Strategic directions project aimed at
helping teachers connect on the Web

Related Link: Linking K-12 Schools to the Web

By Susan Voelkel

Ted Frick, associate professor of education at IU Blooming-ton, wants Hoosier teachers to be "well connected." What he intends is to help the state's teachers share their best ideas and practices with other teachers.

Frick, whose project, Linking K-12 Schools in Indiana on the World Wide Web, is funded by the Strategic Directions Initiative, wants to "provide a forum for teachers to 'strut their stuff' by helping them create home pages on the Web," he explained.

IU President Myles Brand has cited the project as one which focuses on IU's partnership with the state. "Frick's initiative will launch Indiana's teachers into cyberspace by providing Internet services that will link K-12 schools throughout the state," Brand said.

Frick said the IU School of Education "is in a wonderful position to provide cyberspace services to teachers" because of its mission of teacher training and its technological support. Frick hopes to provide a Web server for teachers and make training on Web usage easily available to them. Indiana schools could participate by paying a small fee for teacher training and Web use, which would allow the project to be self supporting once it is fully launched.

Frick and his graduate student assistants are well along in the initial phase of the project, which consists of producing a needs analysis. They have already established focus groups to find out how many teachers are interested, what equipment they have or need and how the schools can assist them in participating. The assessment is, in effect, "a market survey of potential customers," he said. The goal is to find the best way to link K-12 educators on the Web in a meaningful and useful way.

Tentatively, the second phase of the project will involve a pilot program with about 20 schools to work out logistical and training issues, using instructional materials which have already been developed and tested.

Then, the developers plan to estimate the future costs of operation for the program and determine how much revenue would be needed to support the project.

This will be followed in early 1997 by active recruitment of Hoosier schools to participate in the project.

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