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California Educational Data Processing Association |
The DataBus - Vol. 36, No. 2
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Dear County Superintendents of Schools,
District Superintendents of Schools,
District Assistant Superintendents of Technology
NetDay 96, March 9, is drawing near. I continue to be excited about its possibilities. No doubt your offices are getting calls about what NetDay 96 is, how people can participate, and what preparations need to be made for it.
Enclosed are some materials which may be useful to you in preparing for NetDay 96 and answering questions from various audiences.
Specifically, I am sending you:
In addition, you may want to contact local telecommunication providers and other technology businesses and community resources to see if they can assist you.
Also, six county offices of education and NetDay's industry sponsors are hosting NetDay 96 workshops to facilitate this unique school-industry partnership. Those of you who are hosting these workshops deserve a special thank you. The workshops will cover various aspects of NetDay 96 planning, e.g., technical and wiring, public relations and local support, organization of people and materials, and facilities and liability issues.
The intent of the workshops is to convey first-hand information to as many districts as possible; I hope each county will encourage teams of school board members, administrators, technical staff and facility planners to attend the workshops. Districts and counties should contact the county hosting the workshop to register their team. Each workshop will accommodate approximately 200 attendees per workshop. A special thanks to Pacific Bell and Education First for supporting the workshops.
I realize the level of current connectivity varies widely throughout California. I hope, by providing a broad based, open-ended agenda at each location, to respond to these differences.
(Ed. noteÐÐThe workshop information has been omitted since all workshops have already concluded.)
Michael Kaufman of KQED, who is leading the organizational efforts, has informed me that MCI and Telis (TeleLearning InfoSource) will be mailing software and information about a free dial-up Internet and email account to schools in California. Free accounts and training are also being offered by NetCom. Pacific Bell is continuing to make its Education First offer available to schools through 1996. Please see the enclosed information describing these opportunities which you may want to share with schools in your district or county. For more information, consult the NetDay 96 website at http://netday96.com. John Gage from Sun Microsystems and Michael Kaufman can also be helpful in responding to questions and, for the record, some have called to praise me for NetDay 96 but I do not deserve the credit. While my department staff has provided some support, this effort was the brainchild of John Gage and he deserves the praise. John and Michael can be reached by email at . Workshop information and the attached material are available on the Department's website at: http://goldmine.cde.ca.gov/WWW/Technology/NetDay_info.html. Please feel free to contact Ann Evans at (916) 445-2144, , or Carole Teach at (916) 323-5288, with any concerns as you prepare for this historic day. It is one of many steps I hope we will take together to bring the public education system on-line by 2001.
Sincerely,
DELAINE EASTIN
State Superintendent of Public Instruction
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