In the third part of her series on broadband in Southwest Minnesota, Deb Gau at the Marshall Independent focuses on broadband in the schools. It starts with a nice quote on the benefit of broadband in education – especially for rural schools…

“What it’s starting to create for us is a way to bridge the gap we’ve always had between rural schools and schools in the Twin Cities,” said Josh Sumption, information technology manager at the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative. By coming together online, students and teachers can get access to resources a single school district wouldn’t be able to afford.

She also includes some great examples of how broadband is used in the school today…

Member schools use the network for a wide variety of purposes. For example, some schools including Marshall High School now offer online classes – about 156 students in the region participated in online classes this year, Sumption said. An American Sign Language teacher based out of Beaver Creek can reach students across southwest Minnesota through interactive video. At Pipestone Area Schools, there are interactive whiteboards in every classroom thanks to a special technology levy passed by voters in 2006.

And with new applications popping up daily, the possibilities are endless. She mentions the SmartBoard, which if you haven’t seen is like a chalkboard-iPhone hybrid. I often hear people say – what would we do with 100 Mbps? The schools have the answers. According to the article, the schools are currently at 68 Mbps – and maxing out during school hours. I think it’s great – but I also think it’s a sign that the workforce of tomorrow is used to some great gadgets and serious bandwidth. I think it would be wise for those of us on the work-world would try to raise to those standards rather than home the young workers skills are compatible with older technologies.