Bell Atlantic Awards World School Grants to Schools in Fairmont, Morgantown, Sissonville

Bell Atlantic Awards World School Grants to Schools in Fairmont, Morgantown, Sissonville

Funds Help Teachers Tap Resources of Internet

January 27, 1998

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Teachers at six West Virginia schools will receive
more than $8,000 from the Bell Atlantic® WORLD SCHOOL® Grant
Program to help them use the global resources of the Internet for
education.

Bell Atlantic-West Virginia has distributed over $230,000 in such
grants since the program's inception three years ago.

The latest grant winners include: Regina Scotchie at Miller Junior
High School in Fairmont; Thomasene Everly at Cheat Lake Elementary
School, near Morgantown; Sarah Corder and Carol Townsend, North
Elementary School, Morgantown; Linda Nakaishi, Kelli Allaway, Helen
Ashenfelter, Janet Brock, Linda Yost and Denise Berebbi at Woodburn
Elementary School, Morgantown; Linda Dlugos at Suncrest Middle School,
Morgantown, and Meagan Widdecombe at Flinn Elementary School,
Sissonville.

"These teachers are truly excited about harnessing today's technology
to enhance learning. Each of them has developed innovative ways to
use the Internet to facilitate teaching," said Dennis Bone, president
and CEO of Bell Atlantic - West Virginia.

The latest grant winners include:

Miller Junior High School -- $840 to fund a project that will allow
students to use the Internet and for special software to develop
electronic atlases of some of the world's major cities. Using
information they gather from the Internet, students will study the
similarities and contrasts among the cities in their climate,
geography, demographics and crime.

Cheat Lake Elementary -- $2,805 to enable students to learn about
life outside the United States and cultural differences between the
U.S. and other countries. They will focus on the Japanese culture
and use e-mail to correspond with students at a Japanese elementary
school.

North Elementary School -- $1,521 for students to use the Internet to
research and interpret a science topic, such as water quality, while
integrating mathematics and communications skills. The students will
communicate with experts in a relevant field of study. Their final
products will be added to the school's World Wide Web site.

Woodburn Elementary -- $1,320 for students and their families to use
the Internet to gather historical information about their family and
community. They will conduct electronic interviews with local and
distant historians and share their findings.

Suncrest Middle School -- $1,960 to allow students to build their own
Art Capsule Website, blending visual and textual resources into a
multimedia presentation. Students will research and discuss the
various methods of presenting art on the Internet and then apply their
findings in designing the Art Capsule Web site.

Flinn Elementary School -- $1,664 for students to use the Internet to
study the lives and works of several important artists. In addition
to gathering biographical information on the artists, the students
will locate a work of art by each artist through virtual museum tours.

Educators can learn more about these and other projects by accessing
the WORLD SCHOOL site on the World Wide Web at
www.k12.wv.us/wschool.

The WORLD SCHOOL Grant Program complements Bell Atlantic's WORLD
SCHOOL project, through which nearly 700 schools enjoy high-speed
digital Internet access. Teachers in all public schools served by
Bell Atlantic - West Virginia are eligible to submit applications for
the WORLD SCHOOL grant program.

The company awards individual WORLD SCHOOL grants of up to $4,000. A
panel of education leaders and Bell Atlantic employees judges all grant
proposals. Grant money cannot be used to purchase tariffed telephone
services or hardware, such as computer monitors, hard disk drives,
printers or liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.

Educators can obtain applications on the WORLD SCHOOL grants program
by calling the Bell Atlantic - West Virginia public relations office
at 1-800-642-8206.

Bell Atlantic - formed through the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX -
is at the forefront of the new communications, information and
entertainment industry. With 40 million telephone access lines and 5.8
million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are
premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market
leaders in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of
directory information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the
world's largest investors in high-growth global communications markets,
with operations and investments in 21 countries.