal and state authorities.

- I'm not sure, but I think that the decisions of a school board would have
 more political implications than those of a library staff. Mainly due to
the fact that you are dealing more with children in a school than in a
library.

- Our school will be serving somewhere around 2000 students by the year
2000. The library next door will probably be serving a much smaller number
of users at any one time.




>        3) How do the needs of rural schools and libraries
>           differ from those of schools and libraries in
>           urban areas?  


I can see a problem for rural areas in getting connectivity into the homes.
I'm from Philadelphia, but every year I go hunting in Tioga County. The
cabin does have a phone, but it is a party line. I'm not sure that that
would support dial in access. If we are going to establish connectivity in
rural schools, then we need to address the possibility that the students of
that community may be several years away from being able to establish a
reliable link to the internet from their homes. Perhaps some of the funding
in those areas needs to go to upgrading the residental telephone
infrastructure.
Chris Mendla


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>From the desk of:
Christopher G. Mendla, CGM Systems, Inc.  Philadelphia, Pa
Internet, Web and Small Business Computer Consulting since 1988
cgmsys@op.net.spamstinks           		www.op.net/~cgmsys
Remove spamstinks when replying to the email address above. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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