Project iTech and the Wireless Environment
Greene County has boldly stepped into the 21st century by embarking on an endeavor that will provide the very best information age learning for our children and establish Greene County Schools as a national model for rural education and economic development in the information age of the 21st century.
Through Project iTech, all middle and high school students in Greene County have a laptop computer and wireless, high-speed Internet access throughout the school day. Learning through the use of laptop computers and access to the Internet goes on from students’ arrival at school until the buses roll at 3:05. Students explore a rich world outside the rural surroundings through virtual tours, on-line news articles, and interactive lessons.
The impact of community-based high-speed Internet access for students is clear and significant. The iTech learning continues after 3:05. Students can continue to pursue research, complete homework, explore that rich world that exists outside their rural communities, and interact with their friends and with people like them and different from them throughout the world. Information rich in graphics, sound, and even video can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Through the courageous leadership within the school system and county government of Greene County, this small, rural county is serving as a model for the delivery of rural education.
Greene County Schools envisions its iTech project as a vehicle for community education. In fact, training parents in the use of the laptops is an integral part of the it iTech Project and our hope is to have parents, siblings and members of the community at large share in the possibilities offered by the technology.
Greene County has taken it a step further by developing a model public-private partnership for the installation of high-speed, wireless internet accessibility across the County. Over 200 square miles of wireless & internet technology in the County means that no one will be denied the opportunity to the rich world of information found on the world wide web. A state of the art wireless canopy covering a significant majority of the County makes this a reality. Laptops for kids and a wireless environment, sure that is a bold step into a new century; but with the challenges that an extremely dynamic economy leaves, it is a necessary step in order to maintain the County’s place in the new economy.
In a community supported by a declining agricultural economy, technology can mean the difference between thriving and merely surviving. Wireless Internet access in Greene County’s schools is making a difference for students, but wireless high-speed Internet access in the community can and will changed the county’s entire economic outlook. And, perhaps point the way for other rural communities in America.