Possibilities - ECISD Education Online 12/93

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ECISD EDUCATION ONLINE 12/93
----------------------------

*** From December 1993 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1993 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

Students in Odessa, Texas are actually TALKING to their teachers, principals 
and school administrators.  Parents in the district are connecting more 
easily with teachers and school administrators, too -- often after regular 
school hours and always at the most convenient times for each person 
involved.

It's the kind of open, active interaction most educators only dream of, but 
it happens every day on the Ector County Independent School District
Computer Communications System, a TBBS system that's changing the way 
education works in Odessa.

The ECISD Computer Communications System is the brainchild of school 
district computer engineer Jerry Cooper.  "The board has become a conduit 
for communications with the school district," Jerry explained.  "It's 
usually very difficult to communicate with the hidden parts of the school 
district.  You have to go up so many ladders and through so much red tape to 
get to the administration it can get ridiculous.  The BBS acts like a super 
highway through all of the layers, to the high administration.  It really 
cuts across the bull."

BBSing was a pet interest of Jerry's for years before he found a way to 
bring telecommunications into the schools.  "I got into BBSing with an old 
Radio Shack Model III and 300-baud modem with a switch on the front," he 
said.  "Then about five years ago, the State of Texas decided 
telecommunications was an important thing and they wanted to institute it as 
a part of the curriculum.  A document from the Texas Education Agency, 
published in December of 1988, outlined a plan 'to coordinate 
telecommunications systems for instruction, in-service and electronic 
mail.'"

Jerry pointed out that, even though bulletin boards were not mentioned 
specifically, telecommunications was mentioned throughout the document.  "A 
small bulletin board, with its overall 'inexpense,' is ideal for getting 
started on this now," he said.  "That's TBBS."

Jerry immediately got to work selling his superiors on a BBS.  "I approached 
my immediate supervisors and explained that it was something which, since we 
were into electronics here and already into computers, would fit right in 
with our current operations," he said.  "I just talked them into giving it a 
whirl.  They listened.  The system's been online three years now."

Jerry picked TBBS for the job after trying another package he described as 
unsuitable for the task.  "I did some investigation and TBBS got the highest 
recommendation from everybody," he said.  "I went ahead and bought a copy.  
I'm really glad I did.  If you need power, TBBS is well worth the cost."

Jerry soon found TBBS had more to offer than power.  He also needed a system 
that was capable of withstanding the playful hands of large numbers of 
students, but easy enough for parents and administrators not accustomed to 
computer communications to easily navigate.

"The requirements of a bulletin board system in public education are really 
different," he said.  "If the students could figure out how to stick bubble 
gum into the BBS, they'd do it.  Not that they're vandals -- they're just 
KIDS.  They'll try anything just to see what it does.  So, the robustness of 
TBBS is also a very important aspect in this kind of system."

The system's 16 lines are kept humming all hours of the day and even 
throughout the summer months.  It's popular for a number of reasons, but 
largely because of Jerry's overall system design philosophy.

"I wanted to avoid letting it be consumed by the bureaucracy," Jerry said.  
"I knew it shouldn't be taken out of the reach of the people who really need 
and use it -- the people on the street level, students and, especially, 
their parents."

Consequently, a separate section was set up on the board for each of the 35 
- 40 schools in the system.  "I've encouraged the schools and the students 
to use the system as they choose," Jerry said.  "I've also constructed the 
system so they can program and run their own areas as separate little 
systems on their own and do it all remotely."  The schools have even started 
computer clubs where students can get together to write material that is 
uploaded to the system and design their own sections' menus, all of which 
are uploaded remotely.

But Jerry didn't reach this point immediately.  "What I didn't realize, at 
first, was that these are teen-agers, a lot of them, and what looks good 
today might not look good to them tomorrow.  I was compiling a dozen menus a 
day, so I had to figure a way out of that."  The solution was to create a 
basic ANSI menu blank, with all the keys pre-defined.  Students then fill in 
the blanks, changing and updating their own areas at will.  They upload the 
changes via special menus that place the new menus and updated text files 
into the right areas on the system so they are available and active right 
away.

TDBS, the TBBS option module that brings the power of xBase-compatible 
programs and databases to the TBBS environment, is a real workhorse on 
Jerry's system.  He said he uses it almost "everywhere."

For example, during the 1992 election year, Jerry built a TDBS "voting 
booth".  Along with allowing a mock election, Jerry added an auto-executing 
TDBS program that automatically displayed the current vote totals when a 
user logged on.  This added touch, along with a political debate message 
area, kept the interest high and promoted interaction among the callers.

This desire to interact is something Jerry noticed in the system's 
Conference areas, too.  "Conferencing is providing a heck of a kick 
promoting reading and writing skills among the students," Jerry said.  "And, 
of course, keyboarding skills skyrocket dramatically."

Unfortunately, the system's conference areas are also a source of some 
problems.  Jerry explained that, in a school environment, the psychology is 
such that every violation of the rules has to result in a punishment.  
That's the way public schools in Texas are structured.  In the conference 
area, there are a lot of small rules violations that occur.  Generally, 
these are in the form of some foul language that a student might type, 
unknowingly or otherwise, in the presence of a teacher, administrator or 
parent.

"In the past, it was a nightmare keeping up with who did what and when," 
Jerry said.  "Originally, I created an area called, simply, 'the Zone.'  If  
you logged enough violations on the system, you got sent to the Zone for a  
predetermined period of time."  Users in the Zone couldn't do anything but 
wander around harmlessly -- locked in what Jerry referred to as a "Zork kind 
of world,"

"But, all that's difficult to keep track of," he said.  "So I wrote a TDBS 
application to handle this problem.  It re-routes people from any function 
on any part of the board to any other section of the board, or it can be 
used to bar selected users from any section."

Jerry calls this unique TDBS creation the "Cooper Router," and he plans to 
market it to other TBBS sysops.  With this application, Jerry only needs to 
enter a user by name, or a group of users by privilege level or flag 
pattern, and specify the affected menu options or sections of the board and 
the start and stop dates.

Jerry explained, "If, for example, I'm a conference violator, the next time 
I go to Conference and hit <D> for District Conference, the software might 
instead route me to a Type 1 command that says, "Sorry, you're restricted 
from conference until, say, July 15.  Then, on July 15, the TDBS application 
automatically removes that routing and allows me to go back into 
Conference."

An application such as this can have other uses, as Jerry soon discovered.  
"One neat thing I've put it to work on is scheduling events that are to 
occur in the future.  I can, for example, set it up to route EVERYBODY on 
the system with a certain privilege level.  Then it becomes an automatically 
executing event on the day I specify."

Jerry's also used the "Cooper Router" to set up a number of ANSI holiday 
greetings that all automatically execute on the proper days.  He also uses 
this TDBS protram to handle flag settings for all those remote system 
designers he has to deal with on a day-to-day basis.  "With this 
application, I can call remotely and route people to various sections of the 
board by name, anywhere on the board."

Once he had the task of routing users virtually automated, Jerry turned his 
attention to monitoring Conference activity itself.  Since catching system 
violators requires keeping a vigilant eye on all activity in Conference.  
Jerry wrote another amazing TDBS application to do just that.  Essentially, 
the program simulates the presence of certain "characters" with have no 
other purpose in life but to hang out in the Conference areas and converse 
with callers who visit.

One of Jerry's computerized TDBS characters is called Wilbur Snerd.  He's a 
gentle soul who answers simple questions, lets the users know when they've 
overstepped their bounds language-wise and generally keeps things 
interesting.

Jerry's also created a simulated "secretary" he can place in the Conference 
area.  Her main function is to take messages from one user to another.  When 
a message's intended recipient comes into the Conference area, she actually 
tells that user the message that was left for them and who left it.

Jerry hopes some day soon to set up some TDBS "tutors" in his system's 
Conference area.  These would act a lot like Wilbur Snerd, but would be 
designed to actually help students with their studies.

Of course, a school system BBS can't be all fun and games or it might get 
confused with recess.  "We're also privately developing curriculum and 
testing programs that will be TDBS applications," Jerry added.  "We're not 
sure yet of all the state requirements, so details are sketchy, but the idea 
is to have supplementary course work that a student could take or, if the 
student for some reason can't be in the classroom -- if he or she is 
handicapped, under off-campus expulsion, or whatever -- remedial or primary 
courses could be taken through the system."

The ECISD Computer Communications System helps out with a lot of the day-to- 
day administrative chores that are a part of any busy educational system as 
well.  "The various school libraries have found e-mail to be a God-send," 
Jerry said.  "Students sometimes move around between schools and libraries 
often have a problem keeping up with where books should go.  Until now, they 
didn't have a decent way to talk to each other.  Now I provide distribution 
mailing lists for the librarians.  Every day there are three or four 
messages from librarians asking the other school librarians on the system to 
watch for missing books that could turn up.  Or they just share resources in 
a way that would be impossible without this system.  With money and funding 
always short, sharing resources is vital."

Jerry added, "I also have all sorts of distribution lists on the system.  
Public education is so segmented, I've got two or three library lists, lists 
of school principals, teachers, teachers from one school but not another, 
administrators -- just tons of lists.  And they're really used a lot."

It stands to reason that Jerry's also put the system to work handling 
requests from teachers and administrators for computer and electronics 
service work.  "Our department repairs the computers, overhead projectors 
and all the electronics in the school district," he said.  "If I'm a teacher 
and the television in my room goes out, I can request service several 
different ways."

The most common way, Jerry explained, is to go to the office and fill out a 
Service Request then mail it through the school mail system.  "It's received 
by us, processed and given to the technician who then goes and repairs the 
TV," he said.

A second, less-preferred way is to call on the telephone by voice, interact 
with the secretary, who may or may not transcribe the order properly, then 
it's typed up.  "But that takes several days before it's received and sent 
to the technician," Jerry said.

The ECISD Computer Communications System is fast becoming the method of 
choice.  "Now teachers or administrators can call our bulletin board and go 
to the Electronic Resources section," he said.  "A TDBS application pops up 
that asks them for their room number and school and what the problem is, 
then the order is immediately stored in the database.  The technician 
himself reads the database each morning on the BBS, picks up his work orders 
and takes off.  It's really streamlined."

The system's Film Library has also streamlined another important activity.  
"It's kind of like a video store," Jerry explained.  "Teachers can call and 
check out videos in the library, then they're mailed out in the school mail 
system."

ECISD Computer Communications System's users are as excited about the system 
as Jerry.  "As they discover what's going on, they're ecstatic," he said.  
"You do see people who are reluctant -- even anxious -- about the whole 
thing.  They might still have some sort of mental picture, from old science 
fiction movies, about computers taking over the world or something -- until 
they see it's something THEY'RE interested in, something that's useful to 
them.  Then their attitude really changes."

It's obvious the system will be changing attitudes for a long time to come.  
"You find an easy communication on the system, between students, parents and 
teachers, that's just painful at school," Jerry said.  "And you don't have 
appointments to keep.  If I'm a parent and I work nights, it could be 
difficult to get to school to meet with teachers or administrators, but if 
the activity is taking place on the system via e-mail, I can communicate on 
my schedule as I have time.  It's a major relief to everyone involved.

"I have parents who are now really involved in the school business because 
of the system.  They can get on there with their kids -- or they have their 
own accounts -- and they can communicate with a teacher who also uses the 
system.  I understand there's quite a lot of information about the classroom 
and grades, and other vitally important matters, that's passed through the 
system.

"Personally, I think this is probably one of the most important parts of 
computer curriculum right now," Jerry said.  "This is telecommunications.  
It's programming.  It's the 'Big Thing' that's around the corner, that these 
kids are going to use in their day- to-day lives.  Telecommunications is 
going to be a part of their lives and most likely their future employment."

It simply doesn't get any more important than that.

The ECISD Computer Communications System is one TBBS system that is 
providing the whole country with a solid working model of a technology that 
could change education as we know it.  TBBS and TDBS are the catalysts that 
made it all possible, but Jerry's dedication to the task is the real secret 
to the system's success.

If you'd like to see the ECISD Computer Communications System in action, 
Jerry invites you to give it a call by dialing 915-332-8128 via modem.  The 
system allows limited logon by the general public, and Jerry voice verifies 
every user who calls.

If you'd like to talk to Jerry, about his innovative TDBS applications or 
his unique vision of the future of educational computing, you can also 
telephone him voice by dialing 915-334-7155 during regular working hours.  
He can also be reached by writing: Jerry Cooper, 804 N. Lee Street, Odessa, 
TX 79761.

PS1293-1
Rev. 12/93

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
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interested party.  Any other use requires the written permission of
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IMPORTANT:  The information herein is subject to change without notice.
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