Randolph E. Gunter

Southeast Alabama Network: Improving Education, School Management and Teacher Training through Telecommunications

Abstract In the United States, numerous areas are experiencing a critical shortage of skilled workers. Unfortunately, many schools are not graduating sufficient students with the necessary basic and technology skills needed by businesses and industry. As a result, a number of rural regions in the United States are at risk of becoming economic ghost towns of the twenty‐first century. A group of economic developers from a rural region in the Southern United States believed that a new approach was needed to solve the regions educational problems. A solution was a telecommunications initiative called the Southeast Alabama Network. The design, funding and implementation of the project involved the efforts of economic developers, business leaders, local government officials and educators from 16 school districts and seven institutions of higher education from a seven‐county region. This educational improvement initiative is about networking students, school administrators, and teachers; not buildings. Abstract...