West Virginia Teachers Learn to Harness Interactive Technologies

West Virginia Teachers Learn to Harness Interactive Technologies

Hitching a Ride into Cyberspace at WORLD SCHOOL Symposium

September 9, 1997

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. - Teachers from around the state will converge on

Clarksburg this week, eager to hitch a ride into cyberspace.

Some 350 faculty and school administrators will explore ways to

harness interactive technologies in the classroom Sept. 11-13 at

Robert C. Byrd High School. The Bell Atlantic WORLD SCHOOL Symposium,

which is in its third year, will feature prominent speakers and a

variety of interactive, hands-on workshops.

The theme for this year's conference is "The Next Step: Using the

Internet More Effectively." In addition to Bell Atlantic-West

Virginia, sponsors include the West Virginia Department of Education

and West Virginia Technology, Education and Media Specialists

(WVTEAMS).

Kicking off the symposium Thursday is Ivan Seidenberg, Bell Atlantic's

new vice chairman, president and chief operating officer. Seidenberg

is the former chairman of NYNEX Corp., which merged with Bell Atlantic

last month.

Other speakers will include the following:

David Warlick, vice president of the Global SchoolNet Foundation, will

paint a colorful picture of the history of "telecomputing," beginning

with a global network of Apple II bulletin board systems and moving

into the World Wide Web. Warlick also will demonstrate how teachers

can use the Internet to facilitate learning.

Dennis Bushnell, senior scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center,

will discuss "Frontiers of the Responsibly Imaginable - The Creative

Process." Bushnell will share his insights on what the Internet is

and what it is not. He will explore "how to get to the horizon and

not strew pixy dust in the process."

Bob Frostick, a teacher at John Adams Junior High School in

Charleston, will discuss his adventure into the Amazon jungles and how

he turned that into an award-winning Internet project at his school.

Frostick's exploration in Peru was underwritten by a Bell Atlantic and

Earthwatch scholarship.

State Sen. Lloyd Jackson will talk about prominent issues facing

education in West Virginia.

Workshop topics will include creating collaborative classrooms; using

multimedia and the Internet in the classroom; creating school

technology teams; computer viruses, and programming in HTML (computer

programming language for the World Wide Web).

Bell Atlantic will host a second WORLD SCHOOL symposium this year

Oct. 23-25 at Cabell Midland High School in Milton. There is no cost

for teachers and administrators selected to attend.

For more information on the WORLD SCHOOL symposium, visit the Bell

Atlantic WORLD SCHOOL site on the World Wide Web at

http://www.k12.wv.us/wschool.

Interested educators also can call the Bell Atlantic-West Virginia

public relations office toll-free at1-800-642-8206.

The new 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

5.5 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.