Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / Jan. 13, 1994, edition 1 / Page 34
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High-Tech 'Info Highway' Touted As Kurai Growth Cataiys* BY SUSAN USHER Speakers painted a vision ot rural areas such as Brunswick County reaping the bene tits ot new telecom munications technology in the class room and m business recruitment at .! daylong conference held simulta neous!) at h\e locations statewide last week. Fhe Rural fele-Forum was in tended to give participants a taste ot how North Carolina's pace-setting new Information Highway will function, start them thinking about its potential in their own communi ties. and motivate them to spread the word. However, while Wednesday's sampling whetted interest in the highway 's potential, it also spot lighted some of the challenges to be overcome before the average North Carolinian begins to understand or usti the highway to personal advan tage. When trallic begins in August on the North Carolina Information Highway, it will provide govern ment. businesses and other sub scfibers with the latest in telecom munications technology, using fiber ipttc cables that increase the speed and clarity of voice, data and video transmissions. It will serve as the "backbone" of .1 growing infrastruc o turc. a network of roadways?wire less and coaxial anil fiber optic ca ble?that all provide the immediacy of two-way communications and link users to fellow communicators around the world. The technology should be "trans parent."' said Tabor City native Jane Patterson Smith, Gov. Jim Hunt's semi >i lim i.M>r i or icchfiolog}', pohcy and budget and "godmother" of the Information Highway. "What's im portant is what we deliver on the highway." And what the highway can deliver is a shrinking of the distance from markets and lack of access to infor mation that have traditionally been disadvantages for rural businesses and rural communities in general. Businessman Dick Snelling. for mer BellSouth of Atlanta executive; Billy Ray Hall, president of the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center; and Patterson were quick to advocate the locating of businesses in rural areas that previously had no choice but to locate in urban areas. And. lor attracting current business es and businesses of the future, they expect telecommunications to rank higher as a drawing card than other forms of infrastructure such as wa ter. sew er and gas. Generally last week's conference worked .is planned, showing how the "highway" system of the next century can work. It linked approximately 800 par ticipants at five sites?in Wilming ton. Raleigh. Bixine. Greenville anil Charlotte. TV screens and micro phones allowed audience members to hear and see presentations made at each of the other locations and to ?vi niii'stions of the sneakers -At anv I i j location. However, participants also experi enced occasional loss of video and/or audio reception and, at the Wilmington site, sat in near-dark ness most of the day. Audience members with questions for speak ers had to cross a stage and sit under a spotlight. And then there was the human el ement. as when a patient failed to show up for his appointment at Roa noke-Chowan Hospital in Ahoskie. He went hunting instead. Viewers were to have observed an interactive consultation that in volved a doctor and his patient in rural Ahoskie. and a dermatologist at the nearest teaching hospital, at East Carolina University in Greenville. Instead they saw pho tographs taken earlier of the pa tient's feet, and close-up TV views of skin lesions on another doctor's ears. NEED MORE TECHNOLOGY MONEY County Sites Will Connect To North Carolina 'Highway' Two Brunswick County sites will lx- among the lirst to he connected when North Carolina's Information Highway gets "switched on" this coming summer. West Brunswick High SchiX)l and Brunswick Com munity College recently shared in a federal Rural Electiification Administration (REA) grant to provide sonie of the equipment needed to link them to a regional long-distance learning network based at UNC Wilmington. They expect to each equip and set aside one class room lor network use. and for the state to initially help subsidize some operating costs. However, as with other potential highway sites and other high-technology users. Brunswick County educa tors have questions about who is going to pay the bill. In the Brunswick County Schools, for example, funding for expansion of the technology program came from a SI million separate allocation from county com missioners this year. Unless more tunds are allocated for the 1994-95 tiscal year the system won't he able to con tinue operating as it has. much less expand, indicated West Brunswick High School Principal Ed I.emon. The technology program in the public schools fol lows the general structure recommended by Dick Snelling at the Tele-Forum, linking those with curricu lum expertise with other people with technical expertise. Here each of the 12 schools has a computer lab coor dinator and each of the three attendance districts has a technical support person who is in turn supported by the central office staff. "They are what keep the system operating," said I.emon. "We're in good shape now, but we may lose I some of those people because the money is about to run out." Science teachers and students at West, he said, are ready to use more technology. One of their goals, for in stance. is a direct connection to Internet, a network that includes access to supercomputers ;m<1 to the Library of Congress database and others. Lemon also wants the public to be able to access I he network through West Brunswick High. Director of Technology Gene Zuck echoed those same concerns for future funding and securing access for users. "We definitely need all the support and involvement from the community we can get," he said. "That's going to be real important. We've got to have it." Smith Is Selected As The Employee Of The Month Linda Smith has been chosen as The Brunswick Hospital's employee of the month for January. She serves as the accounts payable clerk in the ac counting department -ind has been a staff member for three years. A tellow employee who nominated Smith said. "Linda exceeds all expectations of her with an extreme emphasis on accuracy. She is very deserving of this award because she has a strong desire to assist her coworkers without complaining and she always wears a smile." Smith received a hospital shirt, a complimentary meal and a cash prize. Shopping for a Mortgage? Shop and compare . . . and then see us for the rates and terms you want. Our mortgage specialist is on hand to help you get started. f MU4 KOlA'tt LtNDtK RITY s & Loan ASSOCIATION Shallotte Calabash 754-4371 579-3595 Southport Long Beach Leland 457-5246 278-3942 371-6546 t\ <&fi r am r?? ' ?r <? . STAFF PHOTO BY SUSAN USHEK A TRANSMISSION FROM BOOSE appears on monitors and a giant screen while audience members and (at right rear) UNC-W Vice Chancellor Michelle Howard-Vital, distance-learning Japanese lan guage teacher Yoko Kano and Chancellor J antes Leutze wait to offer their own comments or questions. However, possibilities for tele medicine are exciting, as pointed out from the B*n>ne forum site by Bill McCaughan. director of Texas Tech University's HealthNet. a tele-medi cine network serving rural Texas. "Because of the interaction of physicians, the patient and their family," he said, "a tele-medicine consultation produces a level and quality of information much higher than you get when simply forward ing a patient by referral " Still, Gov. Hunt expects the net work to have its most dramatic im pact on education, through distance learning networks. He foresees pro viding more students with access to upper-level classes and the state's best teachers, better coordination be tween public schools and higher ed ucation institutions, and better staff development. "This can improve education dra matically," said Hunt during his brief visit to the tele-forum site in Wilmington. "We need to lie aggres sive in pushing for this." "The next several years will be a very exciting time to live in North Carolina. The whole world is watch ing. Our chaiienge is to ically make it work for us." The state has committed itself to becoming the biggest user of the highway, helping bring down the cost for other users. It will also help underwrite some of the initial costs community, the private and public for the first institutions to link to the sectors, the business community, highway. what these possibilities are through But t'uniiing for equipment, on- 'town meetings,"' he added. "Get line telephone costs and training ed- people talking, thinking and asking ucators to take advantage of the 'What should be put in our county, technology was a common concern city, school budget'.''" Wednesday of all audience mem- Hunt's focus on the new technolo bers. including local educators. gy's impact on education "gets to Hunt encouraged lobbying legis- the heart of how we change this lators to budget more money for the state fundamentally and pretty rapid Information Highway this coming ly," said former UNC President year, a follow-up to the $4.4 million William Friday in his closing re allocated this year. marks. "We need to empower people "Share with the people in your to use this technology." William Temple Allen, CPA, P. A. Income Tax Preparation/ Representation (feaeral and all state returns) Accounting and Bookkeeping Services Computerizea Payroll Tax and Estate Planning Former IRS Assistant Director Technical Division, Washington, D.C. 25 Years Tax Experience Ragpatch Row, Calabash 579-3328 Mnwmt IMbs* Jfci.V_y^L/VJ/Mid. sL/UUMViyiiMO' i_u*A0, w iiijVir-J Lyi An in-depth look at Brunswick County's re tirement scene will be included in a special sup plement in the Feb. 17 issue of the Beacon. To advertise in this timely special section, call an advertising representative today. THE BRUNSWICK^BEACON 754-6890
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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Jan. 13, 1994, edition 1
34
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