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Last Updated: Nov 11, 1991
MEMORANDUM
28 October 1991
TO: Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Board
Members
FROM: John Clement, K-12 Networking Project
SUBJECT: K-12 Developments at/around EDUCOM '91
Note: I've written this as a memo to the COSNDISC list, in the interest
of killing two birds with one and one-half stones. Some of the
paragraphs below will be excised before this goes to the general
discussion forum.
A lot of K-12 business went on at the San Diego conference. There were a
number of excellent sessions, and large numbers of participants in two
Special Interest Group (SIG) sessions for K-12.
This initial memo gives an overview for those of you who were unable to
attend. Following memos will give more details in each area.
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). We made substantial progress in
defining the Consortium for School Networking, and in setting a structure
for the organization and a mission statement at least for discussion
purposes. A slate of officers of the organization and a preliminary list
of activities are included in this document. The draft bylaws will be
posted shortly; slightly later on, we will post some ideas about
membership categories and financing the Consortium. A draft mission
statement has been posted and has already received some discussion.
We held a business planning meeting of the Consortium on Wednesday 10/16.
Some 20 people attended. A draft set of bylaws was presented for
discussion, as was an initial slate of officers. Most discussion
centered on membership classes and fees. It was agreed to post most
items up for further discussion on the COSNDISC list. Later during the
conference a draft mission statement was prepared and went through
several revisions.
I hope to set up a discussion list for the officers of CoSN quickly; a
business plan will be developed as soon as the list of activities
stabilizes.
K-12 special interest group and other sessions. Attendance at both
sessions was very good. The Thursday 10/17 p.m. session, in a room with
60+ seats, had people in the aisles, along all the walls, and crowding
out the rear door. The Friday 10/18 p.m. session, on K-12/University
networking links, had even more people, but it was in one of the ballroom
partitions and everyone had a seat.
In addition, we held four informal gatherings on expanding network
access, user interfaces, LAN-to-WAN links in schools, and supporting
"virtual communities." We had 15 to 25 people at each of the first three
of these; I will admit that scheduling the fourth for Friday from 7:30 to
9 p.m. was probably a mistake, since we got only a few fanatics, who we
immediately dubbed the "lonely guys." But the discussions were great, all
of them.
Thanks are due here to all of those individuals who spent a lot of time
in the halls, rooms, dining areas and at poolside debating K-12 issues.
Although I can't mention everyone, I do want to single out the team that
volunteered to tackle the draft mission statement: Andy Barker of
Lakeside School, Fred Brigham of the National Catholic Education
Association, Sandy Sprafka of North Dakota SEND-IT, and Nancy Wilson of
Project NETIE at the University of West Virginia. They littered the
floor with crumpled drafts, and thought and argued much more than they
wrote; they gave us an excellent starting point, and deserve a hand for
their efforts. Let's give them a hand, folks, perhaps to help pull those
arrows out...
A slate of officers for the Consortium. And now, here is a list of the
people we dragooned into volunteering for a stint as officers and members
of the Board of CoSN.
Executive Director: Connie Stout, TENET <
[email protected]>
Secretary and Treasurer: Art St.George, University of New Mexico
<
[email protected]>
Chair of the Board of Directors: Gwen Solomon, The School of the
Future <
[email protected]>
Vice-chair of the Board: John Clement, EDUCOM K-12 Networking
Project <
[email protected]>
Members of the Board:
Bob Carlitz, KIDSNET/University of Pittsburgh <
[email protected]>
Joan Fenwick, AT&T Learning Network (accepted pending discussions
with AT&T) <
[email protected]>
Jim Luckett, NYSERNet <
[email protected]>
Jan Meizel, Davis High School, Davis CA <
[email protected]>
Frank Odasz, Big Sky Telegraph <
[email protected]>
Paul Reese, Ralph Bunche School, New York
<
[email protected]>
Bob Tinker, TERC <
[email protected]>
Gary Watts, National Education Association <fax, 202-822-7987>
Committees of the Consortium -- ones we've thought of so far:
Executive Committee -- Chair: Connie Stout, ex officio. This committee
is composed of the officers of the Consortium and two board members,
elected by the board.
Membership Committee -- Chair: Bobbi Kurshan, Educorp Consultants
<
[email protected]>
Policy Activities Committee -- Chair: John Clement.
Technical Activities Committee -- Chair: Art St.George, University of New
Mexico.
Program and Publications Committee -- Chair: Tom Grundner, National
Public Telecommunications Network <
[email protected]
Some notes about the above. As you will see from the bylaws, the
Executive Director is our CEO. The Board of Directors functions as a
policy and oversight mechanism. Committee chairs do not have to be
members of the board. Finally, this is a temporary board, assembled with
the intention of getting us started. One of its first activities will be
to develop a participatory process for electing Board members, and a way
of starting that process so that we can stagger membership on the Board.
Note to Board members: there was a good deal of confusion about the
difference between the roles of Chair and Executive Director in
discussions at and after our business meeting. Perhaps we can help
clarify the distinction after you look over the bylaws. My understanding
is that the Executive Director runs the Consortium, while the Chair of
the Board of Directors manages the meetings and discussions of the Board,
which include oversight and general setting of policy for the Consortium.
Preliminary list of activities and deliverables. This list is much
larger than a purely volunteer group should undertake; it is offered as a
starter for discussion and prioritization, so that we can come to
agreement on a basic set of activities we will undertake and then develop
a business plan and put together the funding to support it. Suggestions
for additions to the list will also be welcomed for a while, but we do
need to narrow things down.
Neither the activities listed nor the categories they are listed under
are in an particular order. Some of the activities are already at least
partly under way already; almost all will involve joint or
coalition-based efforts. Please use this list as a way to think about
what a Consortium for School Networking should do. It is hoped you will
disagree vehemently with at least some of the suggestions. All
assignments of names to task are fairly arbitrary (someone said "I'd do
that!") and subject to change.
Activity Area 1: understanding what is going on with networking and
K-12, and communicating that understanding broadly. This activity area
would generally be under the Policy Activities and Program and
Publications commitees.
a) Develop a set of position papers on networking and K-12. J.Clement,
coordinator.
b) Building and maintaining a bibliography of studies and guides to K-12
networking. M.Riel, coordinator.
c) Organizing and producing a peer-reviewed electronic journal on K-12
networking. C.Blurton, coordinator.
d) Updating the K-12 resource survey. J.Clement, coordinator.
e) Examining student access and usage policy guidelines.
f) Publishing a periodical newsletter.
g) Developing information packets aimed at universities and corporations
- -- with EDUCOM, CNI. J.Clement, coordinator.
h) Participating in policy discussions on Internet/NREN use.
i) Stimulating the use of Internet-wide licenses for information
resources.
j) Working to put telephones in school classrooms.
k) Funding released-time grants, travel funds and sabbatical-year
fellowships for educators to enable workers "in the trenches" to
participate in CoSN activities.
Activity Area 2: stimulating development of better user interfaces and
improved access to information. This is the arena of the Technical
Activities committee.
a) Coordinating the operations of the Internet Engineering Task Force
Working Group on K-12 User Interfaces. A.St.George, coordinator.
b) Developing interface demonstration packets and holding periodic
meetings. This is related to task 2.a.
c) Establishing online directories of K-12 people and resources, and
supporting their growth and usage. In collaboration with MERIT.
J.Clement, coordinator.
d) Supporting the development of resource bases on K-12 networking and
related topics.
e) Developing a formal liaison to the vendor community.
f) Supporting the development and improvement of user services and
training resources.
Activity Area 3: stimulating network-using collaborations and curriculum
implementation pilot projects.
a) Getting funding for released-time grants and sabbatical-year
fellowships, to get more working teachers and administrators actively
involved in Consortium activities.
b) Participating in collaborative pilot study (ies).
c) Supporting formal liaison to curriculum groups, disciplinary
professional associations and other communities with interest in K- 12.
Activity Area 4: increasing connectivity and lowering connection costs.
a) Supporting direct provision of Internet access in underserved areas.
b) Developing cost/service models for K-12 networking -- in collaboration
with network providers, telecommunications vendors, and networking
experts.
