AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2001 Awards: Special Recognition Award
RECIPIENT West Virginia: Digital Divide Bridging Blocks
[Download Nomination - Word]
West Virginia has been implementing statewide educational technology programs since 1990 on a "turnkey" basis. The programs include the planning, hardware, software, local area networking, initial and ongoing staff development, maintenance and evaluations to meet educational, legislative and state policy stipulations. On a statewide level, economy of scale advantages of a program are realized as well as equity for all recipients. These two factors have an increased importance when considering affordable telecommunications access to the Internet and for distance learning resources. West Virginia schools were in dire need of this access.
When the FCC created
the rules and regulations for the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a component
included telecommunications discounts for schools to
access the Internet. The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE),
Office of Technology and Information Systems (OTIS), under the coordination
of Phyllis Justice, began the planning meetings and determined the approach
to take advantage of the telecommunications benefits and make one more
piece of our "turnkey" solution bridge the various divides for our students,
educators, communities and citizens.
Realizing the intricate details of the program and acknowledging that the rural, deprived areas that needed the benefits the most would be the ones that would be least likely to participate, a statewide approach was developed. Therefore, the Office of Technology and Information Systems assumed the task of completing an application for EVERY school in the state. This not only allowed for all schools to participate in the E-rate program, but it also ensured that the schools with the highest need would be included. In addition, the statewide process would help address the Digital Divide concerns for all students and locations.
The benefits of the
statewide approach have provided over $26.5 million in E-rate discounts
for West Virginia schools, enhancing learning opportunities and creating
cost savings. Every school now has a local area network connected to the
Internet via a high speed connection. The bandwidth varies based on the
number of students and needs of a school. Due to the internal connections
discounts through the E-rate program, West Virginia now has 83%+ of classrooms
with Internet access, while 100% of the schools have access. The classroom
percentage grows every day with each new installation.
The return for the
state will be seen in the improvement in education and the tie to economic
development. Having the knowledge to use today's tools is a must, and
that knowledge leads to academic improvement, IT training, business partnerships,
and an investment in our state's best resource—our people!
