Distance Learning Programming and Resources A-G H-O P-W Education Network of Maine, University of Maine at Augusta The University of Maine at Augusta operates the Community College of Maine, which is in fact a virtual electronic college. In 1992, the name was changed to The Education Network of Maine. It has responsibility for off-campus associate degree programs and administrative responsibility for several of the off-campus centers. It will also lay the groundwork for articulation agreements for UMA's associate degrees in business administration, general studies, liberal arts, and social services with appropriate baccalaureate programs among the system's seven campuses. The distance learning network has a backbone that uses fiber optic (45 Mb) transport to link the state colleges in Maine and also to feed instructional television fixed service (ITFS) transmitters that broadcast programming directly into other learning sites. The fiber network is two-way, video and audio. The ITFS network uses broadcast video with return audio. New England Telephone (NET) has provided special contract pricing for the fiber-based network and has cooperated on providing conference bridging for the audio return on the broadcast side as well as in making other college resources available to distance learners, including the University's on-line card catalog. Computer conferencing is being added to the mix of technologies.   Education Satellite Network, ESN Education SATLINK ESN was established by the Missouri School Boards Association in 1987 to ensure that all Missouri school districts, regardless of size or location, have equal access to instructional enrichment opportunities through high quality, satellite-delivered educational television programs. ESN received a grant from NTIA in 1987 which assisted schools with the installation of satellite receiving equipment. In 1988 and 1989, a Star Schools grant allowed significant expansion of ESN's programming and equipment. ESN serves as both a producer of educational programs and as a clearinghouse of program information. "Education SATLINK," a monthly satellite program guide, lists more than 40 networks and independent program providers each month (September through June). It is also available as SATLINK OnLine - a searchable database of programming. ESN develops programming to help education professionals meet specifically targeted needs in local schools. Through production of original teleconferences and programs for students, teachers, administrators and school board members, ESN provides schools with cost-effective opportunities to enhance the way students are taught. ESN also provides support services to schools in Missouri.   EDUCOM K-12 Networking Project Aims to link practitioners in primary and secondary education through computer-mediated communications networks, and, with this connectivity, to develop networked resources to support curriculum reform and institutional restructuring; develops directories of K-12 people and resources, including primers and guides to training resources; seeks opportunities for business and industry collaboration; helps to build a leadership organization for K-12 educators; conducts outreach to key practitioners and policy makers.   Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Science and Mathematics Education Provides free information about mathematics and science curriculum materials through electronic and print media; allows users to access a variety of databases.   Electronic Schoolhouse, America Online The Electronic Schoolhouse links teachers and students for collaborations. An area has been established to assist teachers in setting up school to school and class to class connections using America Online. Using the Electronic Schoolhouse teachers can create learning experiences that go beyond the limits of the classroom's four walls. They can have an ongoing weather information exchange with a class in Florida, exchange students' writing projects with school newspapers in California, run a chess tournament with schools in Nebraska, Maine, and North Dakota, and display computerized art work for students in Connecticut. Up to 23 classes can meet at an agreed upon time for an electronic connection to enhance the standard classroom curriculum as well as to offer special events for students and staff.   ESPN (Cable in the Classroom) Scholastic Sports America (SSA) is a weekly program, airing Sundays at 5:30 a.m., devoted to the achievements of high school athletes, both on and off the field. College-bound high school seniors are invited to apply for ESPN's SSA Scholarship. SSA curriculum guide with suggested activities is available. World Wide Web Site: http://espnet.sportszone.com   ESPN2 (Cable in the Classroom) SportsFigures airs commercial-free each Monday at 4 a.m. and focuses on teaching math and physics through sports. A SportsFigures curriculum guide includes 21 teacher lesson plans with suggested activities for in and outside the classroom. World Wide Web Site: http://espnet.sportszone.com (203) 585-2000   The Family Channel (FAM) (Cable in the Classroom) Offers 24-hour family entertainment including children's shows, original series, and health and exercise programming. Commercial-free programming includes Apollo 11 and Kidnapped. Airdates appear in Cable in the Classroom magazine. 804/459-6169 Curriculum guides are available for each project. World Wide Web Site: http://www.famfun.com (804) 459-6165   FrEdMail - Free Educational Electronic Mail Network Initiated in 1986, FrEdMail is the oldest and largest education network in America, linking, through the Internet, more than 150 electronic bulletin boards (called electronic mail centers) operated by individuals and institutions. Each bulletin board represents a "node" on the system and delivers Internet e-mail to as many as 300 teachers and students. In 1991, FrEdMail helped approximately 5,000 teachers and their students participate in a wide variety of learning experiences designed to motivate students to become better learners and writers. Recent projects include "Acid Rain," for which students from around the country collected rain samples, plotted national data, and shared research, conclusions, and essays on the causes and effects of acid rain; and "Experts Speak," which involved one group of students assuming the personalities of various historical figures and another group interviewing them to determine their identities. FrEdMail is also intended to promote the sharing of resources and experiences among teachers.   GALAXY Classroom The GALAXY Classroom is a $24 million interactive satellite communications learning network that combines the best ideas about teaching and learning with the best in modern telecommunications technology. Using a satellite telecommunications network that aims to reach more than 10 million students in 20,000 schools by the end of the decade, GALAXY Classroom supplements elementary school curriculum by integrating commercial-free programs and curricula materials in the classroom. It offers a new way to better prepare children early when they are developing their attitudes toward learning. Programming and curricula help children at an early age build the cognitive, creative and literacy skills to become enthusiastic, lifetime learners and productive workers. The interactive curriculum engages students and teachers in challenging instruction that builds on every child's strengths. GALAXY begins by training teachers and principals to integrate educational technology with the best curriculum first. Then by using satellite, fax, video, and computer networks, they combine high-quality, commercial-free programming with hands-on activities and materials including science kits, teachers' guides, student magazines and literature books. The network offers continuing professional development, classroom assessment and technical advice. Thirty-nine demonstration schools in 21 states and the District of Columbia, and one school in Mexico receive GALAXY Classroom programming. There are three curricula series in language arts and science. Materials are in English and Spanish, and telecasts are closed-captioned. Each series is built upon a child-centered approach that encourages experimentation, collaboration and open-ended tasks, and recognizes that each child has something of value to contribute. GALAXY uses those strengths to create authentic situations that motivate students to read and write on their own and to participate in real-life problem-solving situations. The goal is not to recite irrelevant information, but to enable a child to construct meaning by instilling new ways of observing and thinking about the word. GALAXY is an initiative of Hughes Aircraft operated by the non-profit GALAXY Institute for Education.   Global Schoolhouse In the spring of 1993, the Global Schoolhouse (GSH) project put the most current Internet tools in the hands of classroom teachers and their students. During GSH activities, classrooms interact with each other over the Internet using multi-dimensional environments and videoconferences conducted with Cornell's CU-SeeMe software for Macintosh and Windows. Schools are grouped in clusters of four or five according to the topic of study. The Clearinghouse for Networked Information, Discovery, and Retrieval (CNIDR) provides teachers, students, and principals Internet tools training via desktop videoconferencing. The activities cluster around four themes: alternative energy sources, solid waste management, space exploration, and weather and natural disasters. Sponsors who support this classic example of government, industry, and education cooperation are: Arlington Cable Partners, California State University, CERFnet, Farallon, Internet World, InterNIC, Microsoft, McGraw Hill, Media General, Metropolitan Fiber Systems, Midnet, National Science Foundation, Network Solutions, O'Reilly and Associates, Palomar Software, Scripps, Howard Cable, Sim J. Harris Company, Sprint, SuperMac, SURAnet, QualComm, and Zenith.   Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA Golden Gate University in San Francisco is offering a telecommunications management course over the Sprint network of public rooms. The innovative use of the Sprint rooms was initiated by Patrick Portway. Six sites were included in the pilot project and a seventh site was used by different sites to include industry experts as guest lecturers.   Great Lakes Collaborative The Great Lakes Collaborative uses multiple telecommunication technologies to allow teachers to match a wealth of worldwide nationally-approved science and math curriculum resources to the needs of students in grades pre-K through 9. It provides an instructional support system for teachers making it easy for them to gain access to a full spectrum of worldwide innovative classroom resources. Educators gain access to an interactive network to exchange ideas and to maximize effective uses of the resources. "Explorer" software for the Macintosh allows educators and students to easily navigate their way through the maze of broad-based resources to find the right material based on curricula, learning objectives and grade level. The materials are available on-line immediately (or the software gives instructions or how to obtain them) and are interactive. Teachers and students can input their experience with the resource, add their own materials or create new materials using the database. Curricula listed are learner driven noting different learning styles, levels and readiness addressed through multi-media activities and is matched to the national mathematics and science curricula standards. GLC provides staff development and technical assistance to teachers involved in system reform of math and science instruction, integrating curricula with technology and support to implement interactive multi-media activities., Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania participate through their state boards of education and there are nine partners from state and national telecommunication and education organizations. GLC produces "Around the Lakes," a newsletter for professional development in telecommunications. It has models of how telecommunications is used in K-12 schools. Each issue focuses on a thematic topic for telecommunications or multimedia instruction, and contains a skill module and related activities for teachers. On-line resources, related to a given issue's theme, are included. ECNet (Education Connection Network) teacher sites are featured in each issue to encourage information exchange between schools. 16 issues per year. The 16 issues of the newsletter each year can be received on-line.   GTE Cerritos Project Six Cerritos, CA elementary schoolteachers used video-on-demand and switched, full-motion videoconferencing in their classrooms as part of their everyday activities. The project was a test (now disbanded) of the kinds of voice, data and video educational services an advanced telecommunications network (2,480 mile fiber optics with a prototype broadband switch) would make possible and it helped GTE identify how telecommunications might provide immediate and long-range benefits to education. With video-on-demand, teachers could bring the power of video to the classroom when they could most effectively use it. It fostered teachers' and students' creativity because they used on demand videoconferencing to share ideas and projects with other classrooms and schools on the system. A teacher who was an expert in a certain subject could broadcast lessons to the other classrooms. Teachers accessed services "on demand" by using a remote-control device to highlight menus on a standard television set and made their selections from a video library with 12 video-on-demand titles designated by the education system. Titles were pre-arranged, based on the teacher's curriculum planning and requests and loaded into a central library. A short notice videosystem had 200 additional titles that could be viewed within two minutes of the request. The remote controls fast forward, reverse, and pause. Classrooms were equipped with microphones and a camera for spontaneous videoconferencing. The same technology was used to provide video-on-demand and video phone services to selected Cerritos residents. from "A Technical Guide to Teleconferencing and Distance Learning," 3rd edition