A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Challenge Grants for Techonology In Education - FY95

Southeast Education Service Center

Price, Utah

State of Utah Resource Web (SURWEB)

The State of Utah Resource Web (SURWEB) is a telecommunication project providing educational opportunities for Utah students who live in poor, rural, or culturally disenfranchised communities. The program was conceived and implemented by a consortium of public and private agencies including Utah's educational service centers, institutions of higher learning, the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, museums, state parks, national parks, and Native American tribal councils and agencies. The program fits within the framework of the Goals 2000 Act, encourages school reform, and provides comprehensive professional development opportunities. More than 400,000 students will eventually be impacted. There are five major goals of the program:

1) Building Connectivity

SURWEB is a natural extension of two existing educational telecommunication projects in Utah: the Southeast Utah Regional Wide Area Network (SURWAN) and the UtahLink Project. Both networks have a proven record of providing dependable service to schools. The SURWEB project builds on these networks, and adds a World Wide Web capability that enables schools to develop on-line educational resources and applications.

2) Developing Curriculum Applications

A Curriculum Advisory Committee (CAC) guides the development of units of study supported by SURWEB. The CAC is composed of teachers, parents, business representatives, a Utah State Office of Education curriculum specialist, university curriculum specialists, educational service center directors, and information specialists from state agencies. Using state and national school reform goals as a guide, the CAC develops thematic instructional units which integrate subject matter disciplines, introduce real-life issues, and capitalize on local and state resources. Unit subjects include dinosaurs, red rock formations, Native American cultures, ecosystems, pioneering history, and other topics related to the region. This educational material is made available to Utah schools and schools throughout the country via SURWEB and other state networks connected to the Internet.

3) Providing Staff Development

SURWEB is developing and piloting a teacher training program called Utah Internet Institutes that provides instruction in utilizing the resources of the Internet. The Institutes train teachers to access resources via telecommunication, integrate resources into teaching and learning, and evaluate student projects completed over the Internet. In addition, the teachers learn to create their own Internet resources for dissemination on-line. The technical production laboratories at Southern Utah University and the College of Eastern Utah provide training components for the Institutes and assist in the production of related WWW resources.

4) Scaling Up SURWEB

As SURWEB's lead agency, the Southeast Education Service Center (SESC) is working with the other Utah education service agencies to expand the program throughout the state. In the first year of the project, the other service agencies are conducting a series of planning meetings in each of their regions to strengthen regional educational technology planning, coordinate planning across agencies, and integrate the SURWEB project into their plans. In subsequent years, SURWEB will install WWW servers at appropriate sites in each service center, so that these organizations may utilize SURWEB applications in educational technology programs.

5) Evaluating SURWEB

The Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development has developed and will implement an evaluation plan for SURWEB. The evaluation design calls for focus group reviews of the program, and large scale mail surveys of students, faculty, parents and community members. The evaluation process is designed to measure the value of SURWEB in changing in the way people seek information, the way they teach, and the way they learn.

Members of the SURWEB consortium are providing support for the program in numerous ways: the Southeast Education Service Center has contributed hardware and software acquired through a Rural Electrification Administration grant; Southern Utah University provides facilities and content specialists in support of professional development activities; the Utah Education Network is contributing the services of an Internet specialist; the Utah State Office of Education is providing ongoing high school maintenance support and Internet training for all teachers in the state; Far West Laboratory is developing and implementing an evaluation plan; the national and state parks and the Indian agencies are providing information specialists; US West is providing technical assistance for a user friendly WWW network. Novell, Inc. will extend education discounts to maximize funds and give more students access to the project.

Consortium Partners

Dinosaur National Monument
Far West Laboratory
Indian Councils/Agencies
National Parks System
Arches
Bryce Canyon
Canyonlands
Capitol Reef
Zion
Novell, Inc.
Office of Museum Services
Service Centers:
Central Utah Educational Services
Northeastern Utah Educational Services
Southeastern Educational Service Center
Southwest Educational Development Center
Southern Utah University
US West Communications
Utah Education Network
Utah State Office of Education
Utah State Parks System (includes 45 parks)

PROJECT DIRECTOR:
Dr. F. Lynn Bills, Director
Southeast Education Service Center
65 East 400 North
Price, Utah 84501
Telephone:
801-637-1173
Fax:
801-637-1178
E-mail:
lynn.bills@m.k12.ut.us

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