| Ms.Simmons | http://teacherbridge.cs.vt.edu/ |
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BLACKSBURG ELECTRONIC VILLAGE INTERNSHIP
HISTORY/DESCRIPTION OF BEV:
Blacksburg Electronic Village began as an idea of a number of faculty and graduate students from Virginia Tech in the Urban Affairs and Urban Planning programs. They were looking for a way to connect people within our community for communication purposes, as information sources, to enhance community awareness and encourage community interaction. Interest grew throughout the 1980's. In 1992, a partnership between Bell Atlantic, Virginia Tech, and the Town of Blacksburg was announced for the purpose of determining the feasibility of an electronic village, or a community network.
The purpose of a community network is to give community members affordable access to the Internet, encouraging widespread use of technology in all facets of community life. Another focus of a community network is to give people a new way to communicate no matter where they are. People are the most important component. Community networks link schools, government offices, libraries, businesses and civic organizations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Partnerships are formed for the purpose of educating the community. Sharing of information in order to solve community issues is also an important aspect of community networks. Another critical factor in a successful community network is making access to necessary technology available to anyone interested in participating.
Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) just celebrated its tenth year of service. According to Mathew Mathai, Director of BEV, "it is one of the oldest and best-known community network projects in the country and has been a pioneer in community outreach through the incorporation of technology in community development projects". The partnership with the Town of Blacksburg continues today, providing beneficial programs to the local community. For example, the Neighborhood program provides the opportunity for neighborhoods to connect on-line through list serves, discussion forums and Web calendars. Other community organizations such as area churches, senior citizens groups, and local artists have also benefited from BEV services.
HOURS WORKED FOR BEV AND WHAT I DID:
At the beginning of the process, Mathew and I agreed to 3-4 hours a week of work for BEV. Listed below are hours documented working for BEV.
| Activity | Hours Spent | |
| July 10, 2002 | Met with Mathew Mathai, Director of BEV to determine feasibility of Internship | 2 |
| August 8 | Met with Mathew Mathai, went over TOP Program | 2 |
| September 9 | Met with Mathew Mathai, gathered information on BEV, toured facility | 2 |
| September 17 | - PTA meeting presented information about BEV and how it could be used to help our youth. Asked for input and ideas. | 1 |
| September 17 | -Attended Introduction to Community Networks presentation at BEV | 1 |
| September 23 | Met with Mathew Mathai, discussing youth page and field trip for my students | 2 |
| October 7 | Met with Mathew Mathai, planning field trip and going over webpage ideas | 2 |
| October 11 | Met with committee members, brainstorming ideas for webpage content | 2 |
| October 15 | Met with Mathew Mathai, planning field trip activities | 1 |
| November 1 | Met with Mathew Mathai, planning his visit to my classes as a guest speaker, previewing field trip | 2 |
| November 8 | Mathew Mathai addressed my classes as a guest speaker about BEV | 2 |
| November 12 | Met with committee members, collecting data for webpage content, discussing other uses for youth page | 2 |
| November 15 | Took classes (30 students) to tour BEV as a field trip | 4 |
| November 19 | Met with Mathew Mathai to review field trip | 1 |
| December 12 | Students stayed after school to work on WebPages | 2 |
| Total Documented Hours | 28 |
These are documented hours spent working on BEV activities. I spent many more hours forming the focus committee of interested parents, teachers, students and community members, collecting information as well as working with my students in class on content for the youth page. I have also spent countless hours creating my own interactive webpage through my association with the ROLE project using TeacherBridge.
BEV YOUTH PAGE DESIGN
My internship at BEV began with a discussion with Mathew Mathai, the director of BEV, about how to create WebPages. I was initially interested in learning more about webpage design. I wanted a better understanding of community networks and how they work as well as learning more about technology in general. I was interested in enhancing our community/school connection while giving something back to my community. Finding a way to use technology to help me be a better teacher was another goal.
In order to meet these goals, we decided that BEV needed a youth page. With the help of my business communications students, I was to work towards creating the content for the page. For students to understand what was involved, we arranged a field trip to visit the BEV building and scheduled a time for Mathew to come speak to my classes about community networks. He discussed what networks looked like, the technological requirements, as well as the physical arrangement of information (information architecture) necessary to create a professional webpage. During the field trip, students visited the room housing the servers for BEV and Virginia Tech, learned about security issues, temperature controls, raised flooring to allow wiring underneath the building and gained a better understanding of the people involved in making BEV work. They also saw the satellite dishes and learned how they were used. For most students the highlight of the trip was creating their own WebPages and using digital cameras to post their own pictures.
After several meetings with Mathew, we agreed that the page needed to reflect our community's commitment to the health, welfare and overall success of our young people. We decided to enlist a focus group of local youths and adults who might be interested in contributing to a youth page. I made a presentation at a PTA meeting to get parent input. I then organized a focus group of five people. It seemed important to include people with diverse backgrounds in order to get a variety of perspectives. Included were Donna Logan, the gifted coordinator for the Blacksburg Strand of Montgomery County Schools, Kim Homer, a parent, community member, Christina Mathai and a 7th grade teacher, Barbara Crockett. Over the course of several months, the group met to brainstorm ideas and survey preferences for a youth page. The group also gathered and shared information relevant to the effort.
In examining the ideas brought forward, there was a marked difference in the thoughts of the adults vs. the students. Adults wanted links and/or information with educational or safety objectives. The students focused on recreational and social uses for the page. Many issues surfaced as we discussed what format the page would take. We discussed the desire to have the page be more than a static list of information or a page of links. We wanted the page to contain interactive features that would engage kids. However, when using interactive applications several considerations came to light. Were we putting kids at risk to predators by allowing them to become interactive? What were the legal ramifications for BEV? Who was going to oversee the page, once my internship was over? It became quickly apparent that the youth page presented unique challenges.
WHAT WAS PRODUCED:
Ideas generated from our committee included the following:
- links on bullying prevention,
- Internet safety,
- a quiz on Internet Savvy for teenagers,
- advice column for teens hosted by teens,
- computer game links and reviews,
- information on area concerts,
- music lessons,
- music reviews,
- movie reviews,
- book reviews,
- recreation department events, schedules and sign-up information,
- laws passed specifically concerning kids,
- homework hotline,
- favorite resources,
- hunting information,
- kids favorite recipes,
- culture sharing information,
- local history,
- middle school messaging (chats) instead of Instant Messenger,
- school links,
- info on copyright laws
- interactive chats on adolescent issues such as:
- bullying
- ways to say "no"
- peer conflict
- what to do if a teacher is 'picking on you'
- self image
The website created through TeacherBridge and used by my students is on-line at the following address: http://teacherbridge.cs.vt.edu/public/users/jsimmons/Home.
HOW THIS EXPERIENCE INFLUENCED MY TEACHING:
One outcome of my internship with BEV is my participation in the ROLE Project through the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech. Mathew suggested I get involved with this group and this has been a great benefit to my teaching. According to the Goals statement on the TeacherBridge website, "The goals of the NSF ROLE grant at Virginia Tech center on using online tools for supporting teacher professional resource management for Montgomery County and Giles County Public School teachers." The website introduction states "TeacherBridge (Basic Resources for Integrated Distributed Group Environments) is a network developed for supporting online resources and collaboration among local teachers." TeacherBridge is a classroom management tool created for teachers to use for collaboration and engaging students in interactive activities. I was able to experience the use of Teacherbridge as both a teacher and a student. During my internship, I also took a course in Adolescent Literature with Dr. Kathleen Carico, who uses TeacherBridge extensively for posting interactive assignments, MOO's with students at Blacksburg Middle School and various other uses. She modeled ways that I could use my website for my students.
Through TeacherBridge, I was able to create a website and use it for classroom chats, discussion boards, announcements and a class calendar. The students became excited about our class and the use of interactive technology. Another benefit was the dedication of several students to the creation of the youth page. They came after school to work on the BEV website and learned from each other how to create WebPages. These students gained a wonderful insight into community networks, their purpose, and how they work. They learned more about their community and felt good about their voices being heard within the community.
Even though the BEV youth page is not currently up, I will continue to work on a youth site. The youth component is a very valuable part of our community. In this age of concern about the well-being of our young people, it is critical that we provide them with a safe place to express themselves within their own community.
REFERENCES:
Burke, S. (2002, August). After the Summit: Building Community Networks for America's Youth. New York: Corporation for National Service.
Cohill, A., Kavanaugh, A. (Eds.). (2000). Community Networks: Lessons from Blacksburg, Virginia (Second ed.). Boston: Artech House.
Dunlap, D. (2003, February). TeacherBridge. [On-line]. Available: http://teacherbridge.cs.vt.edu.