Daily Archives: January 8, 2009

Windom Schools Light Speed Update by Wayne Wormstadt

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I’m posting this on behalf of the Windom folks. They received funding from Blandin and here are some of the things they are seen and done with that funding…

Blog notes for Blandin Grant by Wayne Wormstadt, superintendent

Benefits of the grant are directly seen through the funding for the equipment to enhance our video classes at Windom.

Other benefits are the opportunities for the students with the video equipment to showcase school district and learn practical skills and influence career choices.

Helps with publicity and public access are future benefits for all involved.

The Homework helper has been a concern as the ongoing cost to support this project to connect students with teachers at home. The ongoing cost of equipment and pay for stipends makes this a very unlikely program in which to sustain after the grant is complete.

A change of course from Homework helper would be to take the funds and provide Smartboards and Webcam in our 6th grade classrooms along with the fiber connection. This would then allow our 6th graders to communicate with students in Mountain Lake and Jackson County School Districts. They currently communicate via paper and pencil through out the year and get together for projects and joint field trips. The collaboration would increase and also allow live interaction. This is important as we are part of an integration collaborative to have our students interactive with other minorities. As Mountain Lake has a significant Hmong and Hispanic population this allows our students to experience ethnic diversity. The live interaction will only increase and enhance the number of opportunities. This will be much more cost effective and sustainable beyond the grant as equipment costs will be minimized and also stipends will not be necessary within this project.

Concern on the video end is the lack of training opportunity and the time allowed to teach a complicated program. Student mastery is difficult with limited time. Resources for the school become tight with new Biennium budget projections coming out. How do we make this program more responsive to the needs of the students including mastery and maintain financial viability of the program in economic strain? An elective with 9 students using expensive equipment vs. a class of 20-25 students with little overhead costs could force us in the future to possible make this a reduction in 2-4 years depending on state funding.

light speed communityThe Blandin Foundation is supporting four standout broadband programs through the Light Speed program. The program’s purpose is to stimulate the deployment of bandwidth intensive applications that connect local institutions to area resident’s home. This post comes from a Light Speed community leader.

Monticello Update – Amicus granted to FTTH & NATOA

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Sometimes when my mind drifts I think of Monticello and wonder how things are going there. You can follow the saga to some degree on the MN State Appellate court web site; the case number is A081928. It brings me back to my days working in law libraries – and reminds me that I didn’t love that work.

Here’s the latest news — both the FTTH (Fiber To the Home) Council and NATOA (National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors) have been granted Amicus which means the court has allowed them to have an opportunity to present their viewpoint by submitting Briefs (limited to 20 pages each).

As the courts point out, these organizations are most closely aligned with the City of Monticello. I think it’s going to be super interesting to see what they say. It appears as if a rule of an Amicus (or maybe just this Amicus) is that the news has to be new. So I’m hoping for something really good – something other towns can use to make their plans.

TDS/Bridgwater has been granted an opportunity to respond to the FTTH and NATOA reports and has 10 days from the time those reports are filed to do so.

I’ll keep my eye out for more.

Klobuchar’s talking about broadband in DC

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After a nudge from Bill Coleman, I ended up on Senator Klobuchar’s blog today. Her last 3 posts have related to broadband. They all related to a letter she sent to President-Elect Obama urging him to make broadband part of his economic stimulus package.

She says, “In many communities,” Klobuchar said, “the problem is that access is either too slow or too expensive, or both. As a result, businesses, hospitals, schools and even law enforcement are all at a disadvantage.” She adds that rural access and usage is significantly lower than the national average.

I am so pleased to see this extended light shining on broadband – especially when some of that light is coming from Minnesota. I think that Klobuchar is positioning us to be in a good place to take advantage of any broadband investment opportunities.

Klobuchar is not alone. Mike O’Connor recently posted a long list of folks who are lining up broadband project proposals for the new Administration on his Urban Broadband User in Minnesota blog.

I think broadband fever is building for a good reason – the research out there indicates that broadband is an important economic development infrastructure in the long and short term. Klobuchar cites a study by the Brookings Institution, which estimates that every one percentage point increase in broadband penetration per year would lead to the creation of nearly 300,000 new jobs. As I recall those jobs do not directly relate to the building of broadband but rather reflect jobs created by broadband use.

On the other hand the FTTH Council just unveiled a study that indicates that in the short terms tax incentives for direct fiber connections would create more than 200,000 jobs in each of the next 3 years and increase economic output by $100 billion. The same report also says that increased broadband penetration would indirectly generate another 360,000 new jobs.

The flip side of all these people clamoring for broadband is a recent report posted on the Benton Foundation site claiming that unless we do move ahead with some of these plans, broadband subscriber growth will decline by 12% in 2009.

Again it’s great to see – there aren’t enough hours in the day lately to keep up on broadband headlines!