Announcing
NATIONAL SCHOOL NETWORK TESTBED
CALL FOR STORIES
on
SCHOOL- COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
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The National School Network Testbed invites stories from Testbed members
about their school/community partnerships. The NSNTestbed is looking for
ways schools are engaging their local communities in school efforts,
particularly where these activities are making innovative use of
telecommunications technology. Our goal is to help educators, community
leaders, and policy makers gain insight into ways of making closer links
between schools and local communities. A team of National School Testbed
members will review the entries, selecting 15 winners who will each receive
an honorarium of $500.
The deadline for submission is May 15, 1996.
This is an opportunity for Testbed members to highlight those projects
where people in their communities and schools have been dedicated to
working together to make something happen. It is an opportunity to share
what is being learned.
The NSNTestbed will publish these stories both on the Web and on paper and
distribute the collection widely to organizations like the Regional
Educational Laboratories, state education agencies, the American
Association of School Administrators, the Department of Education, and the
National Science Foundation. Members can use this collection of stories to
inform their local communities about school/community partnerships, and use
them in support of local and state initiatives.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL SCHOOL NETWORK TESTBED:
The National School Network Testbed's purpose, as a National Science
Foundation Networking Infrastructure for Education program, is to further
the use of telecommunications networks in support of education and to
develop research that will inform policy and decision makers about the
costs and benefits of investment in information infrastructure. The
NSNTestbed has come to understand, that of all the issues and dimensions
surrounding telecommunications networks and school restructuring, we can
most productively focus on leveraging school and local community
interactions. The use of telecommunications in successful school and
community activities helps to build community support and investment in
school restructuring and the technical infrastructure.
CONTENT OF STORIES:
Please submit stories in electronic form and include your email address as
well as related URLs. Your submission should address the areas listed
below and not exceed a total of 1500 words:
1. Describe the project or program: What is involved in the project? Who
is involved - students, teachers, community members and organizations and
what are their roles? What is the project trying to accomplish? (Please
make sure to include URLs and email addresses of participants.)
2. Describe the initial efforts to build support: How did the project get
started? Who initiated the project? What strategies were used to gain
support? What roles have community members played in terms of support?
Where has leadership come from?
3. Describe the community partnerships: What is your community like? How
did community organizations get involved? Who initiated the contact? Who
maintains the contacts? Are students directly involved with adults in the
community organizations?
4. Funding: What was the initial funding source? How was it obtained?
Where are ongoing funds coming from?
5. Describe the impact on education: Has the project enriched the
learning experience for students and how? What's different about the kind
of work the students do in this program compared to what they do in more
traditional school work? What's different about the way teachers work in
this program? In what ways have you seen students change as a result of
the use of software tools, telecommunications, and community resources in
the program? In what ways have you seen teachers change as the result of
the use of telecommunications in the program?
6. Describe computer networks, Internet use, databases, and
knowledgebases: Tell us something about the computers, networks, and
information services available to students, teachers, parents, and
community members in the program. Are they networked? Do teachers have
access to email? Do students? Are students involved with making web pages
or building databases? Have there been any problems? What type of support
and or training was required.?
6. Describe what the program has accomplished: Has the schools
relationship with the community grown through the program and if so how?
Have there been some critical points that have made a big difference in the
success of the program so far? Has the community been more willing to
invest in networking infrastructure having seen the benefits through this
program?
7. Provide some advice: What would you suggest to other schools or communities
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EXAMPLES OF SCHOOL - COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT:
1. Project-based learning with the Community as an Audience. Students
produce a product, either individually or in groups, having academic
content, often in a traditional field like government or environmental
science, and which is done in order to change actual conditions or psychic
well-being in the community.
Example: Students work with the Juvenile Justice System to develop
information on the web about what the Justice system does and why. This
can involve interviewing officials in the legal system as well as research
on law. They apply technical skills in building home pages and learn the
content that they communicate to the readers of their pages. The activity
should result in a product that is be meant to be seen and used by
community members.
2. School to Work-Experience. Students work for a community
enterprise--a for-profit, non-profit, or governmental organization--either
for pay or for credit, which, in addition to helping their employer,
assists their own learning as well. This purpose is most clearly indicated
when students participate in organized reflective and follow-up activities
in the school setting related to their work experience.
Example: Students are paid to learn and to conduct network troubleshooting
in regular work settings in the community.
3. Tutoring and Mentoring: Regular contact between students or classes
and parents or community members who share their expertise, opinions, or
information. Community members tutor (academic) or mentor (personal growth)
individually or through organizations.
Example: An adult mentor periodically comments on a student's writing
through electronic mail or through the web. Through this students learn to
write for an audience besides the teacher, get insight into their ideas and
their writing skills.
4. Community Service Learning. Students help government and non-profit
organizations in their community in programs in which their own learning is
a manifest purpose in addition to the growth fostered by the service
performed. The work can be required or voluntary, credit or non-credit, or
done through a school program or independently.
Example: Students work with their local town or city representatives to
solve issues surrounding teenage drug and alcohol use, corresponding via
electronic mail. Through online discussions and face to face workshops
they establish priorities and design steps to address these priorities.
5. Community Volunteers. Parents and other community members
regularly participate in volunteer activities in the school building,
either during the school day or at other times, supporting or directly
dealing with the education of students.
Example: A local Tech Corps helps install and maintain a school's LAN and
WAN connections.
6. Schools take on a leadership role in building awareness about the
value of technology in restructuring education and/or developing the
necessary local network infrastructure.
Example: the school organization can influence the community in its
understanding and use of network technology through presentations,
activities, and town meeting discussion. Another case is when a school
organization builds the local information infrastructure and/or becomes the
Internet access provider.
7. Community Education. The use of the school building for adult
education or the education of other non-enrolled individuals during evening
and weekend hours. Scout organization use of school facilities is an
example as well as formal local-government-organized programs.
Example: A school's LAN and Internet connection are used for classes for
adults in Internet use.
8. School-based Enterprise. Students working under the direction of
an educational professional in actual productive work, as a self-contained
organization or organizational unit, either for credit or for pay, using
school-owned facilities.
Example: Students develop Web-pages for local companies using school
facilities, or they operate their community's Web-server.
9. School-Community Communication Links.
Example: Students learn about careers through formal matching with adults
in their community in particular occupations and on-going e-mail-based
discussion using their school's Internet mail server.
10. School-Parent Communication Links. Regular contact between
teachers and parents via home log-in to school Internet server.
Example: Parents view student work and homework assignments on Web pages
and communicate with their child's teacher via e-mail.
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE NATIONAL SCHOOL NETWORK TESTBED
The National School Network Testbed web site is located at:
http://copernicus.bbn.com/testbed2/
A document describing the research initiative is available at:
http://copernicus.bbn.com/testbed2/community/TBresearch.html
The announcement for this "Call for Stories" is posted at:
http://copernicus.bbn.com/testbed2/community/callstories.html
For further information contact:
Melanie Goldman
Exchange Director, National School Network Testbed
mgoldman@bbn.com
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OFFICIAL RULES
To Enter:
++++++++
To enter, participants must submit their stories in accordance with the
guidelines stated above not later than May 15, 1996. Stories must be
submitted in electronic form and include the participant's email address
and related URLs. The submission must not exceed a total of 1500 words.
Entries must be submitted to :
Please include:
your name
organization name
postal address
phone number
NSNTestbed affiliation.
Eligibility:
+++++++++++
Participation is open to all National School Network Testbed members --
students, teachers, parents, community members, business representatives,
and administrators. Some aspect of the project should involve the use of
computer networking. Students in particular are encouraged to submit
stories, and to interview community members who are working on
school-related projects.
If you are not a National School Network Testbed member and wish to become
one, please send email to:
asking for the necessary membership application form. Please include:
your name
organization name
postal address
phone number
The National School Network Testbed is looking for communities where
telecommunications networks have been used to increase the interaction
between school and community.
Selection of Winning Entries:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The BBN NSNTestbed team is sponsoring this call for stories and will select
a panel from National School Network Testbed members to judge all stories
actually received on or before May 15, 1996. Judging will be based on
compliance with the described guidelines, originality, creativity, and
content. The selection of the winners shall be within the sole discretion
of the judges and their decision shall be final. Fifteen (15) winners will
be selected, and each winner will receive a $500 honorarium. Winners will
be notified by July 24, 1996 via email. Only winners will be notified, and
the names of the winners will be posted on the National School Network
Testbed site (URL http://copernicus.bbn.com/testbed2/). Each winner will
be responsible for all taxes associated with the honorarium paid to such
winner. Employees of the Sponsors and their immediate relatives are
ineligible to participate. This competition is void where prohibited or
restricted by law.
Legal Matters:
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The Sponsors are not responsible for lost or damaged stories. There will
be no acknowledgment of receipt of stories by the Sponsors. Submission of
a story by the participant constitutes the transfer to the Sponsors of the
right to reproduce and publish, in electronic or printed form, all stories
received, without attribution, royalty, or other consideration to the
author.
Melanie Goldman
BBN Systems and Technologies
70 Fawcett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617 873 4653
mgoldman@bbn.com