The open society, the unrestricted
access to knowledge, the unplanned
and uninhibited association
of [humans]... - these are what make
a vast, complex, ever growing, ever
changing, ever more specialized and
technological world, nevertheless, a
human community.
J Robert Oppenheimer (1953)
The learning community in Bloomington-Monroe County is not limited to the classroom. It extends into the twenty-four-hour lives of the people, places and institutions which make up the school system, city and towns, county and rural areas. A culture is being created that values and expects ongoing learning for students and adults and acknowledges that rapid change and the explosion of information require continuous learning. Talk is important to this culture: social talk, private talk, business talk, academic talk communication - sharing and reflecting on information, teaching, learning and growth experiences, enriched by the diversity of subject matter and discourse. Technology, telecommunications and technology literacy in the Bloomington-Monroe County Telecommunity will seek to become the catalyst in the integration of lifelong learning experiences into the everyday life of the community.
The Telecommunity is expected to provide large economic and social benefits to a broad section of the area's populace. Considerable private and public resources have already been invested in programs to support and enhance economic development, job creation, education, health care and the overall quality of life in Bloomington-Monroe County. Traditionally, street and road networks, water and sewer lines, school and public transportation and parking have been considered the major infrastructure elements in governmental jurisdictions. The Telecommunity will enhance and refine local efforts, assets and opportunities through a communications infrastructure and platform, connecting the various segments of the community to each other and to other communities throughout the state, the nation and the world.
The integration of lifelong learning through technology depends upon three components: equitable access to technology; an infrastructure capable of connecting voice, data and video reception and transmission between and among the community and the world; and financial, technical, instructional, research and development support.
Bloomington-Monroe County is poised to become a focus for training, production, and utilization of and in technology and telecommunications. In this area are high numbers of businesses and industries producing and creating tomorrow's small businesses and industries, and technology. Other firms and individuals state institutions of higher and are using that technology to create and maintain competitive advantage in private and public markets. Throughout the county, schools and institutions are providing training, experience and personnel needed to take advantage of opportunities in research, development, marketing and service. Advanced communications technology will help existing agencies, institutions and businesses and begin to establish the community as an attractive location for new firms and applications.
Long before the national focus on education created by A Nation at Risk, the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce had moved the activities of its Education Committee into the national "Partners in Education" program. Experienced managers, volunteered by the Crane Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Westinghouse (now ABB Power T&D), United Technologies-Otis Elevator, General Electric and RCA (now Thompson Consumer Electronics), led the opening of multilateral dialogues among both public and private schools, the local teachers' and administrators' associations, city and county government, local offices of state agencies and federal facilities, large and post-secondary education.
Initial PIE activities featured school-business partnerships and focused on at-risk and gifted-and-talented students, attendance and behavior goals, academic incentives, individual and small-group tutorials, and the celebration of education, schools, educators and the community.
Personal and institutional networks, created through the revival of the "Leadership Bloomington" program of the Chamber and Continuing Studies at Indiana University, were used to mobilize City of Bloomington and Monroe County Community School Corporation community-wide task forces on education, restructuring schools and examining open attendance possibilities for school enrollment.
A Strategic Planning process, sponsored by the Monroe County Community School Corporation, the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce and the City of Bloomington, and facilitated by on-loan executives from International Business Machines (IBM), involving unprecedented participation, cooperation and collaboration between business, education, government and individual citizens, has united those segments behind a positive, proactive, communitywide vision designed to improve educational quality, the community's overall competitiveness and ultimately the standard of living of each citizen. This Community Alliance for Lifelong Learning, driven by a Declaration of Interdependence, is creating a culture that values and expects ongoing learning for students and adults and acknowledges that rapid change and the explosion of information require continuous teaming.
CALL implementation segments were formed to address the objectives of the strategic plan. The education segment formed action teams to address the issues of parent-school communication and the integration of technology into the curriculum. The City, IU Information Technology, IU Telecommunications, the MCCSC and Ameritech are examining the fiber-optic infrastructure needs of a technology community. The Community Learning Network Committee (a combination of the Chamber Education, the PIE Value of Education and the Strategic Planning Post-Secondary/Adult Ed committees) is focused on the dissemination of educational and related service information, developing information data bases, and stimulating community educational activities through the creation of an information network and public awareness of education resource centers.
As a mission of the CALL Board of Directors, technology and technology literacy in the Bloomington-Monroe County Telecommunity will seek to become the catalyst in the integration of lifelong learning experiences into the everyday life of the community.
The Monroe County Community School Corporation is a sophisticated and diverse educational system with a longstanding involvement in the use of technology in the daily operations of the schools. Administrative, support and student service offices of the Monroe County Community School Corporation are connected through the telephone system and a modem-based mainframe host to the central administration building. Instructional local area networks are operating -- although with varying platforms, complexity and capability -- in all elementary and secondary schools in the corporation.
Three events -- spanning nearly a decade -- are critical to the integration of technology into the curriculum of MCCSC schools. Initially, seminal model desktop computers were provided to secondary school mathematics departments, leading to increased faculty familiarity with instructional potential. These spawned building-level purchases, the development of prototype literacy and programming classes, research into the use of applications in other curriculum areas and library services, and activities involving computer assisted instruction at all grade levels.
Second, a corporation-wide computer committee recommended the purchase of networked computer laboratories in all secondary schools, a stand-alone computer for each elementary school classroom, and the development of a K12 computer curriculum, moving from computer literacy through the middle school years to applications and programming classes in the secondary schools.
Finally, school board action on the recommendations of a technology committee moved planning and purchasing to the individual buildings. Elementary schools pooled their resources, attempting to provide as much up-to-date technology as possible and, at the same time, planning for service and instructional computerization in all schools over a five-year period.
Secondary schools invested technology dollars in dynamically differing approaches, amounts and configurations, depending upon the visions of the separate sites. Hardware was provided to support library and counseling services, to enrich or expand the music and art curriculums and to develop curriculum approaches in math, science, English, social studies and "Technology Preparation." The technology committee developed a five-year plan for purchases and support and recommended establishing a position for a teacher-coordinator of instructional computing.
As building and renovation projects come online, school improvement committees are planning infrastructure that provides for both internal and external voice, data, and video communication and information services through cable television, telephone services and other facilities.
Libraries and media centers are participating in state and regional grants focusing on providing a shared information and catalog base. Schools are involved in global learning projects, collecting and sharing data from and with schools in Europe and across the nation. Four schools are participating with Indiana University in an audiographic simultaneous voice and graphics transmission - science-mathematics curriculum project involving the Children's Museum, the Indianapolis Zoo and schools from all around the state. Four schools and the administration center are pilot sites in a "Partnership Network" with Richland-Bean Blossom and EasternGreene County schools, Harmony private school, Indiana University and Indiana Vocational Technical State College designed to bring advanced Ameritech (Indiana Bell) and Smithville telephone companies fiber-optic communications technology to education, economics and health care in Monroe and Greene counties.
Indiana University and Indiana Vocational Technical State College are providing training, experience and personnel needed to take advantage of opportunities in research, development, marketing and service. Technical training and restraining, career development and small business seminars, and opportunities for distance learning are furthered by the IVTSC involvement in the "Partnership Network." Technology research and development is an integral part of lU-Bloomington.
A ten-year contract with Indiana Bell (now Ameritech) upgraded and integrated communication switching capabilities, increased the total communication lines on the Bloomington campus and overlaid a fiber-optic network to provide access for data and video networking requirements. From the academic involvement in computer sciences, through instructional applications o learners.
The library is the host for two Bloomington Cable Access Television stations on TCI of Indiana's local franchise, administering, with funding from franchise fees through the City of Bloomington Telecommunications Council, the production and broadcast of access programming and providing crews for televising and recording public meetings. A City of Bloomington-MCPL cooperative effort resulted in the construction of a satellite dish for BCAT. With the 1993 publication of the 'Kids Alive' Video Manual, the library celebrated 19 seasons of access television produced and performed by children.
MCPL's role as an educational institution is reflected in patron services and extension programs to public schools and other community agencies. The library has been the primary sponsor and driving force behind Volunteers in Teaching Adult Literacy (VITAL) and the founder and a partner with the school system and the local teachers' association in a secondary school "Math Homework Help" tutoring program stationed in local fast food restaurants and in the library's main building. Librarians from children's and young adults' services are regular participants in public and private school classrooms, and the MCPL is an active partner with the efforts of school libraries. Learners turn to MCPL as a source of information for their education.
Cable television service to about 60% of the homes in Monroe County is provided by TCI of Indiana. With the purchase of the assets of Columbia Cable serving areas outside the city limits, TCI has recently begun a complete rebuild of the network to construct a 550 megahertz broadband fiber-optic backbone trunk to increase channel capacity from 36 in the city and 40 in the county to a potential 500 channel system. Among the possibilities identified for inclusion by TCI of Indiana are educational services such as 'The Learning Channel." A second system, Pegasus, provides 12-channel services to individual units in apartment complexes.
The Telecommunications Council of the City of Bloomington and the Monroe County Cable Television Committee are charged with recommending policy, determining ordinances and monitoring the city and county's relationships to the cable television franchises. TCC is currently reviewing its guidelines for application for the use of the franchise fees earned by the city. The two Bloomington Cable Access Television channels have been a recipient of these funds, along with an experimental radio station. The council is exploring the possibility of expanding the number of local access channels to include data and information -- such as a school and community bulletin board and calendar -- as well as programming in religion and the arts.
The Community Service Council, an agency of the United Way of Monroe County, examined the delivery of local human services and determined a need for improved communication and coordination. Caseworkers from Middle Way House, a shelter for battered women, and caseworkers from Public Health Nursing often find themselves dealing with the same cases. "Kids First," a community health outreach project for children from ages one through five, is a collaborative effort involving a number of youth- and health-related agencies. The IRIS manual of human services provides resource information for clients and agencies and is now available on floppy disk to facilitate efficient searching.
As a pilot project for electronic communications, CSC installed an electronic community bulletin board for agencies to increase cooperative and collaborative efforts between agencies. The bulletin board is now housed at the United Way office, in a collaborative relationship with CSC, but lacks the computing power to serve both the user base of service agencies and potential clients.
The CALL Community Leaming Network Committee has been working to coordinate activities of the lib